This weekend in Brooklyn, BAMcinématek (30 Lafayette Avenue) is presenting “Sesame Street: A Celebration!,” a series of screenings related to the classic children’s TV show, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Of particular interest to Brew readers is “Sesame Street Film Festival” which screens on Saturday, December 12, at 4:30pm. The curator of the screening, Craig Shemin, tells me that the 80-minute compilation is primarily animated and includes work by Bud Luckey, Jim Henson, Pixar, John Dilworth, Bruce Cayard, Buzzco, Derek Lamb, Abe Levitow, Michael Sporn, and Sally Cruikshank. A complete listing of this weekend’s screenings and online ticket purchasing is at the BAM website.

ASIFA-Hollywood announced its nominees for the 2009 Annie Awards this morning.

For Best Animated Feature, Sony’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Laika’s Coraline, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, Cartoon Saloon’s The Secret of Kells and Pixar’s Up were nominated.

Nods for Best Animated Television Production went to Michael Eisner’s Glenn Martin, DDS, Dreamworks’ Merry Madagascar, Disney’s Prep and Landing and The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror XX”. Best Animated Television Production for Children noms went to SpongeBob SquarePants, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, The Mighty B! and The Penguins of Madagascar.

Best Animated Short Subject nominations went to Pups of Liberty, Robot Chicken: Star Wars 2.5, The Rooster, The Crocodile and The Night Sky, The Story of Walls and Bill Plympton’s Santa, The Fascist Years.

Congratulations to all the nominees. Click HERE to see the complete list of nominees. Winners will be announced at the 37th Annual Annie Awards ceremony on Saturday, February 6, 2010, at UCLA’s Royce Hall, in Los Angeles. For tickets and information, visit the Annie Awards website.

One last post and a few more snaps from CTN yesterday:

Peter De Seve signs copies of his new book A Sketchy Past for a huge crowd. NOTE: Stuart Ng has Peter’s new book in stock and available NOW. Amazon won’t have it until March (and Ng’s copies have an exclusive signed illustrated bookplate).

Two kings of modern day good-girl art: Dean Yeagle and Bill Pressing

Jerry Beck and Lou Romano

The final day of the CTN event was as exciting as the first two. Everyone I spoke to agreed that this was a successful first effort and all praised Tina Price for creating such an artist friendly evironment. The whole thing felt less like a Comic Con and more like a party for cartoonists and animators - a great way to spend the weekend with old friends or making new contacts. I picked up a lot of sketchbooks, prints and art that I will write about in a separate post later this week.

Duncan Trussell and Dana Gould are our guest comedians for tonight’s live Cartoon Dump show in Los Angeles. We are now on Monday nights, once a month, and tonight is our annual Thanksgiving Special. Join us at 8pm at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood - if you dare!

And on the Second Day, the CTN Expo became Comic Con for animators.

Day 2 at CTN-X was wall-to-wall with attendees, standing room only panels, exhibits, demonstrations, screenings and parties. Andreas Deja drawing in the lobby surrounded by hundreds of students and pro’s; talks by Roger Allers, Bill Kroyer, Peter De Seve, Rob Minkoff and Simon Wells; a screening of The Secret of Kells and a preview of Don Hahn’s Waking Sleeping Beauty; a party hosted by Disney Animation… and that’s not the half of it.

I moderated an interview with Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (photo above: Goldman at left, Don in center and yours truly pointing to screen at right). We only had 45 minutes, but we covered an awful lot of their history and gained new insight as to why and how they left Disney thirty years ago (in 1979). Don and Gary inspired the SRO crowd with their love of, and enthusiasm for, the future of hand drawn character animation.

In an instant, a new major animation event has emerged. The CTN Expo has turned out to be a huge success. If you are reading this in Los Angeles and have a few hours to spare today, I highly recommend dropping by the Burbank Marriott on Hollywood Way between 10am and 7pm. A few of today’s highlights include Charles Solomon interviewing the creators of The Secret of Kells, Yvette Kaplan moderating a panel on comedy writing in animated cartoons, Harald Siepermann discussing character design and Ed Gombert on The World of Appeal. See you there.

First a few quick snaps:

Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells) and Donnachada Daly

Lou Romano (center) gives a young artist some advice.

Craig McCracken (right) and his wife Lauren Faust (left) look over some of their notes.

For a Friday afternoon of an inaugural event it was pretty spectacular. This was supposed to be the “slow day”, but the first day of the CTN-Expo in Burbank was a overwhelming success due to the large amount of attendees and the incredible array of artist exhibitors. In addition to the large exhibitor room, there are two rooms of informative panels which are seemingly filled at all times. An interview with Mike Mignola (Hellboy) and a seminar on Crafting the Pitch were particularly popular. The day concluded with a VIP Party which ran from 6pm to midnight.

Day two starts today at 10am. If you want to be in the industry, want to be inspired by other artists, or simply want to hang out with a who’s who of current cartoon making, check out the CTN-Expo today or tomorrow. If you were there yesterday (or today) let us know what you think of the Expo in the Comments section below.

I just found out that as part of its monthly Monday Nights With Oscar film series in New York, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present eight 35mm UPA shorts, including Academy Award winners Gerald McBoing Boing (1950) and Mister Magoo’s Puddle Jumper (1956), in a program selected and hosted by Oscar-winning animator and animation historian John Canemaker.

The screening will take place on Monday, December 14, at 7:00 pm (EST). Location is the Academy Theater at Lighthouse International (111 E. 59th Street, NYC). Tickets are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students w/ID. Advanced tickets must be purchased online or at the theater box office on the night of the event (pending availability). New Yorkers, check this out.

Last night I attended the opening of the Tim Burton exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and quite simply, it’s terrific! I’ll be writing more about it soon, but if you are in the NY area anytime between now and next April, make a point of checking out this show.

We got in a bit earlier than most folks last night, and while we were looking at the exhibit, Tim Burton walked into the room. If you can forgive the shaky phone video, here’s a sweet little moment I caught between Burton and actor Geoffrey Holder: