On Monday, November 6, 2000, German children's TV producer and rights buyer TV Loonland announced that it expects annual sales to top DM127 million (US$55.9 million) for 2000. This report is almost four times its original estimate of DM32.7 million ($14.4 million) when the German company went public in March. It's pretax profit is estimated to be DM25.5 million ($11.2 million), increased from DM18.6 million ($8.2 million). TV Loonland attributes the growth to its recent international acquisitions, including the purchase of France's Salsa Distribution and U.K. production studio Telemagination.

A.Film Copenhagen has finished up a new 30-second commercial with Tony the Tiger for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. The spot is part of a new European revisioning campaign for the Tony the Tiger character. In the commercial, Tony wears a handkerchief on top of his head and makes hip-hop type street-smart signs with his hands. A.Film combined traditional cel animation with live-action. Craig Frank served as the animation director and Easy Film's Thomas Buck directed the live-action. The spot was produced for ad agency Leo Burnett.

The 2000 Awards Ceremony and Closing Night Party of the 17th Annual Chicago International Children's Film Festival was held Sunday, October 22, 2000 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Mayer Education Center. The event was hosted by director/actor Harold Ramis (BEDAZZLED, GROUNDHOG DAY, GHOSTBUSTERS). The Chicago International Children's Film Festival is the largest competitive festival of films for children in North America. This year's Festival screened 210 films from over 40 countries, including 36 world premieres. Below is a list of the animation winners.

* Tuesday, December 5 – Wednesday, December 6, 2000. London, U.K.

* Thursday, December 7 – Sunday, December 10, 2000. Paris, France.

Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England's Smartdog, a gaming company that is part of the Titus/Virgin/Interplay group, is looking for 3D MODELERS and TEXTURERS to work on their state of the art PSXII title. . . Victoria, British Columbia, Canada's Disney Interactive is looking for an ANIMATION LEAD/INTERACTIVE to overview the entire animation process from pre-production design to delivery of final post-production animations. . . London, UK's Granada Media, one of the biggest TV production companies in the UK, is looking for an ANIMATOR. . .

Plympton's new series of comics extracted from the comic book, "Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton," is for ADULTS ONLY. A new (REALLY!) outrageous comic by Bill Plympton can be found each Friday at http://www.awn.com/plympton.

* Tuesday, November 28 – Sunday, December 3, 2000. Viareggio, Italy.





The 17th EuropaCinema & TV Film Festival highlights European film and television projects. The festival has a European animation shorts category. All films must be 15 minutes or less. For more information contact Thomas Martinelli at: Tel.: ++39 (0)6 42011184 or ++39 (0)6 4200021; Fax ++39 (0)6 42010599; E-mail: lthomasm@yahoo.it; or Web: http://www.europacinema.net.

* Thursday, November 30 – Sunday, December 10, 2000. Belfast, U.K.

This month we are talking about everyone's pal - television. We are featuring a profile of veteran animation director and producer Eric Radomski. We are also taking a long hard look at primetime animation and trying to figure out what went wrong this year. In addition, we will showcase five shows that are extra special for many reasons. They include France's "Belphégor," Oxygen's "X-Chromosome," the U.K.'s "Butt-Ugly Martians," Tom Snyder Productions and Disney's "Teacher's Pet."

London, UK's Downboy Entertainment, a new entertainment company working on cutting-edge projects, is looking for a 2D ANIMATOR to develop and co-direct an animation pilot. . . KE Consultants is looking for a 2D ARTIST, 3D ARTIST, FLASH GAMING ARTIST, SOUND SPECIALIST and MAYA TRAINER. . . Fremont, California's EStudio, a new media content house, is looking for 2D FLASH CHARACTER ANIMATORS and LEAD COLORISTS to work on original content for entertainment sites such as Shockwave.com and Mediatrip.com. . . Chantilly, Virginia's Legend Entertainment, a studio of Infogrames, Inc.

* Thursday, November 23 – Saturday, November 25, 2000. Perugia, Italy.

Denmark's A. Film has a hit animated feature on their hands. HELP! I'M A FISH opened in its home country at the end of September and held the top spot for two weeks. In addition to its success in theaters, a song from the film has topped the Danish pop charts. A. Film partner Stefan Fjeldmark wrote and co-directed the film with Michael Hegner. Fjeldmark was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the short WHEN LIFE DEPARTS and served as an animator on such feature films as FERNGULLY, A TROLL IN CENTRAL PARK and THE PEBBLE AND THE PENGUIN.

Luxembourg’s audiovisual production group, Oniria, is continuing its expansion with a new subsidiary studio in Berlin. The studio will be called Oniria Film and will handle pre-production (graphic design, scripts, storyboards, etc.), production management and post-production for the company's TV series. Thierry Schiel and Sophia Kolokouri have set up the new arm and Oniria Production administrator Nina Kolokouri will serve as general manager. Currently, Oniria Film is working on 52 15-minute episodes of the TV series BOB’S BEACH.

The British Academy of Film & Television Arts has announced the winners of its third annual interactive entertainment awards. Lego & Steven Spielberg Moviemaker Set, which gives kids a virtual production studio in a box, took home two prizes in the learning and children’s categories. Cartoon Network U.K. Online won the entertainment Website award over Netherlands-based toon site ExtraTainment.com.

Francisco "Paco" Rodriguez is closing down his animation production-distribution house PPM Multimedia to head up the animation arm of Madrid's burgeoning content creator Filmax. He will oversee the development of animated projects, international sales, coordinating co-productions and directing services at Filmax's animation studio Bren Entertainment. Rodriguez formed PPM Multimedia in 1990 and quickly transformed the small company into a major force in the Spanish market.

This past week, the international box office got a bit frightful with SCARY MOVIE, WHAT LIES BENEATH and HOLLOW MAN taking top spots around the globe. In Mexico, SCARY MOVIE debuted in first place with a gross of $2.33 million. In second, WHAT LIES scared audiences to the tune of $917,416, lifting its Mexican cume to $6.23 million. U-571 thrilled audiences in third, with a gross of $648,055, raising its Mexican cume to $1.6 million. In sixth, HOLLOW MAN made $406,055 disappear from Mexican moviegoers' pockets, advancing its cume to $5.14 million.

* Monday, November 6 – Saturday, December 9, 2000. New York, New York, U.S.A.

Sari Rosen has joined new York-based ATTIK, a leading all-media creative solutions firm, as executive producer. Previously, Rosen worked at the broadcast design and media company Pittard Sullivan. Rosen started as a production coordinator and within a year was producing projects for ABC, VH1, Lifetime, TNN, The Netherlands' RTL4, Germany's DSF and Discovery Kids Latin America. ATTIK's New York managing director/group executive producer, Jim Moran, said, "I couldn't be any happier about Sari joining ATTIK.

Over the past year, Sweden has been urging the European Union to ban TV advertising aimed toward children under 12, however policymakers have reassured the advertising and children's programming industry that they are moving away from the notion. Currently in Sweden, ads targeted to kids are banned, because the government is worried that children could unnecessarily influence their parents' shopping habits. In January, Sweden hopes to win favor for their plans when they take over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU.