The 8th Annual Bradford Animation Festival (BAF), held at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, Yorkshire, November 16-18, 2001 attracted over 200 animation professionals and students from all over the U.K., and received more than 300 entries for the BAF Awards. In addition to traditional and computer animation demonstrations, there were seminars and screenings, capped off by the awards presentation, which saw Michael Dudok de Wit take home yet another award for his Oscar winning short father and daughter.

The 2nd Annual India and Southeast Asian (InSea) Animation Competition concluded with the announcement of this year’s winners -– with top honors going to DreamWorks CGI supervisor Umesh Shukla. The competition, which took place as part of the 3rd Annual Week with the Masters, honors films created by Indian and Southeast Asian filmmakers. STILL I RISE, by Umesh Shukla, is the first film to ever be awarded both the Grand Prize and 1st Prize in the Category of Best Independent Production.

The British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the winners of its fourth annual interactive entertainment awards. Pepper’s Ghost Productions’ TINY PLANETS ONLINE (Publisher: Sesame Workshop) took home the award for Best Entertainment Website. The Website features the characters Bing and Bong and provides a range of animation, activities and interaction for young children. Disney Interactive’s TIGGER’S HONEY HUNT CD-ROM (Developer: Doki Denki) won in the Children’s category.

The 18th Annual Chicago International Children's Film Festival (CICFF) handed out its awards for this year’s festival at a gala celebration held at the Chicago Cultural Center on Sunday, November 4, 2001. The 10-day festival is the largest competitive festival of films for children in North America. Awards were handed out by two juries, the Adult Jury, whose members include media professionals from the film and video, animation, television, radio and print industries, and the 70 member Children’s Jury, comprised of children ages 7-13.

On November 10, 2001 at a gala ceremony hosted by voice actor Billy
West, the 29th Annual Annie Awards were presented. The big winner
was SHREK, which took home eight Annie's including outstanding
theatrical feature and outstanding directing for an animated feature.
THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE nabbed three awards, for female
performer in an animated feature (Eartha Kitt as Yzma), best song and
outstanding individual character animation. In television, once again
THE SIMPSONS took home the award for outstanding primetime show.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced the winners of the 16th Annual Gemini Awards, celebrating excellence in Canadian English-language television. Best Animated Program winner was the Collideascope production OLLIE'S UNDER THE BED ADVENTURES. The series, about a young boy who invents a world under his bed, has been picked up by Teletoon in Canada for an additional 13 half hours (in both English and French), and is being distributed internationally by Decode Entertainment.

The British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) has announced the nominees for the Children's BAFTA Awards. The awards ceremony will take place on December 2 in London's Hilton Hotel, sponsored by Lego Media. The animation-related nominees are:



Children's animation:

AUNT TIGER - Right Angle/S4C, C4.

THE LAST POLAR BEARS - Telemagination/CiTV.

ROTTEN RALPH - Italtoons/CBBC.

SHEEEP - Grand Slamm Children’s Films.



Children’s feature film:

The 2001 edition of the Ottawa International Student Animation Festival (SAFO 01) has come to a close with the announcement of this year's winners.



The International Jury consisting of Phil Mulloy (United Kingdom), Annick Teninge (France), and Koji Yamamura (Japan) presented fifteen prizes. The list of winners is as follows:



National Film Board of Canada Grand Prize:

Dog, Suzie Templeton, United Kingdom



Grand Prize Runner up:

Sub, Jessie Schmal, USA

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced the nominees for the 16th Annual Gemini Awards, celebrating excellence in Canadian English-language television. The nominees for Best Animated Program or Feature are: ANGELA ANACONDA, CAILLOU II, CHILDREN OF CHELM, FRANKLIN, OLLIE'S UNDER THE BED ADVENTURES and YVON OF THE YUKON. The nominees for Best Visual Effects are: GENE RODDENBERRY'S ANDROMEDA, NUREMBERG PART 1, STARGATE SG-1 and THE OUTER LIMITS.

Dutch director Michael Dudok de Wit received the 11th Cartoon D’or for his short film FATHER AND DAUGHTER. The award was presented on September 22, 2001 at the closing night of Cartoon Forum. FATHER AND DAUGHTER has also been awarded the 2000 Academy Award for Best Animated Short and the Annecy Grand Prix this year. This is the second Cartoon D’or for Dudok de Wit, who was honored in 1995 for his film THE MONK AND THE FISH.

The luncheon awards ceremony for the 4th Annual Golden Marble awards was scheduled to take place on September 11, 2001 but was understandably cancelled due to the terrorist attacks that occurred that morning on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Although the ceremony was cancelled, the awards celebrating excellence in children's advertising were handed out. Leo Burnett was the big winner, taking home a total of seven awards, including one Golden Marble and six certificates of excellence for spots for Nike, Heinz and Nintendo.

The Creative Emmy Awards were presented at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on September 8, 2001, honoring performers in voiceover and animation.

ASIFA-Hollywood, the Los Angeles area-based branch of the International Animated Film Society, has announced the nominations for the 29th Annual Annie Awards. Nominees in the best feature category are BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE, OSMOSIS JONES, SHREK and THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE. Although it received six nominations, ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE was shut out of the best feature race, while BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE received its only nomination in this category.

Click here to see the complete list of winners from the 2001 World Animation Celebration.

The Art Institutes - Journey Education Marketing National Animation Competition is sending first prizewinner 21-year-old Cody Pierson of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh on an all-expense paid trip to the SIGGRAPH Conference. Pierson's winning entry featured a rhino racing across a desert, which stops suddenly in mid-charge to watch a television showing four short vignettes that demonstrate Pierson's experiments with animation and style. He developed the animation using 3D Studio Max and AfterEffects.

Anima Mundi has released the winners for its 2001 festival, which took place from Friday, July 13 – Monday, July 23, 2001 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil then moved to São Paulo, Brazil from Wednesday, July 25 – Sunday, July 29, 2001. The festival is the major animation festival in South America. The festival included a wide range of open activities, including workshops, lectures and exhibitions. The winners were chosen by a panel of 26 animation industry professionals from around the world. Below is a complete list of winners.



BEST FILM:

Swatch has announced the winner of the Swatchbeat 2 Flash Animation Competition on August 1. Hundreds of entries from around the world were submitted to a panel of Swiss judges and Internet audiences. The top prize was US$5000 dollars and a trip to the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland from August 9 -13. Each participant had to create a Flash animation no greater than 30 seconds on the theme of "Waiting for the Movies." The winning entry was by Frank Gapinski of www.flashtoonz.com in Australia. The toon features a movie-goer's struggle to get a comfortable seat at the movies.

The animated series PETTSON & FINDUS, a TV-Loonland and ZDF co-production, has won the Golden Telix 2001 Award in the animated film/series category. The series chronicles the adventures of a crotchety old man and his cheeky cat. Awarded by the leading German TV magazines "Gong" and "Bild+Funk," the prize was presented on July 21 in Nuremberg. The Official Jury for the Golden Telix 2001 Awards commented, "The series PETTSON & FINDUS was lovingly drawn, full of detail and very imaginative.

Scholastic Productions' CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG has been awarded the Spring 2001 CINE Golden Eagle Award in the animation category. The series was honored for a two-part episode – "To Catch A Bird/Best Party Ever" -- on the themes of having faith in friends and reaching out to those who have hurt you. The winning episodes were animated by Mike Young Productions.

On July 12 in New York, the International Flash Film Festival handed out this year's honors. Thirteen winners from the U.S. and around the world received the "arrow" award. The festival is the highlight of the Flashforward2001 conference and expo. The work of all 60 finalists, selected from over sixteen hundred nominations, was screened for the 200 attendees. The winners can be seen at: www.flashforward2001.com. Finalists and winners were selected by two panels of judges from the Flash community.