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Film Headline News

British Film Takes Grand Prize At SAFO

By Dan Sarto | Monday, October 22, 2001 at 12:00am

The 2001 edition of the Ottawa International Student Animation Festival (SAFO 01) has come to a close with the announcement of this year's winners.

The International Jury consisting of Phil Mulloy (United Kingdom), Annick Teninge (France), and Koji Yamamura (Japan) presented fifteen prizes. The list of winners is as follows:

National Film Board of Canada Grand Prize:

Dog, Suzie Templeton, United Kingdom

Grand Prize Runner up:

Sub, Jessie Schmal, USA

Headline News

New York And Vienna-Based Creative Teams Become Super-Fi

Executive producer John Yuiska and creative director Daniel Garcia have joined forces with Vienna-based digital content studio .voortekk to form Super-Fi. The company will produce animation and design-based cross-platform content for commercials, broadcast design, music videos, film and branded online entertainment. Super-Fi will maintain offices in New York and Vienna.

Headline News

Activision -- One Of America's Fastest Growing Companies

Activision, Inc. has been recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the top 100 fastest-growing publicly held companies in the U.S. Activision, ranked 86th in Fortune Magazine's 2001 "100 Fastest-Growing American Companies," is the only interactive entertainment company to appear on the list. The company's three-year annualized performance ratings were 45% earnings per share, 36% revenue growth and 56% total stock market return.

Cartoon Headline News

Cartoon Network And Dutch HMG Group Sign Deal

Cartoon Network has signed a multi-year deal with the Holland Media Group (HMG) to provide a daily Cartoon Network block on its station Yorin The Movement. Beginning November 5, 2001, Cartoon Network will provide an hour long block which will include its top shows THE POWERPUFF GIRLS, COW AND CHICKEN, JOHNNY BRAVO, DEXTER'S LABORATORY and DRAGONBALL Z. The Cartoon Network block will run from Monday to Friday at 3:45 pm to 4:45 pm and on Sunday from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. Under the terms of the deal Cartoon Network will provide local versions of the shows and creative packaging for the channel.

Headline News

Topix Creates An Action Convention For Kinder Surprise

To present the 2002 Kinder Surprise collection Canadas TOPIX, a commercial computer animation studio, has created 3D character animation for the 30-second spot Action Convention, for Ferrero Canada Ltd. and agency Garneau Würstlin Philip Brand. For those not in the know about this candy treat, Kinder Surprise, launched in Italy in 1972, is a hollow chocolate egg which contains a collectable prize. In Action Convention an animated Kinder Surprise is seen underwater, decked out in a diving bell, as he introduces his collection of toys for 2002.

Million Headline News

Record Breaking Week For DVD Sales

On October 9, 2001 Universal Studios Home Video reported that their release of THE MUMMY RETURNS registered the biggest first week in the history of DVD with consumers purchasing over two million units of the initial shipments of 4.5 million DVDs. Consumers spent an estimated $90 million on purchase and rental of THE MUMMY RETURNS DVD and VHS, which went on sale October 2, 2001. These figures break the first week sales and rental record previously held by the film GLADIATOR.

Game Headline News

Xbox Makes Some Changes

Microsoft has downsized the capacity of the hard drive on its upcoming Xbox video game console and made it more family friendly. In a REUTERS report, Microsoft confirmed that the drive capacity will shrink to 8 gigabytes (GB) from the previously advertised 10 GB. Microsoft declined to explain why the change was made, only that the change was not due to manufacturing problems. This news comes on the heels of Microsofts announcement that the Xbox will be the first videogame console with a built-in parental control to restrict childrens game play based on ESRB ratings.

Headline News

Caligari Ships Anipak

Caligari Corporations aniPak, a collection of 11 third-party animation plug-ins and libraries for Caligari trueSpace5 users is now available. aniPak includes three new plug-ins, DreaMotion PoseMixer, IK-Anchor 1.0 and SkeleTool 1.0. DreaMotion PoseMixer allows users to combine individual poses of characters into a seamless animation. The movements of all affected joints can be influenced simultaneously, without adjusting each element separately. IK-Anchor 1.0 keeps the constrained side or edge of the bounding box locked in position.

Game Headline News

AtomShockwave Goes Off On A WildTangent

Multimedia graphics provider WildTangent is powering DARK ORBIT, an episodic 3D sci-fi shooter game now available on www.shockwave.com. DARK ORBIT transforms the player into the sole survivor of a small mining colony, who must collect the remaining precious few resources and use them to build more firepower. During this exploration, he can also discover new technology that will upgrade his meager mining craft into a high-powered machine of mass destruction. Gamers have access to five large maps and more than a dozen weapons and missiles to research and build upgradeable modular ships.

Headline News

Nightmare Before Christmas - Special Screening

Nightmare Before Christmas - Special Screening: Friday, October 19 - Wednesday, October 31, 2001, Hollywood, California USA. Tim Burton's stop-motion masterpiece, directed by Henry Selick, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS will be screening for two weeks (Oct. 19 - 31) at Hollywood's historic, restored movie palace The El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. This is an annual Halloween tradition. On the first night, Friday Oct. 19th, Jerry Beck will be moderating a panel of guests on stage in a Q & A about working with Tim Burton on NIGHTMARE, VINCENT and FRANKENWEENIE.

Canada Headline News

The Real Bugs Bunny and Friends

The Real Bugs Bunny and Friends: Saturday, October 20 - Saturday, November 24, 2001, Toronto, Ontario Canada. A few years back everything that might offend anyone was cut from the great films of Hollywood's Golden Age Of Animation. Little was left for those of us who love these films. This special program offers two hours of great cartoons exactly as their creators meant us to see them.

Animation Headline News

Bob Clampett Animation Festival

Bob Clampett Animation Festival: Wednesday, October 24, 2001, Toronto, Ontario Canada. Bob Clampett is recognized today as perhaps the key force in the shaping of Warner Brothers Animation. This program offers a rare chance to see two hours of his films as he meant us to see them. Uncut. In black and white if they were made in black and white, color if they were made in color.Stars Bugs, Daffy, Porky, the original nude Tweety & lots more.

November Headline News

Webisode Academy / Lecture Series

Webisode Academy / Lecture Series: Wednesday, November 07 - Wednesday, November 28, 2001, Studio City, California USA. Masters of Animation Lecture Series. Open to all - check-in at 6:30pm. Reservations recommended - class size: 25 people max, $20 per person. November 7 - Gwen Wexler. Topic: Progress & Contributions of The Women in Animation. November 14 - Dave Brain. Topic: It's All In the Animation Timing! November 17 - Art Leonardi. Topic: The Pink Panther Days. November 28 - Iraj Paran. Topic: The Hanna-Barbera Days.

Awards Headline News

British Animation Awards

British Animation Awards (BAA): Monday, March 11 - Sunday, March 17, 2002, London, England. Entry Deadline: Friday, November 30, 2001. The British Animation Awards has 19 categories including two for international entries: International Award for Short Film and Best European Feature. Entry is Free for International Award categories.

Animation Headline News

The Acrobat Issue Of Animation World Magazine Is Now Online!

The September 2001 Acrobat issue of Animation World Magazine is now on-line! In this issue, go behind the scenes of two recent feature films. John Edgar Park examines Final Fantasy to discover the staggering amount of skill, time and technical savvy it takes to bring synthespians to the big screen. E=mc2, the effects team for the film Jeepers Creepers, give you step by step explanations of some of the effects in the film. Both Leslie Cabarga and Aleksandra Korejwo answer Will Ryan's 9 1/2 questions. Martin "Dr.

Animation Headline News

Job Opportunities For Animators, Instructors, Agents, Art Directors And More

Art Institute San Francisco is looking for a part-time INSTRUCTOR IN MOTION & LIGHTING AND TEXTURE MAPPING and a 2D/3D ANIMATION INSTRUCTOR . . . Los Angeles, California's BigRedShoes.com is looking for a ANIMATION AGENT . . . Bangalore, India's Colorcanvas Inc. is looking for a ANIMATION AGENT . . . New York, NY's Curious Pictures is looking for INTERNS for traditional cel animation as well as for Flash character animation . . . Valencia, Spain's Dos Produccions Cinematograficas is looking for a 3D CHARACTER ANIMATOR for an upcoming CGI feature film . . .

Headline News

Aleksandra Korejwo's Artwork Is Now For Sale

The remaining artworks of Polish animator and director Aleksandra Korejwo are now for sale. These pastels are the storyboards Aleksandra created for her upcoming short animated film and were recently featured at an exhibition and silent auction of Aleksandra's work at The Director's Guild, which was the first exhibit of her work in the United States. Korejwo has developed a unique style of animation using colored salts that are manipulated with the use of acondor feather. To view the artwork, go to http://www.acmefilmworks.com/

Studio Headline News

Blur Brings Sci Fi’s Soulkeeper To Life

Blur Studio designed and produced more than 80 visual effects ranging from digital matte paintings to a fully rendered 3D creature for the new Sci Fi Channel series SOULKEEPER. One of the more challenging effects for the studio was a 10-foot reptilian creature with a particularly nasty disposition that battles the shows hero. A full-size animatronic was used during the production, but as it couldn't walk, computer graphics were relied on for the moving shots.

Headline News

Peppermint Signs Fresh Deals

German distributor peppermint and U.S. animation studio Wild Brain have entered into a strategic partnership for Asia and the U.S. Under the terms of the deal, peppermint will distribute Wild Brain's Flash animation catalogue throughout Asia, while Wild Brain will represent peppermints animation catalogue under the pepperkids label for TV distribution, home video and DVD, licensing, publishing and merchandising throughout the U.S.

Time Headline News

Dic Partners With Dentsu, Creates T.I.M.E.

DIC Entertainment and Japans Dentsu have formed a strategic alliance under which Dentsu will co-produce and handle Japanese and Asian distribution of DICs new animated series ALIENATORS: EVOLUTION CONTINUES. Dentsu will also be responsible for television, home video distribution and licensing for DICs MADELINE in Japan. DIC has also joined forces with U.K.-based media/marketing outfit Universal McCann and Cereal Partners Worldwide to form The International Media Exchange (TIME).

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