FESTS AND EVENT

Academy Reveals 10 VFX Contenders

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 87th Oscars. The Awards will be presented Feb. 22 in Hollywood and will be broadcast live on ABC. The 10 contenders are: • Captain America: The Winter Soldier • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes • Godzilla • Guardians of the Galaxy • The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies • Interstellar • Maleficent • Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb • Transformers: Age of Extinction • X-Men: Days of Future Past The Academy’s Visual Effects Branch

PASSINGS

Norman Bridwell, who achieved incredible success with his seminal children’s book creation Clifford the Big Red Dog, has died at age 86. According to an announcement from his longtime publisher Scholastic, Bridwell passed away Dec. 12 in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Martha Goldman Sigall, a walking encyclopedia of the American animation industry, died Dec. 13 of natural causes. She was 97. Sigall began working at the Leon Schlesinger Studio as an ink-and-paint girl, and in her later years became the go-to person for any writer or filmmaker working on a project about the history of cartooning.

Animator Robert Taylor – best known as the animator on Ralph Bakshi’s original Fritz the Cat feature and director and animator of its sequel — died Dec. 11 due to complications from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. He was 70.

27GKIDS kicks off four weeks of films in the Big Apple as the New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival opens. (gkids.com)