Anima Mundi has released the winners for its 2001 festival, which took place from Friday, July 13 – Monday, July 23, 2001 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil then moved to São Paulo, Brazil from Wednesday, July 25 – Sunday, July 29, 2001. The festival is the major animation festival in South America. The festival included a wide range of open activities, including workshops, lectures and exhibitions. The winners were chosen by a panel of 26 animation industry professionals from around the world. Below is a complete list of winners.



BEST FILM:

Mohandiseen, Giza, Egypt's Alsahar Animation, a production company, is looking for a 2D ANIMATOR for a feature film. The animator will work through the Internet, no need to relocate. . . Los Angeles, California's Animation World Network is looking for a WEB DESIGNER to help manage and maintain the entire Animation World Network Website. . . San Francisco, California's Apex Pictures, producers of short comedy films, is looking for a 3D ANIMATOR for a series. . .

Anima Mundi 2001 took place from Friday, July 13 - Monday, July 23, 2001 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil then moved to São Paulo, Brazil from Wednesday, July 25 - Sunday, July 29, 2001. The major animation festival in South America, Anima Mundi included a wide range of open activities, including workshops, lectures and exhibitions. A panel of twenty-six animation industry professionals from around the world chose the 2001 festival winners: Best Film: "Father And Daughter" by Michael Dudok de Wit, Holland.

Swatch has announced the winner of the Swatchbeat 2 Flash Animation Competition on August 1. Hundreds of entries from around the world were submitted to a panel of Swiss judges and Internet audiences. The top prize was US$5000 dollars and a trip to the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland from August 9 -13. Each participant had to create a Flash animation no greater than 30 seconds on the theme of "Waiting for the Movies." The winning entry was by Frank Gapinski of www.flashtoonz.com in Australia. The toon features a movie-goer's struggle to get a comfortable seat at the movies.

DECODE has sold 26 episodes of its newest series, THE BLOBHEADS, to Nickelodeon and France’s Canal J. The series is scheduled to premiere in 2002. For Nickelodeon, this deal marks the first program pre-sale across multiple territories in the U.K., Europe and Australia. Co-produced by DECODE and C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, the series is aimed at 8-12 year olds and mixes live-action human characters with CGI aliens.

Stephen Johnstone has been promoted to the newly created position of senior vice president and general manager, Cartoon Network Europe, Middle East and Africa. Johnstone started with Turner eight years ago in the advertising sales division before moving into television channel management. More recently, he has held the post of head of interactive for Turner's entertainment networks. In his new roles, he will manage Cartoon Network's TV channels, interactive services and off-channel commerce.

Vancouver-based Studio B Productions has announced that all three of its animated children's series currently airing on Canada's national television have been picked up for another season. "We’re very proud to have all three of our original shows picked up for national broadcast," said Blair Peters, partner and founder, Studio B Productions. "There's a lot of competition out there and we're pleased that kids have responded well to our characters and stories." D’MYNA LEAGUES follows the wacky baseball adventures of a team of teenage myna birds.

The World Animation Celebration will offer the only West Coast screening of "Mutant Aliens," Bill Plympton's new animated feature that premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. This sci-fi comedy about totally evil but cuddly aliens coming to Earth to get their revenge won the Feature Film Grand Prix at the 2001 Annecy Animation Festival. Bill Plympton, who did all the animation, will be present at the screening. He will also be signing copies of his graphic novel of "Mutant Aliens." The first 50 attendees will get special collectible viewers with raunchy stills from the film.

On July 11, Columbia Pictures released FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN in digital cinema format in seven theaters. The seven cities that will display the film digitally are: AMC Empire, New York City, New York; Edwards Irvine Spectrum, Irvine, California.; AMC Media 6, Burbank, California.; Cinemark Legacy, Dallas, Texas; Famous Players Paramount, Toronto; AMC Barrington, Chicago, Illinois; and the AMC Van Ness, San Francisco, California.

Brisbane, Australia's Blue Rocket Productions has started pre-production on their new 3D animated television series entitled HOOTA & SNOZ. The interstitial series of 26 episodes are being co-produced with RTV Family Entertainment and Pacific Film and Television Commission. The show follows the antics of two creatures that constantly bicker about everything. The characters speak in squeaks and grunts, which breaks down the culture barrier and has allowed the series to be sold into nearly 40 countries since its release at MIPCOM last October.

Cartoon Network Italy has appointed a top-level marketing director to build the brand's image in the Italian marketplace. Jaime Ondarza comes from an international advertising agency background, bringing valuable knowledge of Italian consumer marketing to Cartoon Network Italy. He was recently with Young and Rubicam and previously at Saatchi & Saatchi and Pirella Gottsche Lowe. "My prime focus is to establish Cartoon Network in national contemporary culture," said Jaime.

The May Acrobat issue of Animation World Magazine is now on-line! As we have recently changed to a weekly format with the magazine many of you have noticed that this has also changed our publishing schedule for the downloadable, monthly PDF version. Never fear! We are going to keep publishing the Acrobat version. Each 15th of the month we will publish the previous month's articles.

Mainframe Entertainment, Inc. has licensed its popular REBOOT animation series to Infogrames, Inc., for development on various interactive game platforms. The multi-year licensing agreement was negotiated by licensing and merchandising veteran Joy Tashjian, president of Joy Tashjian Marketing Group, the exclusive representative for Mainframe's properties, who is also contributing to Mainframe's expansion into the consumer products area through a recently formed strategic alliance.

Universal's SITTING DUCKS, a new CGI children's animated series, has been licensed in multiple international territories. ITV has secured rights to the show in the U.K., with other licenses going to France's TF1, Australia's ABC, Mexico's Televisa S.A., Portugal's TVI and Star TV in Greece. Cable rights to SITTING DUCKS have been acquired by Canada's YTV and by the Nickelodeon Channel in Australia. In the Netherlands, the show will be shown exclusively on the SBS group of channels.

Howard Schwartz Recording (HSR), a leading audio facility, is recording the voice tracks for the Columbia Pictures' STUART LITTLE 2. Produced by Sony-based Red Wagon Productions, and directed by Rob Minkoff, the film is scheduled for release on July 19th, 2002. HSR engineer Bill Higley has been recording the actors directly from microphone to DAT for the sequel. The voice cast includes Michael J. Fox as Stuart, Nathan Lane as Snowbell the cat, Melanie Griffith as Margalo the bird and Steve Zahn as Monty.

As widely reported today by sources such as the LA TIMES, WIRED MAGAZINE and REUTERS, four people, including Stan Lee Media co-founder Peter Paul, have been indicted by federal prosecutors as part of an alleged $25 million stock manipulation scheme. The defendants face maximum sentences of 15 years in prison if convicted. Paul, former Stan Lee Media executive vice president Stephen Gordon, stock analyst Jeffrey Pittsburg and stock promoter Charles Kusche, have been accused of securities fraud in an attempt to manipulate the price of Stan Lee Media stock.

The Oscar winner for best short animated film, FATHER AND DAUGHTER, has won the coveted grand prize at the International Festival of Animated Film at Annecy. In an elaborate and festive closing ceremony held on Saturday, June 9, 2001, the awards were handed out by the festival’s artistic director, Serge Bromberg.



The Short and Feature Fiction Films jury, made up of Ron Diamond, USA, Florence Miailhe, France, John
Dilworth, USA, Françoise Reymond, France and Oscar Grillo, Argentina has awarded:

"Annecy

Each week, Animation World Magazine offers new articles, special
features and theme-based coverage of the art, craft and industry of
animation. New this week:



- Special
Effects from Down Under: A Growing Proposition

While you might not realize it, you've probably already seen some of
Australia's top effects houses in action. Stephen Lynch explains.



- Nine

TOPIX has recently completed the online and CGI for a 30-second spot promoting Colgate-Palmolive's household cleaner, Fabuloso. Featuring a Carmen Miranda look-alike, "Conga" was developed through ad agency Young & Rubicam (Mexico City, Mexico), and debuted in Mexico and Uruguay in May, with a debut in Panama, Ecuador and Columbia set for June and July. After cleaning her dishes with Fabuloso, a Brazilian bombshell and two trumpet players jump from the clean plates, inspiring Mom, son and the family dog to dance a conga line around the kitchen.

Ring of Fire completed three 30-second spots, "High Noon," "Day of the Dumpsters" and "Fashion Show,” for a Unisys campaign. Ring of Fire’s gear of tools included: Quantel Henry, Discreet Logic Inferno, Maya, Commotion and Adobe After Effects. "'Day of the Dumpsters' required a wide range of visual effects," remarked Ring of Fire senior post-production producer Casey Conroy. "One of our challenges was to create a CGI building that would sit in the middle of a lone desert landscape.