Global Showbiz Briefs: Jane Campion Returns To Cannes, SPT In Germany, The Agency Group & Maggie Simpson

Jane Campion To Judge Shorts In Cannes
The only woman to ever win the Palme d’Or will return to Cannes this May as president of the Cinéfondation and Short Film Jury of the 66th Cannes Film Festival. In 1986, Jane Campion won the short film Palme d’or for Peel and in 1993 made history when she took the top prize in the main competition with The Piano. Her last film, Bright Star, was presented in competition at Cannes in 2009. The Cinéfondation and Short Film jury is made up of five judges who choose three prize winners from among the Cinéfondation’s selection of film school entrants and the winner of the short film Palme d’Or, which this year will be presented during the closing ceremony of the Festival, on May 26.

SPT Expanding In Germany
Sony Pictures Television Networks is to launch a German version of its channel, Sony Entertainment Television in the spring following a carriage deal between SPT Networks Germany and Deutsche Telekom. The new channel will be part of Deutsche Telekom’s IPTV Service, Entertain. With a target demographic of women over 30, the channel will run dramas, comedies and movies from the U.S. and Europe. SPT Networks’ German portfolio also includes the action and entertainment channel, AXN and the animé and lifestyle channel, Animax. Both had double digit subscription growth in 2012 and are available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland via cable, satellite and IPTV.

The Agency Group Books New London Literary Division
Neil Warnock’s The Agency Group is opening a new UK literary division to be run by Jonathan Conway. Juliet Mushens is also joining as a literary agent. The Agency Group operates five international offices with 76 agents and reps about 2000 musicians, speakers and authors. Conway previously co-founded literary agency Mulcahy Conway Associates. Mushens formerly worked in fiction marketing at HarperCollins before becoming an agent at Peters Fraser & Dunlop in the UK.

Maggie Simpson Short To Get International TV Roll-Out
Oscar-nominated animated short film Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare” will make its international TV debut via Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution in more than 50 countries starting February 17 and be broadcast in 3D on select channels. The four-minute short, directed by David Silverman, features The Simpsons’ Maggie Simpson as she spends a day at the Ayn Rand Daycare Center, where employees decide to place her in a room with children of average intelligence. Longing to be grouped with the gifted children, Maggie finds her destiny by rescuing a lonely cocoon from Baby Gerald, who is busy smooshing butterflies. The film was originally screened in U.S. theaters last summer as a short feature shown ahead of Fox’s Ice Age: Continental Drift. In the U.S., Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare” is scheduled to premiere February 17 on Fox, during The Simpsons regular broadcast.

Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter