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The latest edition of the Acrobat version of Animation World Magazine has arrived online. In this edition from September 2005, the theme centers in on Education and Training. AWN polled its readers to see how they are training for careers and getting jobs. Managing editor Rick DeMott reports back with the findings and highlights. Tom Sito recounts his thoughts on visiting the Beijing Film Academy, giving a Western view of the education process in the East.

Continuing our special event specific Flash Newsletters, we will be publishing special editions for MIP-TV. The market is fast approaching and our editorial and advertising staff are gearing up for the MIP-TV-specific Flash Newsletter series. Here are the dates for the publications. Please send your news two week prior to the publication date.

MIP-TV Flash NewslettersMarch 14March 21March 28

All your news can be sent to editor@awn.com. For sale opportunities, contact Dan Sarto at dan@awn.com or call (323) 606-4200.

Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz. Check out the latest installment from quizmaster Karl Staven, an accomplished independent animator and head of the Animation Department at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

From 1926 through 1997 there were a total of 51 animated features produced in Europe (most after WWII). From 1997 to 2002 Europe produced 34 animated features. It's quite obvious that production is picking up overseas. This quiz asks questions about European animated.

Ubisoft has announced that it is set to release two new Tom Clancy franchise titles this spring.

Now I realize why James Cameron’s TITANIC wasn’t like a Robert Altman film, because Roy Ward Bard’s A NIGHT TO REMEMBER already was. Without the super bells and whistles of the Oscar-winning blockbuster, this film tells the doomed voyage of the Titanic.

If one central character could be pointed out it would be Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller (Kenneth More, THE LONGEST DAY). First and foremost the film allows the tragedy of the ship’s impending doom to provide all the drama the film needs. No trumped up gunfights and mysteries about missing jewels in this film. The film plays out as naturally as a documentary.

It peeks into the lives and feelings of the ship’s crew, the ship’s builders, the first class passengers and the poor families riding in steerage. In short economic vignettes, the film makes us care about a group of characters and hope for all their survival. The film is truly a tale of survival for all of the passengers and crew on Titanic. There’s no one to root against. The film just watches people as the sinking brings out the good in some and the selfish evil in others. In providing more details about how the incident played out, the film highlights the morbid irony of the tragedy.

Man, what a downer of a film. But it’s also extremely well written and well performed. This is probably the third time I’ve seen the film and I really took notice to the fact that Nicolas Cage’s Ben Sanderson really isn’t the central character in the film. That role belongs to Elisabeth Shue (KARATE KID) as prostitute Sera. This is emphasized in the beginning with having a lengthy prologue with Ben in L.A.

The film establishes the reasons for Ben’s quest to drink himself to death then once Ben heads to Vegas the credits finally kick in. At this point Ben’s fate is virtually sealed. That beginning part is all set up and now the film can really begin. How things turn out for Sera are still up in the air though. Sera is still haunted by her pimp/boyfriend Yuri (Julian Sands, TIMECODE), who is in debt with some gangsters.