Cartoon Forum converges
* Wednesday, September 23 - Sunday, September 27. Syros, Greece.
Geographical Region: Europe
Amateur Animators fest happening in Spain
* Thursday, September 24 - Saturday, September 26. Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
The University of the Balearic Islands presents ANI.MAR 98, short for the Amateur Animators Focused International Festival. This competitive festival has three categories: 3D animation short films, traditional animation films less than 15 minutes and traditional animation films more than 15 minutes. The event will also offer workshops, retrospectives and exhibitions. For information contact info@studio1.uib.es.
Animation faculty showcase work
* Friday, September 25. Utrecht, Netherlands.
The Utrecht School of the Arts faculty of Art, Media & Technology holds their annual presentation of the European Media Master of Arts, including Computer Animation. The event will take place at Baby in Amsterdam. Admission for Baby members is free, All others are admitted by invitation only. Contact hans.mertens@kmt.hku.nl for more details.
MOMI hosting Looney Tunes exhibit
* Friday, September 25. London, England, U.K.
In honor of Warner Bros. 75th anniversary, The Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) launches an exhibition of original Looney Tunes art work. In honor of MOMIs tenth anniversary, admission is free until the end of September! For more information about MOMI, visit the Hidden Treasures feature in Animation World Magazines October 1997 issue.
Kratky Film restructures
Czech production and distribution company Kratky Film Praha a.s., which owns the Bratri v triku and Jiri Trnka animation studios, has been substantially restructured. The company has been struggling financially since 1994, and has been facing possible bankruptcy since 1997, a measure prevented by a recent investment from insurance company Ceska Pojistovna, now the majority shareholder in Kratky Film. The restructuring has also caused a management shake-out.
Marie-Line Petrequin to join the management team of Igelfilm in October
MARIE-LINE PETREQUIN will leave ProSieben and join another German company, IGELFILM as managing director of animation and development in the area of production/co-production of animation. She was previously vice president and head of the animation department at ProSieben Media AG, where she has worked since 1990.
NFBC signs licensing deal to develop its library
The National Film Board of Canada (NFBC) has entered into a license agreement with Los Angeles-based producer Jean Madar to develop new TV series and films based on a collection of popular animated shorts from its library. Madar, a Montreal native whose background includes work with Pixibox and Medialab, will use the animated shorts as ready-made pilots for new projects. He has grouped the NFBC films into four collections: "Kids" for children's animation, "Tunes" for musical shorts, "Crazy" for more adult-oriented films, and "Insane" for late-night fare.
Mediapegs pegs France Létang
MEDIAPEGS, creators of PEGS 2D animation software, has named FRANCE LÉTANG director of sales & marketing for Europe. She will be based in Paris and report to vice president Paul Marcot in Los Angeles. Létang previously worked at Saban International Services.
Cartoon D’Or noms
Every year since 1991, the organization CARTOON, with the support of the MEDIA program of the European Union, selects one short European animated film as the Cartoon DOr, or best European animation film. Nominees are selected from the list of top prize-winning and recommended films from participating European animation festivals: Annecy, Brussels, Cardiff, Espinho, Stuttgart, Utrecht and, new this year, Oslo. The director of the Cartoon DOr winning film will receive 25,000 ECU (approximately U.S. $25,000) to spend on a new animation project.
Animation educator Gail Banker dies
Animation educator Gail Banker died of a stroke on Sunday, September 13, the day after her 60th birthday. For the past 13 years, she taught animation to children and adults in the New England area: as an instructor at Hanover High School in Hanover, New Hampshire; as a counselor at the Charles River Creative Arts Program in Dover, Massachusetts; and as founder of Single-Frame Studio in Norwich, Vermont, where she ran weekly animation workshops for children. She also taught adult animation classes at her studio and through various continuing education programs.
Rugrats Driving Car Campaign
Automaker Lincoln Mercury, a major sponsor for Paramount and Nickelodeon's animated feature, "The Rugrats Movie," will spend approximately U.S. $20 million on tie-in advertising to launch a new minivan called the Mercury Villager in conjunction with the film's release in November. The campaign will include TV ads featuring the Rugrats characters in an animated version of the minivan.
IMAGINA '99 In Two Venues
Imagina, a computer conference and festival which is often referred to as the European equivalent to SIGGRAPH, is expanding for its 18th edition, January 18-22, 1999. In keeping with tradition, the event will start in Monaco, January 18-20, with conferences and panel discussions on the theme "integral images and meta tools", the "Prix Pixel-INA" awards competition and the Innovation Space; then, in Paris, January 20-22, the event will continue with the exhibition of new industrial developments and technologies.
For information, visit www.ina.fr/ina/imagina.
Hiroshima Top Prize Goes To
The 7th biennial Hiroshima International Animation Festival ended on Monday, August 24 with a grand awards ceremony. The top winners are:
Grand Prize: "The Old Lady and the Pigeons" by Sylvain Chomet (Canada).
Hiroshima Prize: The Mermaid by Alexander Petrov (Russia).
Debut (first film) Prize: Busby by Anna Henckel-Donners-Marck (Germany).
Renzo Kinoshita Prize: "L'Aréne (Série "Vermillion")" by Nicolas Jacquet (France).
Musical Chairs
ANNE SWEENEY has been named president of DISNEY/ABC CABLE NETWORKS, filling a position left vacant when Geraldine Laybourne left in June to form her own media company. Since 1996, Sweeney has been president of the Disney Channel, a title she will retain with the promotion, which will add several programming outlets under her wing: Lifetime, A&E, The History Channel and E! Entertainment Television, as well as ABCs Saturday morning line-up. Prior to Disney, Sweeney was at FX for three years and at Nickelodeon for 12. . . .
