Animation World News

Awards
(continued from Awards page 2)

BAFTA Brings Out The Nominees. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts have announced their nominees for the 2000 BAFTA Awards. The British Academy has one prize for animation in the Best Short category. The nominated films are: the pirate adventure Jolly Roger directed by Mark Baker; Jonathan Hodgson’s The Man With The Beautiful Eyes, an adaptation of Charles Bukowski’s poem about a bunch of kids who play in the overgrown lawn of a house owned by mysterious man; Alexander Petrov’s Oscar winning The Old Man And The Sea, an IMAX-formatted rendition of Ernest Hemmingway’s novelette; and Steffen Schàffler’s The Perwig-Maker, a tale of a plague-fearing hermit, who opens up his home to an ill little girl. The awards will be handed out on Sunday, April 9, 2000.

Tampere’s Tooned In Festival. The Tampere International Short Film Festival in Finland has always been a place for animation. This year was no exception. Animation is an integral part of the programme. The Tampere Festival, which celebrated its 30th edition March 8-12, 2000, is often regarded as one of the major short film festivals in Europe, even in the world. However, among the general short film festivals it has the clearest emphasis on animation. The festival enjoyed beautiful weather; the sun shone and the ground was completely covered with soft white snow. This bright light formed a complete contrast to the darkness of the cinemas. The festival holds both national and international competitions. The 80 films in international competition were selected from some 2,000 entries. The competition had 20 animations, and the international jury not surprisingly gave the animation category prize to Konstantin Bronzit for his Au Bout Du Monde. The quality of animation in Tampere has often been so high, that several times animated films have even taken the Grand Prix. This time, it was given to Canadian Ian Toews for his experimental documentary Four Corners. The festivals’ special guest was Russian veteran animator Fedor Khitruk (born 1917). He tirelessly presented his retrospectives and engaged the audience in discussion. His deeply human Winnie the Pooh films from the 1960s and 70s were screened together with Disney’s Winnie the Pooh films. This gave the audience a nice opportunity to compare the content and style. Khitruk was definitely no loser in this comparison. Another retrospective was on Felix The Cat, and featured a selection of the silent animations of Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer. More cats came on the screen with Ralph Bakshi’s not too impressive animation Fritz The Cat (1971), based on Robert Crumb’s comics. In Tampere hardly any festival theme goes without animation. In fact, the Third World Films included Gerrit van Dijk’s Music For The Millions (1983), a Johann Sebastian Bach-themed film. Of the major programmes only the New South-African Short Films did not include animation. As always, the screenings of the Imagina winners were among the fastest screenings to sell out.


Blue’s Clues and Batman lead the animation field for Daytime Emmy nominations. © Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved.

Daytime Emmy Nominees Announced. On Thursday, March 16, 2000, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced its nominations for the Daytime Emmy Awards. The 27^th annual event highlights the best in daytime television where animation makes much of its home. Besides the specific categories for animation, animated TV series have a strong presence in various other areas of recognition. Blue’s Clues racked up nominations for Outstanding Directing In A Children’s Series, Outstanding Pre-School Children’s Series and Outstanding Writing In A Children’s Series. For Outstanding Achievement In Music Direction And Composition, composers Shirley Walker, Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion and Lolita Ritmanis were nominated for Batman Beyond; composers Richard Stone, Steve Bernstein, Julie Bernstein, Tim Kelly and Gordon Goodwin were nominated for Histeria!; composer Lolita Ritmanis was nominated for The New Batman/Superman Adventures "Fish Story" episode; and Michael McDaniel was nominated for The New Batman/Superman Adventures "In The Brightest Day" episode. The nomination for Outstanding Achievement In Sound Editing — Special Class saw the animated series Batman Beyond, Disney’s Hercules, Histeria!, The New Batman/Superman Adventures and Roughnecks — Starship Troopers Chronicles appear on the list. Animated shows making the cut for Outstanding Achievement In Sound Mixing — Special Class were Arthur, Batman Beyond, Men In Black and The New Batman/Superman Adventures. The Fox Family Channel broadcast of All Dogs Go To Heaven garnered an Outstanding Original Song nomination for "Why Not Be Happy." Listed below are all the nominees in the three animation categories. The awards will air at 9 pm on ABC, from Radio City in New York, on Friday, May 19, 2000.

Outstanding Children’s Animated Program
Arthur
Disney’s Doug
Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear
The New Batman/Superman Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents: Pinky, Elmyra And The Brain

Outstanding Special Class Animated Program
Angela Anaconda
Batman Beyond
Disney’s Mickey Mouseworks
William Joyce’s Rolie Polie Olie
The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries

Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program
French Stewart (Disney’s Hercules)
James Woods (Disney’s Hercules)
Pam Grier (The Empress’ Nightingale (Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales For Every Child)
Robert Guillaume (The Empress’ Nightingale (Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales For Every Child)
Nathan Lane (George And Martha)