ASIFA-Hollywood has released the full list of juried award winners for the 2004 Annie Awards. In addition to Gene Deitch who we reported on Dec. 16, 2003 would receive the Winsor McCay Award, the other winners include Walt Disney designer John Hench and Tony the Tiger voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft.

The 61st annual Golden Globe nominations were announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press on December 18, 2003. Leading the pack in film nods was COLD MOUNTAIN with eight. For TV, HBO received 20 nods, riding the success of ANGELS IN AMERICA and SEX AND THE CITY.

Winners in the 12 competing categories at the Australian Effects and Animation Festival (AEAF) 2003 Awards were announced Dec. 9, 2003 at the Sydney Convention Center, Darling Harbor.

The winners were:

FEATURE FILM VISUAL EFFECTS
THE MATRIX RELOADED: ESC

FEATURE FILM ANIMATION
FINDING NEMO: Pixar

The Library of Congress has added 22 new films to the National Film Registry, which includes two animated shorts. The Looney Tunes classic ONE FROGGY NIGHT joins other Warner classics WHAT’S OPERA, DOC?, PORKY IN WACKYLAND and DUCK AMUCK. In addition, Pixar’s 1988 short TIN TOY also made the list. The registry, established by Congress in the 1988 National Film Preservation Act, now contains 375 films. For more information or to find a complete list of films in the registry, visit http://www.loc.gov/film.

The board of directors of ASIFA-Hollywood has selected Gene Deitch to be one of the recipients of its prestigious Winsor McCay Award. Each year a Winsor McCay Award is awarded to a maximum of three individuals in recognition of lifetime or career contributions to the art of animation in producing, directing, animating, design, writing, voice acting, sound and sound effects, technical work, music, professional teaching or for other endeavors which exhibit outstanding contributions to excellence in animation.

The Independent Games Festival has announced the finalists in the sixth annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Competition, which will exhibit their games the Game Developers Conference March 24-26, 2004 in San Jose, California. Selected by a panel of game industry professionals, game development teams will compete for more than $40,000 in cash prizes, double the payout from previous years.

The 10 games selected for the "Open" category are (in alphabetical order):
ACMI by Selectparks (Richmond, Victoria, Australia)

FINDING NEMO, THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE and LORDS OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING have started racking up various awards from film critics societies across the U.S. Following up its prize for best animated feature from the National Board of Review, NEMO nabbed a spot on the AFI Top Ten List for 2003. In addition, the fish tale took home the best animated feature prize from the New York Film Critics Online.

Disney/Pixar’s FINDING NEMO, which helped propel Disney’s record-breaking box office fortunes this year, earned kudos from the National Board of Review as best animated feature. The 95-year-old board, which is based in New York, is comprised of film professionals, educators, historians and students. Awards will be handed out Jan. 13 in New York.

FINDING NEMO took home three prizes at the 2003 DVD Exclusive Awards, held Dec. 2 at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Six hundred academy members, who are filmmakers and TV and DVD producers, judge the outstanding releases of the year.

The Buena Vista Home Entertainment release of the record-breaking Disney/Pixar animated feature won for menu design; games and interactives; and deleted scenes, outtakes and bloopers.

Dec. 5, 2003 is the deadline to enter daytime programming for 2003-2004 Daytime Emmy Awards consideration, as well as to register to vote in the awards contest and to join the academy in order to vote in the daytime competition. Entry forms and membership applications are available at www.emmyonline.org or call (212) 586-8426. Applications must be received at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences headquarters in New York City for the daytime awards. Members of ATAS in N. Hollywood maybe be eligible to vote in the daytime contest, but must register with NATAS in New York.