Open Road just released a brand new TRAILER and POSTER for their hilarious 3D animated film, THE NUT JOB! When Liberty Park doesn’t have enough food for winter, it’s up to Surly the squirrel (voiced by Will Arnett) and a rag-tag team of animals to plan a nut store heist of nut-rageous proportions! With an all-star cast, including Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Katherine Heigl, and Maya Rudolph, this is sure to be the nuttiest movie of the year! Check out the trailer that debuted TODAY on Fandango, Fandango Family, Hulu, and Movies.com!

SYNOPSIS:  

Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNutJobMovie

iKIDS 2014 ANNOUNCES KEYNOTE SPEAKER, LAIKA’S ADVENTURES ARCHITECT LANCE WEILER
The full event program is now live at ikidsevent.kidscreen.com November 20, 2013: Kidscreen is thrilled to announce that Lance Weiler—the mastermind behind last year’s ground-breaking immersive educational project Laika’s Adventures—will jumpstart iKids 2014 with a keynote entitled Designing For the 21st Century. Sharing insights gleaned through helping two classrooms of kids—with a continent between them—work together to get a lost robot home, Lance will deliver a thought-provoking presentation that outlines his approach to building digital experiences for modern audiences. He’ll also explore how to take advantage of changes in media consumption, embrace emerging technologies and build franchisable storyworlds that innovate new business models.
An alumni of the Sundance Screenwriting Lab, Lance has designed experiences that have reached millions of people via theatres, mobile devices and online. He is recognized as a pioneer for the innovative way he mixes storytelling and technology, and also a thought leader in the entertainment space. Wired Magazine has identified him as “one of the 25 people helping to re-invent entertainment and change the face of Hollywood,” and Businessweek echoed the sentiment by naming him “one of the 18 who changed Hollywood.” Lance currently sits on a World Economic Forum steering committee for the future of content creation, as well as teaching courses at Columbia University on the art, craft and business of storytelling in the 21st century, and developing a slate of film, TV and gaming projects.
Kidscreen has also just unveiled the full conference program for iKids, which will take place on Thursday, February 13 at the Westin NY Times Square. In addition to the iKids Awards Ceremony and Luncheon, where the winners of our second annual awards for the market’s best digital media products for kids will be announced, highlights of the event include:
In Pursuit of the iDream
With hundreds of thousands of kid-targeted apps in the Apple App Store alone (never mind Android, Windows and other marketplaces), competition is only getting tougher for developers. Drawing on research from her upcoming book on the US app market, Dr. Carla Fisher will give a lowdown on the current kids app landscape and share tips on how to leverage its biggest possibilities and sidestep its biggest challenges.
Nick App: A making-of case study
Sitting at five million downloads and counting, Nickelodeon’s Nick App has more than made good on its promise to deliver the net’s content through fun and games wherever kids may be.

In this session, Katie Bessiere and Jane Gould from Nick’s Consumer Insights Research Group will provide an in-depth look at the role kids’ input played in designing and building this ground-breaking app and the features that are driving its audience engagement.
Playing by the Rules
First, COPPA 2.0 changed the children’s app development space in the US. And now, Apple’s new global Kids category is poised to change the game around the globe. But as the new regulations and restrictions that come along with these initiatives continue to pile up, how can IP owners and developers create apps that comply, meet parental approval, and keep kids engaged? In this session, renowned consultant Linnette J. Attai will give five essential tips for doing just that.  Making Sense with Digital Marketing. There’s no shortage of apps, websites and subscription-based diversions for kids to choose from, so how do you get your properties and products noticed in all the digital din? This panel’s group of experts will offer key insights on the marketing and promotional strategies, tactics, and tools to guide digital goods to the top of the charts.  Hot Right Now: 45 minutes, 11 slides and a lot of good ideas.
To cap off iKids 2014, five digital media pros who live on the bleeding edge of innovation will talk through 20 new things they’re excited about, and highlight what it all means for the kids industry in particular. This can’t-miss session is sure to be informative, inspiring―and a lot of fun!
iKids passes are available for $695. Anyone interested in registering can do so online at https://ikidsevent.kidscreen.com/2014/register/, or offline by contacting Event Sales Manager Joel Pinto (jpinto@brunico.com or 416-408-2300 x650).
For further details, please contact:
Janet Balmforth/Aimee Norman at DDA Blueprint PR
Tel: +44 (0) 208 868 0511 Email: janet@ddablueprint.com

Shabnam Rezaei, Oznoz President, said, “I grew up in Austria and learned German by watching TV. Speaking multiple languages has given me such an immense advantage in my career. With Oznoz we hope to expose American children to world languages in a fun and innovative way.”

Oznoz also has an iPad app that lets customers download video for offline viewing. The channel currently has more than 200 shows, with more titles being launched every month.

About Ozno

Oznoz.com provides “stuff for bilingual kids” including cartoons and books in eleven languages such as Arabic, Japanese, Persian, French, German, Spanish and Chinese. Popular titles include Elmo’s World, Babar, Super Why, Franny’s Feet  and  Marvelous Milly. Oznoz features a multitude of bilingual books  with  famous  titles  like  “Dear Zoo” and “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” Products cover ages 0 -­‐14 and include animation, live-­‐action and much more. The Oznoz iPad app allows kids to watch videos on the go. Oznoz was founded by Aly Jetha and Shabnam Rezaei, a husband and wife team who also started Big Bad Boo, an animation studio that has been producing culturally rich, educational TV series such as Mixed Nutz  and  1001 Nights.

About Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, the landmark television program that reaches millions of children every day in more than 150 countries. The Workshop’s mission is to use the educational power of media to help children everywhere reach their highest potential. Delivered through a variety of platforms, Sesame Workshop develops research-­‐based content – including television programs, books, games, mobile apps and community engagement initiatives – that supports early childhood learning, helps prepare children for school, and addresses developmental needs. The Workshop’s programs are tailored to the needs of specific regions and focus on topics that help young children and families develop critical skills for lifelong learning. For more information, visit us at www.sesameworkshop.org.

MYWALL INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION CONTEST

Goethe-Institut and the Cortoons International Animation Film Festival jointly announce an international animation short film contest on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, www.mywallcontest.com

The contest is open to students, apprentices and alumni of international animation film schools, other educational institutions as well as freelance animation professionals, animation producers and animation film schools from all over the world, without any age limit.

The contest is open to submissions that are inspired in any way by the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and fall into the ‘Animation Film’ category. The category includes collages, cartoons, 2D or 3D animation, puppet animation, computer animation and combined live action/animation as well as other animation techniques.

Prizes will be awarded to the four best submissions.

The contest will run from 15 October 2013 to 28 February 2014.

Participation is voluntary and free of charge.

Submissions must be at least one minute long but not exceed a total length of five minutes including titles and credits.

The submitted films must not have been shown in any other festival. Only finished works will be considered.

The best films will be shown at the Cortoons Festival in march 2014 in Rome.

The Prizes:

• Goethe-Institut Prize: A trip to Berlin inclusive of 3 nights in a 4-star hotel and economy class return flights for 2 persons. The prizewinning animation film will be shown on Goethe-Institute channels for 2 weeks all over the world.

• Audience Prize: A cash award of €1,500. The winner will be selected by online public vote on Facebook.

• Cortoons Festival Prize: The prizewinning animation film will be shown for 1 month on the 4 channels of the Cortoons Festival (http://cortoons.tv/).

• Goethe-Institut/Cortoons Festival Prize for Schools: A trip to the Cortoons Festival in Rome inclusive of 3 nights in a 4-star hotel and economy class return flights for 2 persons, in March 2014.

For further informations: www.mywallcontest.com  info@mywallcontest.com

Montreal, November 4, 2013 – Michael Fukushima has been named Executive Producer of the National Film Board of Canada’s acclaimed English Program Animation Studio in Montreal.

Michael Fukushima has been making films since 1984. He first joined the NFB in 1990, directing the Hot Docs-award-winning animated documentary Minoru: Memory of Exile, and he became an NFB animation producer in 1997. Fukushima led the creation of the NFB’s flagship emerging filmmaker program, Hothouse, and his credits reflect an eclecticism and diversity, particularly evident in the abstract and edgier animation he has produced. Fukushima has worked hard to open up the genre to new creators, new audiences and new technologies, through interactive installations, mobile phones and urban stories.

“I have high regard for Michael’s considerable experience, his expert reflections on our animation history and his thoughtful, progressive ideas for the future,” said NFB English Program Director General Ravida Din, in making the announcement. “I believe his leadership will advance the NFB’s profile as a global leader in animation, and I’ve been especially impressed with Michael’s commitment to finding and encouraging creators and team members with diverse experiences.

The Hothouse program—now in its ninth edition—is an NFB success story and a testament to his dedication to emerging creators.” Fukushima’s notable films as NFB producer include Patrick Doyon’s Jutra Award-winning, Oscar-nominated Sunday/Dimanche (2011), Oscar-nominated filmmaker Koji Yamamura’s Muybridge’s Strings/Les cordes de Muybridge (2011), recipient of a Special Prize at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival and the Best Canadian Film or Video Award at Reel Asian; Ann Marie Fleming’s adaptation of Bernice Eisenstein’s acclaimed illustrated memoir, I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors (2010);Shira Avni’s animated documentary Tying Your Own Shoes (2009), winner of the Golden Dove at Dok Leipzig and the prestigious NHK Japan Prize; Iriz Pääbo’s HA’Aki (2008), recipient of the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica 2009; as well as Chris Hinton’s Genie Award-winning visual-music short, cNote (2004).

About the NFB
The NFB produces groundbreaking animation at its studios in Montreal and at NFB centres across Canada, as well as via international co-productions with many of the world’s leading auteur animators. The NFB is a leader in developing new approaches to stereoscopic 3D animation and animated content for new platforms. The NFB has created over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 4 Canadian Screen Awards, 7 Webbys, 12 Oscars and more than 90 Genies. To access acclaimed NFB content, visit NFB.ca or download its apps for smartphones, tablets and connected TV.