* Friday, November 13, - Sunday, November 22. Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S.A.
The WorldFest Film and Video Festival, an event which focuses onindependent works which have not yet been picked up for distribution,features eight animation categories this year. For information onattending, contact Worldfest at tel (713) 965-9955, fax (713) 965-9960 oremail at worldfest@aol.com.
* Friday, November 13. Glendale, California, U.S.A
The 26th Annual Annie Awards, a yearly awards ceremony honoring the best inanimation will be held this year at the Alex Theater located at 216 N.Brand Blvd. The event is hosted by the Los Angeles chapter of theInternational Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood. A champagne receptionstarts at 5:00 PM with the awards ceremony following at 7:00 PM. For moreinformation and tickets, call ASIFA-Hollywood at (818) 842-8330 and see the
* Friday, November 13 - Sunday, November 15. Coffs Harbour, New SouthWales, Australia.
The 1998 STANLEY AWARDS AND CARTOONISTS' CONFERENCE, hosted by the Australian Black and White Artists' Club, will take place at the NovotelOpal Cove resort and Pacific Bay resort. The annual event features thepresentation of the Stanley Awards, the Australian "Academy Awards forcartooning," in 10 categories. The two day conference following willexamine topics including comic strip syndication, marketing, and using
* 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/.
Bandai's AnimeVillage.com is the first video releasing company in the US that enables consumers to purchase Japanese animation directly through the Internet. The site also features the latest animation news from Japan, real-time chats, games, message boards, and contests. AnimeVillage.com's initial release slate includes the "Gundam" series and "The Vision of Escaflowne" with plans to expand their library up to 200 titles by the end of 1999.
Red Giant Television has reached a deal with Discovery International and Teletoon to produce a third season of "Splat!", the weekly half-hour TV series devoted to animation. This will bring the total number of episodes to 39 half hours. Red Giant is also in the process of creating a two hour, prime-time TV special celebrating animation. Splat! currently airs in 120 countries around the globe.
Fox Family Channels is creating two new digital cable/satellite networks, The Boyz Channel and The Girlz Channel, offering gender-specific entertainment and educational programming for 2-14 year-old boys and girls. The full-time, ad-supported services scheduled to launch sometime in 1999 will also be available as basic analog channels. Much of the programming will come from the library that Fox Kids already owns mixed in with some original productions. In the evenings, the channels' focus will target parents with programs dealing with raising and parenting children of that specific gender.
Silicon Graphics, Inc. has reported negative first quarter results for the 1999 fiscal year. The company announced a net loss of $44 million, or $0.24 per share, compared with a net loss of $56 million in the same quarter a year ago. "Reporting a loss is never satisfying, but I am very encouraged with the progress demonstrated in this quarter's results," said Richard Belluzzo, CEO and chairman of SGI.
Pixar, the company behind "Toy Story," posted a third quarter net profit of $2.5 million, or $0.02 per share, down from a third quarter profit of $5.3 million last year. The positive profits however did surprise financial analysts who had forecasted a third quarter loss of $0.02 for the third quarter. The upcoming release of "A Bug's Life" is expected to help further rejuvenate Pixar's revenues.
HotWired's Animation Express (http://www.hotwired.com/animation/) is a new site that showcases the latest animation from both professional and independent animators. The animation can be viewed using plug-in technologies like Quicktime 3, Shockwave's Flash 3 and Director 6 and a "plug-in tester" will help you download the right plug-ins if you don't already have them. Currently, the site features selections from Pixar's Oscar-winning short "Geri's Game" and highlights from Spike and Mike's 1998 Festival of Animation.
