Steve Ziolkowski has signed on as director of animation at SuperToons, the new animation division of the Super 78 Company. At SuperToons, Ziolkowski will help build the company into a top-of-the-line producer of animation for PlayStation 2, the Internet and digital TV. Ziolkowski will also oversee Moscow-based Super 78/Russia, which specializes in CGI animation. Before moving to SuperToons, Ziolkowski was a senior animator at Disney's DreamQuest Studios (recently renamed The Secret Lab).

This year, in addition to its regular program, the Brussels festival launched Anima 2000, a 4-day event with various conferences, screenings and panel discussions covering such topics as interactive animation, video game development and script writing. This first edition of Anima was a huge success and led to a substantial increase in the number of participants. In addition to top industry guest speakers, other renowned professionals such as Deane Taylor, Georges Lacroix, Steve Walsh and Enzo d'Alo participated in these debates, which will continue at the Annecy Festival next June.

On Tuesday, March 21, 2000, CINAR Corp. announced that co-founder, Ron Weinberg, and former controller, Mario Ricci, signed documents approving the company's non-board-approved investments. CINAR's spokeswoman, Suzan Ayscough, said, "The documents in question were signed either by Ron Weinberg alone, or by Mr. Weinberg and Mr. Panju or by Mr. Ricci." Previously, CINAR reported that their now fired senior executive VP Panju acted alone in investing the money.

Fox Kids Europe has acquired the exclusive U.K. and French rights to DIGIMON: DIGITAL MONSTERS from Toei Animation of Japan. The POKEMON-like series will hit Fox Kids Europe on April 1 and premiere on Britain's ITV network. September will see the debut of the show in France on TF1 and Fox Kids France.

On March 9, 2000, the winners of the British Animation Awards were announced to a packed audience at London's National Film Theatre. The big winner was ROBBIE THE REINDEER: HOOVES OF FIRE directed by Richard Goleszowski, which took home three awards. The half-hour TV special tells the story of the trainee reindeer, Robbie (son of Rudolph), and his bulbous nose. The film was a BBC Animation Unit/BBC Worldwide production in association with Comic Relief. Oscar short-listed films HUMDRUM and SILENCE both picked up awards. Below is a full list of winners in each category.

The Brussels Cartoon and Animated Film Festival has announced their

winners. This year's jury consisted of Canal +'s Servane Calmant,

director Catherine Montondo, RTBF journalist Hugues Dayez, Plateau

journalist Luc Joris and producer Steve Walsh. The prize winners at

this year's festival are: French Community Grand Prize: "Bzz" by

Benoît Feroumont; Flemish Community Grand Prize: "Suburbanites" by

Stefan Vermeulen; Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques

The Tampere International Short Film Festival in Finland has always been a place for animation. This year was no exception. Animation is an integral part of the programme. The Tampere Festival, which celebrated its 30th edition March 8-12, 2000, is often regarded as one of the major short film festivals in Europe, even in the world. However, among the general short film festivals it has the clearest emphasis on animation. The festival enjoyed beautiful weather; the sun shone and the ground was completely covered with soft white snow.

The 4th edition of Cartoons On The Bay, the International Festival of

Television Animation, will be held in Positano (Amalfi Coast), Italy,

April 14-18, 2000. Cartoons on the Bay is the only festival in the

world solely dedicated to television animation. Promoted by Rai

Radiotelevisione Italiana and conceived and organized by Rai Trade,

the festival is an international event with awards, workshops,

lectures and events centering on the ever-changing world of

March focuses on Production Technology and has a number of special contributors and features. J. Paul Peszko discovers how DreamWorks integrated digital technology with traditional animation for their latest release "The Road to El Dorado." Eric Huelsman interviews Mike Milne, the man behind the amazing "Walking with Dinosaurs," a show which took Britain by storm and is now coming to the U.S. Howard Beckerman takes a historical look at a few early "real-time" animation techniques, like Mobilux Lumia.

Over the weekend beginning Friday, March 10, 2000, TOY STORY 2 made history in Japan by grossing US$3.8 million on only 364 screens to become the biggest opening for a U.S. animated film in Japan and finishing #1 at the box office. The Buena Vista International release crushed the old record set by Disney's THE LION KING by nearly 80%. Woody and Buzz more than doubled this weekend's debut of the 21st installment of the Japanese animated feature series, DORAEMON.