The second International Student Animation Festival of Ottawa (SAFO)
wrapped up on Sunday. The festival received an astonishing 745 entries,
from students, and, this year, first time filmmakers. 59 student films,
ranging from primary, secondary and post-secondary levels were screened.
The international jury, comprised of Suzanne Buchan (Switzerland), Eric
Darnell (USA), Peter Dougherty (USA/UK), George Griffin (USA), and Marcy
Page (Canada), awarded the Grand Prix, Best Film In Competition, to

An exhibition of New Animation from Germany consisting of models,
paintings, sketches and production shots from the works of eight young
German animators will be on display at Chapman University. The event takes
place Monday, November 1 - Wednesday, December 15, 1999 in Orange,
California, USA. For more information including a screening schedule call:
(714) 997-6729.

Lucasfilm's STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE took in $16.5 million
last weekend (October 15 - 17), bringing its overseas gross to US$428
million, surpassing its domestic gross of US$426.8 million. The film opened
in France with US$11.02 million, the best ever opening in France for a US
film.

The Goethe-Institut is presenting a program featuring nine new animated
short films from Germany. In conjunction with this screening Academy
Award-winning visual effects specialist, Volker Engel, will be speaking.
The German-born animator will comment on the film selections and discuss
animation and special effects in general. Engel's credits include visual
effects work on GODZILLA and INDEPENDENCE DAY, for which he won the Oscar.
Films from Thomas Meyer-Hermann, Heinrich Sabl, Thomas Stellmach, Tyron

The Ottawa International Student Animation Festival (SAFO) announced the grand prize winners in this year's
competition on Sunday, October 24, 1999. The festival stated that, "This
year's winners show the high quality of work coming out of schools, both
locally, nationally, and internationally."


The winners in the various competitions are as follows as reported by the
festival:


Grand Prix: Best Film In Competition -- GRACE, Lorelei Pepi, USA


Grand Prix: Best School In Competition -- Royal College of Art, England

The WB has already removed its new primetime animated
series MISSION HILL from its Friday night line-up due to poor ratings. (Its
premiere episode finished 115th in the ratings for the week of October 4 -
10.) It's expected to return as a midseason replacement. New episodes of SOUTH
PARK return beginning next Wednesday, October 27 at 10 pm on COMEDY
CENTRAL, with an all-new Halloween special, KORN'S GROOVY PIRATE GHOST
MYSTERY, guest starring the band, KORN. . . MTV is developing an animated

DISNEY PUBLISHING WORLDWIDE has made several appointments. GUIDO
MASTROPAOLO has been named Director of Global Planning and Business
Development for Disney Publishing Worldwide. Located in Paris,
Mastropaolo's duties will include leading international initiatives to grow
revenue by negotiating acquisitions, new business ventures and major
licensing deals in order to ensure meeting overall publishing financial
goals. In addition, he will co-manage the strategic planning process and

The Goethe-Institut, a German cultural center, is presenting both an
exhibition and a screening of nine new German animated short films in Los
Angeles, California. The program includes films from Thomas Meyer-Hermann,
Heinrich Sabl, Thomas Stellmach, Tyron Montgomery and Kirsten Winter. In
conjunction with this event, visual effects specialist, Volker Engel --
whose credits include "Godzilla" and "Independence Day," for which he won
the Academy Award -- will be speaking on the exhibition's selections and

Copenhagen, Denmark-based A.FILM has finished a :40 spot for Daloon Spring
Rolls, Denmark's largest Chinese frozen food manufacturer. In the spot,
which unveils a new product called Funsters, a dragon, called "daloon" in
Danish, presents the product like a wise and distinguished old man, but the
children's crazy antics off-screen cause him to lose his cool. The CGI spot
was animated using 3D Studio Max with a few live-action props. Craig Frank
directed. The word from Denmark is that after the spot aired for three
weeks, the product sold out.

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events includes the Cartoons On The
Bay International Festival of Television Animation in Italy, the 5th Annual
Communicator Awards Video Competition in the US, as well as a Screening and
Exhibition on New German Animation in Los Angeles, USA. 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

Buena Vista's supernatural thriller THE SIXTH SENSE, with visual effects by
DreamQuest, finished eighth at the US weekend boxoffice, grossing an
estimated $5.2 million, for a total of $249.9 million. No other animation
related films finished in the top ten.

Seven European animation companies have joined to form a company called the
European Animation Group, although its name is likely to change. The group
hopes to produce a minimum of one animated feature or series per year,
beginning in 2001 with its first feature, the $15 million ELFQUEST, set to
go into production in January 2000. The announcement was made at MIPCOM
held October 4 - 8 in Cannes, France. European Animation Group brings
together seven companies. From France, the partners are

JAMES SOMMERVILLE, co-founder of THE ATTIK, has relinquished his most
recent role as creative director of the New York branch to oversee the
development of the company throughout its five offices in Huddersfield
(England), London, New York, San Francisco and Sydney. While based in
London, Sommerville will continue to direct both commercials and long form
projects through The Attik/New York and London. Also, The Attik's executive
producer JIM MORAN has added managing director to his title and assumed

The Cinanima International Animated Film Festival will be held November
8-14, 1999, in Espinho, Portugal. In addition to this year's official
competition program, as well as the retrospectives and exhibitions, the
festival web site now offers the festival daily program on their web site.

Yuri Norstein is considered one of the most remarkable directors to emerge
from the current generation of Russian animators. Norstein will be in
California this upcoming week for an exceptional tour of major studios and
universities. His California tour includes: ASIFA San Francisco and De Anza
College on Sunday, October 17; Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) on Monday,
October 18; UCLA and CalArts on Tuesday, October 19; the Disney Studios and
USC on Wednesday, October 20; L.A. Art Centre & ASIFA-Hollywood on

United Kingdom's ITV Network Centre has commissioned a second series of 13
episodes of the animated series THE STORYKEEPERS from Dublin, Ireland-based
Monster Productions, an animation studio and distribution company formed in
1995 by former management and artists from the Don Bluth studios. The new
series, produced by Shepherd Films, and distributed by Monster Distributes,
will be delivered in Spring 2001 for broadcast on Sunday mornings. The new
series, which is a prequel to the existing series, is set in AD 8, and

TIM BURTON'S NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (its official title) plays at
Disney's El Capitan theater. El Capitan is located west of Highland on
Hollywood Blvd. The event takes place Friday, October 29 - Sunday, October
31 in Hollywood, California, USA. For more information Tel. (323) 467-7674.

Whoever wants to know how the cliffhanger ending of the October 15, 1999 episode of SPACE GHOST:
COAST TO COAST is resolved will have to win the auction that the Cartoon
Network is holding Friday, October 15 to Monday, October 18. Cartoon
Network is auctioning off the last page of that episode's script, which
will not be part of the broadcast episode, to benefit Clowns Without
Borders. The auction will be held at www.ebay.com. At the end of Friday's
episode, which guest stars comedian Steve Wright, Space Ghost and cast find

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of Comedy Central's SOUTH PARK, have received permission to
sample copyrighted Monty Python work for use in IT'S THE MONTY PYTHON
STORY. The animated special will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the BBC
comedy series MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS, which was created by Graham
Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry
Gilliam (the lone American in the group, who did the animation). The
special will include a spoof of the famous "Dead Parrot Sketch" entitled

The fourth edition of The Animated Castles film festival took place September 29 - October 3 in Rome,
Italy. Here are this year's winners:


Grand Prize "I Castelli Animati":

AU BOUT DU MONDE by Konstantin Bronzit, Russia.


Special Jury Prize:

EUROPE & ITALY by Bruno Bozzetto, Italy.


Prize For The Best Debut Short Film:

MIGRATIONS by Constantin Chamski, France.


Prize For The Best European Short Film:

3 MISSES by Paul Driessen, Netherlands.


Special Audience Prize: