AWN Headline News

* Sunday, October 25. Hollywood, California, U.S.A.

The AFI Film Festival presents "Suspended Animation," a 90-minute program of stop-motion and computer-animated shorts, curated by Sojourn Pictures. Films include "Geri's Game," "Bingo" and "1001 Nights." The show takes place at Mann's Chinese Theater, 6925 Hollywood Blvd., starting at 2:30 p.m. For information and tickets, call (213) 520-2000.

* Monday, October 26. San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

The Ideas in Animation series continues at Minna Street Gallery with two performances at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Nik Phelps and the Sprocket Ensemble, with guest musician Jana Herzen will perform live music to animated films by Meredith Root, Martha Colburn and Michael Rudnik. Admission is $10.00 general, $7.00 for students. For information and reservations call (415) 681-3189.

THE VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY (VES) has hired MICHELE SMITH as director of operations. The Los Angeles-based non-profit organization was founded in 1997 by former marketing consultant Tom Atkin, now executive director. He said, "We look forward to her active participation and contribution as the society continues to grow worldwide." Smith previously worked in the accounting department at Polygram Filmed Entertainment, and has an MBA from Pepperdine University.

MILIA, the International Content Market for Interactive Media Conference will take place in Cannes, France, February 9-12, 1999. Entries for the fifth Milia d'Or Awards and the New Talent Pavilion are still being accepted. The event is organized by the Reed Midem Organization, the same company that puts on MIPCOM and MIP TV. For the second year, MILIA will present a conference called "Towards the Convergence of Animation and Video Games," the objective of which is to bring together publishers, producers and developers of interactive products to promote partnerships.

* Thursday, October 22 - Sunday, October 25. Brisbane, Australia.

The Brisbane Animation Festival, a biennial event, features a new international competition. Categories include Grand Prize, People's Prize, Best Use of New Technology and Best Student/Debut Film. For information, contact darren@visualeyes.net.au.

* Saturday, October 24. New York City, New York, U.S.A.

The American Museum of the Moving Image hosts a talk and demonstration by Blue Sky|VIFX about the animated effects the studio produced for the new 3D Imax film, "T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous." The event begins at 12 noon, and is suitable for children ages nine and up. As a special treat, Chris Wedge will give a sneak preview from his soon-to-be-released animated short. For information, call (718) 784-4520.

DreamWorks Pictures and PDI's computer animated feature film, "Antz" grossed $11.2 million last weekend, dropping to third place in the box office charts, following its first two weeks in the number one spot. The total cumulative box office gross to date is $51.5 million, and the film is currently running in 2903 theaters nationwide. "Antz" will make its international debut starting in New Zealand and Australia on October 29.

The Sitges Fantasy Film Festival wrapped up on October 16 in Barcelona, Spain. The international jury for the "Anima't" animation festival within a festival was comprised of Jerry Beck (U.S.A.), Mercedes Gaspar (Spain) and Giorgio Valentini (Italy). They selected "Un Jour" by Marie Paccou (France) as Best Film, and gave an Honorable Mention to "Glassy Ocean" by Shigeru Tamura (Japan). In the main festival, Bill Plympton's film, "More Sex & Violence" won the "Best Short Film" award.

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (USC) has hired Internet developer MARK PESCE to head up a new department in the School of Cinema-Television devoted to interactive media. Pesce is cited as being the person who developed Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), the programming code that enables real-time interactivity on the web. He is also co-founder, with Jan Mallis, of an Internet content company called blitcom. Pesce designed the certificate program in 3D Arts at San Francisco State University's College of Extended Learning, and has been teaching at the college level since 1995.

A new three-year agreement between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), representing voice-over performers working in television animation, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), representing 108 television animation producers, has been approved by the Guilds National Board of Directors. The deal is a final version of one that was announced in August [AF 8/11/98], when it represented only 60 animation producers, and was still pending approval by SAG member performers.

San Francisco-based WILD BRAIN, INC. has launched its first of a multi-spot animated campaign for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurants. The Young & Rubicam campaign, which combines 2D and 3D animation with live-action, introduces "The Colonel," KFC's new animated spokesperson, new KFC products and a new overall look for the fast food company.

Animation historian Marcin Gizycki has begun production on a 30-minute documentary film about animator Jan Lenica, a Poland native whose credits include animated shorts such as Janko the Musician (1960), Labyrinth (1962), and several films with Walerian Borowczyk. After teaching in Kassel and Berlin, Germany for the past 20 years (and stints working in France and the United States), Lenica has returned to Poland where he is currently making a 30-minute film called Wyspa R.O. (The R.O. Island), with Studio Miniatur Filmowych.