AWN Headline News

Animated Encounters, Bristol, UK.

Thursday, April 25, 2002 Sunday, April 28, 2002.

Entry Deadline: Friday, January 11, 2002.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will celebrate the 15th anniversary of Pixar Animation Studios on Thursday, January 10 beginning at 7:30 pm. Pixar founder John Lasseter will participate in a retrospective of the studio's feature and short films, as well as a Q&A hosted by ABC-TV film critic Joel Siegel. Clips from the studio's four feature films and five animated short films will be presented. Also scheduled to attend the event are Pete Docter, director of MONSTERS, INC., Ed Catmull, president of Pixar Animation Studios, and other Pixar filmmakers.

Troubled German media company EM.TVs new CEO Werner Klatten is close to closing the previously announced purchase of a 25.1% stake (approximately 36.2 million shares) in the company from founder and former president Thomas Haffa. Klatten is working with a venture capital firm to secure financing for the deal, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of January 2002. The acquisition is currently estimated at US$60 million.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the eight films being considered for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 74th Academy Awards. Fifteen-minute clip reels from each of the following films will be screened for the Visual Effects Award nominating committee on February 6. The members will then nominate three for Oscar consideration.

The films are:

A. I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

BLACK HAWK DOWN

CATS AND DOGS

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE

As we edge closer to Oscar time, the critics continue to weigh in with their picks. On January 2, 2002 the Online Film Critics Society gave the nod to SHREK as Best Animated Feature. If youre counting, thats three critics' awards for SHREK, one for WAKING LIFE and none for the other Academy Awards qualifiers. January 5, 2002 saw the American Film Institute (AFI) bestow Film of the Year honors on LORD OF THE RINGS, which beat out nine other nominees (including SHREK) to take home the top prize.

Epic fantasy THE LORD OF THE RINGS, with primary visual effects by WETA, ruled as the number one film for the third week in a row, nabbing another $23M this weekend to break the $200M mark after just 18 days. The AFI honored RINGS as "Film of the Year" this weekend and it has earned $205.5M after just 19 days in theaters. The drama A BEAUTIFUL MIND, with primary visual effects by Digital Domain, claimed the number two spot, with $17M in its first week of wide release. The film, which is inspired by the life of schizophrenic mathematician John Nash, has earned $38.2M after three weeks.

Software development company Silicon Grail recently announced the latest release of their compositing software RAYZ v. 2.0. RAYZ v. 2.0 is the only compositing software that incorporates Cineon tools, including CineSpeed, Cineon Grain, and CineSharpen. For implementation in RAYZ, the Cineon source code has been rewritten to take advantage of todays advancements in technology, delivering more speed and tighter integration. RAYZ v. 2.0 comes with a built-in image morphing and warping tool that is spline based and very easy to learn and use. The flipbook technology within RAYZ v.

The Second Annual Puppet Short Film And Video Festival.

Los Angeles, California. May 2002.

Entry Deadline: March 21, 2002.

New York City's Badcat CD is looking for a CEL COLORIST . . . Brighton, UK's BAF Animation is looking for a LEAD ANIMATOR - LIGHTWAVE . . . Bangalore, Karnataka, India's Paprikaas Animation Studios is looking for an ANIMATION CONSULTANT . . . Washington, DC's PixMovieMaker is looking for a STORYBOARD ARTIST . . . Baltimore, MD's Screen Arts Animation is looking for ALL POSITIONS . . . Culver City, California-based stop motion studio Space Bass Films is looking for ALL POSITIONS . . . New York City's The Language Workshop for Children is looking for an ANIMATOR . . .

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include:- The State of the Industry: Friday, January 18, 2002, Burbank, California USA.- Moondance International Film Festival: Thursday, January 24 -Sunday, January 27, 2002, Boulder, Colorado USA.- Hollywood Cartoons Author Michael Barrier in Person: Thursday,February 07, 2002, Burbank, California USA.- The Second Annual Puppet Short Film and Video Festival: May 2002,Los Angeles, California USA.

Interactive software developer and distributor THQ Inc. has completed its acquisition of digital entertainment creator Rainbow Studios by issuing 858,203 shares of common stock. These shares are subject to adjustment pending the determination of Rainbow's net book value. THQ also assumed existing Rainbow stock options providing for the further issuance of 106,259 shares of THQ common stock. Rainbow Studios is now a wholly owned subsidiary of THQ. Mark DeSimone and Tony Sutterheim will continue to manage Rainbow Studios as president, games and president, animation, respectively.