ASIFA-Hollywood has announced the nominees for the 33rd annual Annie Awards, which will take place Feb. 4, 2006, in Glendale. WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT led the list of nominees with 16, including Best Animated Feature. The film also swept the Feature Voice Acting category with nods for Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Peter Sallis and Nicholas Smith. DreamWorks MADAGASCAR came in second with nine nominations.
Recent winner of the Israeli Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, 39 POUNDS OF LOVE, about an Israeli 3D animator who has a rare form of muscular dystrophy, will play in Los Angeles at the Nuart Theater in Santa Monica until Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005.
Animation house Brain Zoo Studios and videogame developer High Moon Studios announced their promotional trailer for the DARKWATCH videogame won two platinum Aurora Awards as well as five wins at the Davey Awards.
Spike TVs upcoming telecast of the Video Game Awards 2005 ceremony is being promoted on the cable channel with a duo of animated TV spots in which videogame characters slug it out for bragging rights in the gaming world. The two-hour special premieres on Dec. 10, 2005, at 9:00 pm ET/PT.
Anzovin Studio Inc. has introduced The Setup Machine 2 for Maya, an all-new version of its automated character rigging plug-in for Autodesks Maya. The Setup Machine 2 for Maya is priced at $99 (single license). Store links, sample rigs, and demo movies are available at: www.anzovin.com/TSM2Maya.
The Setup Machine 2 for Maya enables Maya users to easily and quickly rig a wide variety of CG characters for film, television and game animation. It installs a high-quality control rig and applies accurate skin weighting to human, animal and creature models.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has added an animated featurette to its "Shoot First Law" website. The animation offers award-winning artist Mark Fiores take on the Florida law, which took effect Oct. 1 and allows people to use deadly force in public. The animation is available for viewing at www.shootfirstlaw.org.
Nelvana Home Entertainment and Criterion Pictures have set a five-year agreement for the non-theatrical distribution of titles from Nelvanas library of animated programming.
Criterion Pictures picks up distribution rights to ANATOLE (episodes 1 to 26), BABAR (episodes 1 to 78), THE BERENSTAIN BEARS (episodes 1 to 40), CORDUROY (episodes 1 to 13), FRANKLIN (episodes 1 to 78), LITTLE BEAR (episodes 1 to 52) and ELLIOT MOOSE (episodes 1 to 13), with other titles under consideration.
Madrid-based Elastic Rights (ER) has snapped up pre-school toon, HARRY AND HIS BUCKET FULL OF DINOSAURS, for distribution across all platforms in Spain and Portugal (except free TV.
The 52x12 animated series, aimed at kids 2-5, is co-produced by CCI Ent. (Canada) and Collingwood OHare (U.K.) in association with Silver Fox Films (U.K.). Based on the best-selling books by British author Ian Whybrow, the enchanting series follows the adventures of five-year-old Harry and his toy dinosaur friends, which come to life when no one else is watching.
Platinum Studios and Blue Star Pictures have signed a deal with directors Danny and Oxide Pang to direct the upcoming feature film, THE DARKNESS, based on the popular comicbook published by Top Cow Prods. Inc. Platinum Studios will finance 50% of the production. Platinum, Blue Star and the Pang Brothers are jointly looking for a writer.
The Jim Henson Co. has hired Yuri Zeltser and Cary Bickley to adapt Barbara Hodgson suspense novel THE TATTOOED MAP, VARIETY reports.
Henson Co. principal Lisa Henson previously produced the Fox/Regency film HIGH CRIMES, which Zeltser and Bickley wrote. Janet Yang, who also produced HIGH CRIMES, will produce the film along with Henson. The company purchased the rights to the book and has hired the screenwriters with its own funds.
E. Cardon "Card" Walker, who led The Walt Disney Co. for nearly a decade and a half following the death of co-founder Roy O. Disney, passed away at his La Canada, California home on Monday, Nov. 28, 2005, at the age of 89.
San Diego-based 3D animation studio, Pendulum, recently completed cinematic work for the MTV/Midway Games co-developed interactive property, LA RUSH. Nearly 16 minutes of fully 3D CGI cinematic cut-scenes introduce the viewer to the games key characters and story. LA RUSH is the sequel to Midways hit racing title, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH. Along with a huge selection of signature and real-world cars, the game also features the crew from West Coast Customs of MTVs popular PIMP MY RIDE television series.
Its not an official festival its more of an end of the year get-together. Casey Safron explained the rationale behind the Animation Block Party held at Club Sugar, a downtown Manhattan club on Nov. 29, 2005.
Bob Bacon has been appointed to the newly created position of evp of Walt Disney Feature Animation overseeing all areas of production as well as technology including areas of software development, systems, media and technical support.
Cartoon Network has commissioned a brand new original series, SQUIRREL BOY. The 13 half-hour animated series, from creator/exec producer Everett Peck, has started production at its Burbank-based Cartoon Network Studios and is slated to premiere in summer 2006.
Fuji Television Network and Production IG have partnered on a jointly owned digital post-production studio, reports VARIETY. Opening its doors in January, Fuji IG Laboratory for Movies, aka FILM, will work on animation, live-action and, in conjunction with Skywalker Sound, sound design.
"This is our second endeavor in feature animation following the production of BRAVE STORY, Fuji TV's first animated feature," said Chihiro Kameyama, head of Fuji TV's motion picture department.
With the Thanksgiving holiday taking up most of last week in the U.S., we had only three new articles good live since the last edition of the Newswire, but what articles they were. Tara DiLullo looks at the photoreal effects work done by ILM on JARHEAD. In addition, Alain Bielik has a two-part series on the plethora of VFX that work their magic in HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE.
New holiday and Christmas themed episodes of Disney Channel's hit series for pre-schoolers, kids and tweens, are unwrapped throughout December while Toon Disney features a special Christmas movie every Friday and Saturday evening as part of its "Month of Merriment."
New Year's Eve is celebrated with Disney Channel's 8th annual viewer's choice programming event where viewers' votes determine the programming lineup for the last day of the year and the first day of 2006.
Alfred Molina will lead a contingent of actors including Chris Coppola, Jonathan Lipnicki and Bruno Kirby as they join a panel of animators, directors and visual effects experts in an informative dialogue on the evolution of animation, "The Animated Performance: Animation Invades Live Action," on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 pm at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
In response to its growing international production business, Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) has appointed Rob Feldman as exec director, production. In his new position, Feldman will initiate production of SPTI's local language versions of scripted formats in countries across Central and Eastern Europe as well as Russia and the C.I.S. Additionally, he will be responsible for establishing local production relationships with producers and broadcasters and overseeing SPTI's local language productions from pre-production through post-production.
Students who are interested in pursuing a career within the video game industry may now apply for the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2006 Student Scholarships.
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) will present recipients with full access to all sessions, roundtables and keynotes at GDC, which takes place March 20-24, 2006, in San Jose, California.
Students will be given an opportunity to take part in discussions, network with professionals, and witness the future course of the industry firsthand.
eyeon Software Inc. is now shipping version 5 of its digital video compositor, DFX+, a prominent compositing tool for effects, motion graphics and animation pipelines.
DFX+ is based on the image engine and award-winning architecture of eyeons lead film compositing solution, Fusion. Principal features of DFX+ 5 include 3D compositions with lights, cameras and primitives, OpenGL acceleration with display views and an essential change to ASCII files. Compositions created in DFX+ 5 can easily be opened in Fusion, to help move any project forward.
Animation production is one the rise in Mindanao, Philippines with a recent increase in outsourcing to the country and the growing pool of highly-skilled information and communication technology (ICT) workers, an animation advocacy group told the SUNSTAR.
In her presentation at the 4th Mindanao ICT Congress, Ma. Lourdes Gopalan, board member and education committee head of the Animation Council of the Philippines Inc. (ACPI), said that based on current trends, demand for animation services from the Philippines would grow further.
Former Marvel Ent. brand manager John Taddeos animated short film ZOOM SUIT has been awarded Best Animation at the Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival and Best Animated Film at the Santa Clarita Independent Film Festival.
The Gulf Coast Film & Video Festival was held Sept. 16-18, 2005, in Nassau Bay, Texas. The Santa Clarita Independent Film Festival was held Nov. 11-13, 2005, in Santa Clarita, California. Both festivals aim to encourage the work of the independent filmmaker and expand the awareness of independent films.
Originally released in the arcades in 1984, THAYERS QUEST is about to be released on DVD and CD-ROM by Digital Leisure. Designed for the arcade scene by Rick Dyer, the creator of DRAGONS LAIR, THAYERS QUEST was a game that gave players more choice and allowed each player to have a unique gaming experience.
