Mark Hamill Signs on to Judge Nicktoons' 2nd Annual Nextoons: The Nicktoons Film Festival

Mark Hamill Signs on to Judge Nicktoons' 2nd Annual Nextoons: The Nicktoons Film Festival

NEW YORK, June 2 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of the latest Star Wars movie release, Nicktoons, Nickelodeon's 24-hour animation network, announced today that international pop-culture icon Mark Hamill (Star Wars Trilogy's "Luke Skywalker") has signed on to judge the network's 2nd annual Nextoons: The Nicktoons Film Festival.

Nextoons: The Nicktoons Film Festivalis the only on-air animated film festival dedicated to showcasing the work of independent animation filmmakers. Created in partnership with Frederator Studios, the week-long festival showcases the diversity of independent animated filmmaking and features original animation shorts submitted by independent cartoon filmmakers around the globe.

"We are excited to have Mark Hamill join our acclaimed slate of judges for Nextoons," said Keith Dawkins, General Manager, Nicktoons. "With this next film festival, we look forward to again celebrating the talented pool of animated filmmakers from around the world."

In addition to Hamill, the slate of top-notch judges responsible for selecting the $10,000 Grand Prize winner includes, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, co-creators of Nickelodeon's hit show Avatar: The Last Airbender, Mike Gabriel, Academy Award nominee for best animated short, and director of Walt Disney Productions' Lorenzo, and Elizabeth Ito, last year's Nextoons Producer's Choice Award winner. The five judges will screen the films submitted for the festival and rate them based on the following categories: story, animation, design, entertainment value and the fun factor. The best short films will premiere in the festival on Nicktoons in August.

One grand-prize winner will be selected from hundreds of entries, and awarded a $10,000 prize. Nicktoons will roll out the festival on-air as eight half-hour episodes which will air nightly from Sunday, August 21 through Saturday, August 27, culminating with the count down of finalists on Sunday, August 28. The "top ten" special will count down the films from the ten finalists and ultimately reveal the grand-prize winning short at the end of the episode.

An additional Nextoons prize, the Viewer's Choice Award, will be selected from online votes via the Nicktoons website at http://www.nicktoons.com/, whereby viewers can log on and pick their favorite short film in the Festival. Online voting will continue through the month of September, and the Viewer's Choice prize will be awarded in early October.

Nextoons'call for entries window will close on Friday, June 17. Animators from around the world can download entry forms at http://www.nicktoons.com/ . Nextoons is looking for a large selection of short films created in any style of animation, which are 10 minutes in length or under.

Mark Hamill became an international pop-culture icon as the protagonist in George Lucas' original Star Wars trilogy. His illustrious career encompasses acting roles on stage, television, movies and video games, as well as writing, producing and directing. Hamill has appeared in various Broadway productions such as The Elephant Man and Amadeus, and received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Musical for the role of Tony Hart in Harrigan n' Hart. Other credits include the films Village of the Damned, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, the recently restored version of Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One and Comic Book -The Movie, which he also directed and produced. A prolific voiceover artist, he has performed in hundreds of TV cartoons such asAvatar: The Last Airbender, The Simpsons, Powerpuff Girls, and the Disney series Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, in addition to numerous animated features. For the Batman franchises, Hamill was the voice of the Joker for the 13-year run of the animated TV series including the features Mask of the Phantasm and The Return of the Joker for which he received two Annie Award nominations. Hamill is executive producer, co-creator and performer on The Wrong Coast, a 13-episode showbiz satire running on Canada's Movie Network. He is also co- director and animation director for Treehouse Animation on the film Revenge of the Brick, a five-minute Lego Star Wars short based on characters and situations in Star Wars: Episode 3, which recently premiered on Cartoon Network. He is currently in pre-production on the animated series Fort Franny.

Award-Winning film maker, Michael DiMartino began his training at the Rhode Island School of Design where he graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the Film and Animation Department. After relocating to Los Angeles, he took a job as a director at Film Roman where he worked for six years on the prime-time animated series King of the Hill, Family Guy and Mission Hill. During his tenure at Film Roman, DiMartino animated and directed the short animated film Atomic Love which has gone on to screen at festivals across the country, including Sundance and the Los Angeles Film Festival. The film also aired this year when it was selected to be part of the Nicktoons Film Festival on the Nicktoons Channel. DiMartino is Co-creator and Executive Producer of Avatar: The Last Airbender. He resides in Silverlake, California with his wife, Jessica.

Bryan Konietzko attended the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration. Once moving to Los Angeles, Konietzko worked as a character designer at Film Roman for FOX's prime-time series, Family Guy. He soon moved to Assistant Director for two more Film Roman shows, Mission Hill and King of the Hill, working beside Animation Director, Michael DiMartino. Soon after, Konietzko became a Storyboard Artist and later the Art Director for the Nickelodeon animated series Invader Zim. Konietzko is Co-creator, Executive Producer and Art Director of Avatar: The Last Airbender. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Mike Gabriel served as director on two feature films for Disney - The Rescuers Down Under (1991), and Pocahontas (1995). Born in Long Beach, California, he took his first animation class at Golden West Junior College (Huntington Beach, Calif.), and made his first contact with the Disney Studios when he was just 18. Determined to become a Disney animator, he finally got the chance and began working there as an assistant on The Fox and the Hound. He went on to animate on Fun with Mr. Future (a 1981 Disney short), The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective (for which he designed the supporting dog and cat players, Toby and Felicia), and Oliver & Company. On the latter, he served as supervising animator and also contributed to the story and character design. His unit was responsible for much of the exciting chase scene that serves as the film's finale, and Dodger's song, "Why Should I Worry." Mike was nominated for an Academy Award this year for directed and co-writing the Walt Disney Productions short, Lorenzo.

Elizabeth Ito graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 2004 and has worked for high-profile companies such as Cartoon Network, Mattel and DreamWorks. Her film, Welcome to My Life, has been shown in festivals worldwide, and won the Peer's Pick Award at the Cal Arts Producer's Show, and the Producer's Choice Award in the first Nicktoons Film Festival. Ito currently works at Film Roman as a feature storyboard artist on Yankee Irving. Ito also designs toys and is the creator of Mister Monster, a popular toy being sold worldwide.

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.

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.

Source: Nicktoons

CONTACT: Nicole Mazer, +1-212-654-6632, nicole.mazer@nick.com; or Sharyn Traub, +1-818-736-3613, Sharyn.traub@noggin.com, for Nicktoons

Web site: http://www.nick.com/ http://www.nicktoons.com/

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