Toon festival returns

World's largest animation celebration

By BASHIRAH MUTTALIB

The World Animation Celebration will return to Pasadena for the second consecutive year with a weeklong series of screenings, symposiums, seminars and competitions. The Pasadena Civic Center will host the event Feb. 16-21.

Animation and tradeshow organizations that have combined resources to present the world's foremost animation festival include ASIFA-Hollywood (the Intl. Animated Film Society), Miller Freeman, Women in Animation and the Intl. Visual Effects Society, among others.

In addition, corporate sponsors for the weeklong event will again include Variety, as well as MTV, Nickelodeon and Klasky Csupo. Other corporate sponsors are expected to be announced shortly.

Event organizers expect to surpass last year's attendance mark by hosting more than 35,000 animation enthusiasts from 53 countries, according to Leslie Sullivan, festival director for the World Animation Celebration.

"For animation, this event combines the excitement of Cannes with the technological and artistic scope of Siggraph," Sullivan said. "No other gathering in the world dedicated to the art of animation compares to what we present to our attendees." Highlights of the event will include the nine-hour World Animation Marathon, in which 2,000 students will produce an animated film in one day; career opportunities and f/x expos; the World Animation Competition; and the Klasky Csupo Screenwriting Competition.

Participants and exhibitors for the event are expected to include executives and artists from such production and entertainment companies as Warner Bros., Columbia TriStar, Fox Animation Studios, Hanna-Barbera, DreamWorks, HBO Animation, MTV Animation, Pacific Data Images (PDI), the Cartoon Network, Universal, Pixar, Nelvana, Jim Henson Prods., Korean Animation Assn., Sony Pictures Imageworks, Film Roman, Cuppa Coffee Animation, Olive Jar Studios, and Sunbow Entertainment.

In addition, members of many leading technology and new media companies, such as Adobe Systems, Alias/Wavefront, CSI Digital, NewTek, Silicon Graphics and Strata will also participate in the weeklong celebration.

For more information and entry forms, contact Sullivan or Joy Kennelly at [phone]; e-mail: [e-mail]; website: www.wacfest.com.