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German children's television producer RTV Family Entertainment has received a temporary reprieve from its financial woes in the form of a bridge credit line issued by a banking syndicate. The funds are backed by a letter of credit from RTV's majority shareholder Ravensburger AG, and will enable the floundering company to cover all current and past due liabilities. RTV still needs approximately 4 million Euro (US$3.7M) to continue operations through the end of the year.

The 2003edition of The Brussels Cartoon and Animation Festival will have anew look, with a poster created by Spanish artist Carles Porta, and anew name -- Anima 2003. Since 1982, Brussels has hosted the annualevent devoted to animation and welcomed such animation luminaries asTim Burton, Paul Grimault, Kihachiro Kawamoto, John Lasseter, RenéLaloux, Peter Lord, Moebius, Yuri Norstein and Nick Park. Over thepast five years the festival organizers have initiated a

Award-winning producer/director Sheldon Lazarus, formerly of Planet24 and BSkyB, has joined Fox Kids Europe N.V. (FKE) as head of FKE'snewly created pan-European special programming department. This newdepartment, the first of its kind for FKE, will centralizedevelopment of entertainment programming for FKE's European networkof channels. As head of special programming, Lazarus will oversee ateam of three and will develop global concepts, targeting localtastes and needs within each territory, using content ranging from

Los Angeles-based digitalanimation studio Animax Interactive has teamed with entertainer DaveCoulier (TV's FULL HOUSE) and F3 Entertainment to bring the WEAVERBEAVER AND FRIENDS characters to life. Animax designed and developeda Website to support the release of two new kids' audio CDs featuringDave Coulier with WEAVER BEAVER AND FRIENDS. In addition to creatingthe Website, Animax was significantly involved in everything frominitial character development to the jacket design used on both CDs.

GailSchenbaum and Karen DiNoto have joined the Los Angeles-based creativedepartment of Big Idea Productions. Gail Schenbaum has been appointedsenior vice president of creative affairs, responsible foridentifying and developing live-action and animated family featurefilms, direct-to-video and television projects. Schenbaum brings withher nearly 20 years of experience in the film and televisionproduction arena. Most recently she was a producer and creativeconsultant for a number of companies, including Pearson UK,

pasi (philippine animation studio,inc.) has teamed with management consultants VentureslinkInternational and ABC-TV Channel 5 in the Philippines to launch thePASI KARTOON SHOW, which premiered Saturday, June 15, 2002. Theone-hour program will air weekly and is designed to create a localmarket for Filipino-produced animation. The first 13 installmentswill be comprised of a half-hour episode each of KONG, THE ANIMATEDSERIES and BIKER MICE FROM MARS. Later episodes will utilize other

German animation producer RTV FamilyEntertainment has announced that the recent collapse of Kirch Mediaand co-production partner Phenomedia, as well as losses from baddebts with foreign partners, has led to a rapid deterioration of thecompany's financial situation. A May 2002 cancellation of a 5 millionEuro (approximately US$4.7M) credit line from a major Austrian bankhas added to the company's dire financial straits. According to apress release issued by RTV, the company needs between 6 and 7