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Rick DeMott's Recent Posts

Film Headline News

EuropaCinema's Two Toon Winners

EuropaCinema & TV, held in Viareggio, Italy, announced their two animationshort winners. FOREVER AND EVER, by Michaela Pavlatova and Pavel Koutecky(Czech Republic) and SUBURBANITES by Stefan Vermeulen (Belgium) took homethe prize. The international jury of Enzo D'Alo, Georges Wolinski, MarjutRimminen, Rastko Ciric and Sergio Staino said FOREVER AND EVER is "a filmthat gives us an unconventional interpretation of love, dramatic and at thesame time ironically surrealistic. A film that also reveals a remarkable

Headline News

A Red Nose shines on DVD

Sony Wonder and Golden Books Family Entertainment Home Video will bring thebeloved children's holiday film, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, to DVD forthe first time. The adventures of the shunned reindeer will be available forUS$19.98. For the holidays, Sony Wonder will also re-release ELMO SAVESCHRISTMAS on DVD and more favorite Sesame Street titles for $19.98.

Headline News

McQuilken joins Cartoon Network

KIM MCQUILKEN has been promoted to executive vice president of CARTOONNETWORK sales and marketing. Based in Atlanta, his new responsibilitieswill include sales and marketing for Cartoon Network.com. Formerly seniorvice president and general sales manager for the unit, McQuilken joinedTurner Broadcasting System, Inc., in 1992 as director of marketing forspecial projects for the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia.After the Games, he served as vice president, sports and brand licensing

Interactive Headline News

Edwards Churcher nets Birds

London-based production company AKA PIZAZZ and Internet designers EDWARDSCHURCHER have announced the arrival of the world's first fully interactiveanimated commercial for Compaq. Following on from AKA's recent animated TVcampaign for Compaq, the interactive Web version of "Bird" was created byNeil Churcher, James Stone, and Javier Garcia Flynn of EDWARDS CHURCHER.The spot is now available on the Compaq website. The commercial features afully interactive, realtime animation in which one's cursor movements

Spot Headline News

Clouds over CGI Lugz Spot

Director/designer Jerry van de Beek and co-designer Betsy de Fries ofLITTLE FLUFFY CLOUDS, the San Francisco digital animation and designstudio, finished an all CGI commercial for Lugz athletic shoes entitled"Annakii." The 30-second spot features a video game like scenario, repletewith a hip-hop soundtrack, where the hero moves through a futuristic NewYork City.

Animation Headline News

Brisbane Beckons!

April 6-9, 2000, The Brisbane International Animation Festival willrepresent Australia in the international animation festival alliance withOttawa, Holland, Fantoche and Anima Mundi animation festivals. It isAustralia's only festival dedicated exclusively to animation in all of itsforms. Playing host to national and international guests who will gather inBrisbane, Australia, to experience the best of world class animation, thefestival provides a local, national and international forum for the

Animation Headline News

Let your Toons make their Way to Norway

After 6 years, the organizers of the Oslo Animation Festival have movedoperations to Fredrikstad, Norway. Complete with a new name, the Nordic andBaltic Animation Festival invites both animators and spectators on May 3-5,2000 to take part in an event dedicated to promoting the screening andbetter understanding of animation. This year's festival presents: Nordicand Baltic films in competition, Nordic and Baltic Panorama, Internationalhighlights, a Focus on British animation, Animation as Music, a Celebration

Media Headline News

Imagine calls for Canadian Kids

The Center for Digital Imaging and Sound has launched Imagine 2000 -- thefirst Western Canadian high school media arts competition. The event willoffer 11th and 12th graders from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba thechance to win CA$200,000 in media scholarships. Categories includeanimation, game development, Web site design, video and film production,sound and music composition, graphic design, and fine art. This festivalgives any creative student the rare chance to get his or her work out to

Animation Headline News

Wild Brain Child on the Net

Wild Brain, Inc., a leading U.S. animation studio, has brought to theever-expanding club its new child, wildbrain.com. The new Web channel willbroadcast animation from around the globe and will be the feature providerof animation on Yahoo! Broadcast. In the deal, Yahoo! will provide Websolutions for Wild Brain's video animation programming, which is availableon wildbrain.com as well as Yahoo! Broadcast. wildbrain.com will debut withGLUE, an Internet exclusive toon featuring the adventures of a town full of

Headline News

New Nirvana for Nelvana & RTV

Toronto-based Nelvana Limited, an integrated family entertainment company,has formed a multi-layered partnership with German-based production houseRTV Family Entertainment AG, a leader in children's programming in Germany.The agreement includes a significant distribution deal for current andlibrary programs and a 3-year deal for future productions andco-productions. Through the deal, RTV will bring Nelvana's library of showsto TV, home video, and merchandising venues across Germany, Eastern Europe,

Headline News

The Tick is Back!

Cult comic and TV franchise THE TICK is getting a new lease on life.Producers Barry Sonnenfeld and Barry Josephson (FANTASY ISLAND, MAXIMUMBOB), via their deal at Columbia TriStar Television, will bring alive-action, primetime half-hour version of the clueless hero's show to FoxBroadcasting. The series is scheduled for fall 2000.

Read more about THE TICK from creator Ben Edlund in the Animation WorldMagazine article "Tick Fever Endures" by Deborah Reber.

Headline News

Folimage Screening

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, December 8, 1999 at 12:00am

* Saturday, December 11, 1999 - Sunday, April 2, 2000. Valence, France.

Folimage, the creators of the 1995 Cartoon D'Or winner LE MOINE ET LEPOISSON (THE MONK AND THE FISH), will feature an exhibition of theirworld-famous work. The event will take place from 2 pm - 6 pm every Monday,Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. An additional screening at 9 am - 12 pm willbe held on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. For more information contact4, Place des Ormeaux, 26000 Valence, France; or Tel.: ++ 33 4 75 79 20 80.

College Headline News

Surrey Institute Screening

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, December 8, 1999 at 12:00am

* Friday, December 12, 1999. London, England.

The Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College will behighlighting the unique graduate work done in their film, video, andanimation department since 1995. One can share in the rare chance of seeingthe cream of the crop from the school's library of productions. Thereception starts at 6pm to be followed by themed screenings at 6:30 pm,7:30 pm, 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm. Due to limited seating the college requests a

Films Headline News

"Art & Animation" Exhibit

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, December 8, 1999 at 12:00am

* Sunday, December 19 - Monday, December 20, 1999. Turin, Italy.

ASIFA Italia, with the help of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, theRegione Piemonte and the Comune di Torino, together with the support ofYoung Artists Circle and the British Council and Pro-Helvetia, isorganizing a meeting with a series of films on the subject of "Art &Animation". The meeting aims to heighten awareness of animation as an artform with a particular stress on independent short films of research,

Animation Headline News

"Animation Dreams: Millenium Nightmares" Exhibit

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, December 8, 1999 at 12:00am

* Monday, January 10, 2000 - Saturday 29, 2000. New York, New York, USA.

After the crimson dust clears from the apocolyptic Armegedeon of Y2K, goenjoy some animation at the School of Visual Arts' "Animation Dreams:Millenium Nightmares" exhibit. Films presented at the screening centeraround the theme of the students' most horrific nightmares. The exhibitionwill also feature 3D character models, storyboards, animation cels,background drawings, murals, video tests of films, and a reel of

Headline News

Can't catch all those Pokemon Cards?

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, December 8, 1999 at 12:00am

Is Pikachu anti-Semitic? The answer is no, even after questions to thecontrary circled when parents complained of a swastika-like symbolappearing on the Japanese language cards for Pokemon's Golbat and Ditto.These two cards, not yet released in the U.S. card collection, include aJapanese symbol called a "manji," which is a mirror image of a swastika.The symbol, however, is a centuries-old, Japanese symbol for good fortune.Not wanting to create any bad financial karma, Nintendo has announced thatit will discontinue the questionable cards.

Digital Headline News

A New Vivid Animation Studio

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, December 8, 1999 at 12:00am

Vivid Animation, a new high-end CGI animation studio specializing insophisticated digital characters and animated effects for commercials andinteractive media, has been formed by Jeff Lotman, CEO. "Vivid Animationopens its doors with a trio of world-class digital animators as itscreative nucleus," said Lotman, CEO. This nucleus, all of whom come fromsenior positions at Digital Domain, includes Animation Supervisor, StephaneCouture, Digital Effects Supervisor, Gonzalo Garramuno and Vivid

Headline News

Trey Parker & Matt Stone get Shocked

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, December 8, 1999 at 12:00am

Shockwave.com has announced that they have signed Trey Parker and MattStone, the creators of SOUTH PARK, to concoct 39 new works. The new showswill first air on shockwave.com beginning in March. Stone and Parker's newdisfunctional toons will range from 2 to 5 minutes and could be one-offshorts or pieces of an on-going series. In the L.A. Times on December 8,1999, Stone was quoted as saying that "the real allure of [the deal] isthat we get to create another TV series but on a much smaller scale. We

Disney Headline News

Disney gets yield on stopping Go Logo

As we reported previously [AF 11/16], U.S. District Court Judge Terry J.Hatter Jr. had ordered Disney to stop using its Go Network logo until aftera trial on the matter next year, agreeing with the plaintiff GoTo.com thatDisney's logo was confusingly similar to its own. Now however, it looks asif the green and yellow traffic light logo of Disney's Go.com has gotten astay of sentence at least until December 19, 1999. Soon after the initialruling, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the

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