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

The Classical and Computer Animation Graduating Class of Vancouver-based
VanArt School is holding an Open House on Thursday, December 9, from 6:00 -
7:30 pm. VanArts is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at 837
Beatty St. Please RSVP to Leslie Bishko: Tel.: (604) 682-2787; Email:
bishko@vanarts.bc.ca. For more information on the school, visit the
VanArts website.

Visual Magic Magazine, AWN's 3D animation and digital effects online
magazine, has posted five new articles...

If you are an artist, it is essential that you have an outstanding
portfolio and demo reel...

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

Hollywood-based animation production company Acme Filmworks is looking for

an After Effects Artist/Manager of Digital Department...

With the tremendous response of new schools, the publication of AWN's
Animation School Directory Winter 2000 edition has been extended to January
20, 2000. Educators and School Administrators, don't miss out! If you
haven't responded yet, you've got a few extra weeks to act. Every school
gets a free basic listing, plus a profile in AWN's on-line Animation School
Database, where students and future students can search through the most
comprehensively indexed and categorized list of animation schools on the

December 19-20, 1999, ASIFA Italia, with the help of the Ministry of
Cultural Affairs, the Regione Piemonte and the Comune di Torino, together
with the support of Young Artists Circle and the British Council and
Pro-Helvetia, is organizing a meeting and a series of films on the subject
of "Art & Animation" in Turin, Italy. The meeting aims to heighten
awareness of animation as an art form with a particular stress on
independent research, experimental and artistic short films. The event is

This week's updates to the Calendar
of Events includes ten new events for
2000, including the Nordic and Baltic Animation Festival Fredrikstad
(former Oslo Festival - in May); Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films
(June); as well as the L!censing (June) and SIGGRAPH (July) shows. 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

In last week's edition of the Spotlight, we mentioned that the
International Festival of Animated Film will be present at NATPE, in New
Orleans, January 24-28, 2000, booth #2276. The festival booth will be #2976
(and not 2276) located in the Animation Pavilion. For more information on
Annecy 2000, visit http://www.annecy.org
or call (+33.4).50.10.09.00 (phone); (+33.4).50.10.09.70 (fax).

Plympton's new series of comics extracted from the comic book, "Sleazy
Cartoons of Bill Plympton," is for ADULTS ONLY...

Test your skills and challenge your brain with
AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz:
In which other Pixar short did the old character who repairs Woody in "Toy
Story 2," first appear? The recent release of "Pokemon: The First Movie" is
a slightly revamped version of which feature that opened in Japan in 1998?
Warner Bros.' recent release "The Iron Giant" followed on the heels of a
previous box office failure. The name of this earlier medieval fable?

During the past few weeks, it seems like everyday there is an announcement
regarding a company beginning to broadcast animation over the 'net. With
Level 13 and Wild Brain recently throwing their hats into the ring with
their new Internet entertainment web sites, web surfers are starting to see
the beginning of a boom in Internet animation. Level13.net and
WildBrain.com join Harvey Entertainment, which launched realcartoons.net
just over a week ago, and Time-Warner, which launched Entertaindom.com last

The 2nd Annual Worldfest-Flagstaff International Film Festival announced
their 1999 winners on Sunday, November 14. The festival's focus is on
independent works that have not yet been picked up for distribution. The
animation winners were MUSIC FOR AN OWL directed by Hans Van Westerlaak at
Cinema Avant, BILLY'S BALLOON directed by Don Hertzfeldt for Bitter Films,
THE MONKEYMAN RULES directed by James Dean Conklin for Greenhead Media, and
THE INDESCRIBABLE NTH by Oscar Moore at Character Builders.

For the first time on video!! The best of Zagreb Film, plus Rembrandt
Films' greatest hits, the Best of Bulgaria, and a second volume of Trnka
Shorts.



THE BEST OF ZAGREB FILM IN FIVE ONE-HOUR VOLUMES: In four decades Zagreb
Film produced 600 animated films that won more than 400 international
awards. The studio quickly became famous for a unique animation style that
became known as the Zagreb school. One of the studio's pioneering
distinctions was that its filmmakers wrote, designed, and directed their

Monday, December 13, 1999, AtomFilms, a leader in next-generation
entertainment, announced that it has inked a deal with investors totaling
US$20 million in financing. This signing marks the end of a second round of
strategic financing led by Chase Capital Entertainment Partners LLC and
Chase Capital Partners, and joined by Arts Alliance, Frank J. Biondi Jr.,
general partner at WaterView Partners and former chairman and CEO of
Universal Studios, Intel Corp., and Trans Cosmos USA Inc. "This round of

Disney's Internet arm Go.com has announced a loss of $1.06 billion in
fiscal 1999. Disney's Web division was formed three months ago to combine
its Internet search engine Go.com, a co-venture with Infoseek, with
Disney's other online assets, which includes ESPN.com, Disney.com and
ABCNews.com. The loss, which includes $956 million in depreciation and
amortization expenses, widened from a loss of $991 million a year earlier
and includes all of Go.com's new-media properties. Much of the negative

Film Roman's Board of Directors has finished their search for a new CEO and
president with the naming of veteran industry exec John Hyde to the
position. Hyde's expertise ranges from work in television, film, music and
new media. By replacing former CEO/pres. David Pritchard, Hyde steps into a
position with promise and heightened pressure. Besides producing THE
SIMPSONS and KING OF THE HILL, over seeing various live-action film
productions, and coddling their infant on-line channel Level13.com, Hyde

Boston-based Olive Jar Studios, Inc., an animation, special effects and
theme park attraction production house, has opened a branch in Los Angeles,
California, U.S.A. The new west coast facility will house both stage and
production space. Olive Jar specializes in film techniques that include
mixed-media, stop-motion, CGI, cel, drawn, and live-action/special effects.
Executive producer Matthew Charde said, "Our presence in Los Angeles will
be a tremendous asset to the business since we will be more fully able to