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Liberty Livewire Pictures Group member R!OT Santa Monica will be integrating both artists and support staff from sister company 525 Studios. As a result, 525 Studios will curtail operations, effective by year's end.

Award-winning producer Dan Balaam has been promoted to creative director of Cartoon Network and Boomerang in the U.K. and is now in charge of all on air promotions and packaging for the channels. Having been with the channel since its launch, Dan has had a huge influence on the fun and irreverent look and style of the channel. While at Cartoon Network U.K.

U.K. animation company Peppers Ghost Productions (PGP) has aligned with U.S.-based Beckett Entertainment to develop animation properties and have announced their first project. Entitled GENE-FUSION, the concept is pitched as an adventure property designed for multiple formats including TV series, gaming, feature film and Web entertainment. PGP is currently involved in all aspects of design and modeling for the GENE-FUSION concept plus scripting for the TV series.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's Team Soho has been hard at work creating THE GETAWAY, a highly anticipated game for Sony's Playstation 2 console. In THE GETAWAY the player takes on the role of Mark Hammond, a retired bank robber who is forced back into the world he left to save his son from an evil mobster. To animate the games characters, Team Soho used five motion-capture performers at once, in real-time. Each motion-capture performer wore an Ascension CyberSuit outfitted with 11 sensors and had a separate backpack and receiving base station.

On November 10, 2001 at a gala ceremony hosted by voice actor BillyWest, the 29th Annual Annie Awards were presented. The big winnerwas SHREK, which took home eight Annie's including outstandingtheatrical feature and outstanding directing for an animated feature.THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE nabbed three awards, for femaleperformer in an animated feature (Eartha Kitt as Yzma), best song andoutstanding individual character animation. In television, once againTHE SIMPSONS took home the award for outstanding primetime show.

- The Cinanima International Animation Festival is celebrating its25th Anniversary. Competition and special animation screenings arehappening now through November 11, 2001 in Espinho, Portugal. For more information visit http://www.awn.com/cinanima/.

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include: Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen: Tuesday, November 13, 2001 - Sunday, February 03, 2002, Los Angeles, California USA. An Evening of Diversions: Saturday, November 17, 2001, Los Angeles, California USA . . . York Independent Film Festival: Saturday, February 23 - Sunday, February 24, 2002, York, UK . . . Taos Talking Picture Festival: Thursday, April 11 - Sunday, April 14, 2002, Taos, New Mexico USA.

Tuesday, November 13, 2001 - Sunday, February 03, 2002, Los Angeles, California USA. Through nearly 400 objects from the 17th century to the present, Devices of Wonder explores our long and playful entanglement with the magical technologies and artful instruments that we have placed between our eyes and the world. Centuries before the advent of cyberspace, humans created a host of gadgets to enhance visual perception.

Saturday, November 17, 2001, Los Angeles, California USA. An Evening of Diversions - Featuring intriguing amusements inspired by the Devices of Wonder exhibition, An Evening of Diversions invites audiences to step back in time 100 years, when the new century offered mind-boggling technological advancements. Produced by Community Arts Resources, the evening features cinema's first frames, a magic lantern show and other acts of wonder that amazed the public in 1901. No reservations required. At the J. Paul Getty Museum on Saturday November 17, 6:00 - 9:00 pm.