AWN Headline News

* Saturday, October 28, 2000. Hollywood, California, U.S.A.

German production/rights buyer Helkon Media has acquired a 51% share in Dutch animation and merchandising house Rubinstein Media. Rubinstein founder and CEO Maurits Rubinstein will remain as head of the company. This move comes on the heels of Rubinstein and Helkon subsidiary Peppermints formation of a 50-50 joint children's television animation house entitled, Pepperkids.

At the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Animation Toolworks introduced a completely new electronic audio-video device for animators, the LunchBox Sync. The LunchBox Sync is a successor to their Video LunchBox, which enables animators to test their work in progress instantly and eliminate time-consuming errors by monitoring pacing, lighting, audio synchronization and registration. The LunchBox Sync captures still images from a video camera and plays back this sequence of images at the same rate as film or television.

Taking place from September 20-24, 2000 in Visby, on the island of Gotland, Sweden, the 11th Cartoon Forum awarded its coveted Cartoon dOr prize to Portuguese director José Miguel Ribeiros A SUSPEITA (THE SUSPECT). An international jury comprised of Stefan Fjeldmark (Denmark), Jacques-Rémy Girerd (France) and Thilo Rothkirch (Germany) determined the award.

Foresight Marketing & Design Ltd., a marketing and consulting firm in Eastern Canada, has recently created a new division, Foresight Animation Studio. The toon house offers traditional animation and graphics as well as other creative services like Website design. Animation director Roger Foucault (also the creative director of Foresight's marketing firm) brings full traditional and classical animation training skills to the studio and hopes to see their company establish long-term business relationships with others. For more information contact Foresight at: P.O.

SGI, once the forefront graphic workstation provider, is trying to regain past success, by recently acquiring Intergraph, releasing Open Source Inventor and embracing Linux. The company is hopeful this approach to open source will lead to more interest in SGI's software portfolio. The Intergraph acquisition will allow SGI a more competitive stance in the PC workstation arena. The hope is these moves will lead to a viable turnaround path for further success and profitability. To learn more about SGIs products visit their Website.

Despite a negative recommendation by the negotiating committee, the members of Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists and Affiliated Optical Electronic and Graphic Arts, Local 839 IATSE, have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement. The contract includes higher increases in minimum rates (8% in the first year, 4% in the second year, 3% in the third), higher health and pension contributions for freelance animation writers and storyboard artists, and a new framework for screen credit arbitration.

* Saturday, October 7 Sunday, October 29, 2000. Brighton, U.K.