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International Headline News

Annecy’s International Project Competition Wants Your Work!

International Project CompetitionJune 7-9, 2006Deadline: February 15, 2006

The 10th edition of the International Project Competition at Annecy 2006 is now open. Around 120 short film or TV production projects were in competition in 2005 for 12 cash prizes. This mine of independent creation has been evolving and intensifying its support to young authors, since 1997. The competition is open to any animated short film or TV production project (TV special or series) irrespective of the genre and techniques used.

Winners will receive:

Animation Headline News

Digital Asia School Of Animation Launched in Mumbai

Crest founder and Digital Asia chief Shyam Ramanna recently launched Digital Asia School Of Animation in Mumbi, India in association with Meteor Films Satyam Bansal, reports NewKerala.com.

DASA is located in Lokhandwala, Mumbai with courses in virtual reality, animation, game design, film editing and mobile gaming. Its headquarter is situated in Bangkok.

Entertainment Headline News

Bill Buckley New Chief Marketing Officer For Bakers Man

Bill Buckley joins Bakers Man as chief marketing officer for its family of companies, including Bakers Man Prods., Bakers Man Technology Group, Bakers Man Ent. Group, TrueLight Ent. and Image Quest Studios.

Buckley will develop and oversee the marketing, sales and media relations efforts and, in addition to enhancing existing relationships with key entertainment accounts in theatrical, home entertainment, music and platform games, he is tasked with positioning Bakers Man solutions in a more integrated fashion.

Headline News

Original Movie Scooby-Doo in Where’s My Mummy? Comes To DVD

This holiday season Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Gang ride camels alongside the pyramids, explore the Nile and flee from a mummy or two in Warner Home Video (WHV) all-new, animated original movie, SCOOBY-DOO IN WHERES MY MUMMY?, now available for $24.98 SRP on DVD and $14.94 SRP on VHS.

Animation Headline News

Tern Television Forays Into Animation

Tern Television, one of Scotlands most diverse and creative indies, has jumped into the animation pool with a raft of high-profile projects involving such leading talents as Oscar-nominated animator Sylvain Chomet (BELLEVILLE RENDEZ-VOUS) and Hollywood writer Brian Ward (THE INTERPRETER). Terns first foray into the animation genre with a commission for Channel 4, a pilot for the BBC and a £20m feature film in development for Scottish Screen.

Nick Headline News

Maniaci Upped to SVP, Development & Original Production, TV Land & Nick at Nite

Sal Maniaci has been promoted to the newly-created position of svp of development and original production for TV Land and Nick at Nite. He will continue to be based in New York City and will oversee the creation, development and execution of original programming and production for TV Land and Nick at Nite.

Maniaci has been instrumental in launching the originals agenda on both networks. TV Land and Nick at Nite have substantially increased original content since Maniaci joined the networks two years ago.

Autodesk Headline News

Autodesk Ships Cleaner 6.5 Software for Apple Macintosh

Autodesk Inc. announced the availability of Autodesk Cleaner 6.5 for Macintosh, the newest update to its professional desktop media mastering and encoding software. Autodesk Cleaner is an industry standard application for encoding and optimizing video content for delivery formats ranging from the Internet and DVD to handheld mobile devices. On the heels of the release of Cleaner XL1.5 for Windows, Cleaner 6.5 for Mac brings extended format support and increased workflow flexibility to the Mac-based digital video encoding community.

Headline News

Kong Not So Powerful Box Office King

Peter Jacksons KING KONG performed well below industry expectations with $50.1M in its initial bow for the weekend ended Dec. 18, 2005. However, with a five-day tally of $66.1M, Universal has high hopes that momentum will build for the $207M epic (with impressive vfx from Weta Digital).

Meanwhile, in its second weekend, Disneys THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (with impressive vfx of its own from Rhythm & Hues, Sony Pictures Imageworks and ILM) finished second with $31.8M and a cume of $113.1M.

Headline News

Edinburgh College of Art Sweeps Student Awards

The Edinburgh College of Art has swept the RTS Scotland Student Awards, reports Scotsman.com. Hosted by the Royal Television Society Scotland, the event awarded the animation prize to Asaf Agranat for the film A BUS RIDE AND FLOWERS IN HER HAIR. Gunhild Enger won both the factual and non-factual categories with the films BARGAIN and WAITING FOR HAPPINESS, respectively.

International Headline News

Mantis Parable Bites At ION Fest

The ION Festival is now over. The winners of the second ION International Animation, Games & Short Film Festival include:

ION International Animation Of The Year AwardTHE MANTIS PARABLE, Josh Staub (USA)

ION International Short Film Of The Year Award ANTEBODY, James P. Gleason (USA)

ION International Music Video Of The Year Award CON TODA PALABRA, Brigitte Henry, Ralph Dfouni (Canada)

ION International Game Of The Year Award CALL OF DUTY 2, Activision (USA)

Channel Headline News

Convicted Sex Offender Arrested for Molestation on Nick Campus

On Dec. 16, 2005, Ezell Elester Channel, a convicted sex offender, was arrested on the suspicion of molesting a 14-year-old boy at Nickelodeon Animation Studios while he served as a production assistant on the film, ADAM SANDLER'S EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS, reports the BURBANK LEADER.

Award Headline News

Winston Wins Tesla Award

Special-effects veteran Stan Winston was awarded the Tesla Award for visionary achievement in filmmaking technology from the International Press Academy on Dec. 17, 2005, reports SCI FI WIRE.

Winston responded by saying, "This award is for technical innovation, and it's interesting that I'm getting this award, because I really don't know much about technology, and, in fact, I'm techno-ignorant. I am an artist... Any technology I created for special effects I was forced to develop in order to do the things I love... I created it for the characters in the movies."

Headline News

Female Cartoonist Flies Shirtless Over Fox

In a stunt to bring attention to her legal battles with the studio, publicist/cartoonist/fashion designer Ivy Supersonic chartered a plane to fly a 100-foot banner emblazed with her topless image over the 20th Century Fox headquarters in Los Angeles for eight hours on Dec. 19, 2005.

Supersonic commented, "Fox wants the shirt off my back so badly I've decided to give it to them. This woman warrior doesn't scare so easily."

Films Headline News

New Survey Finds Positive Signs for 3-D Future

More than 39 million American adults would go to the movies more often if Hollywood offered more feature-length films in 3-D, according to a new survey by Opinion Dynamics Corp. (ODC).

Results from a nationwide survey of 900 adults show that 12% of Americans roughly 26 million adults would go to the movies more often to see 3-D movies. Another 6% 13 million adults would go more often depending on the types of films offered in 3-D.

Animation Headline News

Five Top SVC Animation Graduates Exhibition Opens in NYC

By Guest (not verified) | Monday, December 19, 2005 at 12:00am

On Dec. 16, 2005, five of the School of Visual Arts most successful animation graduates recounted their route from mere studenthood to living legend. John R. Dilworth, Yvette Kaplan, Alex Kuperschmidt, Chris Prynoski and Tom Sito gathered behind a conference table in the schools auditorium in New York City to compare notes and reassure their audience of current SVA students that yes, it is possible to make a living drawing cartoons. Their panel was held to celebrate a retrospective of their work that will run in the schools gallery through Jan. 21.

Imax Headline News

IMAX 3-D Polar Express Steams Past $50M

THE POLAR EXPRESS: AN IMAX 3-D EXPERIENCE, now in its second holiday season, has reached another box office milestone, surpassing $50 million at the box office since it premiered last November. The digitally re-mastered holiday classic was re-released Nov. 23 in IMAX theaters, simultaneous with its DVD launch, and has continuously been among the top 20-grossing films in North America. In its third weekend, from Dec. 9-11, the film registered an impressive 12th-place ranking on the charts, grossing $931,603 on just 66 screens.

Headline News

Pixar: 20 Years of Animation Exhibition Opens at MOMA

By Guest (not verified) | Friday, December 16, 2005 at 12:00am

On Dec. 14, 2005, Pixars first full-scale retrospective opened at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). A year in the making, this major look behind the scenes brings scores of the studios concept and storyboard art, maquettes and sculptures out into the light of day.

A press preview the day before was attended by Pixar co-founders John Lasseter and Dr. Ed Catmull, along with a bevy of their star animators, directors and designers.

Charlie Headline News

Designer Charles McElmurry Passes Away

Designer/illustrator Charles O. McElmurry passed away Dec. 5, 2005, at the age of 84 in Santa Rosa, California. McElmurry grew up in Los Angeles and attended Chouinard Art Institute. He began his career in the animation industry at Walt Disney in 1942, but was soon drafted into the Marine Corps and sent to Quantico, Virginia. He spent the war years in a film unit there. He attended Chouinard Art Institute on the GI bill.

He later worked for many independent studios in New York, France, and California including Quartet Films, Jay Ward, Cartoon Farm and Bill Melendez.

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