Geographical Region: All

* Thursday, July 12 Sunday, July 22, 2001. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Earlybird Entry Deadline: April 13, 2001

Final Entry Deadline: May 11, 2001

* Wednesday, March 21, 2001. Hollywood, California, U.S.A.

Warner Bros. has decided not to award the US$30 million visual effects contract for the MATRIX sequels to Manex Entertainment, despite its Oscar-winning work on the original film. Warner has decided to go with ESC Entertainment, which officially formed on Friday, March 9, 2001 and employs many of the technicians and artists that worked on the original MATRIX. In turn, Manex is seeking a judicial order to assure it has a role in the film, due to its extensive pre-production good-will work already completed. The company has developed a proprietary facial-scanning system for the sequels.

* Thursday, May 17 Friday, May 18, 2001. Córdoba, Argentina.

Entry Deadline: April 30, 2001

* Thursday, April 19 Thursday, May 3, 2001. San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

Creative design boutique EyeballNYC has produced two 30-second promotional spots for the Bravo Networks' Independent Spirit Awards 2001 coverage. Inspired by the Independent Film Channel's Spirit 2001 poster, Eyeball used a syncopated hot pink, orange and purple photo-box grid effect. In "Sweepstakes" and "Tune-In," hot-colored cubic boxes flip, slide and pop into view to reveal details of the Spirit Awards program, which will air March 25, 2001. In addition, EyeballNYC handled the on-air package for the Spirit Awards, including the design of the show's opening and graphic packaging.

Simona Fabbri has joined Cartoon Network Italy in the newly created position of director of content. Fabbri will be responsible for the programming schedule and acquiring Italian shows, in addition to coordinating the network's and Website's content. She will also oversee the promos and on-air look of the channel. Previously, Simona worked at the Italian Disney channel where she started as acquisitions manager, moving to asset manager.

German EM.TV has signed a co-production deal with Spain's Planeta 2010. Already EM.TV has signed deals on four series and negotiations are in progress on five additional shows including 13 new episodes of DRAGON TALES, which is co-produced with Children's TV Workshop and Columbia TriStar TV Group. The signed deals include: 26-episodes of kids' comedy MR. BABY; 13 episodes of PIGS NEXT DOOR, co-produced with Fox Kids Int. and Magma Films; THE WORLD OF TOSH based on a Swedish fable; and NICK AND PERRY, co-produced by Germany's WDR and France's Ellipse Animation and M6.

Walt Disney Co. has announced that its past decision to scrap its Go.com portal has been reversed. However, the Go.com portal will be a much more pared down version with Web searches handled by former rival GoTo.com. The Go.com home page now serves as a low maintenance starting point for the Walt Disney Internet Group's other sites like Disney.com, ABC.com and Movies.com. In the formation of Go.com, Disney purchased Infoseek and their search engine. Currently, Disney is looking to sell off assets associated with Infoseek.

Golden Harvest, one of the leading Hong Kong production and distribution studios, has announced that it will produce its first animated feature. The film will be based on the popular Hong Kong comic strip MY LIFE AS MCDULL, which follows the exploits of a pig named McMug. The budget for this mature-themed cartoon is set at US$1.28 million. Golden Harvest managing director Phoon Chiong Kit said, "Animations generally aren't very financially viable because it takes a lot of money to promote a new cartoon character. But with MCDULL, having the comic strip already so popular helps."

* Saturday, March 24 Sunday, March 25, 2001. Overland Park, Kansas, U.S.A.

Planet Comicon, a four-year-old comic/sci-fi convention, is one of the fastest growing in the country. This year's event features THE HULK's Lou Ferrigno and BATMAN's Julie Newmar. For more information contact the event at: Web: http://www.planetcomicon.com/