At ADV Films' rather grim panel at Anime Expo 2008, John Ledford confirmed their split from Sojitz, their former business partner, costing them financial support, management, and licenses.

Ledford assured fans that while it has been a very bad year for ADV, they have already found a replacement for Sojitz. He also assured them that they were in active negotiations for a large number of new titles.

They weren't yet able to make any announcements about these acquisitions, but suggested that news may be ready on that front by Otakon. Likewise, they're waiting until Otakon to announce their new business partner.

As for why their partnership with Sojitz went south, Matt Greenfield explained that things had been difficult from th beginning of their partnership. ADV faced difficulties in working in the same frame, "where everything is run by spreadsheets and so on," and as such, they realized that things were not going to work out.

ADV confirmed that their plans for a live-action Evangelion are still in the works, and that they'd pitched the project to three studios. Weta was reaffirmed to be on board with the project.

Likewise, they announced that they're working on several original productions. Their in-house dub studios won't be back to work until they've completed their negotiations for new titles, however. In branching out further, they announced that they were working with Japanese companies to simultaneously broadcast new shows in Japan and the US by releasing titles online with English subtitles.

Plans to branch out into Blu-Ray were reaffirmed, but ADV stated that they will not be able to make any progress on that front until the Japanese licensors green light it.

Greenfield admitted to being out of the loop in regards to their manga department, but announced that they wouldn't be making any new acquisitions in the next year. Their ongoing titles, however - such as Yotsuba&! - will continue to see regular release.