AWN Headline News

The Fantoche International AnimationFestival, which was held August 31-September 5 in Baden/Zurich,Switzerland, has announced its award winners. The jury, which was comprisedof Linda Simensky (USA), Pierre Hébert (Canada), Michail Aldashin (Russia),Franziska Oliver (CH) and Frédéric Maire (CH), awarded the following prizes:

First Prize 'Best Film'MAJOR'S NOSE by Michail Lisowoi

Second Prize 'High Risk'GRACE by Lorelei Pepi

Third Prize 'Encouragement-Prize'

Fox Family Channel, which was launched on August 15, 1998 when Fox took over the Family Channel, hasannounced its fall schedule. The schedule includes four new animatedseries: WEIRD-OHS is about three kids uncovering the mysteries of life;KIDS FROM ROOM 402, based on the book, GRACIE GRAVES AND THE KIDS FROM ROOM402 by Betty Paraskevas, is about a classroom of ten year old eccentrics;ANGELA ANACONDA, a cut-out style animated series, is about an eight yearold girl and her elementary school problems; and MEGA BABIES, revolves

Universal Studios Home Video is releasing ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS MEET FRANKENSTEIN. Produced anddirected by Kathi Castillo and animated at Universal Cartoon Studios inUniversal City, California, the direct-to-video shows what happens when thehavoc wrecking chipmunks encounter Dr. Frankenstein and his creation at aUniversal Studios-type amusement park. The chipmunks were created by RossBagadasarian (aka David Seville) in 1958 for the hit novelty record, "TheChipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)." Seville's earlier hit, "Witch

Broderbund has released TOTALLY MAD, a seven CD-ROM compendium thatdocuments the history of MAD MAGAZINE. Included are the entire run ofissues up to 1998 from almost 50 years of MAD's history, along with videoclips of staff and artists, songs and animated cartoons from the currentsyndicated TV show including Spy vs. Spy and 14 animated marginals drawn bySergio Aragones. Back issues can be browsed page by page, or searched forarticles on specific topics. This is a collector's dream. Requires Windows95/98. Retail price is US$69.95.

Santa Barbara, California-based SANTA BARBARA STUDIOS, a visual effectscompany that produces CGI for motion picture, commercial, television andspecial venue markets, has hired PETE TRAVERS as CGI supervisor and VIVIENMINTON as sales and marketing manager. Travers is returning to the studiowhere he previously worked on AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS, after which heleft to form his own company, ShadowCaster, through which he worked ascomputer graphics supervisor for Oscar winner WHAT DREAMS MAY COME. Minton

At the 53rd Edinburgh International Film Festival, which ran August 15-29,The 10th Post Office McLaren Award for the Best British Animation was wonby Tim Hope for THE WOLFMAN. The award is named in honor of the greatScottish experimental animator, Norman McLaren. The competition was judgedby a panel of six previous winners of the McLaren Award, including GedHaney, Phil Mulloy, Tim Webb and Sue MacLoughlin. Animation Director BobGodfrey accepted the award and a check on behalf of the winner from the

Hollywood, California-based CLASS-KEY CHEW-PO COMMERCIALS has signed TOMDECKER to direct spots for its commercial division. Decker is best knownfor his direction of the on-going Chuck E. Cheese campaign. From 1994-1997Decker was senior animator at Chuck Jones Productions where he worked ontheatrical shorts starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and other classiccharacters in such titles as SUPERIOR DUCK and FROM HARE TO ETERNITY.

San Antonio, Texas-based NewTek, manufacturer of 3D animation and videoproduction products, has announced Video Toaster for Windows. The new VideoToaster is the heir to the original Video Toaster for the Amiga, whichinitiated the desktop video revolution in 1990. The Video Toaster offersusers a suite of tools for video creation including all the essentialcomponents for video editing, compositing and 2D/3D animation. Thesuggested retail price is $2995.00. The dual format NTSC and PAL solutionretails for $3495.00.

Sega DreamCast, the superconsole with a built-in 56K modem (for internetgame play) that will bring the most-advanced and realistic video gameplayever developed to consumers when it is launched on September 9, 1999, hasset a record with 300,000 pre-orders, surpassing the previous record of100,000 held by Sony PlayStation. The new 128-bit, Internet-ready SegaDreamCast is fifteen times more powerful than a Sony PlayStation, ten timesmore powerful than a Nintendo 64 and has four times the graphics processing