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The 2nd Matita International Animation Film Festival is a competitiveanimation festival. In addition to the official competition, this year'sprogram includes an Italian film program, a profile of the CFT Gobelinsschool, a tribute to Jiri Trnka, a Barry Purves retrospective and a forumabout new technologies. The event takes place Thursday, September 23 -Sunday, September 26 in Guardiagrele, Italy. For more information contactCamillo DíAlessandro, Mila Paterra, Ex Novo/ Mff, via dei Crociferi, 44,

Join the Scooby Doo Birthday Celebration Party Cruise and celebrate ScoobyDoo's 30th Anniversary. The cruise takes place Sunday, September 12, 2 pmaboard the M.V. Tiki and sets off from Fun Zone Boat Company, located nearthe end of the Balboa Peninsula in California, USA. R.S.V.P. tomfadanes@cataroo.com. Also, for more information, including directions,visit pweb.netcom.com/~cataroo/events.html.

The tradeshow for television programming producers and distributors takesplace October 4-8 in Cannes, France. Basque, Spain-based animation studioIRUSOIN is nearing completion of KARRAMARRO (CRAB ISLAND), a made fortelevision animated feature with rights available for worldwide TV andvideo release. The original story is about a group of kind, song-lovingpirates, focused on luckless Dimitri, a pirate who cannot sing, and aparrot who is the only clue to tracking down a fabulous pirate's treasure.

New York-based studioNEXT.com Corporation and Voyager Entertainment, Inc.have announced a partnership to bring the Japanese television series, STARBLAZERS, to the Internet. The series first appeared on US television in1979, and lasted for three seasons. The story of STAR BLAZERS is about agroup of heroic voyagers who, in order to save Earth from invasion, journeyon the starship Argo to battle the diabolical forces of Gamilon, the evilstellar empire. "There has been further interest to bring back STAR BLAZERS

Viacom Inc., which owns MTV and Paramount Pictures, has offered to buy CBSCorp., one of the Big Three US television broadcasters, for $37 billion instock, the largest media transaction ever. The new company, which willstill be called Viacom, will be led by Sumner Redstone who will remainViacom's chairman and chief executive. CBS President and Chief ExecutiveMel Karmazin will be president and chief operating officer. The deal ispart of what is expected to be a wave of consolidation in the TV industry

Fox Family Channel, which was launched on August 15, 1998 when Fox took over the Family Channel, hasannounced its fall schedule. The schedule includes four new animatedseries: WEIRD-OHS is about three kids uncovering the mysteries of life;KIDS FROM ROOM 402, based on the book, GRACIE GRAVES AND THE KIDS FROM ROOM402 by Betty Paraskevas, is about a classroom of ten year old eccentrics;ANGELA ANACONDA, a cut-out style animated series, is about an eight yearold girl and her elementary school problems; and MEGA BABIES, revolves

Universal Studios Home Video is releasing ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS MEET FRANKENSTEIN. Produced anddirected by Kathi Castillo and animated at Universal Cartoon Studios inUniversal City, California, the direct-to-video shows what happens when thehavoc wrecking chipmunks encounter Dr. Frankenstein and his creation at aUniversal Studios-type amusement park. The chipmunks were created by RossBagadasarian (aka David Seville) in 1958 for the hit novelty record, "TheChipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)." Seville's earlier hit, "Witch

San Francisco-based MetaCreations Corp., which develops and markets 2D and 3Dvisualization software for graphic artists and the World Wide Web, hasannounced Carrara 1.0, a 3D modeling and animation solution for print,video and the Web. Carrara will contain a hybrid Ray Tracer, advancedshader editors, multiple modelers, real-time Metaballs, particle systems,3D light sources, lens flares, motion blur, key framing, physical effects,deformers and more. Carrara will introduce a workflow called SmartFlow that

The Fantoche International AnimationFestival, which was held August 31-September 5 in Baden/Zurich,Switzerland, has announced its award winners. The jury, which was comprisedof Linda Simensky (USA), Pierre Hébert (Canada), Michail Aldashin (Russia),Franziska Oliver (CH) and Frédéric Maire (CH), awarded the following prizes:

First Prize 'Best Film'MAJOR'S NOSE by Michail Lisowoi

Second Prize 'High Risk'GRACE by Lorelei Pepi

Third Prize 'Encouragement-Prize'