As part of the second Annual Week with the Masters Festival, the festival will include for the first time, an animation competition. The competition, open to independent animation artists from India and south Asia, including students, offers a Grand Prize of US$2000 in prize money and $1000 for winners in each of the competition categories. This year's 10 masters will serve as jurors for the competition, and include David Fine, Piet Kroon, Gerald Potterton, Joanna Priestley, Normand Rogers and Alison Snowden. All entries must be animated in whole or in part; live-action films may be entered if it contains a significant animation component. The festival invites works completed after August 1, 1998, produced by citizens or residents of India and the countries of Southeast Asia, with an English soundtrack or with English subtitles. Competition categories include: independent productions up to and including 10 minutes in length; independent productions more than 10 minutes and up to and including 30 minutes in length; and student productions up to and including 30 minutes in length. Week with the Masters Animation Celebration is organized by Toonz Animation India Pvt. Ltd.

The San Luis Obispo Festival and its George Sidney Independent Film Competition showcases art in independent filmmaking. The competition features categories for features, documentaries, animation and shorts (films less than 60 minutes). An award of US$500 is given in each category for first place, and second and third place winners receive an award of merit.

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Auction Extravaganza will feature original comics artwork, signed prints and comics, rare collectibles, toys and much more. The auction begins in July on eBay and climaxes at Wizard World. The CBLDF Auction Extravaganza is orchestrated by CHAOS! COMICS publishers Brian and Francisca Pulido, and sponsored by eBay and WIZARD. Many comics creators and publishers have donated work from the likes of Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Adrian Tomine, Judd Winick, Steve Lieber and Billy Tucci.

The renowned layout, background artist and color designer Maurice Noble will be holding a design seminar. Starting at the Disney Studios in 1931, he worked on SILLY SYMPHONIES, THE OLD MILL, SNOW WHITE, BAMBI, FANTASIA and DUMBO. His work at Warner Bros. Studios is legendary, designing the backgrounds for classic cartoons such as "What's Opera Doc" and "Duck Amuck" (both in the National Archives!), "Duck Dodgers," the ROAD RUNNER cartoons, and contributing to the feature film, THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET. Continuing his work with Chuck Jones at MGM, he also worked on HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, HORTON HEARS A WHO, THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH and the Academy Award-winning short, THE DOT AND THE LINE, which he designed and co-directed. The price for the class is US$350.

Read Karl Cohen's Animation World Magazine interview with Maurice Noble and find out why he's the "Old Rebel."

The Savannah College of Art and Design is presenting the Third Annual Savannah Film and Video Festival. The festival showcases the talents of up and coming filmmakers in every format from feature length films to shorts. The festival will offer a series of morning workshops, with evening showings of narrative, experimental, animated and feature films and videos. Industry insiders who give pointers on everything from special effects to selling a film present lectures and workshops.

Produced by Virtual Studios and Virtual Production, the Interactive TV Launches USA is a seminar examining the benefits of interactive television on business. Off a successful run in England, the event kicks off with a keynote speech by Paul Mitchell, senior director of content and standards TV platforms group for Microsoft. The first day will deal with platform launches and software providers. Day two will take a look at home shopping, interactive marketing and interactive games and entertainment. Each day's activities will conclude with a panel discussion made up of industry insiders.

The Edinburgh Multimedia and Animation Festival (EMAF) is set to coincide with the International Arts Festival which sees over 300,000 visitors. The event includes the participation of artists, companies, studios and universities worldwide. EMAF will feature conferences and workshops about the many technical advances in the animation and multimedia industry. Recruiters will be on hand for students and animators to meet. The festival is being sponsored by Digital Design Research Centre.

The Third BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards highlights the best in interactive entertainment. This year there will be 21 categories, including two special awards: best UH developer and the Berners-Lee award for best personal contribution to the U.K. industry. The 2000 awards will feature 10 new categories. The categories include: interactive arts, enhancement of linear media, news, factual, children's, learning, on-line learning, entertainment Web site, lifestyle and leisure, sports, games-mobile or networked, games-PC, games-console, interactivity, interface design, moving images, music, sound and technical innovation.

The 15th Animated Cartoon Festival For Young People is a biannual event which gives young people an opportunity to discover a wide array of productions from all over the world. The festival will hold tributes, exhibitions and workshops. The official selections will be screened within several programs during the festival. An international jury will give out official prizes to the films in competition. In addition, a jury made up of 11

TOKYOPOP.com is presenting the first AnimeOnline Festival. Animation artists working in anime style are invited to submit their original anime Internet works in Flash, Shockwave or Quicktime formats. Cash prizes will be awarded including a $10,000 grand prize for best overall work. Submissions will be judged by a panel of experts from the fields of entertainment, the Internet, technology and culture, as well as by an audience vote. Finalist entries will be posted on TOKYOPOP.com for viewing, voting and judging. All entrants will receive free membership to TOKYOPOP.com. Through AnimeOnline Festival 2000, TOKYOPOP.com wants to showcase the Asian pop culture phenomenon by combining the finest in traditional anime style with the latest tools for entertainment delivery on the Internet.