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Film Events

Fantastic Planet (La Planete Sauvage) Screening - New 35mm print!

By Guest (not verified) | Friday, August 31, 2007 at 11:00am
Begins: August 31, 2007

This animated fantasy, combining psychedelic imagery with political allegory, takes place on a faraway planet where human beings are called Oms and are enslaved by the Draags, a giant blue-skinned species practiced in meditation and in the manipulation of matter. An Om boy named Terr is raised as a pet, until he escapes captivity taking a Draag device for accumulating knowledge. The film grew out of an artistic collaboration between French animator Ren

Film Events

Telluride Film Festival 2007

By Guest (not verified) | Friday, August 31, 2007 at 11:00am
Begins: August 31, 2007

The Telluride Film Festival is one of the premiere independent film festivals in the U.S. The event is open to professional and nonprofessional filmmakers working in all aesthetic disciplines; documentary, narrative, animation, experimental, etc. Features and shorts, of all styles and lengths are eligible for consideration, provided that they are new works and will remain unseen by the public until the event. Selected short films will play either with a feature or as part of specially selected programs. For complete information, visit www.telluridefilmfestival.org/.

Anime Events

Anime Fest 2007

By Guest (not verified) | Friday, August 31, 2007 at 11:00am
Begins: August 31, 2007

AnimeFest is a non-profit organization for fans of Japanese Animation. It unites fans from around the country to gather at its annual convention in Dallas, Texas for the purpose of meeting fellow fans, viewing new anime, buying & trading merchandise and just reveling in all that is anime.

The annual convention is typically held on the four days (Friday through Monday) spanning Labor Day weekend. For more details, visit www.animefest.org.

Festival Events

8th Annual Woodstock Museum Film/Video Festival

By Guest (not verified) | Friday, August 31, 2007 at 11:00am
Begins: August 31, 2007

Woodstock Museum is hosting its 8th film/video festival. This year's theme is "Inspiration." The festival screens completed features, documentaries and shorts, as well as works in progress. All genres including animation and digital media; everything must be in English (subtitles okay). The early deadline is May 31 with the regular deadline on June 30, and the late deadline on July 31, 2007.

For more information, visit www.WoodstockMuseum.org or e-mail hello@WoodstockMuseum.com.

Headline News

Pirates Writer Suits Up for G.I. Joe

One week after word came out that Paramount Pictures had tapped MUMMY director Stephen Sommers to helm the big screen adaptation of G.I. JOE, the studio has hired Stuart Beattie (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL, COLLATERAL) to pen the screenplay, the trades report. Paramount hopes to make the live-action feature a summer 2009 tentpole.

Headline News

Disney Brings Videos on Demand to Singapore

Disney and mioTV have teamed to bring Jetix programming to video-on-demand services in Singapore, reports VARIETY. Jetix OnDemand will be the first VOD offering for the brand in Asia.

Subscribers will pay 6.42 Singapore dollars ($4.20) per month for 20 hours of content. More than a quarter of the programming will replaced with new content every 30 days. Programming will include W.I.T.C.H., GET ED, SUPER ROBOT MONKEY TEAM HYPERFORCE GO! and ALPHA TEENS ON MACHINES.

Effects Headline News

New Animation Category Introduced for 2007 VES Awards

The Visual Effects Society (VES) will introduce a new category -- Outstanding Effects in an Animated Motion Picture -- at the 6th Annual VES Awards, to be held Feb. 10, 2008, for the second consecutive year at the Kodak Theatre Grand Ballroom in Hollywood.

The VES will begin accepting submissions for all categories on Sept. 1 through Dec. 3. Rules and Procedures as well as submission worksheets can be found at www.vesawards.com.

Film Headline News

Iridas Offers SpeedGrade DI 2007

Iridas has released SpeedGrade DI 2007. The high-end color grading and film finishing application offers a long list of new features and enhancements including the optional DualStream stereoscopic module for true 3-D color grading, and realtime RAW for playback and grading of unrendered RAW footage. Iridas will present SpeedGrade DI 2007 at the Ciprico booth (7.907) at IBC (Sept. 7-11) in Amsterdam. SpeedGrade DI 2007 is immediately available from Iridas or through its reseller network.

Series Headline News

New TV, Licensing Deals Announced for Zap Jr. High

Alphanim's ZAP JR. HIGH will have its free-TV premiere September 2 on France's M6, where it will join the French network's Sunday morning kids block. M6, which will show two 13-minute episodes back-to-back for the kickoff, replaces Canal J as the series' exclusive purveyor. Beginning in February 2008, the series will air on both channels.

Mobile Headline News

Kerner Mobile to Unveil 3-D Cinema at NASCAR Labor Day Weekend

Kerner Mobile Technologies will debut the first in its new line of 3-D Mobile Cinemas at the California Speedway in greater Los Angeles on Labor Day weekend. Kerner Mobile's 30-foot 3-D movie screen is set inside a 10,000 sq. ft. tented theater.

"The Kerner 3-D Experience is an incredible display of breathtaking digital 3-D animation for people of all ages to enjoy," said Dan Nelson, CEO of Kerner Mobile Technologies. "It's the first theater of its kind, and we are excited to debut at California Speedway this year."

Universal Headline News

Unrated Battlestar Galactica: Razor Coming to DVD

In a first, fans of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA will be able to vote for their favorite DVD packaging of the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: RAZOR UNRATED EXTENDED EDITION, which will be released Dec. 4 (Universal Studios Home Ent., $26.98). This follows the Nov. 24 premiere of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: RAZOR on SCI FI Channel. The website www.scifi.com/battlestar will display a selection of three choices for fans to cast their votes now through 12:00 am midnight PST on Sept. 7. The final selection will be posted Sept. 14 on the site.

Silver Headline News

Silver Surfer to Ride Fox's Blu-ray Wave

Twentieth Century Fox Home Ent. (TCFHE) will release FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER on Blu-ray Disc Oct. 2 in North America and Oct. 9 internationally, and LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD Nov. 20 in North America and Oct. 28 internationally (day-and-date with the BD release of the DIE HARD TRILOGY.

Film Headline News

da Vinci Appoints Dean Lyon to Top Marketing Post

da Vinci Systems has made visual effects supervisor and DI expert Dean Lyon director of marketing. Lyon has more than 20 years of experience in film and commercial production, and will be a key member of the da Vinci management team led by general manager Bill Robertson. Lyon's duties include brand and product management and direction, advertising and marketing and internal and external communications.

Blogs

Cowchip-munks?

By Joe Strike | Thursday, August 30, 2007 at 5:52am

Just saw a teaser trailer for the upcoming live-action/cgi Chipmunks feature. Excuse me while I blow my brains out in car...

Is there some way we can get the Geneva Convention to outlaw these god-awful, gag-(not the funny kind)-inducing grotesqueries? Garfield, Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed...

They were all Oscar contenders (for Best Pic period, not just Best Animated) compared to this, this - eugggghhhhh, is the best I can describe it. It's not just that the sole gag in the trailer (an homage to Pink Flamingos?) revolves around Alvin eating one of Theodore's turds to convince Dave Seville (Jason 'uh-oh I picked a stinker this time' Lee) it was only a raisin; (I guess kid movie farts were just a gateway drug to flat-out coprophilia) it's not just that the 'munks are life-size in the sense of REAL LIFE-sized chipmunks, thus losing the characters' kid/adult size relationships and turning them into pettable pets; no, it's that....

Wars Headline News

//ADAPT 2007 Announces Full Program

The //ADAPT 2007 Conference has just announced its complete program. Taking place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Montreal from Sept. 24-28, 2007, an estimated 2,500 people from around the world are expected to attend the industry's second annual creative event, focused on inspiring and teaching advanced digital art production techniques for film, visual effects and videogame development. The program includes more than 40 digital art masters, an Art Expo, a Theater, a Job Fair and more.

Headline News

Mediatoon Properties in Demand Around the Globe

International licenser and distributor Mediatoon has signed new deals for several of its popular properties, including TWO OF A KIND -- SPIROU & FANTASIO; TIME JAM -- VALERIAN & LAURELINE; YAKARI; and THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN.

SPIROU & FANTASIO (26x30), which has received top ratings on France's M6, has been sold to companies in Switzerland (TSR), Netherlands (Z@pp), Norway (NRK), French Canada (Radio Canada) the Middle East (Al Jazeera), Belgium (VRT and RTBF), Morrocco (2M), Germany (RTL 2) and Israel (Noga).

Mobile Headline News

N-Gage Lands Crash Bandicoot, Capcom Games

Nokia announced that they are teaming up with Vivendi Games Mobile to bring the CRASH BANDICOOT franchise to Nokia's new N-Gage mobile gaming platform launching this fall. In another big deal, Nokia and Capcom revealed that Capcom will be publishing games on N-Gage. Capcom is the first Japanese based publisher to commit to N-Gage, which makes its global debut later this year.

Headline News

Family Guy Coming to Xbox Live

FAMILY GUY is coming to the Xbox Live download to own service this Sunday Sept. 2, 2007. All U.S. Xbox 360 owners will be able to purchase full episode downloads from seasons one and two, as well as FAMILY GUY PRESENTS STEWIE GRIFFIN - THE UNTOLD STORY.

"FAMILY GUY is a perfect match for Xbox Live," stated Jamie McCabe, EVP, PPV/VOD/EST for 20th Century Fox Film Corp. "The Xbox LIVE community will love having the Griffin family on this platform."

Headline News

Wumblers Website Goes Live in Advance of TV Launch

The Giddy Gander Co., creators of the preschool series THE WUMBLERS, announced that its new family-friendly website is now online. Featuring such diversions as the Patch Match Watermelon Game, the site will also offer kids the chance to paint a Wumbler onscreen and print their favorite Wumblers to color offline. Watermelon recipes are provided by licensing partner The National Watermelon Association.

The Wumblers will begin broadcasting on Trinity Broadcasting Network on September 1, 2007, at 8:30 am (EDT) and on Smile of a Child Network on September 10 at 10:00 am (EDT).

Anime Headline News

ADV Films & Geneon Announce Strategic Alliance

ADV Films and Geneon Ent. (USA) announced a new distribution agreement. Beginning Oct. 1st, ADV Films will be Geneon Ent. USA's sole distributor. ADV Films will handle all sales and distribution duties for the combined catalog as well as certain marketing functions.

Kids Headline News

WHV Promotes Marticorena to SVP

Dorinda Marticorena, VP, Kids & Sports Marketing, has been promoted to SVP, Worldwide High Definition, at Warner Home Video, replacing Steve Nickerson, who announced plans to leave WHV at the end of September.

In her new role, Marticorena will report directly to Mark Horak, EVP & GM, Worldwide Operations & New Packaged Media, and will lead the company's efforts to promote mainstream adoption of the high definition DVD formats.

Headline News

EA & BL Publishing Announce Warhammer Novel

Electronic Arts Inc. and BL Publishing, a division of Games Workshop, announced that BL Publishing will release an original novel based on the highly anticipated MMORPG, WARHAMMER ONLINE: AGE OF RECKONING. The first book in the new series of novels set in the Age of Reckoning, EMPIRE IN CHAOS, will be available in all major bookstores and on the BL Publishing website in early 2008.

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