Foremost Student Animation Festival - SAFO Beckons!
* Thursday, October 18 Sunday, October 21, 2001. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Entry Deadline: July 1, 2001
* Thursday, October 18 Sunday, October 21, 2001. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Entry Deadline: July 1, 2001
Twelve video game companies have filed a joint suit against four individuals accusing them of offering unauthorized versions of such games as PAC-MAN and DONKEY KONG on the Web. The suit seeks to shut down sites operated by Dasheill Ponce De Leon of Houston, John Sterling of Beaumont, Texas, Byron Beck of Monrovia, California and Kuei Lin Lo of Amherst, Massachusetts. The complaint also seeks monetary damages of US$150,000 for each copyright infringement.
CAST AWAY is still holding strong at the international box office. In Germany, the desert island adventure rounded up another $3.73 million, escalating its cume to $21.46 million. VERTICAL LIMIT climbed into second with a gross of $1.84 million, raising its German cume to $4.34 million. In third, BEDAZZLED seduced $1.4 million, bringing its German cume to $4.49 million. THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE made its German nod in fourth with a gross of $663,408. At #8, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON collected $477,415, pushing its German cume to $2.35 million.
The next International Student Animation Festival of Ottawa (SAFO) will be held October 18-21, 2001. Now in its third edition, the Ottawa International Student Animation Festival provides a dynamic showcase of the most fresh and innovative animation from around the world. The official competition is divided into five categories: High School Student Films; Undergraduate Student Films (Post-Secondary); Graduate Student Films (Post-Secondary); First Film (e.g. Professional/Independent/Co-op Produced Films); and Children's Animation (Under 12 Years Of Age).
* Fall 2001. San Francisco and Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; New York, New York, U.S.A.; Montreal, Canada; Tokyo and Osaka, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and London, England.
Early Deadline: May 4, 2001
Late Deadline: June 1, 2001
TV-Loonland AG and AAC KIDS, Canadian media giant Alliance Atlantis kids label, have announced their acquisition of Neptuno Films new animated preschool series, CONNIE THE COW. The three firms will partner to transform the property into a global franchise, complete with TV, home video, DVD, merchandising, publishing and Internet projects. Created and directed by Josep Viciana, this series follows restless and curious Connie who lives on a farm with her nurturing mother, who always has now handy advice, and her father, a very strong yet tranquil bull.
Around the globe, CAST AWAY remains at the top of the international box office. In Germany, CAST AWAY claimed the top spot with a gross of $4.99 million, lifting its three-week total to $17.74 million. In second, VERTICAL LIMIT made its German debut with a gross of $2.51 million. BEDAZZLED bewitched third place, grossing $1.88 million, raising its German cume to $3.09 million. In fifth, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON amazed audiences to the tune of $624,096, elevating its German cume to $1.88 million. At #6, UNBREAKABLE secured another $570,085, bringing its German cume to $12.52 million.
Realviz recently announced that it has completed a third round of financing worth 10 million euros (US$9.39 million). The money will help with the future development of the company and their products. This new fundraising will enable Realviz to finance their international expansion programme in the U.S.A., Europe and Asia, as well as to finance a new Internet solutions business unit.
The Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival has announced its winners. Michael Dudok De Wit's FATHER & DAUGHTER took home the award for best international animated film. Receiving the prize for best French animated short was Florence Miailhe's AU PREMIER DIMANCHE D' AOÛT. AtomFilms sponsored both of the animated short categories. The jury was comprised of Wasis Diop, Qu-Dok Hwang, Cédric Kahn and world-renowned director of AT THE ENDS OF THE WORLD Konstantin Bronzit. Over 136 films were in official competition from over 50 countries.
The Brussels Animation and Cartoon Festival (February 21-March 3, 2001) has concocted an exceptional program for its 20th anniversary. 575 films were submitted for selection, a record number of entries. 113 of them have been selected, representing 19 countries. Belgium is well represented, with 24 entries. The complete list of selected films is now available on the festival Website.
Quiet Man has created the visual effects for the spots "Turkey" and "China," from the new four spot Fox Sports campaign via agency Cliff Freeman & Partners (NYC). "To convincingly create the effect of diving off a 50-meter cliff onto dry ground, I needed footage of a stuntman diving into an airbag, and a shot of a dummy falling onto the ground from an elevation of about 12 feet," said Johnnie Semerad, Quiet Man founder and lead visual effects artist. "With that we could then create a composite effect, using Discreet Logic Inferno, of the free-fall.
CAST AWAY continues to sail atop the international box office, with VERTICAL LIMIT making a climb upward. In Germany, CAST AWAY maintained its #1 finish with a gross of US$5.74 million, escalating its cume to $12.74 million. In second, BEDAZZLED bounced in $1.2 million in its German debut. UNBREAKABLE crash-landed in third with a gross of $954,843, pushing its German cume to $11.95 million. In seventh, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON collected $561,558, raising its German cume to $1.25 million. POKEMON 2000 grabbed another $420,338, lifting its German cume to $6.65 million.
Mandy Martin has joined ATTIK, an all-media creative solutions provider, as executive producer of the San Francisco studio. Previously, Martin served as executive producer for Los Angeles-based broadcast design and media company Pittard Sullivan. She has worked on campaigns for Sat.1 (Germany), Star TV (Turkey) and BskyB (England), among others. Will Travis, president ATTIK USA, said, "I couldn't be any happier about Mandy joining ATTIK. Her blend of professionalism and production acumen is a fantastic match for our growing team.
With high-grossing nods around the globe, Tom Hanks' CAST AWAY easily floated to the top of the international box office. In Germany, CAST AWAY unseated UNBREAKABLE with an amazing ticket take of US$7.01 million. UNBREAKABLE crashed to second with a gross of $1.84 million, lifting its German cume to $11 million. In fourth, URBAN LEGENDS: FINAL CUT slashed in another $837,915, raising its German cume to $2.6 million. At #6, POKEMON 2000 collected $700,338, growing its German cume to $6.23 million.
project:messiah Group (pmG) celebrated their first birthday recently by announcing that they were bringing their highly successful project:messiah character animation software to Apple's OS X. The self-confessed team of die-hard NT developers said that they had high hopes for Apple's new platform, and that the platform could be a worthy challenger to NT and Windows 2000. pmG co-founder Fori Owurowa said that, "By porting to the Mac, we will be tapping into a market of graphics professionals that have been waiting for an application such as ours.
In light of its recent acquisitions of Sony Wonder/Sunbow Entertainment and Paris-based Salsa Distribution, German kids' production house TV Loonland has added key components to its sales staff. Marzenna Czubowicz was hired to head up sales for TV Loonland. Besides overseeing the company's sales offices in London, Paris and New York, she will direct distribution of the company's content in the U.K., Germany, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Israel and South Africa. Previously, Czubowicz served as director of sales at Alliance Atlantis Television International.
UNBREAKABLE was simply unstoppable at the international box office this past week. In France, the UNBREAKABLE premiere grossed an amazing US$7.06 million. Five-week champ, DINOSAUR, slipped to second with a gross of $3.87 million, escalating its French cume to $22.92 million. In third, CHICKEN RUN cooped up another $3.58 million, flying its French cume to $8.84 million. At #6, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS drummed up only $1.67 million in its French debut. In its second week in France, POKEMON 2 collected $1.31 million, pushing its cume to $2.3 million.
The Brussels Animation and Cartoon Festival has concocted an exceptional program for its 20th anniversary (February 28 - March 3, 2001). 575 films were submitted for selection, a record number of entries. To date, 113 of them have been selected. The complete list of selected films will be available in January. The feature film program includes: "The Emperor's New Groove" by Mark Dindall (USA); "Heavy Metal 2000" by Michaël Coldewey and Michel Lemire (Canada/Germany); "My Neighbours The Yamadas" by Isao Takahata (Japan) (TBC); and "Otesanek" by Jan Svankmajer (Czech Republic).
Continuing its lucrative path through the international box office, DINOSAUR is still roaring with POKEMON 2000 making strong debuts, including a first place finish in Germany. In Japan, DINOSAUR took the top spot with a gross of US$1.15 million, increasing its cume to $3.62 million. In third, VERTICAL LIMIT collected another $980,996 to raise it Japanese cume to $3.05 million. THE 6TH DAY claimed the fifth slot with a gross of $870,359, advancing its Japanese cume to $1.54 million. In sixth, WHAT LIES BENEATH floated $665,857 more, pushing its Japanese cume to $1.97 million.
HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS and DINOSAUR picked up steam at the international box office as former champ CHARLIE'S ANGELS faded a bit. In Mexico, THE GRINCH made its debut in first with a gross of US$2.29 million. BEDAZZLED fell to second with a ticket take of $1.51 million, raising its Mexican cume to $3.51 million. In fourth, CHARLIE'S ANGELS flew in another $645,425, elevating its Mexican cume to $3.91 million. Rounding out the Mexican top ten, THE CELL captured $48,406 to push its cume to $2.36 million.
Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece, PRINCESS MONONOKE, is arriving on DVD from Miramax Home Entertainment. Hitting stores December 19, 2000, the film follows young warrior Ashitaka's quest to cure a disease that plagues his body and create peace between humans and the forest gods. The DVD features a special production featurette, English-language theatrical trailer and three language tracks in English, Japanese and French. The film will retail for US$34.99.
December's feature articles are based on the themes of location-based entertainment and anime. Karl Cohen is profiling Imax -- is animation's next frontier in peril? Also, Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman is discussing the past and future of LBE, specifically VR. On the anime side of things Fred Patten is profiling "Vampire Hunter D," the latest anime release to arrive on U.S. soil. Andrew Osmond is interviewing a number of experts and scholars on the stylistic merits of Japanese animation. Be ready to put on your thinking cap before reading this one.
This week's updates to the Calendar of Events includes the Noam Markus Mime Workshop in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, January 6, 2001; the Australian Effects & Animation Festival in Sydney, Australia, February 26-28, 2001; Culture2Culture at the "Tricky Women" event Vienna, Austria, March 2-8, 2001; and BroadCast WorldWide Market and Conference in Busan, Korea, June 5-8, 2001.
Berlin children's producer TV Loonland has bought a 65% stake in Seoul distribution firm Saerom Entertainment. Saerom is the third-largest video and DVD distributor in Korea and controls a leading Internet film portal, which it has been leveraging as a new means of distribution. TV Loonland will pay US$9.5 million for its share of the company, which foresees sales of $14 million and profits of $2 million for the year 2000. The move is yet another step in TV Loonland's global expansion, giving the company a strong distribution and Internet foothold in Asia.