The tradeshow for television programming producers and distributors takes
place October 4-8 in Cannes, France. Basque, Spain-based animation studio
IRUSOIN is nearing completion of KARRAMARRO (CRAB ISLAND), a made for
television animated feature with rights available for worldwide TV and
video release. The original story is about a group of kind, song-loving
pirates, focused on luckless Dimitri, a pirate who cannot sing, and a
parrot who is the only clue to tracking down a fabulous pirate's treasure.

The Fantoche International Animation
Festival, which was held August 31-September 5 in Baden/Zurich,
Switzerland, has announced its award winners. The jury, which was comprised
of Linda Simensky (USA), Pierre Hébert (Canada), Michail Aldashin (Russia),
Franziska Oliver (CH) and Frédéric Maire (CH), awarded the following prizes:


First Prize 'Best Film'

MAJOR'S NOSE by Michail Lisowoi


Second Prize 'High Risk'

GRACE by Lorelei Pepi


Third Prize 'Encouragement-Prize'

The 5th Cartoombria International Animation Festival will happen in
Perugia, Italy, December 2-5, 1999. Although there will be no competitive
section, the artistic committee of the festival has put together a number
of retrospectives, exhibits, workshops, screenings, premieres and artist
tributes. The festival will provide an international forum for a wide range
of animation including feature films, TV serials, animated drawings, logos
and advertising spots, and experimental videos made by international

Lucasfilm's STAR WARS EPISODE ONE:
THE PHANTOM MENACE passed the $300 million mark in overseas boxoffice,
making it the eleventh most successful film of all time outside of North
America. It opened last week in Switzerland with $1.1 million, the
fourth-biggest opening there. In three regions where it was in its second
week of release, it took in $7.5 million in Germany for a total of $24.7
million; $2.7 million in Spain for a total of $10.9 million; and $893,000
in Sweden for a total of $3.1 million. The film's total gross from 27

NPAR 2000 is the first international
symposium dedicated to non-photorealistic animation and rendering,
including cartoon animation systems and techniques. It takes place at the
International Animated Film Festival of Annecy, France, July 5-9, 2000 in
conjunction with ACM/SIGGRAPH and Eurographics. The symposium will bring
together researchers and practitioners from academia and industry, showcase
cutting-edge research in non-photorealistic animation and rendering systems
and techniques, and present examples of these techniques in original

Once again, Bill Plympton has updated his appearances page. In the next
months, "I Married a Strange Person" will be appearing in various festivals
and other events in the US, Germany, Finland and Ukraine. Bill will also be
attending the events in the US and Germany.


Check out Bill's appearance schedule.

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events includes the following
festivals: Imagina 2000 in France, Stuttgart in Germany, PISAF in South
Korea; Plus the first International Symposium On Non-Photorealistic
Animation and Rendering in France. The Calendar of Upcoming Events is a
constantly changing reference source for what's happening around the World
of Animation. Use it to stay abreast of animation related activities across
the globe. If you know of animation related events that we don't have

Women In Animation Shorts Fest I is a showcase for short animated films
made by Women In Animation members and other filmmakers from around the
world. This evening's program includes films by Suzanne Franzel (Germany),
Jaime Levy (USA), and Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis (Canada). It takes
place Friday, September 10, 7 pm at Santa Monica, California, USA.at Santa
Monica College, Academy of Entertainment and Technology, 1440 Stewart
Street, (by Olympic and 26th). Admission is free and open to the public.

Cinanima International Animated Film Festival will happen from November
8-14, 1999, in Espinho, Portugal. This year, the retrospectives and special
programs include: a screening of Cinanima '98 winners; a compilation of
films from Portuguese studio Animanostra; a program of Irish films; a
retrospective of Dusan Vukotic's body of work (Croatia); video clips from
MTV; and a special program from the ASIFA archives, featuring such
prestigious animators as Norman McLaren, Yuri Norstein, Fedor Khitruk,

John Libbey & Company Ltd. has published WALT DISNEY AND EUROPE by Robin
Allan. The work is a study of the way Europe and European culture
influenced Walt Disney and his artists in the making of the Disney animated
feature films from SNOW WHITE to THE JUNGLE BOOK. The book is 368 pages,
and lavishly illustrated in black and white and color with many
illustrations that have never been published. Paperback: ISBN
1-86462-041-2; £22.50; Hardback: ISBN 1-86462-040-4; £40.00. Robin Allan

Nothing Real, a leading Los Angeles-based software provider of
high performance tools designed for the digital image creation market,
is showcasing its flagship compositing software product Shake at this year's SIGGRAPH.


Shake is a next-generation compositing system that offers a broad range
of 2D features for film, broadcast, interactive games and multimedia
effects applications. Shake offers dramatic speed and efficiency
advances over traditional compositing packages, without the need for
specialized hardware.

This October MIPCOM and MIPCOM Junior will once again bring together the
television producers, distributors, buyers, and programmers of the world in
Cannes, France. MIPCOM Junior takes place October 2-3, and MIPCOM takes
place October 4-8. MIPCOM will also include for the first time a three day
conference on the convergence of TV and Internet from October 4-6.
Featuring special keynotes, strategic panels and case studies/workshops,
MIPCOM will bring together players from the TV industry, new media networks

The six month Bristol Animation Course is now available at the University of the West of England, Bristol. It is supported by several animation studios in the region, including Aardman Animations. The course aims to train animators in the craft skills of character and performance animation, enabling them to work in a professional animation studio. The course delivers a Post Graduate Certificate in Extension Studies. According to UWE, 85% of past students have been employed in the industry. There are five places for 2D and five for model animation.

Crater Software, a Spanish-Canadian software development collaboration, announced plans to launch a series of "satellite" versions of CTP, the company's 2D animation software, at this years' Siggraph. The launch of four CTP Satellites - Paint, Scan, Render and the already-released Pencil-test - will coincide with the release of CTP Version 1.3, also being showcased at the show.

Crater Software, a Spanish-Canadian software development collaboration, announced plans to launch a series of "satellite" versions of CTP, the company's 2D animation software, at this years' Siggraph. The launch of four CTP Satellites - Paint, Scan, Render and the already-released Pencil-test - will coincide with the release of CTP Version 1.3, also being showcased at the show.

REALAX introduces new modules and features of its powerful 3D-realtime tool RXscene.


The widely recognized and extremely easy to use 3D-tool allows the quick and
simple creation of 3D-realtime simulation. Existing 3D construction data can be
imported in RXscene, combined with computation data using the RXscript-API,
and simulated in realtime. The virtual test environment is ideally suited for
Digital Prototyping and Digital Mockup (DMU). Different camera positions

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include Cartoombria
International Animation Festival in Italy, and the San Francisco
Independent Film Festival. The Calendar of Upcoming Events is a
constantly changing reference source for what's happening around the
World of Animation. Use it to stay abreast of animation related
activities across the globe. If you know of animation related events
that we don't have listed, send an email with the pertinent facts to
annick@awn.com. We'd love to publish your event information for free!

Walt Disney International Europe and Buena Vista Internet Group (BVIG) have
promoted Andrew Barron to executive vice president of new media and
business development for Walt Disney International Europe; and Chafic Najia
to senior vice president and managing director of Buena Vista Internet
Group Europe. Barron joined WDTV-I in 1995 as director of business
development. Since then he has been responsible for identifying and
negotiating several Disney Channel agreements, as well as equity

The fifth annual Anima Mundi festival has had its run July 9-18 in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil. At this festival the audience is the jury, and they have
chosen:


Best Brazilian Film - DE JANELA PARA O CINEMA (RAINBOW'S END) by Quiá
Rodrigues.


Best Film of the Official Selection - GOGWANA by Deiniol Morris, UK.


Second Best Film of the Official Selection - AU BOUT DU MONDE (AT THE ENDS
OF THE EARTH) by Konstantin Bronzit, France.


Third Best Film of the Official Selection - RECI, RECI, RECI (WORDS, WORDS,

Toronto-based NELVANA has hired Cathy Laughton as managing director of its
London-based operations. Laughton will be responsible for the overall
management of the UK office. Her responsibilities include the acquisition
of new properties for production/licensing development, sales to the UK,
Germany, Scandinavia, and Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemborg),
and securing co-production opportunities. Laughton joins Nelvana from the
Jim Henson Company where she served as director of international television
distribution.