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This month, VFXWORLD once again looks at global market trends, so Bob Swain reports on how Cartoon Movie is helping to facilitate animation production in the EU, and Janet Hetherington talks to Canadian vfx pros about the tremendous upswing in their industry. Meanwhile, in terms of movie coverage, Tom McLean explores Weta Digital's latest innovations for FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER.

Bill DesowitzEditor

NFB's new stop-motion short, MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI, won the top animated prize at Toronto's Worldwide Short Film Festival. Directors Chris Lavis and Mciek Szczerbowski were awarded the C.O.R.E Digital Pictures Award for Best Animated Short, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize. By winning the festival, the short is now eligible for the Academy Award and Genie Award. In the film, a young woman takes a strange train ride on which she must confront her demons.

Carice Van Houten, star of Paul Verhoeven's Nazi drama BLACK BOOK, has joined the cast of Bryan Singer's WWII drama, VALKYRIE, according to the trades. The United Artists production also stars Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Wilkinson.

Based on a true story, the screenplay from Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander follows plans to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Singer, Paula Wagner and McQuarrie are the producers. Production is set to start in July in Berlin.

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.

Animation producers are invited to polish their best ideas, practice their pitches and wow an audience of top television execs at the third annual Pitch THIS! event at the Television Animation Conference (TAC). Presented by the Ottawa International Animation Festival, TAC takes place Sept. 19-20, 2007, at the historic Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa Canada.