AWN Headline News

The 8th Annual Bradford Animation Festival (BAF), held at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, Yorkshire, November 16-18, 2001 attracted over 200 animation professionals and students from all over the U.K., and received more than 300 entries for the BAF Awards. In addition to traditional and computer animation demonstrations, there were seminars and screenings, capped off by the awards presentation, which saw Michael Dudok de Wit take home yet another award for his Oscar winning short father and daughter.

Although its weekend take of $24.1M represents a 58% drop from last weekend, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERERS STONE, with visual effects by Sony Pictures Imageworks and Rhythm & Hues, remained number one for the third week in a row, and crossed the $200M mark after 15 days. HARRY has earned $220.1M after three weeks of release. The rescue drama BEHIND ENEMY LINES, with visual effects by Reality Check Studios and OCS/Freeze Frame/Pixel Magic, came in a strong second, earning $19.2M in its debut.

Distribution outfit Oasis Pictures has picked up international distribution on Mischief City, a new series that Canada's Shaftesbury Films is developing. It takes place in a rule-bending world where kids escape when things go wrong and they are blamed for things they just know they did not do.

Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz. This week, we're asking more Simpsons related trivia questions. Which rock band played at Moe's Tavern when he was selling Flaming Moe's? What was the name of the show (on The Simpsons) that the folks in Japan were watching that gave them seizures? Good luck...you'll need it!

An AP Newswire brief stated that Sega Corp. has reported a $169 million loss for the first fiscal half, largely because the declining value of its investments more than offset the improvement in its video-game business. Sega, which earlier in 2001 abandoned production of its Dreamcast game system, has also announced another reduction in price for the discontinued console. The Dreamcast system, which originally retailed for $199, will now be available for $49.99. Sega hopes the drastically reduced price will move the remaining 270,000 units out of stores by the end of the holiday season.

Sweden's Studio FilmTecknarna has just completed two 20-second spots for Triss Instant Ticket Lottery in Sweden. Over the holiday period, Triss will be running their Gold Rush/Guldrushen competition with a top prize of 10 million kronor (approximately US$944,000), an unusually high amount for a Swedish scratch card. FilmTecknarna director Nick Hewitt developed the commercials using Bengt Lindberg's illustrations that are currently featured on the lottery tickets.

DivXNetworks is offering a special program that allows independent filmmakers to license DivX video technology at no cost for certain types of limited commercial use. To promote this program DivX is showing the animated short Killer Bean 2 on the DivX site. Killer Bean 2 was released in 2000 and has been viewed over 1 million times across a number of Websites. The 7-minute short film can now be viewed in full-screen high-resolution DivX format at www.divx.com, along with the trailer for the forthcoming third installment Killer Bean 3.

Each week, Animation World Magazine offers new articles, special features and theme-based coverage of the art, craft and industry of animation. New this week:

- SIGGRAPH 2001's N-Space Art GalleryFar away from the buzzing SIGGRAPH floor is the art gallery where high tech meets fine art. Annick Teninge reports on this fascinating realm.

- Two Wildcat II Graphics Cards Reviewed

The Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists, Local 839 IATSE, the labor union for screen cartoonists and CGI artists and technicians in southern California, has updated their Website with the November 2001 edition of their monthly newsletter, The Peg-Board. In the November issue: Kevin Koch elected Local 839 president and Steve Hulett re-elected as business representative . . . From the President: President who? . . . From the Business Representative: Where do we go from here? . . . BKN vote on meeting agenda . . . Our gift to ourselves: training for the future . . . Which side are you on? . . .

The Cinanima International Animation Festival celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. Since 1977, Cinanima has been promoting the international art of animation in Espinho, a city located on the Northern coast of Portugal. It capped off a week of screenings and seminars with the awards presentation on November 11, 2001. Russian Dmitri Geller's film HELLO FROM KISLOVODSK took home the Grand Prize and France's Xavier de L'Hermuziere and Philippe Grammaticopoulos won the RTP Prize and tied for the Journalists Award for their film LE PROCESSUS.

This Week: Black Nights Film Festival: Wednesday, November 28 - Sunday, December 09, 2001, Tallin, Nafta Estonia . . . Reg Hartt's Sex & Violence Cartoon Festival: Saturday, December 01, 2001 - Saturday, December 28, 2002, Toronto, Ontario Canada . . . ASIFA-Hollywood Christmas Party: Thursday, December 06, 2001, Burbank, California USA . . . 9th Annual New York Digital Salon: Monday, December 17, 2001 - Wednesday, January 16, 2002, New York, New York USA.

Roger Dondis and Nelson Uduando have joined Toonz Animation India, as creative director and head of animation respectively. Roger Dondis joins Toonz Animation India from Wild Brain Studios where he worked as animation director and overseas supervisor on feature film productions. Roger has been director, animation director, designer and animator on many commercials and several long format projects. He begins with Toonz Animation India on January 1, 2002. Nelson P. Udaundo joins Toonz Animation India as head of the animation department.