Toronto’s Cuppa Coffee Animation had a lot of Texans tipping their big ol’ Texas-size cowboy hats recently when it won 14 awards at the WorldFest – Houston Film Festival.

Adam Shaheen’s animation house continues to build momentum, bringing home eight golds, three silvers, two bronzes and an award of merit from the festival.

The Cuppa-produced cbs special Snowden’s Christmas won gold for best family/children’s tv special. And the shop landed double gold in the tv commercials/educational category for its work on two episodes of the HBO Family series 411, ‘Friends’ and ‘Hobbies.’ Other first-place wins were scored in the categories of movie trailers/titles (David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ), station/program openings (Oxygen’s Exhale), television cable pilot (Nickelodeon’s SuperWhy), animation (HBO Family’s Psychomath) and tv commercial/opener (Showtime’s Movies Inside Out).

The shop struck silver in the categories of tv commercial/educational (HBO Family’s SmartMouth), tv/cable pilot (Cartoon Network’s Trevor!) and show opener (Oxygen’s We Sweat).

Bronzes were awarded in the cel animation category for Cuppa’s American Greeting Card ‘Bubblegum Crew’ ad made through Doner Advertising and in the on-air promotions category for HBO Family’s Millennium.

An episode of HBO Family’s Crashbox took an award of merit in the tv series family/children category.

*Bent over

Bent Animation is disbanding. After completing work last month on the Toronto shop’s final project (two spots for specialty service Prime), the Bent cofounders have gone their separate ways.

Mike DeArruda, Bent executive producer, has stepped into the same role at The Animation House, the commercial division of Evening Sky Productions. Technical director Colin Doncaster has joined Peter Jackson at New Zealand-based Weta, working on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And Kris Howald has returned to his pre-Bent base, Spin Productions, working in Spin’s commercial division.

‘We all left on extremely good terms,’ DeArruda says. ‘And we’ve talked about getting back together [in two or three years].

‘[At this point], we all had a sense that we were looking for different things in terms of what work we wanted. At first, it’s a bit of a disappointment, but I’m kind of glad that we caught things early enough, before we had big commitments,’ he adds.

* Two new faces at Apple Box

Apple Box Productions has signed directors Danny Boyle and Caroline Wrinch for exclusive representation in Canada.

Apple Box was attracted to the l.a.-based Boyle for a number of reasons, say executive producers Barbara Walker and Clare Cashman. They say his abilities behind the camera and in post are an asset to the production house.

‘Danny is actually quite an accomplished guy in dynamic, physical, comedic storytelling and he really knows his way around post effects,’ says Walker.

‘Not only has he got a really strong general reel, he also has a really strong kids and teens reel,’ adds Cashman. ‘He sort of has his finger in every pot.’

Boyle has helmed spots for McDonald’s, Toyota, Bud Light and Hertz, and reportedly has a knack for shooting animals (on film, that is). His reel contains work with dogs, cats and orangutans.

u.k.-born Wrinch now resides in Montreal and is a relatively new talent in the spot-directing universe. The director has seen the advertising and production businesses from many sides, having worked in post houses and as an agency producer.

‘She’s a specialist in really pushed visuals and she has done some dialogue [work] as well,’ says Walker. ‘What she is into it for is the look. She can take dv material and put it through some processes in post so it winds up looking very interesting.’

* Directors signs Van Rensburg

The Directors Film Company recently signed South African director Lourens Van Rensburg. The director (who sometimes works as his own cameraman) has a very funny reel, having shot for clients like Kit Kat, Frisco, Fiat and Hollard.

‘I think he has a really nice comedic touch,’ says Directors’ executive producer Susi Patterson. ‘He seems to have worked on good concepts and has a very present way of looking at comedy.’

Patterson believes his brand of comedy will appeal to the Canadian market and is enthusiastic about Van Rensburg’s abilities behind the camera.

‘He’s a young fellow who has done well in a short period of time, so he is moving forward in the right direction,’ she says.

* AFTRA, SAG set to walk

In what will be Hollywood’s first major strike since 1988, members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, representing television and radio commercial actors, have voted to walk off the job May 1.

On Sunday, April 16, the joint eastern boards of directors of sag and aftra voted unanimously to launch a strike against the tv and radio advertising industry.

Due to a reciprocal agreement, aftra’s Canadian sister organization, actra, says it will not accept any struck work from the u.s. It remains to be seen what effect the strike will have on roadhouse jobs coming to Canada. actra says it is instituting a process to determine the motivation of any u.s. commercial work coming to Canada, and if it can prove a job is here as a result of the strike, actra members will not work on the project.