Events

Chris Robinson.

Fire Guts Ottawa Animation Festival Office. A major fire has gutted the Ottawa Animation Festival office and put the office completely out of commission. "It looks like a war zone," says Chris Robinson, Festival Director. "Fortunately, no one was hurt in the fire, but virtually the entire contents of the office have been destroyed. I believe that we can salvage some things. Fortunately we have insurance...however, a number of animation cels, our animation video/film library, and all sorts of priceless archival materials are likely lost to us forever (eg. our collection of festival catalogues dating back to 1976.)" Robinson says he hopes to have everything up and running in the next couple of weeks, and, most importantly, the Festival is definitely still on. The Festival's telephone number (1-613-232-8769) still works, but the calls will be forwarded to Robinson's house. In the case of an emergency, you should call 1-613-276-2408. You can also fax (1-613-747-5554), but, for now, e-mail is the preferred means of communication: oiaf@ottawa.com, safo@ottawa.com, robinson@ottawa.com, or smullett@magma.ca.

Don't Miss MIPCOM! This October MIPCOM and MIPCOM Junior will once again bring together the television producers, distributors, buyers, and programmers of the world in Cannes, France. MIPCOM Junior takes place October 2-3, and MIPCOM takes place October 4-8. MIPCOM will also include for the first time a three day conference on the convergence of TV and Internet from October 4-6. Featuring special keynotes, strategic panels and case studies/workshops, MIPCOM will bring together players from the TV industry, new media networks and technology providers to discuss the future of broadcasting and pioneer the development of new convergent programming markets. Also, for the third time, Milia, the Content Market for Interactive Media, will present "The Animation and Video Games Partnership Forum." The objective of these networking sessions and forums is to bring together publishers, producers and developers of interactive products to promote partnerships. This initiative has enabled major animation players such as Gaumont Multimedia, Saban and Dupuis to present their projects to the gaming industry's biggest hitters like Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Infogrames. The Reed Midem Organisation's new MIP Interactive site, at www.mipinteractive.com, offers its subscribers a full-service Web site with access to a database of over 7800 programs, 933 companies, and a total of 970 buyers. Visitors can consult daily updated news services on different topics including animation, (provided by AWN), and youth programs. For more information about the market contact Reed Midem Organisation, 11 rue du Colonel Pierre Avia, 75015 Paris, France; tel. + 33 (0) 1 41 90 45 80; fax + 33 (0) 1 41 90 45 70; e-mail: webmaster@mipcom.com; or visit: www.reedmidemorg.com.

Read MIPCOM consultant Frederique Doumic's answers her most frequently asked questions regarding the merging of the gaming and animation industries.

Also read Deborah Todd's "Milia 1998: Towards Convergence?" to see if animation and multimedia producers really learned to work together at last year's forum.