Mark Hamill

Mark Hamill Among Nicktoons Animation Fest Judges

Nicktoons, Nickelodeon's 24-hour animation network, announced that 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 Festival is the only on-air animated film festival dedicated to showcasing the work of independent animation filmmakers.

In addition to Hamill, 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, 2005 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 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, 2005. Animators from around the world can download entry forms at 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.