The Moondance International Film Festival has announced the finalists for its first competition, Moondance
2000. The festival takes place in Boulder, Colorado, January 14-16, 2000 as
part of the Sundance Film Festival. Entries from female screenwriters and
film-makers from any country were welcomed to the competition. For more
information e-mail: mermaid7cs@aol.com; or write: Moondance International
Film Festival, 970 Ninth Street, Boulder, CO 80302, USA.


The following films are finalists in the animation film category:

A program of the best in new animation, curated and presented by Ron
Diamond of Animation World Network and Acme Filmworks, Inc., will be
touring Los Angeles and the Bay area next week. In addition to
presentations at the major studios, various FREE PUBLIC SCREENINGS are
scheduled: San-Francisco on Sunday, November 21 at 11 am at the Red Vic
Movie House, 1727 Haight St., hosted by ASIFA-San Francisco; and in
Cupertino at De Anza College, and Los Angeles on Saturday, November 20,

Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis' short film, "When The Day Breaks" won the
Grand Prize (Goldene Taube) at the 42nd International Leipzig Festival for
Documentary & Animated Films (Germany). This recent award is just another
accolade in "When The Day Breaks'" dazzling international career, which
started with the Palme d'Or for best short film at the 52nd Cannes
International Film Festival in Cannes, France, last June. "When The Day
Breaks" also won the coveted Grand Prix for best animated short film at

THE FIRM DESIGN GROUP, a creative concept studio specializing in broadcast design and image campaigns, has hired creative director/director PETER BUREGA. Burega will head up the West Coast studio in Venice, California, USA and direct commercials for The Film Design Group's parent company, Fourth of July Productions. Burgega's recent credits include indentity spots for the USA Network and commercials for House of Blues International and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Ontario, Canada-based Sheridan College, one of the leading animation
programs in North America, is expanding its facilities with the latest
animation equipment including new computers, software, cameras and pencil
test systems. For pencil tests, Sheridan has purchased six Video
LunchBoxes. Created two years ago by Oregon-based Animation Toolworks, the
Video LunchBox captures still images from a video camera and plays back
this sequence of images at the same rate as film images or television

This week's update to the Calendar of Events includes a call for entries
for the first International Internet Festival, organized in conjunction
with Imagina (France), and the Santa Clarita Film Festival (California,
USA). The Calendar of Upcoming Events is a constantly changing reference
source for what's happening around the World of Animation. Use it to stay
abreast of animation related activities across the globe. If you know of
animation related events that we don't have listed, send an email with the

* "The Art of Disney Storybooks" Exhibit, New York, New York, USA. November
13 - December 23, 1999.


The Gifted Images Gallery, located in Rockville Centre, will host the exhibit. "The Art of Disney Storybooks," is a collaboration between Walt Disney Art Classics and Disney Publishing. The exhibit features reproduced
artwork from various storybook adaptations of Disney's most beloved films.
Included in the exhibition is "An enchanting dress," from CINDERELLA and
"Magic mirror on the wall" from SNOW WHITE. Appearing at the premiere event

The 42nd International Leipzig
Festival for Documentary & Animated Films took place in Leipzig, Germany
from October 26 - October 31, 1999. 49 films from 13 counties were shown in
competition this year. The jury was comprised of Jayne Pilling (Great
Britain), Silke Parzich (Germany), and Andrei Zolotouchin (Russia). The
following awards were presented:


Goldene Taube, WHEN THE DAYS BREAKS by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Frobis,
Canada, 1999.


Silberne Taube, PINOCCHIO by Gianluci Toccafondo, Italy, 1999 and NIGHT OF

* November 8-10, 1999. New York, New York, USA.

*Sunday, November 14, 1999, 5pm. West Los Angeles, California, USA.