Special Event: Annecy

Aardman Animations has announced that its award-winning TV shows are now available for 1.89 GBP per episode from the iTunes Store in the U.K. (www.itunes.com/uk).

Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2008Annecy, FranceJune 9-14, 2008 Deadline: Jan. 15, 2008

The 31st Annecy International Festival of Animation is the premier animation festival in the world. The festival features screenings, retrospectives, seminars, tributes and an international film competition. The MIFA expo held in conjunction with the festival is the international market for animated film. For more information, visit www.annecy.org.

The latest downloadable Acrobat edition of Animation World Magazine is now on virtual stands. This edition covers independent animation. Karen Raugust reports that despite the wide gap in budgets and resources, independent animation houses can learn from the major media companies' digital/new media activities. Raugust also looks at how animation executives rely on their big-studio experience to launch new indie production houses. Joe Strike sheds some light on what distributors are looking for when they go out searching for animation to acquire.

Aardman is making its foray into the preschool market, unveiling its brand new stop-motion animated series TIMMY at MIPCOM. The 52x10 series has already been pre-bought by CBeebies in the U.K., and Aardman International is looking to secure further worldwide pre-sale deals at the market.

This week in AWN's Forums, a junior member has several questions on how others have produced independent projects. RATATOUILLE is out and the forum members are talking. Others are chatting about Annecy winner PETER AND THE WOLF. A senior member has re-watched CINDERELLA and found it disappointing. What do you think? Others have software questions. And as always, there are members posting their work for others to check out. As well as, tools for teaching animation, the business of animation and, as always, brand new stuff to check out in show and tell!

ANIMANIMA International Animation Festival 2007Cacak, SerbiaSept. 20-22, 2007Deadline: June 30, 2007

Aardman Animations has found an American home for its internationally successful children's property SHAUN THE SHEEP. The animated series, which just last week won the Cristal Award as Best TV Production at the Annecy Animated Film Festival, will premiere on Disney Channel on Sunday, July 8, 2007, in primetime. Since its successful launch as the most viewed show at Mipcom 2006, the property has sold to primary broadcasters in 145 territories including Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Germany, India, France, Benelux, Japan and Latin America.

Thomson Course Technology and Animation World Network are proud to announce the formation of AWN Press, which will produce a series of books published by Thomson Course Technology covering major facets of the animation industry and offering a one-of-a-kind look into the careers of industry icons.