In the continuing crisis at CINAR Corp., husband and wife co-founders, Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg, have stepped down after senior VP and CFO Hasanain Panju was fired when US$122 million was found to have disappeared into investments without board approval. With tax fraud allegations floating in the skies, Charest will leave her chairman and co-CEO seat, while Weinberg will give up his president and co-CEO position. The couple will remain as leaders and directors of the company.

IFILM, a leading Internet resource for film fans, filmmakers and film

industry professionals, has increased their fold by three. The company

announced the appointments of Kevin Wendle, a co-founder of CNET and Fox

Broadcasting Company, as chief executive officer; Doug Sylvester, a

co-founder of E! On-line, as president and chief operating officer; and Tom

Harbeck, former head of programming for the Sundance Channel and a senior

Nickelodeon marketing executive, as the company's Senior VP of programming,

Two months before the WORLD ANIMATION CELEBRATION opens, festival director TRACY CROSSLEY has left "to pursue other interests." WAC has appointed a new director Danielle Robertson. "The team we have assembled to produce this year's event has an incredible amount of festival experience and has banded together to produce a memorable experience for everyone involved," said Robertson. "We appreciate the contributions Tracy had made and wish her the very best in all her future endeavors."

ATOMFILMS has announced that ERIC CALDERON has joined the company as

Animation and Digital Media Development Executive and RICHARD BARTON has

joined their board of directors. Before moving to AtomFilms, Calderon was

the former Director of Animation Development at MTV. Calderon will be in

charge of recruiting and developing animation and digital media talent,

content and technologies. At MTV, Calderon oversaw MTV animation series

such as: CARTOON SUSHI, CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH, DARIA, DOWNTOWN, and the

IVAN MOLOMUT has joined BLACK LOGIC, a design and animation house, as head

of sales. Molomut's firm Ivan and Company, which he established in 1997, to

market traditional film production, cel animation, CGI, visual effects,

editors and music houses, to advertising agencies and clients, has

represented Black Logic for the past two years. In 1991, Molomut formed

Velocity Film, a bi-coastal production company. As president, head of sales

and marketing and executive producer, he represented directors to ad

RIOT, a digital effect house, breaks out with the naming of a new visual

effects producer ALIX EGLIS and visual effects artist CLAUS HANSEN. As a

freelancer, Eglis has produced commercials for Santa Monica,

California-based Crew Cuts and Lost Planet. For Culver City,

California-based Mars Media, she produced the R&B group, TLC's "Unpretty"

video and Will Smith's "Wild, Wild West" video. Eglis will oversee projects

for Riot, acting as a liaison from the client to the artists. Prior to

RADIUM has expanded its Santa Monica office roster with a new head of

production JONATHAN WHITEHEAD and visual effects artists MARK HOLMES and

CHRISTINE RIVARD. Whitehead will oversee the daily operation of the Santa

Monica branch including client relations, bidding, marketing, personnel and

line producing. For the last six years, Whitehead was an executive producer

at Saatchi & Saatchi, primarily working on ads for Toyota. Whitehead's

feature film producing credits include GHOSTBUSTERS II, THE ABYSS, STEEL

RING OF FIRE expands its flames with six new artists. Joining the

Hollywood, California-based visual effects and design studio are Infero

artists ALI LAVENTHOL and ALAN LATTERI, visual effects/digital composite

artist JEREMY ALCOCK, CGI artist JOHN JENKINS and producers JILL HEINRICH

and KIMBERLY EVANS. Before Ring of Fire, Laventhol was a freelance Flame

artist working at Rhythm & Hues. Latteri comes to Ring of Fire with credits

on X-FILES: THE MOVIE, STAR TREK IX: INSURRECTION and GODZILLA. Coming from

Hamberg, Germany-based IGEL MEDIA AG, an independent distributor of family

programming, has announced ED GALTON as their new head of distribution.

Galton will head worldwide distribution for the company focusing on

strengthening its operations outside of Germany. Previously at Gaumont as

VP/Head of Television and Video Sales, Galton organized the pre-sales and

distribution for such titles as OGGY AND THE COCKROACHES, SPACE GOOFS and

HIGHLANDER, THE RAVEN.

STEPHEN L. BRAIN, former senior VP and general manager at Fox Animation

Studios has joined STAN LEE MEDIA, INC. as their new executive VP of

Production. In his new post, Brain will create Stan Lee Media's new digital

animation studio dedicated to developing Internet entertainment. Brain will

supervise the production team of storyboard artists, digital artists and

Flash animators as well as increasing Stan Lee's roster of 50 artists to

100 artists within the next 90 days. Beginning his career in 1977, Brain