Geographical Region: All

The January 2002 Acrobat issue of Animation World Magazine is now online! In this issue, we honor animation legends that passed away in 2001. Read tributes to Bill Hanna, Robert Abel, Maurice Nobel, Faith Hubley and Jan Lenica. Gene Deitch gives us a few tips about luck. Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman takes on live-action animated features, with a vengeance. Plus, take a look at four studios that have decided to produce their own independent animated features and find out why Lille, France is a hotbed of cutting-edge Web animation.

This week's updates to the Calendar of Events include: Banned On Earth Animation Extravaganza: Wednesday, February 20 - Saturday, June 15, 2002, Everywhere, USA . . . Melbourne International Student Animation Festival: Thursday, April 18 - Sunday, April 21, 2002, Melbourne, Victoria Australia . . . Basic Introduction to Life Sculpture: Wednesday, May 22 - Wednesday, July 24, 2002, Toronto, Ontario Canada . . . Life Drawing for Complete Beginners: Monday, May 27 - Monday, July 22, 2002, Toronto, Ontario Canada . . .

Animated battling robots series MEDABOTS will have its U.K. television premiere on Fox Kids UK starting February 18, 2002. The 52 half-hour episodes, produced by Corus-owned Nelvana Ltd. in association with NAS/Kodansha and TV Tokyo, are set in a technologically advanced future where every child owns a "Medabot," a pet robot fuelled with artificial intelligence and an arsenal of weapons.

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has announced the nominees for the annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The winners will be presented at the ceremony on March 21, during the Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 19 - 23 in San Jose, California. The Game Developers Choice Awards are peer-based, and game developers worldwide nominate those games and developers they feel are most deserving of recognition.

Animation World Network is saddened to report that legendary animator/director Chuck Jones passed away on Friday, February 22, 2002 of congestive heart failure. He was 89 years old. Jones animation career, which spanned 60 years, took off in 1932 when Ub Iwerks hired him as a cel washer. In 1936 Jones became an animator for the Leon Schlesinger Studio (later sold to Warner Bros.), and in 1938 directed his first film, THE NIGHT WATCHMAN. Heading his own unit, Jones remained at Warner Bros. Animation Dept. until it closed in 1962.

Hayao Miyazaki's SEN TO CHIHIRO NO KAMIKAKUSHI (SPIRITED AWAY) was awarded The Golden Bear, the top prize at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival. SPIRITED AWAY shared the award with Paul Greengrass's live-action film BLOODY SUNDAY. Winning the coveted award, and acceptance of the film by Western audiences, may mean the film will finally be seen in the U.S. SPIRITED AWAY broke box office records in Japan, where it was the number one film of all time, earning 29.4 billion yen (US $221.5M). But as recently as summer 2001, Disney (who released Miyazakis PRINCESS MONONOKE in the U.S.

Paris headquartered animation production and distribution company Millimages, is expanding into the factual programming business with the acquisition of a 50.1% stake in French documentary producer, Gedeon Programmes. Millimages will acquire the majority interest in exchange for Euro 1.37M (US$1.19M) in cash plus stock. In addition, Gedeon Programmes chairman Stephane Milliére will assume a position on Millimages board. Millimages chairman Roch Lener stated that the move was made as part of Millimages overall strategy for growth and development.

Family entertainment company Igel Media has appointed Victoria Valius as head of distribution. In her new role, Valius will head up the company's international television distribution division in London, overseeing all international sales. In addition, she will be actively looking to expand the company's catalogue and sourcing opportunities to co-produce quality programming in the company's key markets including Germany, France and the UK.