SAFO, the Ottawa International Student Animation Festival (October
18-21, 2001) has updated their Website with a workshop, seminar and
panel tentative schedule. The 1st Teacher's Symposium, a one-day
event examining the state of animation education, will take on
Friday, October 19, 2001. In addition to the official competition and
other special screenings, SAFO 01 will offer hands-on workshops,
panels and lectures scheduled to help prepare newcomers for the jump
into the professional animation industry. New this year:

TOPIX/Mad Dog completed the Inferno effects and compositing for “Life,” Canadian rock band Our Lady’s Peace first single for their fourth album, “Spritual Machines.” The video, which made its Canadian debut April 7, 2001, on MUCH MUSIC, has since begun airing in the US on MTV2. TOPIX/Mad Dog created graphics with an Asian flavor, inspired by Kanji characters, a written alphabet common to both China and Japan. They enlisted the assistance of a Chinese calligrapher and created a bed of characters by scanning them into the computer.

Hoping that the world’s television audience pays more attention than the movie-going audience has, the folks controlling the rights to L. Ron Hubbard's novel BATTLEFIELD EARTH are bringing the epic science fiction adventure to TV. Hollywood-based Author Services, Inc. (ASI), international representatives for all L.

Following on the success of Boomerang in the U.K., Cartoon Network will launch a similar programming block in Spain on June 2, 2001. Cartoon Network’s Spanish channel will begin airing Boomerang’s four-and-a-half-hour of classic cartoons every Saturday and Sunday. The block will include PIXIE AND DIXIE, ATOM ANT, HONG KONG PHOOEY, HUCKLEBERRY HOUND and YOGI BEAR. Turner Broadcasting launched the Spanish service of Cartoon Network in 2000.

In association with the International Critic's Week at the Cannes Film Festival, monsieurcinema.com awarded the first award for Best Web Film at Cannes 2001. The seven films in competition were: CUB by Steve Whitehouse, Canada; GOTCHAAA! by Eric Gosselet and Fabien Brandily, France; IN A GROVE by Hiroyuki Watanabe, Japan; LE SECRET MINCEUR by Stéphane Ricard, France; MARCELLE (episode “Les Plaisirs De La Route”) by Guillaume Joire, France; THE BIRTH OF STAINBOY by Tim Burton, USA; and THE SVUOTCHER by Flavio Della Rocca and Mattia Pasquini, Italy.

The 34th annual WorldFest, The Houston International Film Festival, concluded on April 28, 2001. This year, the festival received more than 4,300 total entries, with all animation categories receiving over 30 entries each. Ray Pointer, president of Inkwell Images, Inc., received the Gold Award in the entertainment category for his documentary, MAX FLEISCHER'S FAMOUS OUT OF THE INKWELL. This is Pointer's third win in a row, having won the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for producing the successful KEN SOUTHWORTH ANIMATION INSTRUCTION series.

The submission deadline for the next International Student Animation
Festival of Ottawa (SAFO) is July 1, 2001. Entry forms, including an
on-line version that can be sent directly by e-mail, are available on
the festival Website. SAFO 2001 will be held October 18-21, 2001. The
official competition is divided into five categories: High School
Student Films; Undergraduate Student Films (Post-Secondary); Graduate
Student Films (Post-Secondary); First Film (e.g.

* Friday, June 8 – Saturday, August 4, 2001, Stanmore, Australia

Markus Manninen has been promoted to Deputy Head of FrameStore’s 3D department. Manninen joined FrameStore in 2000 from Film Tecknarna in Sweden and has since worked on numerous commercials, including British Gas’ “Mexican”, BT Cellnet’s “Animation”, Shell’s “Whale” and Fiat’s “Volcano.” He also recently directed campaigns for Cingular Wireless and Richard Burbidge. The company also announced that Paul O'Brien has recently joined FrameStore's Henry team.

French graphic artist/novelist Jean "Moebius" Giraud and director Frank Foster, who was also a founding senior VP at Sony Pictures Imageworks, announced the launch of the official Website (www.moebius-strip.com) for their film THRU THE MOEBIUS STRIP. The full-length animated 3D feature will be completed over the next two years and is scheduled to premiere in Paris in the summer of 2003. Part science-fiction, part fairy tale, THRU THE MOEBIUS STRIP is a story of physicist Simon Weir, who disappears mysteriously after he perfects a transportation portal.

Los Angeles’ Click 3X provided design, 3D animation, visual effects and integration services for BRAVE NEW WORLD, a new series of television commercials for EMC networked data storage systems. The campaign was conceived by Boston agency Arnold Worldwide and directed by Morton Jankel Zander's Marcus Nispel. Each of the three 60-second commercials uses a vision of an apocalyptic future world as a metaphor for businesses searching for reinforcement in a world being bombarded by information.

San Francisco, California's Academy of Art College is looking for
ANIMATION/VFX TEACHERS. Positions are part-time. . . Burbank,
California's Alva Entertainment, an animation production company, is
looking for a STORYBOARD ARTIST. . . Burbank, California's
AniManagement, a leading animation-centric management and production
company, is looking for an ASSISTANT. . . Digital Power is looking
for a talented MAYA 3D CHARACTER ANIMATOR with modeling skills. . .
New York's Cartoon Pizza, an animation production company, is looking

Leading independent animation house Film Roman announced increases in revenue and operating income for the their most recent quarter. Company revenue increased by 51% or $6.5 million, to $19.2 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2001 from $12.7 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2000. The company attributed the increase to the delivery of more fee-for-services episodes and a movie-of-the-week special.

Threat, a new digital studio providing editing, visual effects, animation and compositing services, has launched in Santa Monica. The company has established itself in a new $5.5 million facility to provide end-to-end post services for commercials, entertainment television, feature films, music videos and new-media.

The 2001 Harvey Awards were presented April 27, 2001 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Named for the late comic genius Harvey Kurtzman, the Harveys are one of the comics industry's oldest and most prestigious awards. They are the only awards in comics both nominated and selected by the vote of the full body of creative comics professionals. Three Harvey Awards were bestowed upon Chris Ware, including Best Series and Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work for ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY, and the Special Award for Excellence in Presentation for Pantheon's Acme collection, JIMMY CORRIGAN.

FUNimation Productions Ltd. announced its new DRAGON BALL TV series will debut June 25, 2001 on the Cartoon Network, airing Monday through Friday at 5:30 pm ET. DRAGON BALL is the prequel to the DRAGON BALL Z series, #1 on the Cartoon Network's Toonami Block and #1 on the Internet, according to Lycos. Gen Fukunaga, President of FUNimation, also announced that new episodes of DRAGON BALL Z will begin airing on the Cartoon Network beginning September 3, 2001. Like DRAGON BALL Z, the new DRAGON BALL series was a smash hit in Japan before being produced for the U.S. and other countries.

* Thursday, June 28 – Sunday, June 30, 2001, Budapest, Hungary.

The English-language version of the anime thriller JIN-ROH: THE WOLF BRIGADE will have its theatrical release at New York's Cinema Village on June 22, 2001, at the Varsity Theater in Seattle on June 29, 2001 and nationally throughout the summer. A collaboration between two generations of filmmakers, JIN-ROH marries a hard-hearted script by Momoru Oshii, the internationally acclaimed maker of GHOST IN THE SHELL with the vérité direction of Hiroyuki Okiura, assistant to Oshii on GHOST. JIN-ROH's setting is Tokyo - not the Tokyo of the future, but of an alternate past.

Warren, Ohio's Advantage Video Productions, a commercial and industrial production house, is looking for a NON LINEAR EDITOR. . . New York, New York's A.F.I., a production company, is looking for a NEW MEDIA ARTIST (video editor creative) for an educational video. . . South Carolina's Animink Incorporated is looking for a 3D CHARACTER MODELER & ANIMATOR, CHARACTER DESIGNER, CLEAN-UP ARTIST, COMPOSITOR, IN-BETWEEN ANIMATOR, INK & PAINTER, KEY ANIMATOR, VISUAL EFFECTS ARTIST and WEB DESIGNER. . . Hyderabad, India's Colorchips India Ltd. is looking for an INBETWEENER. . .

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include: Outer Limits Film And Video Series, April 11 - May 9, 2001, New York, New York U.S.A.; Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design Graduation Show, May 4 - 10, 2001, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Internationales Bochumer Videofestival, May 17 - 19, 2001, Bochum, Germany; HDFEST 2001-L.A.