Geographical Region: Europe

* 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.

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.

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.

The Castelli Animati (Animated Castles) International Animated Film Festival held its second edition, October 15 - 17, 1998 in Rome, Italy. The prize winners were selected by an international jury: painter Carla Accardi (Italy), cartoonist and director Oscar Grillo (Argentina), director Daniele Luchetti (Italy), cartoonist and director Sergio Staino and director Pal Toth (Hungary).

Grand Prize and Audience Prize: Geris Game by Jan Pinkava (U.S.A.)

First Film Prize: Sientje by Christa Moesker (Netherlands).

* Tuesday, October 27 - Saturday, October 31. Leipzig, Germany.

The 41st annual Leipzig International Festival for Documentary and Animated Film will showcase a retrospective of German animation since 1945, as well as 119 animated films in other programs including competition. For information, contact dock-leipzig@t-online.de.

Paris, France-based Gaumont Multimedia and Hamburg, Germany-based IGEL Media have reached a multi-year, multi-million dollar first-look distribution agreement giving IGEL all television and home video rights on future Gaumont Multimedia animated series for Germany, Scandinavia, Japan and Korea. The deal, sealed at MIPCOM, reflects both companies' need to address the increased competition and decreased number of broadcast slots available in Germany and Asia.

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.

* Thursday, October 15 - Saturday, October 17. Rome, Italy.

The Animated Castles, International Animated Film Festival holds its second edition. For information contact l.raffaelli@iol.it or visit http://cicr.roma.it.

Nickelodeon has signed a deal with Italian broadcaster Radio Televisione Italiana (RAI) to produce the first localized foreign-language version of Blues Clues. The show will premiere on the RAI UNO network in the second quarter of 1999. In Italy, RAI will localize the series by using the same blue-screen technology used on the original production to insert an Italian, live-action host into the existing computer animation. Nickelodeon plans to make similar sales to other countries, as this production concept was designed into the show from its inception.