France's Annecy Festival Director Jean-Luc Xiberras died on December 26, 1998 at 57 years old after a long battle with illness. The Mayor of Annecy, the festival President & Board and the festival staff unanimously saluted his courage and determination for continuing to be a force in the festival's operation during his term of illness.
"Kirikou et la Sorciere" ("Kirikou and the Witch") is a new 70-minute classically animated film by Michel Ocelot released in France on December 9, 1998. The film is about Kirikou, a tiny little boy, who's born in a small African village which has been put under a spell by the flagitious witch, Karaba. Kirikou is determined to set his languishing village free from the clutches of Karaba. The film features music composed by famous African singer/composer Youssou N'Dour.
Featured in the Animation Store this week:
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.
Hong Kong-born animation director and illustrator Paul Chung completed a French bubblegum spot, "Rainforest," for Passion Pictures through Young and Rubicam (Paris, France). The ad takes place in a brightly colored South American jungle setting as Indian natives watch their jungle being destroyed by an army of loggers. To thwart the loggers, a native opens a pack of Malabar bubblegum and from the pack jumps the superhero Malabar Man who proceeds to block the bulldozers with gum. The 30-second spot which combines traditional 2D with computer animation, will air in France starting in 1999.
* 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
The premiere of Faith Hubley's new film "Africa" is set to take place at Storyopolis on December 15th. The 10-minute film will screen at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00, and 6:30 p.m. at the New Line Cinema. A reception follows afterwards at Storyopolis from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. Faith and Emily Hubley will be present at the reception. The screening and reception are open to the public free of charge, however, guests must RSVP by calling (310) 828-7577.
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.
Savage Steve Holland, co-creator of "Eek! the Cat," has signed on with the William Morris Agency for representation in all fields. He will be repped by Rob Wolken, Spencer Baumgarten and Greg Lipstone. He is currently creating, writing and directing DIC's "Sabrina, the Animated Series." In addition, he's also written and directed live-action films including "Better Off Dead" (1985) and "One Crazy Summer" (1986).
* 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.
Zoog Disney is a new two-hour block of programming on the Disney Channel that features a companion web site signaling the network's latest attempt at converging television and the Internet. The programming block which airs on Saturday and Sunday evenings from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. works in tandem with the web site by allowing children who watch the programs to submit suggestions, vote on outcomes, play games related to the programs, and give input to the shows.
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:
The 22nd Cinanima International Animated Film Festival wrapped up onNovember 15 in Espinho, Portugal. The international jury consisted ofCarlos Pinto Coelho (Portugal), Florence Henrard (Belgium), BorivojDovnikovic (Croatia), Georges Sifianos (France) and Georges Schwizgebel(Switzerland). Below is a complete list of winners as reported by thefestival:
CLASS A (less than 6 minutes) - tie"Festival" by Roberto Catani (Italy)."L'Arme du Crocodile" by Eric Blesin (Belgium).
CLASS B (between 6 and 13 minutes).
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.
Motional Realms, LLC has released the ReelMotion plug-in for 3D Studio MAX, a real-time, physics-based procedural animation tool. The plug-in is designed for the professional animation artist and ideal for forensics animation, animating space and aerial dogfights, cars, helicopters and other rigid-body objects. It's possible to drive or fly a vehicle through a scene interactively using a mouse or joystick via a real-time display using QuickDraw 3D (Mac) or OpenGL (Windows).
* 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.
* Wednesday, November 18, - Sunday, November 22. Holland.
The 7th Holland Animation Film Festival, organized by the Holland FilmFestival Foundation, will be held in Utrecht, Netherlands. To find out moreabout the festival, visit their web site at http://www.awn.com/haff/>/a> oremail to haff@knoware.nl.
* 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/.
Five thousand spectators attended theanimation programs during the five day 41st annual Leipzig InternationalFestival for Documentary and Animated Film which wrapped up on October 31in Leipzig Germany. The prize for Outstanding Film went to "Underground" byMatti Kütt (Estonia), and the Audience Prize went to "Hoelenangst" byBenjamin Quabeck (Germany). For more information about next year'sfestival, email dock-leipzig@t-online.de.
* Tuesday, November 10 - Sunday, November 15. Esphino, Portugal.
The 22nd Cinanima International Animated Film Festival takes place. For detailed information contact cinanima@mail.telepac.pt, or for general information about the festival, visit www.awn.com/cinanima.
* Friday, November 6 - Saturday, November 14. Siena, Italy.
The third Siena International Short Film Festival and Market boasts one of the two international competitions dedicated solely to animated films. For information call (39) 6-4745585.
The 65th Milan International Film, TV and Multimedia Market (MIFED) kicks off this week with a strong focus on animation, in collaboration with the European MEDIA II program. The six-day event, November 1 -6, will include a designated animation market and even an Animation Day on November 3.
* Tuesday, November 3. Vancouver, Canada.
VanArts presents Before and After Independence: 40 Years of Estonian Animation, a retrospective put together for the Ottawa International Animation festival, which is now touring North America. The show takes place at the Pacific Cinemateque, 1131 Howe Street, at 7:30 p.m The show is made possible by the Ottawa International Animation Festival and the Canadian Consulate in Estonia.
Gribouille, a CGI production company based in Europe and North America, has begun production on two new computer-animated television series. Xcalibur, designed by French artist Philippe Druillet and directed by Didier Pourcel, is being produced in association with Canal +, Ellipsanime, France 2 and Cactus Animation for a targeted late 1999 delivery. Micronauts, based on an existing line of action-figures and Marvel comics, is being produced with Abrams/Gentile Entertainment, Kaleidoscope Media Group and Annex Entertainment, and may be ready as early as fall 1999.
ASIFA-Hollywoods third annual lecture series continues with a very special event on November 3, 1998 at 7:00 p.m. Walt Disney Animation master animator Andreas Deja will speak on the subject of character animation. Deja, born in Poland and raised in Germany, started working at Disney at the age of 20 (he was turned away when he applied at age 10!).
