The British Television Advertising Awards were announced on Nov. 3, 2003 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel. The event attracted more than 400 entries for its 21 categories.

3 Ring Circus, a full-service creative branding firm based in Los Angeles, has a new creative team on board, which has just finished a string of projects. Maziar Majd leads the team as creative director.

HP announced the new HP Visualization Center sv7, an affordable, high-end visualization solution designed for companies, such as large automotive and aerospace firms who need to visualize designs on auditorium-scale displays. The center will allow executive committees and engineering teams to review full-scale design concepts and digital assemblies that allow users to model and walk through the manufacturing process.

The Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will allocate $250,000 to 17 U. S. film festivals for calendar year 2004 programming, according to the Academy's festival grants committee chair, Buffy Shutt.

The Chicago International Children's Film Festival and the Miami International Film Festival will each receive $30,000 grants.

Alias Systems announced the start of “Expose Yourself,” the upcoming contest for digital artists who use Alias SketchBook Pro, the sketching tool for Tablet PCs and Wacom tablets. From Nov. 17, 2003 until Feb. 13, 2004, artists, illustrators and designers can submit their sketches at www.sketchbookpro.com/contest. The contest is sponsored by Microsoft, Acer, Wacom, PC Mall and Intel.

Elevating its position as a leading 3D animation company, Hornet Inc. recently completed ANGELS, an advertising campaign for the new BMW X5 and Fallon Worldwide. The package includes TV, print, interactive, merchandising and point-of-sale elements for BMW.

Gregory Butler from Weta, a CG supervisor on THE LORD OF THE RINGS films, has been added as a morning keynote speaker to The Pipeline 2003, the U.K. event devoted to digital artists and animators, sponsored by Techimage, to be held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London on Nov. 20, 2003.

The simultaneous release of Warner Bros.' THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS on Nov. 5, 2003 in 35mm and IMAX/15/70 represents a first for a live-action Hollywood film and the prestigious large format corporation, which is attempting to increase both its commercial appeal and profitability as a result of its aggressive repurposing strategy.

Cutting Edge VFX of Australia (www.cuttingedge.com) recently completed the animated opening and closing credits for Disney's just-released DVD premiere GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE 2 (Walt Disney Home Entertainment, $29.99).

Right upon the heals of MGM’s announcement that it has enlisted Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes to remake THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, Dimension Films plans to produce a film based on the life of George Lutz, who lived in the real Long Island haunted house, which the 1979 film was based on, reported VARIETY. Dimension obtained Lutz’s life rights and a finished script from Nu Image. The film is scheduled to hit theaters early next summer.