Geographical Region: Europe

ANIMALS ON 64 ZOO LANE. Germany-based ZDF Enterprises, a subsidiary of ZDF German Television Network, and French animation producer, Millimage, are set to co-produce 64 Zoo Lane, a 13x10 minute series for children ages four to ten. The show, which will be ready in August 1999, uses illustrator An Vrombaults painterly animation style to create a colorful world of animal characters. A different animal stars in each episode and recounts his or her own story to Lucy, the little girl who lives next to the zoo.

* Monday, November 30 - Thursday, December 3. La Reunion Island, France.

The biennial 3rd Encounters of the Indian Ocean Institute of the Image isexceptionally well organized this year, featuring a tribute to the lateanimation teacher Pierry Ayma, a co-founder of the Indian Ocean Institute.Fifty European professionals will meet to discuss the following theme:real-time data and sound transfer for production and [long distance]training purposes. AWN's General Manager Annick Teninge, will attend the

After two weekends at No. 1, "A Bug's Life" slipped to second with $11 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period due to a strong opening for "Star Trek: Insurrection," the ninth entry in the consistently profitable sci-fi franchise. Warner Bros.' effects-laden film "Jack Frost" had an acceptable but underwhelming $7 million opening. Paramount's "The Rugrats Movie" continued to attract little tykes taking fifth place with $4.5 million. "A Bug's Life" has now grossed a total of $83.3 million in 24 days of release while "The Rugrats Movie" has brought in $73.2 million in the same amount of time.

* Thursday, December 10. Stockholm, Sweden.

The Swedish Association for Animated Film (FFAF) will screen all the Swedish animated films made in 1998 from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. at the Film House in Stockholm. Before the screening, the association will have its yearly meeting and a party afterwards. For more information, call 46-8 615 0882 or e-mail geffenblad@swipnet.se.

Sunday, November 22, marked the end of the 7th Holland Animation FilmFestival 1998. Awards were presented for both the international competitionfor applied animation and student films. The jury for the internationalcompetition for applied animation consisted of Garri Bardin (Russia), PaulBush (United Kingdom), Dingeman Kuilman (The Netherlands), Adriaan Lokman(The Netherlands), and Linda Simensky (United States). They chose thefollowing films to receive the Golden Pegbar Awards:

Canada's television and cinema production and distribution group, Coscient Group, announced that their subsidiary Cactus Animation has started production on two new animated series: "Pirate Family" and "Fantomette." The animated comedies are a co-production with French company Elma Animation and have a total budget of $22 million. The series, each composed of 26 half-hour episodes, have already been pre-sold by Motion International, Coscient Group's distribution subsidiary, to a number of markets.

* Tuesday, November 24, - Saturday, November 28. Mendrisio, Switzerland.

The Mendrisio Swiss International Animated Film Festival includes a short,feature and animated "pilot" competition, as well as student films, 3Dcomputer animation, retrospectives, exhibitions, conferences and more. Forinformation call (41) 91 646 16 54.

* Friday, November 20, - Sunday, November 22. Perugia, Italy.Although there will be no competition section this year at the Cartoombria4th International Animation Film Festival, the artistic committee ofCartoombria '98 has put together a number of retrospectives, exhibits,workshops, screenings, premieres and artist tributes. To find out moreabout the festival visit http://www.awn.com/cartoombria/.