Level 13, a division of Film Roman, is currently acquiring short animated films...

70mm film cels on framed original production paintings, exclusively licensed by George Lucas!

The Walt Disney Co. has reported its earnings for the third quarter, and
the nine months ended June 30, 1999. Net income for the fiscal third
quarter ended in June fell to $367 million from last year's $415 million.
The figure includes a pretax loss of $87 million from the November purchase
of a 43% interest in Internet search engine Infoseek Corp. Net income for
the nine month period ended June 30, 1999 fell to $1.215 billion from last
year's $1.554 billion. "While we are not satisfied with our current

IMAX Corporation, owner of the large format film theater chain, has
announced the closing of its strategic investment in Vancouver,
Canada-based Mainframe Entertainment Inc., a producer of CGI animation.
Under the terms of the agreement, IMAX invested CDN$8 million to acquire a
19% equity stake in Mainframe and CDN$8 million to acquire convertible
senior debt which, if converted, could bring IMAX's ownership up to 30% of
Mainframe. Simultaneously, Mainframe announced that two leading Canadian

Lucasfilm's STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE took in $16.5 million
in 24 territories over the weekend, bringing its foreign total to $154.3
million. In its second weekend in the UK, it finished first and grossed
$8.1 million, which was 70% of the market, for a total of $32.7 million in
11 days alone! It finished first for the third straight weekend in Japan,
as it grossed $4.5 million, for a total of $39.1 million. DreamWorks' THE
PRINCE OF EGYPT grossed $758,000 to bring its foreign total to $118.2

Vancouver, Canada-based Mainframe Entertainment, Inc. has announced an
option agreement with Sirius Entertainment to develop a computer animated
television and direct-to-video series based on comic book artist/writer
Jill Thompson's SCARY GODMOTHER comic books. SCARY GODMOTHER was first
published by Sirius Entertainment for Hallowe'en, 1997 as a hardcover
graphic novel. Since then Sirius has published a new graphic novel every
Hallowe'en in addition to black and white one-shot comic books at other

Sydney, Australia-based SOUTHERN STAR SALES has appointed TELERI ROBERTS as
the first General Manager of its business unit Southern Star Kids, and
KATHERINE KAUFMAN to the position of Sales Executive for Latin America.
Roberts has most recently been working as Sales Head of Cascade, the
international sales division of Scottish Television Enterprises based in
Glasgow, and prior to that worked in several sales positions at Channel 4
Wales. As General Manager of Southern Star Kids, she will be based in the

Los Angeles-based CLASS-KEY CHEW-PO COMMERCIALS has signed VOLTAIRE as its
newest director. Voltaire's style includes a combination of stop-motion
animation and live-action. He has done spots for British Nights, Crunch
Fitness, Cartoon Network, MTV, and The Sci-Fi Channel.


Read what Voltaire has to say about his unique techniques in "How'd They Do
That? - Stop-Motion Secrets Revealed" in the February 1998 issue of
Animation World Magazine.

Toronto-based TOPIX/MAD DOG has completed the computer animated :15 Russell
Stover Peanut Butter and Jelly Cups "Oil Well" for Russell Stover and
Berstein-Rein. For the spot, TOPIX/Mad Dog developed proprietary fluid
dynamics software that can be customized to replicate jelly spurting out of
an "oil" derrick. Done in Softimage, the spot features little chocolate
construction workers who become excited when their derrick hits jelly. Sean
Montgomery directed.

London-based PASSION PICTURES' CG animation director Chris Knott and post
production house RUSHES' Paul Wratten have finished "Very Boggy," a :40
spot for Nouvelle toilet tissue. In the spot a variety of toilets open and
shut in time to the music of Handel's "Water Music." CG animator Chris
Knott reproduced the toilet seats which were first shot as live-action
reference. Mark Wilson completed all the builds, surfacing, lighting, and
compositing in Lightwave 5.6.

The Action Young Independent Talent Award is an annual contest organized by
Films Action Inc., in partnership with Ina-Imagina. This 3D contest's goal
is to promote new 3D computer artists talents. Prizes include hardware and
software packages. The best animation will be transferred to 35 mm. Entry
deadline is October 10, 1999. The festival takes place in Paris, France
January 28-February 3, 2000. For more information contact Films Action,
Laurent Rodon, 25 rue Le Peletier, 75009 Paris, France; Tel: +33 1 47 70 45

Newly released DreamWorks SKG's THE HAUNTING, with digital effects by ILM,
finished first in the U.S. weekend boxoffice race, grossing an estimated
$33 million. Also newly released, The Walt Disney Company's INSPECTOR
GADGET, with digital effects by DreamQuest, finished second, grossing an
estimated $22 million. Warner's WILD WILD WEST, with digital effects by
ILM, finished seventh, grossing an estimated $5.4 million for a total of
$104.2 million; Disney's TARZAN finished ninth, grossing $4.8 million for a

* Friday, July 23, 8 am. Hollwyood, California, USA.


Ray Harryhausen will appear at a screening of JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS.
Tickets (donations) are $20, which includes a souvenir booklet. Location:
Mann's Chinese Theatre. For more information contact The Argonaut
Foundation, 10153 1/2 Riverside Dr. #290, No. Hollywood, CA 91602. Tel:
818-890-4492; fax: 818-896-6613; e-mail: argonautfound@webtv.net; or visit
www.zwebb.com/7thvoyageprod/argonaut/index.html.

The British Academy of Film and Television Art's (BAFTA) Interactive
Entertainment Awards are open to entries from all parts of the world on all
interactive platforms. Categories include: Entertainment Website,
Innovative Game, Moving Images, Sound, Interactivity, Design, Computer
Programming, and more. Entry deadline is August 6, 1999. Awards will be
announced October 20, 1999. For more information contact BAFTA,
195 Piccadilly, London, W1V 0LN, UK; Tel: + 44 171-7340022; Fax: + 44
171-341792; e-mail: helenw@bafta.org; or visit www.bafta.org.

DEPTH is a project of Village Arts (Animha Productions). DEPTH is looking
for challenging contemporary Puppet or 3D Model animation of any genre.
DEPTH accepts films from around the world in any of the following
categories: Experimental, Professional, and Student & Non-Professional. All
films submitted will be considered equally for screening. Provisional entry
deadline is July 30, 1999. For more information contact DEPTH, Village
Arts, Stable House, Water Lane, Loftus, Saltburn, TS13 4JT, England; Tel:

The International EMMA Awards are prestigious European-based interactive
media awards. In 1999, there will again be an online announcement of
nominations and winners. In the months following the announcement, another
series of winners' celebration events will be organized to coincide with a
number of new media related events such as Invision in San Francisco and
Milia in Cannes. Categories include: Business, Entertainment, General
Interest, Technology, Education, Games, Interactive, and Digital City.

The San Francisco Independent Film Festival (aka SF IndieFest) seeks
feature length film and video and short animation films for its second
annual festival to take place December 9-12, 1999. All films in the
festival will compete for the Audience Awards for best feature and best
animated short and for a prize (new this year) which will be awarded to the
IndieFest Staff Favorite. Early deadline with no entry fee is September 1.
Late deadline with $20 entry fee is September 17. For an entry form contact

Mumbai, India-based GRAPHITI MULTIMEDIA has completed "The Case of the
Missing Tooth" for Pepsodent, a 7-minute infomercial in which detectives
Sqeezy, a tube of toothpaste, and Bristles, a toothbrush, work their way
through a tooth maze, battle germs in a haunted house, peer into a food
cave, and are lectured by a dentist who explains to them the benefits of
good oral hygiene. Traditional line drawings were used to create the
characters, but environments were produced in 3D Studio Max. Cambridge

The Academy for Television Arts and Sciences have announced the nominees
for the 1999 Primetime Emmy Awards. The awards ceremony will be telecast on
Fox on September 12 and held in Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. The
animated nominees include the following programs:


The category for OUTSTANDING ANIMATED PROGRAM (For programming one hour or
less) includes five nominations:


FUTURAMA - A BIG PIECE OF GARBAGE (FOX/Curiosity Company Productions in
association with Twentieth Century Fox).

This list of upcoming home entertainment releases includes some new titles,
but most of them are new only to DVD. Disney has just re-released ROBIN
HOOD and ALICE IN WONDERLAND; their live-action RETURN TO OZ, which
includes some stop-motion by Will Vinton Studios, will be released on DVD
and VHS on August 10. Touchstone's WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? will be
released on DVD on September 28. Warner Bros. has just released 1999's
animated THE KING AND I on both VHS and DVD; WALLACE AND GROMIT: THE