Nickelodeon, one of the leading entertainment brands for kids worldwide, is expanding its reach into China as of May 1, 2001. After visiting Beijing for four days and meeting with China's president Jiang Zemin and other industry officials, Bill Roedy, president MTV Networks International, and Frank Brown, president MTV Networks Asia, made the announcement.

* Friday, April 20 - Saturday, April 21, 2001. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Warner Bros. Animation has announced that Jean MacCurdy has stepped down from her post as president and will be replaced by former Sony Family Entertainment Group president Sander Schwartz. MacCardy will become a creative consultant for the studio, working on developing animated and live-action children's productions. In 1979, she joined Warner Bros. Cartoons as director of animation programming and in 1982, was promoted to VP and general manager.

Walt Disney Co. Latin America has hired Marcos Rosset as managing director, Brazil. He will head all of the company's businesses in the territory, including the Portuguese language Disney Channel that debuts on April 5, 2001. For the past 15 years, Rosset served as managing director of CIC Video, a co-venture between Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures. There he oversaw all retail businesses, including interactive consumer products and rental/sell-through video.

* Thursday, April 26 – Sunday, April 29 2001. Bristol, U.K.

Norma Macmillan, the voice of UNDERDOG's Sweet Polly Purebread, has passed away. She suffered a heart attack and died Friday afternoon at her home in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was 79. Macmillian also provided voices for Goo and other characters on THE GUMBY SHOW, Davey's sister Sally on DAVEY & GOLIATH and Kokette on MEAN MOE. During John F. Kennedy's presidency, Macmillan contributed voices to the popular Kennedy family parody album, THE FIRST FAMILY. She also appeared in such live-action features as HEAD OVER HEALS and BIG BULLY.

HANNIBAL held strong at the international box office with debuts of TRAFFIC topping charts in Australia and Italy. In France, however, HANNIBAL fended off the premiere of TRAFFIC, taking the top slot with a gross of US$3.17 million and raising its cume to $9.4 million. In second, TRAFFIC smuggled in $2.48 million. VERTICAL LIMIT climbed into the sixth spot, grossing $807,368, thus lifting its French total to $5.15 million. In the U.K., HANNIBAL hatched another $2.52 million in first, elevating its cume to $26.1 million.

* Tuesday, June 26 – Sunday, July 1, 2001. Melbourne, Australia.

Entry Deadline: April 30, 2001

Chicago, Illinois' Columbia College, film and video department, is looking for an experienced ANIMATION INSTRUCTOR, TENURE TRACK and/or an experienced INSTRUCTOR with an MFA/MA degree in art/design to teach and oversee storyboard and concept development classes and senior-level production studio classes. . . Hong Kong, China's Full Action Ltd, an animation services company, is looking for an ANIMATION SUPERVISOR. . . Brooklyn, New York's Loop Filmworks is looking for a STORYBOARD ARTIST/ILLUSTRATOR, preferably with an animation background. . .

Stephen X. Arthur's experimental animated short, "Vision Point," was chosen to go on tour in "The Best of the Northwest," a program of highlights from the 27th Northwest Film and Video Festival, Portland, Oregon. The tour will be running for the rest of the year, visiting various cities in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and other states. For a schedule, contact the festival coordinator, Thomas Phillipson, at thomas@nwfilm.org. You can discover Stephen's work in the Animation Showcase.

Simona Fabbri has joined Cartoon Network Italy in the newly created position of director of content. Fabbri will be responsible for the programming schedule and acquiring Italian shows, in addition to coordinating the network's and Website's content. She will also oversee the promos and on-air look of the channel. Previously, Simona worked at the Italian Disney channel where she started as acquisitions manager, moving to asset manager.

* Thursday, May 17 – Friday, May 18, 2001. Córdoba, Argentina.

Entry Deadline: April 30, 2001

German EM.TV has signed a co-production deal with Spain's Planeta 2010. Already EM.TV has signed deals on four series and negotiations are in progress on five additional shows including 13 new episodes of DRAGON TALES, which is co-produced with Children's TV Workshop and Columbia TriStar TV Group. The signed deals include: 26-episodes of kids' comedy MR. BABY; 13 episodes of PIGS NEXT DOOR, co-produced with Fox Kids Int. and Magma Films; THE WORLD OF TOSH based on a Swedish fable; and NICK AND PERRY, co-produced by Germany's WDR and France's Ellipse Animation and M6.

Gobbling up the competition, HANNIBAL dined atop the box office charts in a host of new countries. In France, the cannibalistic cavalcade collected an impressive US$6.23 million in its debut. VERTICAL LIMIT climbed into fifth with a gross of $1.46 million, lifting its French cume to $4.35 million. In sixth, 102 DALMATIANS collared another $1.38 million, raising its French cume to $13.51 million. In Mexico, HANNIBAL premiered in first with an amazing ticket-take of $2.71 million. At #5, RED PLANET dusted off $390,792, growing its Mexican cume to $1.04 million.

The Tampere International Short Film Festival awarded its winners on Sunday, March 11, 2001. The prestigious special prize of the jury went to the Brothers Quay for their film IN ABSENTIA (U.K.). The prize for the best animation was given to Helene Moinerie for the film D'UNE CITÉ L'AUTRE (France). The Grand Prix of the festival went to the Finnish documentary HYPPÄÄJÄ by PV Lehtinen. Twenty films out of 69 in the competition were animations, somewhat less than usual.

The 3rd World Summit On Media For Children will happen March 23-26, 2001 in Thessaloniki, Greece. The Summit aims to create an audiovisual policy supporting the rights of children around the world. Organized by the European Children's Television Centre, the event strives to bring many people, including teachers, researchers and academics, together to investigate the relationship of children's television and new media.

In a battle for first, THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE and HANNIBAL went toe to toe in Sweden and the U.K., with the cannibalistic cringer taking a good chunk out of the rest of the international box office. In Sweden, HANNIBAL knocked GROOVE out of the top spot with a gross of $1.02 million. GROOVE grabbed second, grossing $456,488, thereby lifting its Swedish cume to $1.44 million. Jumping up a spot to #7, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON floated $107,750, pushing its Swedish cume to $1.23 million. In ninth, CAST AWAY rescued another $90,711, raising its Swedish cume to $2.36 million.

ATTIK, a leading all-media creative solutions firm, has named Monica Perez their new creative director at the San Francisco office. Perez replaces Simon Dixon who returned to England to assume the creative director role at ATTIK's British offices. Perez joined ATTIK in 1997 as associate creative director and has helped design spots for Microsoft, Ford, Nike, Adidas, Columbia/TriStar Pictures, Levi Strauss and LucasArts.

Adam Sandler's feature foray into animation has dropped the controversial name. Originally titled, WHITEY & DAVEY, the feature will be distributed through Columbia TriStar under the new name ADAM SANDLER'S 8 CRAZY NIGHTS. Production on the traditionally animated film is being done at Sandler's Toronto animation studio Meatball Animation. Called a "Hanukkah musical," the toon centers on Davey, a pro basketball executive, who befriends an old-fashioned coach named Whitey. The toon is set to hit theaters on December 14, 2001.

Twelve new events have been added to the Calendar of Events, including: Cal Arts' "The One Second Film" March 8, Valencia, California, U.S.A.; VEAF Digital Media Trade Show, April 4-6, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Stuttgart Luwigsburg Filmfest, June 6-12, Stuttgart, Germany; and the 8th Bradford Animation Festival, November 16-18, Bradford, U.K. With multiple search capabilities, AWN's new calendar of events gives you a customized way to look through the upcoming events - by Name, Location, Entry Deadline, Category, Event Type and more.