Special Event: Annecy

AJA Video Systems' KONA 3 video capture and playback cards are an integral part of the post production workflow at Norwegian VFX and post facility Storm Studios. KONA 3 is AJA's top-of-the-line uncompressed capture card for SD, HD, Dual Link 4:4:4 HD and 2K formats for Apple Mac Pro systems.

Cuppa Coffee Studios is celebrating what promises to be the "Year of the Nerd" now that the pilot episode of Nerdland has been selected as a finalist at two prestigious animation festivals: the Annecy International Film Festival and Cartoons on the Bay's Pulcinella Awards.

This represents the third nomination for the Canadian studio in the past four years at the Pulcinella Awards, having won previously for RICK AND STEVE and A VERY BARRY CHRISTMAS. The studio also won the Grand Prix award at Annecy for Best Educational Film with the pilot for SUPERWHY? in 2000.

David Polonsky, the art director of the acclaimed Oscar-nominated animated feature WALTZ WITH BASHIR, will talk and show clips from the film at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 23 at Santa Monica College's Academy of Entertainment & Technology.

His talk will kick off SMC's spring entertainment industry speakers series, called the Mary Pickford Series, which features a wide range of speakers representing virtually all aspects of the business.

Annecy 2009 Call for ProjectsDeadline: February 15, 2009

The Creative Focus is strengthening its support to projects for animation films At Annecy 2009. Discovering and promoting projects for animated films has always been central to the Creative Focus and has become a top priority.

After a very promising start in 2008, Annecy is renewing its four Calls for Projects in 2009, adapted especially to the different categories concerned:

The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the winners of the 36th International Emmy Awards Monday night at a gala event held in the New York Hilton, hosted by award-winning stage and screen actor Roger Bart, currently leading in Mel Brooks' new Broadway musical, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.

AWN has learned that GLAGO'S GUEST, the latest short from Walt Disney Animation Studios and helmed by BOLT co-director Chris Williams, will not play with BOLT when it opens.

The short, experimenting in smoke and hair animation and the studio's first stereoscopic 3-D CG short, had long been scheduled to play in front of BOLT, coming November 21, but Disney said Wednesday it was pulling GLAGO'S GUEST.

DIVE OLLY DIVE!, the environmentally-conscious preschool series from Taffy Ent. and Mike Young Productions U.K. (MYP), has added two new co-producers, Atlantyca Ent. and Studio 100, as it begins production on a second season. Twenty-six new half hour episodes (52x11) aimed at preschool audiences, have been ordered by Taffy Ent. following continuous great ratings for season one and new international licensing deals.

DIVE OLLY DIVE!, the environmentally-conscious preschool series from Taffy Ent. and Mike Young Productions, will be released on DVD in the U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, South Africa, Brazil and other selected territories by Universal Pictures International Ent. in 2009.

DIVE OLLY DIVE!, the award-winning, environmentally-conscious preschool series from Taffy Ent. and Mike Young Productions, has expanded to five days a week on PBS KIDS Sprout as of Monday, September 1.

PBS KIDS Sprout, the first 24-hour preschool destination available on TV, on demand and online for kids ages 2-5 and their parents and caregivers, has moved the show from its Saturday and Sunday timeslot to Sprout's popular SUNNY SIDE UP SHOW live morning programming block where it now airs at 10:30 a.m. ET Monday-Friday.

Brazil's Anima Mundi festival awarded the American film, DELGO, the Best Animated Feature of the year.

The Anima Mundi award for Best Feature Film is determined by an audience of approximately 100,000 people. Anima Mundi director, Cesar Coelho, said, "We believe it's important for film enthusiasts to decide on the winner rather than a panel of jurors or film critics. Everyone who watches the selected films has an opportunity to voice their opinion."

CARTOON, the European Association of Animation Film, has announced the five director finalists for the 18th edition of the Cartoon d'Or, the only European prize specific to animated short films.

The candidates will have the opportunity to attend the Cartoon Forum Ludwigsburg in Germany and present their films to more than 700 professionals. The screening will take place on Thursday, September 18, during the official Cartoon d'Or Award ceremony, where the name of the winner will be unveiled.

NCircle Ent. has entered a theatrical distribution agreement with Kidtoons, a division of The Bigger Picture, to feature award-winning animated children's series POCOYO in select movie theaters across the United States beginning in September 2008.

Kidtoons shows G-rated animated movies in theaters throughout the country every weekend. In addition to presenting matinee movies on Saturdays and Sundays, Kidtoons theaters also feature cartoon shorts, music videos and sing-a-longs prior to the feature presentation.