American cartoon giant Walt Disney Co. is on the hunt for
original cartoon scripts in China, and what better place to look
than the?2005 China International Cartoon Digital Art Week
that opened in Changzhou City, in eastern China's Jiangsu
Province on Wednesday.
Key events of the festival include the China International
Cartoon Competition and Awards Ceremony; screenings of Chinese and
international cartoon feature films; the China International
Cartoon Industry and Cartoon Art Forum; and the China International
Cartoon Product Market.
A hundred scripts are vying for the festival's top prize of a
US$100,000 production sponsorship. Organizers of the festival said
that Disney, as one of the co-organizers of the event, will select
the winner.
Disney has contracted to invest US$100,000 per 22-minute episode
of the winning script, which will be jointly produced by Chinese
and Korean cartoon makers.
The judging panel includes the chairman of the International
Cartoon Association Noureddin Zarrinekelk, and cartoon designers
from France, Canada, ROK, the United States and Italy.
The festival also showcases cartoon and flash animation art
works from 23 countries.
China has a large group of cartoon designing talents and
abundant art and literary resources for cartoon production. The
country's burgeoning cartoon industry earned 8 billion yuan (US$1
billion) in revenue in 2004.
The festival, sponsored and supported by the Ministry of
Culture, ends on October 5.
(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2005)