SIGGRAPH 2008- Computer Animation Festival

August 11–15, 2008

The 2008 Computer Animation Festival presents artists and experts in talks on all aspects of production, from animation to visual effects, from shorts to full-length features, from television to movies, from art to science, from learning the history of animation to learning the craft.

Attendees will be given the chance to participate in the selection of the Audience Prize and see the results at the Festival's first annual award show – an hour of animation, animation directors, prizes, and surprises. Nightly events hosted by Pixar, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Industrial Light & Magic, as well as talks and several production sessions, including a mind-bending look into Speed Racer, a journey behind the scenes of "Cloverfield" and "Iron Man," and a glimpse through the eyes of gaming pioneers at the evolution of user-generated game experiences.

For a complete sneak peek, view the Computer Animation Festival Trailer at: www.siggraph.org/s2008/media/FestivalTrailer_051508.mov

Competition Screenings

The Computer Animation Festival Competition Screenings present the best of this year's computer animation, including visual effects, animated shorts, excerpts from motion pictures, student work, scientific visualization, abstract art, and so much more. As in the storied past of this event, these screenings represent the finest submitted entries from around the world, juried by industry experts for screenings in LA's new Nokia Theatre.

Invited Screenings

The newly expanded Computer Animation Festival adds a slate of curated screenings to the juried content: something new, something old, everything exceptional.

Festival Awards Ceremony

Since 1999, the Computer Animation Festival has been considered an official qualifying festival for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Animated Short Film award. This year, SIGGRAPH takes the honors a step further, acknowledging the nominees and winners in a fun, lively awards event hosted by industry professionals.

Nominees for this year's Computer Animation Festival Awards are:

Best of Show Nominees

• Bolides, Supinfocom, France

• Carbon Footprint, Jellyfish Pictures, United

• Kingdom Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, DreamWorks Animation, USA

• Oktapodi, Gobelins, l'ecole de l'image,France

• The Chemical Brothers "The Salmon Dance" Framestore CFC, United Kingdom

Jury Award Nominees

• Chump and Clump, Germany

• Mauvais Role, Ecole Superieure de Realisation Audiovisuelle, France

• Oktapodi, Gobelins, l'ecole de l'image, France

• Our Wonderful Nature, HFF Potsdam, Germany

• The Plush Life, Timothy Heath, USA

Student Prize Nominees

• 893, Supinfocom, France

• Al Dente, Supinfocom, France

• Barenbraut, Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

• Blind Spot, Gobelins, l'ecole de l'image, France

• Mauvais Role, Ecole Superieure de Realisation Audiovisuelle, France

Stereoscopic 3D: Research, Applications, and Entertainment

Modern 3D technology permeates everything from product design to entertainment, from games to animation, from the living room to outer space. In these talks, experts teach the foundations of 3D, from acquisition to projection, from history to the future.

The Computer Animation Festival offers four days of talks and presentations that teach, entertain, inspire, and illuminate.

Monday, 11 August

• The Process of Animation: A Three-Hour Tour

• Mummy Unwrapped: Director Rob Cohen, Digital Domain, and Rhythm & Hues Unveil Filmic Secrets

Tuesday, 12 August

• A Brief and Irreverent History of Character Animation: An Entire History in a Single Day

Wednesday, 13 August

• The Making of "Big Buck Bunny": An Open-Source Evolution

• Making of an Oktapodi

• Meet the Artists: Festival Animators Reveal the Inspiration Behind the Animation

• A Tribute to the Life and Work of Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston: Current Legends Talk About Their Mentors

• Terra: The Creation of a World, a Species, and a Full-Length, All-Star, Very Independent Animated Feature

• Building An Animation Studio: How a Band of Artists Followed Their Dream, Launched a Studio, and Started Developing an Animated Feature Film.

• Polygon Pictures: A Quarter Century of Animation

• Disney and Pixar: Two Animation Studios Reveal the Secrets of Their Shorts

• Future History: Three Inspiring Broadcast Projects Peer Into the Future

Thursday, 14 August

• Next Great Talent Search: An International Panel of Educators Reviews Programs and Students

• Making "Horton Hears a Who" Into a New Kind of Classic

• Future of Character Animation: From Stop Motion to Flash; From Keyframe to Puppetry, Industry Animators Discuss the Road Ahead

• Where Science and CG Converge: Examining the Line Between Reality and Fiction

• Flash Forward: A Forum on Flash's Increasingly Vital Role in Games, Online Entertainment, Art, and Academia

• Altered Realities: FX Guru Kevin Mack in Conversation with the DemoScene

• Fat Panda: Visual Design Development in DreamWorks' "Kung Fu Panda"

• Monster.com "Stork": Making a Photo-Real Stork in Eight Weeks

• El Tigre: Behind the Scenes

• Animation in Commercials: A Look at the Process, the Joy, and the Unmentionables

Production Sessions Panels, roundtable discussions, and conversations about marketing, behind-the-scenes developments, production-related art, digital film production, and retrospectives.

• Great Failed Ideas in Production

• Machines and Monsters: Tippett and ILM Reveal the Secrets Within "Cloverfield" and "Iron Man"

• Pursuit of Awesomeness: The Making of "Kung Fu Panda"

• "Speed Racer": How Digital Domain, ILM, and Sony Pictures Imageworks Transformed a Vintage Anime Into a Wild Ride for the 21st Century

Studio Events

Pixar Animation Studios, Tuesday, 12 August, 8 - 11 pm, Nokia Theatre Screening of "The Man Who Planted Trees" Followed by a Conversation With Frederic Back and John Lasseter, 8 - 9 pm

Over the last 20 years or so, John Lasseter has redefined the animation industry, shaping the way we watch animation and showing us the sweetness, complexities, and hilarities in the simplest and most unlikely places.

Frederic Back, a two-time Academy Award winner for "Crac" and "The Man Who Planted Trees"joins John Lasseter for a rare conversation about the passions to which he has committed his life: animation, art, and the environment.

An exhibit of Frederic Back's work is available for viewing at the Linwood Dunn Theater of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Mary Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study,1313 Vine Street, Los Angeles.

Screening of "The Pixar Story" With Introduction and Q&A by Director Leslie Iwerks and Friends 9 - 11 pm

An in-depth look behind the scenes of the ground-breaking company that pioneered a new generation of animation and forever changed the face of filmmaking. Using never-before-seen footage from the Pixar library, along with historic archival animation and first-hand accounts by animators, studio executives, directors, producers, and voice performers, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Leslie Iwerks tells the riveting story of the Bay Area start-up that revolutionized Hollywood.

Sony Pictures Imageworks, Wednesday, 13 August, 8 - 11 pm, Nokia Theatre

Saying that Stan Winston helped transform visual effects into a legendary industry is a good beginning to recognizing his contribution and his legacy. He altered the course of movies when he transformed makeup effects from latex to animatronics. His credo ("I don't do effects, I do characters") provided the foundation for a veritable galaxy of interstellar aliens, menacing chrome robots, and predatory dinosaurs. His work blurred the lines between makeup, puppetry, and visual effects.

In films ranging from "Terminator" to "Edward Scissorhands" to "Iron Man," audiences could barely discern where the actor ended and the effects began. Winston inspired legions of directors, visual effects supervisors, and artists to stretch their abilities beyond what they knew to be possible. He challenged our imaginations, inspired our creativity, and showed us worlds we couldn't have conceived. His insatiable curiosity even moved beyond the film world into robotics and artificial intelligence, in innovations that found their way from the labs at MIT to the workshop in Van Nuys. Sony Pictures Imageworks presents an evening of tributes, celebrations, clips, and memories of Stan Winston and his legacy.

A screening of a classic Stan Winston film follows the discussion.

LucasFilm, Thursday, 14 August, 8 - 11 pm, Nokia Theatre

Lucasfilm presents an advance screening of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," the much-anticipated animated feature film from director Dave Filoni and executive producer George Lucas. This event, hosted by ILM Visual Effects Supervisor John Knoll, begins with a discussion of the film's unique design and signature style. The intergalactic struggle between good and evil continues with a screening of the next "Star Wars" adventure to hit the silver screen.

Monday, 11 August

• 3D Primer: The Fundamentals of Stereoscopy From Acquisition to Projection

• 3D for Science and Research: From Inner to Outer Space

• 3D for Gaming and Alternative Media: How 3D is Changing the Way We Play

• 3D Screenings: A Visual Odyssey

Tuesday, 12 August

• Animated 3D Cinema: Imaginary Worlds Brought to Life

• Live 3D Cinema: Capturing Real-World Depth

• 3D Future: Rounding Up the Future

To find more information please check out the website at: www.siggraph.org/s2008/

Shanghai International Film Festival- June 18,2008

The theme of this year's festival has been decided as "The Power of Filmmakers for The Light of Life". The Awarding Party of "Jin Jue Award" will be simplified this year due to the Sichuan earthquake.

The 11th SIFF Press Conference was held in Shanghai International Convention Center on June 13rd. Ren Zhonglun, Vice-President of SMG, President of Shanghai Film Group and Executive Vice-President of 11th SIFF organizing committee and Tang Lijun, Deputy Secretary General of 11th SIFF organizing committee attended the conference.

During the conference, Tang first made an overall introduction of the major activities and forum of SIFF. The 11th Shanghai International Film Festival, hosted by the State Administration of Radio, Film & Television and Shanghai Municipal Government, will be held from June 14th to June 22nd. To promoting the communication and cooperation between China and oversea countries in motion picture industry and encouraging the progress of Chinese motion picture industry, the theme of this year will be "The power of filmmakers for the light of life", in consideration of the current circumstances of earthquake relief work, and in hope of gathering the social influence of filmmakers and films. In this year's festival, the Red Carpet Show has been changed into the Walk of Love, and there will be more than 200 film stars walking on it. It is said the festival will have earthquake relief elements, for example: the awarding party of "Jin Jue Award" will be simplified, and the money raised in specific sections will be used to buy cinematographic projectors for the earthquake-hit areas.

Meanwhile, this year's Shanghai Film Festival will further upgrade its authority, professionalism and easier access to common people. In organizing the major programs such as the "Jin Jue Award", "Asia New Talent", Film Market, Film Studio Exhibition and SIFF Forum, the Shanghai Film Festival is trying to make a boost to the Chinese or even the Asian film industry and take an active part in promoting the development of film industry. It is also making great efforts to make more and more people accessible to good films and have the chance to enjoy the artistic charm of films meanwhile enhance the power of the city.

On behalf of the organizing committee, Ren Zhonglun delivered a speech and pointed out the three highlights of the 11th Shanghai Film Festival. Firstly, considering the particular background of the Wenchuan Earthqake , the festival has adjusted the old major events of the past festivals and arranged a series of new ones related to the theme: "The Power of Filmmakers for the Light of Life"to represent the media's sense of mission and responsibility. Secondly, the quality of the entries and the line-up of the juries are both better than those of the past. As for the entries, by April 30th, the 11th Shanghai Film Festival has received 1090 films from 76 countries and regions, which broke the record in history of the Shanghai film festivals. Moreover, number of the films entering for events such as "World Premier", "International Premier" and "Asian Premier" are on the substantial increase. The last highlight is the host of the "Cooperation of Film and Industry Capital" forum where master filmmakers and heads of some renowned investing institutes will be invited to attend.

By Liu Jing

Full Article at:

www.siff.com/Articleen/ShowArticle.asp

San Diego Latino Film Festival- March 11, 2008

Celebrating its 15th year, the San Diego Film Festival opened on March 6, 2008 at the UltraStar Mission Valley Cinemas

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Julio Bracho and actress Lorena Velásquez at the Opening Ceremony

Foto: Jaime Muldoon [Enlace]

Jameson Dublin Film Festival 2008- Friday 21, 2008

Gianmario Felletti, producer of 'Valzer,' speaking at the screening of his film.

Photo Credit: Patrick Redmond

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Jameson Dublin Film Festival 2008- Friday 21, 2008

U2 at the Red Carpet Screening of "U2 3D"

Photo Credit: Patrick Redmond

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Jameson Dublin Film Festival 2008- Friday 20, 2008

John Sayles Gives A Screenwriting/Directing Masterclass in the IFI

Photo Credit: Patrick Redmond

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Jameson Dublin Film Festival 2008- Friday 18, 2008

International Film Criticism Panel including: Todd McCarthy(Chief Film Critic, Variety), Jason Solomons (Film Writer, The Observer), Scott Foundass (LA Weekly), Ciaran Carty (Arts Editor, The Sunday Tribune), Ted Sheehy (Film Correspondent) and Michael Dwyer (Film Correspondent, The Irish Times).

Photo Credit: Patrick Redmond

Jameson Dublin Film Festival 2008- Friday 17, 2008

Daniel Day-Lewis speaking about his film "There Will be Blood" in a Q&A.

Photo Credit: Patrick Redmond