Aardman Animations, Harry Potter, the Quay Brothers, Gorillaz and The Gruffalo’s Child are among the winners at the ninth British Animation Awards (BAAs) held Thursday at the BFI Southbank.

Red Stick 2012

June 4th -11th Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Red Stick International Animation Festival, now in its 7th year, is an exciting community event that converges the worlds of technology, art, entertainment and exploration. Though artists have always used the tools of their time, at no time since the Renaissance has there been a similar convergence of science and art.

The movement toward convergence highlights not only the new set of technical skills that artists employ, but likewise the artistic vision that scientists are embracing. The worlds of the artist and scientist are folding in on one another, and Baton Rouge is at a unique moment in time to embrace this sea of change, further it, and make it our own.

Each year, the Red Stick International Animation Festival accepts entries for its “Best of the Fest” animated film competition. The festival accepts work from students, amateurs and professionals in the categories Animated Short Film (student / professional), Music Video, Experimental Animation & Visual Music, and Scientific Visualization.

The top entry in each category will receive a Red Baton award and the best overall festival entry will receive our Baton D’or, the Gold Baton. Beginning this year, we will offer cash prizes for the best films in selected categories, as well as for the Baton D’or.

The deadline for submissions to Animayo Festival 2012 is March 23.

Adam Abraham’s new book smartly tells the story of UPA’s meteoric rise, eventual decline and lasting artistic and creative impact still felt today.

Gui Marcondes took home the award for Excellence in Title Design at SXSW Film Design Awards for his “Bunraku” title sequence.

Cartoon Network’s hit animated comedy series “Adventure Time” returns with its fourth season on Monday, April 2, at 7:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

The 14th edition of Future Film Festival

Bologna, Italy.  March 27th to April 1st 2012.

During the last fourteen years, Future Film Festival has become the most significant Italian event dedicated to animation and special effects. Every year, the most important film-directors, art-directors and creative-producers come to Bologna to show their own films’ premiéres, backstages of their successes and exclusive pictures from new productions. A preview of the future, but not only: Future Film Festival dedicates retrospectives to the history of animated cinema and sci-fi, as well as meetings and events about new technologies applications to other fields, like web and videogames.

Future Film Festival 2012 main focus will be “the end of the world”, according to the prophecies that look at this year as the fateful one for Planet Earth, and proposing a huge roundup of catastrophic movies, monsters and many other disasters on 35mm. From the famous Airport (1970) to the spectaculars Twister and Titanic, many times mentioned in movies and that will turn 100 years in 2012. In collaboration with Università degli Studi di Bologna.

Minneapolis-based ad agency Carmichael Lynch recently tapped broadcast design and animation studio motion504 to help create an inspirational animated short for Fueling Good, a charitable giving program by CITGO.

Ireland-based animation and TV production company Telegael has partnered with SupperTime Entertainment to produce the new animated kids series "Impossimals," based on the colorful, striped characters created by UK-based artist Peter Smith and his wife Jayne.

New Zealand animation house Simmonds Bros created a series of animations some time back for the NZ Ministry of Health that have now been translated into Croatian.

Leading European production and distribution company Millimages has secured a major broadcast deal for its new property Mouk with KiKA in Germany.

The 14th Edition of Cartoon Movie ended on Friday with special honors given to Spanish production company Perro Verde as European Producer of the Year for “Wrinkles.” French directors Remi Bezancon and Jean-Christophe Lie won the European Director Honor for their 2D-animated movie, “Zarafa.”

Part of the Shop Talk Masterclass Series sponsored by Studio Technique, a masterclass with legendary Disney animator Andreas Deja will be held in Montréal on June 2 & 3, 2012.

I thought this film had stunning visual effects. The backgrounds look like watercolor paintings and the scenes of the garden and the assortment of wildflowers in the yard were beautiful. The film could use some improvements though.

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) added to its roster of more than 90 Genie Awards on Thursday, with the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television naming “Romance” as the top Canadian animated short film for 2011.

For some time now I have been promising myself a return to organic art. In my case this means line drawing. I love how line fluctuates, swings, cuts, curls, twists, envelopes, stubs, caresses, how it becomes a natural extension of an artist, how its creator can funnel into it the inner thoughts, passions, desires, frustrations or dreams.

Michael Cawood and Michaela Copikova have been named as the second quarter winners for AniMazSpot 2012.

Why do I always start salivating when I’m invited to an event in the Viacom building? Oh yeah, it’s because they always put out the nicest spreads - and whatever they’re promoting is usually pretty interesting too.

Fans of NBC’s “Community” will be heading to the web to watch the newly-launched three-part animated web series, “Abed’s Master Key,” set to debut on Hulu Wednesday, March 7.

Now in it’s ninth year, the Annual Pre-NAB Panel Discussion and gripe fest will be held Friday, March 30th beginning at 6:30 pm.