With three major animation series currently in production and one more scheduled to start production next month, the U.K.-based animation house Telemagination has expanded its digital ink and paint studio. John McManus joins the company as senior compositor and Alistair Beckett and Neil Harris have been contracted as compositors, all to begin working immediately on the in-house production, PONGWIFFY.

Canadian independent production-distribution outfit Portfolio Entertainment has sold all 210 interstitials of the animated series KLOOTZ to Australian pay-TV operator Foxtel. The dialogue-free series follows the adventures of two pears and was created by Canadian 3D animation studio Klik Animation. Canadian network The Family Channel has already picked up English Canada broadcast rights.

Kinetica 3: Friday, August 17, 2001 - Wednesday, December 31, 2003, Touring, USA and Canada. KINETICA is the iotaCenter's annual travelling film/video exhibition celebrating the art of abstraction in the moving image. KINETICA 3 is touring the US and Canada, dates include San Francisco Cinematheque (Oct 12-13), New York's Museum of Modern Art (October 29-30), Harvard Film Archive (November), Cinematheque Ontario (Dec), please visit website for full calendar and 2002 dates. There are two programs in this third edition in the KINETICA series.

ASIFA-Colorado:

- Wednesday, October 17th, 2001 ASIFA Colorado welcomes Sayoko Kinoshita, director of the Hiroshima International Animation Festival. Kinoshita will be presenting "The Best of Hiroshima Festival," a show produced as part of the Denver International Film Festival. For more information contact Edward Bakst at ASIFA-Colorado, RMCAD, 6875 E. Evans Ave., Denver, Colorado 80224, U.S.A.; Tel.: (800) 888-ARTS; or E-mail: EBakst@RMCAD.edu.

ASIFA-San Francisco:

Canadian computer animation studio Mainframe Entertainment, Inc has appointed Mark Fleischer president of its Los Angeles-based subsidiary, Mainframe, U.S.A. In this newly-created position, Fleischer will spearhead the expansion of the company’s presence in Los Angeles, with the goal of positioning Mainframe to more effectively pursue opportunities within Los Angeles and the U.S. Fleischer first began working with Mainframe while he was president of Fleischer Studios, Inc. in Los Angeles.

Metreon Festival Of Anime: Saturday, October 27 - Sunday, October 28, 2001, San Francisco, California USA. Metreon-A Sony Entertainment Center in downtown San Francisco will host the first annual Metreon Festival of Anime the weekend of October 27-28 inside Metreon's Action Theatre attraction. The Metreon Festival of Anime will take place in conjunction with the Big Apple Anime Fest scheduled for the same weekend in New York City. Throughout the two-day event, fans will have a chance to watch Sony Pictures' "The Making of Metropolis", Bandai Entertainment's "Love Hina" and the U.S.

Durango Film Festival: Friday, March 01 - Sunday, March 10, 2002, Durango, Colorado USA. Entry Deadline: Saturday, December 01, 2001. The Durango Film Festival, after its successful 2001 premiere, is in the works for 2002. This juried 10-day festival will present independent feature films, documentaries, animated films, shorts, experimental, and new media works. In addition, the festival will offer educational salons, VIP panels, filmmaker discussions and host a variety of parties and receptions. On Saturday, March 9, 2002, the winners of the Golden Quakie Awards will be announced.

For their November event, the Toronto Animated Image Society (TAIS) welcomes Derek Lamb, former filmmaker and executive producer of animation at the National Film Board of Canada. He will present an evening of screenings and insights into independent filmmaking. Derek Lamb is the Academy award-winning producer of EVERY CHILD, and dean of film at Harvard University. He has worked on episodes of SESAME STREET, collaborated with Edward Gorey on the PBS MYSTERY!

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include: Metreon Festival Of Anime: Saturday, October 27 - Sunday, October 28, 2001, San Francisco, California USA . . . Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust: Friday, October 05 - Thursday, October 11, 2001, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California USA . . . Durango Film Festival: Friday, March 01 - Sunday, March 10, 2002, Durango, Colorado USA . . . Kinetica 3: Friday, August 17, 2001 - Wednesday, December 31, 2003, Touring, USA and Canada.

The Board of Directors of Teletoon has appointed veteran broadcasting executive Len Cochrane as president of the Teletoon television network, which operates 24-hour English and French animation services across Canada. Cochrane replaces John Riley, recently named president of Astral Television Networks. Cochrane served as president of The Family Channel Inc. for the past 11 years, and led that network's growth as a premium service with over 309,000 subscribers to one of the most successful television channels with over 4.3 million subscribers.