The 2000 edition of the Ottawa International Animation Festival has come to a close with the announcement of this year’s winners. The winners were chosen by an international jury, comprised of acclaimed Canadian animator Suzanne Gervais, former ASIFA-Hollywood general manager and critic, animator and teacher Wendy Jackson Hall, Wild Brain co-Founder and creative director John Hayes, renowned Estonian animator Priit Pärn, and the head of the Shanghai Animation Studio in China Jin Guo Ping.

Bill Plympton has updated his appearances page.

For feature films Martin Goodman is taking a look at this summer's

hits and misses. Gerard Raiti is figuring out why some cartoons don't

work as live-action adaptations and others do. Amid Amidi is

profiling feature films that have been released outside of the big

studios' theatrical machine. Plus, for a look into the Japanese

feature film market, resident expert Fred Patten is going to outline

the lay of the land of the rising sun. Plus, Larry Lauria speaks with

Digital Hollywood, Japan, and DH Institute of Media Arts (DHIMA),

Santa Monica, California, one of the world's largest digital media

institutes, have recently appointed John Hughes, President and CEO of

Academy Award-winning studio Rhythm & Hues, to their advisory board.

John Hughes will provide curriculum advice and deliver periodic

lectures, introducing state-of- the-art technologies to the school

curriculum. For more information, check out the school

web site.

Hyderabad-based Webtoons India, Sriven Multi-Tech's creative

animation and digital ink & paint facility has partnered with Toon

Boom Technologies to set up USAnimation, the leading vector-based

digital ink & paint and compositing software, at their studio. With

facilities and offices in India, Australia, Canada and the U.S.,

Sriven Multi-Tech Limited (www.srivenmultitech.com) offers expertise

in software development, multimedia content production, digital

Chinese Animation Volumes 1 & 2 are now available to add to your

library of international animation. These two 80-minute volumes

include traditional cell animation and puppets, shown in their highly

original techniques of cut-paper, folded paper and brush painting by

some of Shanghai's famous animators. Witness some of the animated

shorts created in the last 50 years that have delighted both children

and adults in China and throughout the world. Te Wei, Qian Jiajun, Yu

* Monday, October 30 – Friday, November 3, 2000. Trivandrum, India.

This past weekend the international box office saw the Miramax record breaker, SCARY MOVIE, hold strong in the U.K. and Australia, while HOLLOW MAN and GONE IN 60 SECONDS premieres topped charts around the globe. In the U.K., SCARY scored another US$2.04 million, lifting its British cume to $7.6 million. Holding on in second, SNATCH by Guy Ritchie summoned $1.54 million, raising its homeland cume to $11.96 million. Another shoot 'em up flick took third - SHAFT's debut drew $1.22 million in the U.K. THE CELL made a less than flashy premiere in fifth, with a gross of $776,039.

Los Angeles-based Look! Effects recently finished 30 visual effects shots for the upcoming Universal Pictures release THE PAVILION OF WOMEN. Based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck, the movie is about a frustrated woman in a traditional Chinese marriage and the American missionary who tries to help her achieve personal liberation. The drama stars Willem Dafoe and Chinese actress Luo Yan, who is also the writer, producer and director of the picture. Look! Effects had to create a sequence depicting Japan's invasion of China in the early days of World War II.

* Friday, October 13 – Sunday, October 15, 2000. Lakewood, Colorado, U.S.A.

BKN International AG, a children’s animated production, distribution and marketing company, has launched a new media division, BKN New Media Ltd. The division was established to help BKN better exploit its properties over the Internet. The first venture for the new arm will be the launch of its consumer-based community Website featuring THE ROSWELL CONSPIRACIES.

French authorities, through INA, the Audiovisual National Institute, have pulled their support of Imagina, the foremost European visual effects event. For 19 years, Imagina has served as the testing ground for new talents and technologies in Europe. In the past few years the event has drawn over 1,300 participants and 5,000 visitors, growing to fill venues in two cities. A group has been formed to save the festival, which many professionals cite as being a wonderful meeting place to not only exchange ideas but also network and make valuable production deals.

pasi (Philippine animation studio, inc.) and Nelvana have teamed up to co-produce 13 episodes of COMMITTED, an animated series based on the popular Michael Fry comic strip. The United Feature Syndicate comic strip is a chronicle of the day-to-day life of a working mom with three children and her stay-at-home writer husband. Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin are providing the lead voices for the series. The new toon is being produced for Fox Family Channel and CTV in Canada.

Mondo Media has signed GUNDAM WING character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto to design characters for an upcoming Mondo Mini Show. Currently the project is entitled SPIRAL, a sci-fi action adventure series which will be available on MondoMedia.com later this year. Kawamoto is best known for his character designs on COWBOY BEBOP, several GUNDAM series, GOLDEN BOY and the cinematics for THE GHOST IN THE SHELL video game. Also brought onto the project as key animator is Cindy Yamauchi, whose credits include AKIRA, VENUS WARS and RANMA 1/2.

Award winning filmmakers, Derek Lamb & Jeffrey Hale are teaming up with Toonz Animation India to produce THE LAST BRITISH COLONEL IN INDIA, a short animated comedy film. The flick is based on an original song by Derek Lamb and satirizes the British Empire days in India, bringing to light for the first time the real reason why the British quit India in 1947. "This entire project began to percolate at last year’s Week with the Masters hosted by Toonz Animation in India. Both Derek and Jeffrey thought it was time to tell this previously unknown story.

For feature films Martin Goodman is taking a look at this summer's

hits and misses. Gerard Raiti is figuring out why some cartoons don't

work as live-action adaptations and others do. Amid Amidi is

profiling feature films that have been released outside of the big

studios' theatrical machine. Plus, for a look into the Japanese

feature film market, resident expert Fred Patten is going to outline

the lay of the land of the rising sun. Plus, Larry Lauria speaks with

Famed graphic artist and novelist Jean "Moebius" Giraud, the man behind the dark designs in the ALIEN series, will be hatching his own 3D animated feature entitled, THRU THE MOEBIUS STRIP. "It’s been a life-long dream of mine to create a feature film of my own," said Giraud. "Although it’s an unknown adventure in some ways, this film presents an opportunity for me to express my many different signature attitudes." The main backer of the film is Global Digital Creation Group.

Nintendo announced on Friday that it would not release its next generation versions of Gameboy and next generation console unit, Gamecube, this year. This announcement marks a crucial hit for the company in the next generation console market, which was led off by the healthy debut of Sony’s PlayStation 2 in Japan. The new Sony console looks to be a hot seller for the holiday season, with Sony set to raise ¥150 billion (US$1.4 billion) by selling bonds to keep up with the demand for the PlayStation 2.

This month: Feature Films & Education

and Training.





For feature films Martin Goodman is taking a look at this summer's

hits and misses. Gerard Raiti is figuring out why some cartoons don't

work as live-action adaptations and others do. Amid Amidi is

profiling feature films that have been released outside of the big

studios' theatrical machine. Plus, for a look into the Japanese

planetLingo, an Internet-based language learning company, has hired three former Disney executives John Feenie as president and CEO; Cedric Astor as executive VP and CFO; and Greg Probert as executive VP and head of content and curriculum. Previously, Feenie served as executive VP, China Affairs for Disney, in which he was responsible for all of the company’s activities in China. For planetLingo, Feenie will help establish markets around the globe. Most recently, Astor served as senior VP for Disney consumer products in Europe/Middle East/Africa.