CMP Media's Gama Network announced the finalists in the fifth annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) Competition. Selected by a panel of game industry professionals, 10 finalist teams will compete for the $15,000 Seamus McNally Grand Prize as well as other awards honoring technical excellence, game design, visual art and audio awards.
Animation World Network (AWN) has launched its inaugural publication of the AIDB Business Directory series...
Milestone Films has released two interesting collectors editions on DVD. Lotte Reiniger's animated feature THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED is now available on DVD.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) has announced that seventeen films will compete for the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar in the 2002 Academy Awards competition. Because of the large number of eligible features, under the rules for the category, a maximum of five films could be nominated.The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted on December 10, 2002 to activate the category for the 75th Academy Award Presentations.
St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner is partnering with children's entertainment developer Back Home Studios to produce KURT WARNER'S GOOD SPORTS GANG, a series of CG-animated programs targeted to kids from preschool to age 10. The Christian values-based property features Kurt Warner as the coach of the eight "Good Sports," who have crazy adventures while promoting faith, self-esteem, good sportsmanship and ethical behavior. The first of the half-hour episodes will be available in spring 2003 on both DVD and VHS, with other releases to follow.
Drew Barrymore stars as the voice of Olive, the dog that thinks she's a reindeer in the Emmy-nominated animated holiday special OLIVE, THE OTHER REINDEER, which makes its Cartoon Network debut on December 14, at 8:00 pm. The animation is based on the illustrations of J. Otto Siebold, who co-authored the titular book with Vivian Walsh. In other reindeer news, Cartoon Network will also screen GRANDMA GOT RUNOVER BY A REINDEER for the first time on that network on December 16 at 8:00 pm.
Barbie grows up in Mattel's new spots for My Scene Barbie, which target the classic doll to a new audience of tween girls. To launch the My Scene line, Mattel and ad agency Peterson Milla Hooks in Minneapolis turned to New York design and production company Curious Pictures to produce a package of TV spots. Directed by Boo Wong, 3 of the spots are cel animated and 5 are a mix of live-action and graphics.
Canadian independent animation studio AurenyA Entertainment has completed production on the 3D animated half-hour television special, THE ELFKINS FIRST CHRISTMAS. Produced in partnership with Dinosaur Soup Productions, Beaver Creek Creations and Independent Moving Pictures, the show tells the tale of the Elfkins, mythic creatures who live in a parallel universe. When they learn of the existence of human children, the Elfkins discover the true meaning of Christmas.
William "Tex" Henson, who supervised animation on ROCKY & BULLWINKLE and was a force behind the popularity of CHIP 'N DALE, died Monday, December 2, 2002 of head injuries after being hit by a pickup truck in Dallas, Texas. He was 78 years old. Born in Dallas, Henson moved to California to join Disney Studios in 1944, where he was an animator on films such as SONG OF THE SOUTH, PECOS BILL and PETER AND THE WOLF. He was also one of the forces behind Chip & Dale's leap from bit players to outright stars. The chipmunk duo went on to star in 23 theatrical cartoons.
Kids' WB! will broadcast its Flash-animated comedy series ¡MUCHA LUCHA! with a Spanish simulcast, beginning on Saturday, December 14, 2002. The network, in conjunction with its affiliates, will provide Hispanic viewers the ability to watch the series in Spanish via Second Audio Programming (SAP). This irreverent comedy celebrates the Latin culture and explores the Mexican phenomenon known as "Lucha Libre." Kids' WB! recently announced it will pick up a second season of the series, which follows Rikochet, Buena Girl and The Flea as they study and live the "Code of Masked Wrestling."
The Sundance Film Festival, which honors American and international independent film, has announced its 2003 short film line-up. 90 short films were chosen from 3,345 entries. Notable entries include live-action shorts from SHREK helmer Vicky Jenson and Richard Linklater (director of 2001's animated feature WAKING LIFE), as well as Student Academy Award animation honoree THE VELVET TIGRESS, directed by Jen Sachs.
The winners of the Australian Effects and Animation Festival (AEAF) Awards were announced December 3, 2002 at the Sydney Convention Center in Sydney, Australia. Australian entries made up more than half the winners, with Aussie companies like Fuel International (Best Title) and Animal Logic (Best Game) picking up awards. STAR WARS: EPISODE II "ATTACK OF THE CLONES" won for Best Feature Film Visual Effects and STUART LITTLE 2 took the honors for Best Feature Film Animation.
After opening at number one at the box office, STUART LITTLE 2 faded away quickly from theaters, but now has another shot at success with the release of a special edition DVD. Combining live-action and CG animation, and featuring a voice cast including Michael J. Fox, Melanie Griffith and James Woods, STUART LITTLE 2 continues the story of the little mouse who lives with his human parents in New York City.
![Newtek Announces Sixth Update To Video Toaster [2]](https://www.awn.com/sites/default/files/styles/small_featured/public/image/featured/11763-newtek-announces-sixth-update-video-toaster-2.jpg?itok=rNq5gNKc "Newtek Announces Sixth Update To Video Toaster [2]")
![Newtek Announces Sixth Update To Video Toaster [2]](https://www.awn.com/sites/default/files/styles/tiny_featured/public/image/featured/11763-newtek-announces-sixth-update-video-toaster-2.jpg?itok=4ascYnT5 "Newtek Announces Sixth Update To Video Toaster [2]")
NewTek, Inc. is offering registered owners a free update to Video Toaster [2], the company's NLE/live video switching system. This latest update adds new support for Adobe After Effects, Commotion, Combustion, 3ds max, Power CG and Digital Fusion. "This past year we've devoted a lot of energy toward enhancing the way our products interface with other popular content creation tools," said Jim Plant, President and CEO of NewTek.
Internet network Terra Lycos announced that for a second year in a row, anime hit DRAGONBALL Z was the number one most search for term in the year 2002. The Lycos 50 is a weekly list of the most popular people, places and things users are searching for online. "Although it dropped off in popularity compared to last year, DRAGONBALL continues to generate tremendous search activity on the Internet with teens and college-age Japanese animation buffs," said Aaron Schatz, writer of The Lycos 50.
As part of Nickelodeon's primetime slate of back-to-back holiday specials, dubbed "Nickmas" by the network, holiday favorites from the series SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, HEY, ARNOLD!, THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS, THE WILD THORNBERRYS and CATDOG will air, along with specials like A RUGRATS KWANZAA and an animated, musical re-telling of Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL. "Nickmas" specials will air throughout the month of December.
Big Idea Productions brings its first public television special to the airwaves with the debut of VEGGIETALES: THE STAR OF CHRISTMAS. This animated holiday special features the well-known characters from the VEGGIETALES children's home-video series.
Prepare for an extra dose of chaos in theaters this holiday season as a trailer for the newly released video game WARCRAFT III: REIGN OF CHAOS is now playing along with the feature film DIE ANOTHER DAY. The new trailer will also appear on more than 20,000 screens across the U.S. this December before such movies as LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS, STAR TREK: NEMESIS and SOLARIS.
Black Label Games, a studio of Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games), has entered into a production agreement with Liquid Entertainment to develop THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE RING, a real-time strategy game for the PC platform. The game will be developed through VU Games' long-term agreement with Tolkien Enterprises to create interactive entertainment based on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic novel THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Expanding on the world of Middle-earth and its inhabitants as introduced by J.R.R.
BOXX Technologies has entered into an agreement with NewTek to bundle and distribute NewTek's LightWave3D graphics and animation software on 3DBOXX workstations. NewTek recently unveiled version 7.5 of LightWave 3D, which includes features for soft-body dynamics, particles, hair and fur and unlimited render nodes. From now until December 15, 2002, BOXX is offering its 3DBOXX customers the opportunity to purchase LightWave 3D 7.5 for a special introductory price of US$995. Visit the BOXX Website at www.boxxtech.com or call toll free at 877-877-BOXX for more details.
Universal Pictures has promoted Andrew Fenady to vice president, production. Fenady has been with Universal since 2000, when he came on board as director of production. In his new position he will continue to work with filmmakers on all aspects of physical production, including budgeting, scheduling, hiring crews and managing the daily workings within the production. Fenady is currently overseeing physical production on the films DR. SEUSS' THE CAT IN THE HAT, THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS 2 and HONEY.
Bionatics is making wind generation a breeze with EASYnat, a plant simulation and modeling plug-in for Autodesk VIZ that enables users to generate photo-realistic plants and trees from a vast and diverse library of plants. Intended for the architect market, EASYnat trees and plants may now be animated with wind affects. To learn more about the applications of this effect, download the tutorial, "EASYnat Foliage Animation Technique," at www.easynat.com. A free 30-day fully functional demo may also be downloaded. EASYnat for Autodesk VIZ and 3ds max is offered at a retail price of US$495.o
At November's COMDEX tradeshow in Las Vegas, California, NVIDIA Corporation introduced the NVIDIA GeForce FX graphics processing unit (GPU). According to NVIDIA, this new GPU, which is based on the new NVIDIA CineFX architecture, delivers cinematic-quality graphics and special effects to video games. "Computer games today are fast and exciting, yet they still lack the ability to engage us emotionally," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO at NVIDIA.
TOUGH EYE: International Turku Animated Film Festival
Turku, Finland
Wednesday, May 14 - Sunday, May 18, 2003
Entry Deadline: Wednesday, January 15, 2003
The second annual TOUGH EYE International Turku Animated Film Festival is calling for submissions. The festival will take place in Turku, Finland and is the largest animation festival in Scandinavia. Tough Eye offers prizes totaling over 8,000 Euros and there are no entry fees. Regulations and entry forms can be found on the Website at www.tough-eye.com.e
Webanima 2003
Date: Sunday, March 9, 2003
Entry Deadline: December 20, 2002
