Toronto-based DECODE ENTERTAINMENT has announced DOMINIQUE BAZAY and

CAROLINE DORRIS to its recently formed international distribution

division. As Director of International Sales, Bazay, who will be based

in Toronto, will head distribution activities and sales to Scandinavia,

Spain, Portugal, Eastern Europe and South Africa, among other

territories. Bazay previously served in sales for BBC Worldwide

Americas, Paragon Entertainment, and the CBC. Dorris will also serve as

ANDREA-MANUELA SEIBERT has been named VP, European Sales for RIVE GAUCHE INTERNATIONAL TV. Seibert previously served as lead Acquisitions Exec and Special Project Exec at RTL Television in Munich, Germany. Based in Germany, Seibert will head European sales and marketing of Rive Gauche's programming library, handle acquisitions of European-produced specials for worldwide distribution and coordinate European co-productions.

DreamWorks has obtained the screen rights to Nathan Never, a comic published in Italy by Bonelli Editore and imported by Platinum Studios. The story focuses around Nathan Never, a 21st Century Dirty Harry, who, in the wake of a terrible crime, is charged to protect the lone witness. The comic was acquired by DW's Walter Parkes and Glenn Williamson. The pic will be produced by Platinum chairman Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, co-produced by Platinum pres Ervin Rustemagic and senior VP Gregory Noveck. Parkes and Rosenberg teamed up together on MEN IN BLACK.

As was reported [AF 12/21/99], a federal

court jury convicted former Walt Disney Internet executive, 34-year-old

Patrick Naughton, of possessing child pornography, but deadlocked on

charges that he crossed state lines seeking sex with a "13-year-old girl"

which he arranged via the Internet. On Wednesday, December 22, 1999, U.S.

District Judge Edward Rafeedie reversed his own ruling and released

Naughton from jail, saying it was likely that he would win a new trial. On

Recently, Europe has gotten a good old dose of American capitalism,

Japanese style. POKEMON has infested the European television market. The

children's mega-hit first debuted in the UK on Sky 1 in April and quickly

became the channel's #1 kids show. In October, the ITV Network and GMTV

secured UK terrestrial broadcast rights to the show. A month prior to the

ITV and GMTV deal, POKEMON started airing on Germany's RTL2, The

Netherlands' Fox Kids, Belgium's VT4 and RTL, Portugal's SIC and France's

A strike by union employees at Disneyland Paris may stop the park's rocking

New Year's Eve celebration. Disney played down the chance of a strike,

however local union leader Elena Stanciu warned, "The party'll be ruined,"

citing staff frustration over slow-moving pay talks and dissatisfaction

with a $115 New Year's Eve bonus as the main reasons for the latest threat

of a walk out. Stanciu said seasonal staff were being offered almost four

Next summer the third feature installment of the POKEMON trilogy will make
its way to Japanese theatres. POCKET MONSTER: THE LORD OF THE UNKNOWN TOWER
will introduce yet another of those little "pocket things" to kids and
merchandising execs around the world. Kunihiko Yuyama is set to direct the
film, which will feature a short tentatively titled POKEMON 2000. If in the
U.S. or Europe one may ask, whatever happened to POKEMON 2? Well, fear not
Charmander chums, the second POKEMON feature, which was released in Japan

Cinanima '99 finished its week-long run on November 14, 1999. The Espinho,
Portugal festival highlights the best in animation from around the globe.
This year, the International Jury gave their Grand Prize to Alexander
Petrov's film THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. The Canadian and Japanese produced
film also won the RTP Prize, an award given by the Portuguese State
Channel's special jury, and the Best Soundtrack Prize. The
Canadian-produced film by Eugene Fedorenko and Rose Newlove entitled

As part of the International Children's Film Festival in Hyderabad, India
on November 17 - 18, 1999, 45 children ages 5 - 15 years old came together
to create a wildly imaginative, 5 minute animated short titled TOONED IN 2
DAYS. The feat was done at a 2 day workshop on animation conducted by Dr.
Neeraj's Animation Studios, the digital animation production facility of
Sriven Multi-Tech Limited. Twenty of the studio's top animators, led by
Dhimant Vyas and Rajsekhar took on the responsibility of guiding the

The Monte-Carlo Television Festival has announced the members of their
international jury for the 2nd European Television Producer Award. Guy
Fournier, the Canadian writer/producer, will preside over the seven member
jury. Guy Fournier has written some 2000 hours of television drama for
French and Canadian productions, over 150 hours of films and series for
television, plays for the theater, feature length films (FANTASTICA, UNE
AMIE D'ENFANCE) and has also published a number of books. Other jury

The Imagina computer conference and festival is often referred to as the
European equivalent to SIGGRAPH. For its 19th edition, in keeping with
tradition, the event will start in Monaco, January 31-February 2, 2000, but
will then continue in Paris February 2-4, 2000 with the exhibition of new
industrial developments and technologies. The events in Monaco include the
"Prix Pixel-INA" awards competition, the Innovation Space, and various
conferences and panel discussions such as "2D/3D Animation," a discussion

The 24th International Festival of animated film will be held in Annecy,
France, June 5-10, 2000. The festival is now accepting entries for animated
short films, television series, commissioned films and student films. The
deadline to register your film for competition is January 15, 2000. Entry
forms are now available on the festival web site. The three selection
committees will gather in Annecy March 2-12, 2000 in order to choose the 5
features and 10 programs of shorts which will compose the official

These limited edition autographed prints from Yuri Norstein's "Tales of
Tales" and "Hedgehog in the Fog," made in Russia from the drawings Norstein
used to develop his characters, are hand signed by Norstein. Most of the
proceeds from sales will go to help finance the ongoing production of
"Overcoat," Yuri Norstein's famous work in progress, which he began after
completing "Tale of Tales" in 1978, and is based on a famous story by
Nikolai Gogol. This is a very limited offer, with the print value at

A year ago, French and other European animation professionals gathered at
the third "Crossroads of the Image of the Indian Ocean" to discuss European
cartoons. At this event, financing is always a hot topic of discussion.
France is the third largest producer of animation worldwide, after the U.S.
and Japan. Production itself has greatly developed in recent years with the
proliferation of television channels. In 1988 there weren't any 26
half-hour episode series being done in Europe, now there are dozens every