Nicktoons Announces Festival Winners

After a highly successful second season, with hundreds of entries received from around the world, Nextoons: The Nicktoons Film Festival proudly announces that Arthur de Pins, the French filmmaker who entered "La Révolution des Crabes," is the $10,000 Grand Prize winner.

The short film was selected as the best of the fest by a grand jury that included actor Mark Hamill, "Avatar: The Last Airbender" Co-Creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Director/Animator Mike Gabriel, 10-year-old cartoon connoisseur Noah Webb and Feature Storyboard Artist and winner of the Producers' Choice Award in the first Nicktoons Film Festival, Elizabeth Ito. All jury members agreed that the clever story about the life of crabs doomed to only travel in a straight line was a side-splitter. The simple plot, black-and-white format and straightforward animation add to the film's undeniable charm.

Says de Pins, "Winning prize money like this means you can dream, you can make plans, you can put ideas on paper for your next short. It's part of the importance of a festival. I still can't believe I won. It's such a long way since I finished my film in my little flat. I'm so thankful to the festival crew and the jury."

The other festival prizewinner is California Institute of the Arts student J.G. Quintel who earned both the Producers' Choice Award (an Apple G5 computer and a copy of Bauhaus Software's Mirage) and the Nextoons Student Animator Award ($1,000 and a copy of SOFTIMAGE's
XSI|Foundation). Quintel took home both prizes for his short, "The
Naïve Man from Lolliland," about a very gentile ambassador who totally loses his cool during a typically benign encounter.

"This is the first time I've seen my work air on television, which was very exciting," remarks Quintel. "I'm sure I'll use the G5 computer to make films for the next decade and I look forward to experimenting with the animation software programs."

Films that made it into the Top Ten category and received an additional screening in the final episode of the on-air portion of the Festival on Nicktoons included: "Anthem," PSYOP (New York); "Prey," Tom Kyzivat (Illinois); "The Mousochist," John Dilworth (New York); "Maestro," M. Toth Geza (Hungary); "Betty," Rie Ito (New York); "Oh, Dear," Jiwook Kim (Los Angeles); "Farm Force," Dominic Carola & Paulo Alvarado (Florida); and "Fee Fi Fo Fum," Shane Swinnea (Illinois).

Sponsors and Friends of the Festival include Bauhaus Software, SOFTIMAGE, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Stash DVD Magazine, Toon Boom, Your Next Tee, Digital Tutors, Animation Magazine, Mighty Fine Inc. and DreamWorks Animation.

"Our second season winners have established Nextoons: The Nicktoons Film Festival as the premiere electronic animation festival for independent animators and artists," concludes Fred Seibert, Festival Executive Director and President of Frederator Studios. "Arthur de Pins and J.G. Quintel are the original talents to watch out for in the future."

Nextoons: The Nicktoons Film Festival is produced by Frederator Studios.

About Nicktoons:
Nicktoons, Nickelodeon's 24-hour animation network, is seen in over 34 million homes nationwide. The network's 24-hour schedule features exclusive original programming such as "Corneil" and "Bernie and Kaput and Zosky," as well as a roster of hits that have defined kids' and animation lovers' TV, including "The Angry Beavers," "Yakkity Yak," "Invader Zim," "Ahhh! Real Monsters," "SpongeBob Squarepants," "The Fairly OddParents" and "Jimmy Neutron." Nicktoons is a part of the MTV Networks expanded suite of channels available for digital distribution. The new channels include MTV Hits, MTV Jams, Nicktoons and VH1 Mega Hits, expanding and strengthening MTV Networks' digital offerings to thirteen services.

Frederator Studios is America's leading independent animation producer. The company is currently in production on five original cartoons series for Nickelodeon including "The Fairly OddParents" and "Oh Yeah! Cartoons," TV animation's largest development program ever.

For more info on Nicktoons or Nextoons: The Nicktoons Film Festival, please go to www.nicktoons.com.