The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has named the four honorees of its primetime Emmy award for individual achievement in animation. This category is a juried award that does not have nominations. An Academy picked peer group panel chooses the winners. This year’s prizes are as follows.

The annual European animation co-financing event, Cartoon Forum, will take place on the Baltic Sea Island of Gotland in Sweden. Gotland and its capital Visby will without a doubt survive the animation industry's invasion, as the city has a long history going back to the Vikings and medieval times. The nearby island of Fårö is known by many, too, as director Ingmar Bergman shot many of his films there. The 79 projects to be presented for funding have already been selected, and can be found at Cartoon's Web site www.cartoon-media.be.

On Monday, July 10, 2000, AtomFilms announced the finalists for their recently launched event, Flash.Beat. Organized by AtomFilms and Swatch, Flash.Beat is a competition in which Flash artists created a commercial advertising Swatch’s new Internet time system. Atom received over 1,000 submissions from over 30 countries. The ten finalists in both the short form and long form categories can be seen at AtomFilms Finalists Page. Visiting Net surfers can vote for their favorite entry. On July 31, 2000 the winner will be announced.

The Zagreb Animation Festival was held in the Croatian capital on June 21 – 25, 2000 for the fourteenth time. The atmosphere was literally hot; the sun shined more than enough during the whole festival, raising the daily temperatures easily to 35 centigrade (approximately 90+° F). No wonder the daily festival newspaper reported about the festival picnic with the headline "A hell-hot picnic". On the positive side, however, is that an effective air conditioned inside drew a large audience for the films. The four competition-screenings were very popular among the local audience.

The National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation has inducted Walt Disney into the Inventors Hall of Fame. Disney was recognized for his creation of the multiplane camera, which yielded better looking, richer animation. The National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation Selection Committee, comprised of representatives from national scientific and technical organizations, votes each year to select the most qualified inventors from those proposed in open nominations. The criteria the committee takes into consideration is whether the invention is covered by a U.S.

The Oscar winner for best short animated film, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, has won the coveted grand prize at the International Festival of Animated Film at Annecy. In a lively ceremony held on Saturday, June 10, 2000, the awards were handed out by the festival’s artistic director, Serge Bromberg. The short and feature film jury, comprised of Meral Erez (Turkey), Aida Ndiaye (Senegal), Georges Schwizgebel (Switzerland), John Lasseter (U.S.A.) and Jimmy T. Murakami (Ireland), bestowed the top honor to the adaptation of Ernest Hemmingway’s novella.

Finishing up on June 4, 2000, The World Animation Celebration’s competition has announced its winners. Prizes in over 30 competition categories were awarded. There were over 500 entries from all over the world. Annecy 1999 and Cannes winning short WHEN THE DAY BREAKS by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis took home the grand prize. Taking the top prize for theatrical features was STUART LITTLE. The live-action/CGI animated feature beat out DreamWorks’ PRINCE OF EGYPT, which took home the second place prize. Below is a complete list of the winners.

On Tuesday, June 6, 2000, the House of Representatives approved and sent to the White House legislation awarding a Congressional Gold Medal to late PEANUTS comic strip creator Charles Schulz. The gold medal is the highest civilian honor given by Congress. The measure, which the House passed by voice vote after unanimous approval by the Senate, praises Schulz for giving "the nation a unique sense of optimism, purpose and pride.

MTV viewers voted for their theater favs and THE MATRIX rose to the top. The sci-fi sensation took home nods for best picture, best actor for Keanu Reeves and best fight between Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. The naughty number "Uncle F**ka" from SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER AND UNCUT took home the prize for best musical performance. When excepting the award Matt Stone thanked the "MTV viewers for not even nominating Phil Collins." STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 THE PHANTOM MENACE finally got some thank yous for best action sequence.

The winners are out for the first World Internet Animation Competition, held in conjunction with the World Animation Celebration and sponsored by Shockwave.com. One grand prizewinner, one student winner and first and second prizewinners in multiple categories were awarded US$100,000 in cash and prizes in conjunction with the annual World Animation Celebration. The competition received more than 650 animations in ten categories. The winners were chosen by a jury comprised of industry headliners .

Edinboro University of Pennsylvania senior Joe Gorski has won the first Chuck Jones Foundation Award. Speaking by telephone from his home in California, animation legend Chuck Jones announced the winner of the first ever Chuck Jones Award for Excellence in Student Animation to a standing-room-only audience at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Jones’ daughter, Linda Jones Clough, was on hand to present the award to Gorski. Jones created the foundation that bears his name to recognize, reward, support and inspire continued excellence in art and animation.

On Friday, May 19, 2000, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences bestowed the honor of outstanding children’s animated program on STEVEN SPIELBERG PRESENTS: PINKY, ELMYRA AND THE BRAIN. The toons left in their wake were ARTHUR, DISNEY’S DOUG, MAURICE SENDAK’S LITTLE BEAR and THE NEW BATMAN/SUPERMAN ADVENTURES. SESAME STREET beat out BLUE’S CLUES in the category of outstanding pre-school series. Other animated winners were given out on Saturday, May 13 at the technical achievement ceremony. ROLIE POLIE OLIE won the award for outstanding special class animated program.

On Saturday May 13, 2000, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences handed out their Daytime Emmy Awards for technical achievement. Many of the awards handed out featured animated series like big winner ROLIE POLIE OLIE for best special class animated program. The 3D animation series beat out ANGELA ANACONDA, BATMAN BEYOND, DISNEY’S MICKEY MOUSEWORKS and THE SYLVESTER & TWEETY MYSTERIES for the honor. BLUE’S CLUES lost to BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY in the children’s series writing category and lost to BEAR IN THE BIG BLUE HOUSE in the children’s series directing category.

On May 11, 2000 in San Francisco, California, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences handed out their Web honors. AtomFilms walked away from the night with two awards winning the people’s voice award in the broadband category and winning the film category. Each category ranging from arts to personal to news to weird where awarded two awards – one winner and one people’s voice award. Web surfers placed over 130,000 votes for their favorite Web site in the 27 different divisions.

On May 11, 2000, The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) held the 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. The event was hosted by comedian Martin Short and saw other celebrity presenters like Harry Shearer (THE SIMPSONS), Ahmet Zappa (MTV’S WEB RIOT) and Delroy Lindo (CIDER HOUSE RULES). Rapping up the first day of the E3 Conference, the 2000 Interactive Achievement Awards were presented with the support of Intel, Alias/Wavefront, GameWeek, Sonic Foundry and Webster Interactive.

On Sunday, May 7, 2000 in Fredrikstad, Norway, the Nordic and Baltic Animation Festival Fredrikstad called to an end its five-day festival. The Oscar award nominated MY GRANDMOTHER IRONED THE KING'S SHIRTS took home two awards at the festival. The jury consisted of Marjut Rimminen (Finland/U.K.), Konstantin Bronzit (Russia), Sven Påhlsson (Norway), Richard R. Reeves (Canada) and Cory Wynne (U.S.A.). The festival’s focus is to promote the screening and better understanding of animation.

On Sunday, May 7, 2000 the 31st annual ASIFA-East animation festival was held in New York City. The event packed the auditorium with animators and animation buffs. The overflow of the audience was sent to a second theater to watch a simulcast of the winning films. The event holds four categories for students, commercials, sponsored films and independent films. The big winners were Nickelodeon, taking home three awards in the sponsored category, and Acme Filmworks, which won three awards in the commercial category.

On May 11, 2000, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences will hand out their top honors of the year with PC game AGE OF EMPIRES II leading the field with 7 nominations. Held in Los Angeles, this, the third edition, will be hosted by comedian Martin Short. Members of the Academy with expertise in each area formed review panels to vote for the winners. The award for game of the year, computer game of the year and console game of the year was voted on by all of the eligible members of the Academy. This year’s competition saw over 350 entries from 60 different companies.

On Sunday, April 9, 2000, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts bestowed the honor of best animated short on THE MAN WITH BEAUTIFUL EYES. The film was adapted from a Charles Bukowski poem where a group of boys make a hero of a deadbeat alcoholic. The film by Jonathan Hodgson beat out Oscar winner THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Alexander Petrov, the 1998 Oscar nominated JOLLY ROGER by Mark Baker and festival favorite THE PERI-WIG MAKER by Steffen Schaffler. As it did at the Oscars, THE MATRIX took home the awards for sound and special effects.

In the television competition at Cartoons on the Bay, Warner Bros.' beleaguered series MISSION HILL took home the prize for best over-all animation series. The 4th Cartoons On The Bay International Festival of Television Animation was held in Positano (Amalfi Coast), Italy from April 14 - 18. Cartoons on the Bay is the only festival in the world dedicated to television animation. The festival is an international event with awards, workshops, lectures and events centering on the ever-changing world of television animation.