Int"l Cartoon Festival to Kick off August 13

A big international animation festival will kick off on August 13 for eight days at the COEX Building in Samsung-dong, southern Seoul.
About 100 animation companies from 40 countries along with 70 domestic firms related to animation are expected to join the Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival '99, a source at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said on Sunday.
A committee comprised of representatives from the nation's animation industry, which organized the event, said that the festival this year will be epoch-making for the domestic cartoon industry against the backdrop of experts from various fields including publishers, scholars, toy makers as well as cartoonists and animators allied for the first time in an international event in its four-year-old history.
Well-known cartoonists from Japan and other countries are to attend the festival under the theme 'Challenge for the New Millennium.'
Shang-bok Shim : simsb@joongang.co.kr