The Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film begins today. Here are some news and events that you should take a look at:

Premieres
Three films will celebrate their German premiere as part of the feature-length film competition AniMovie at the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film. "Terra" will be screened in Stuttgart (Saturday and Sunday at 10pm) just a few days after its world premiere at Robert DeNiro's New York Tribeca Festival. "Max & Co", the first feature film by the talented Swiss animated filmmakers, the Guillaume brothers will be shown in Germany for the first time (Sunday and Monday at 10pm), as well as "Nocturna" from the Filmax studio, Spain's answer to Disney (Monday at 5pm).
Cooperation with the Bitfilm Festival
For the first time the 15th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film is cooperating with the Bitfilm Festival. This Hamburg Festival is the digital arm of the Festival of Animated Film and for five days is showing its competition programme for this year in Stuttgart. An Internet vote will decide the winners.
Thanks to this new partnership with the Bitfilm Festival and the well-established cooperation with the fmx – International Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Digital Media Stuttgart has become the biggest meeting place for the animated film and visual effects industry worldwide. A total of 2,300 films were submitted to the Festival of Animated Film and the Bitfilm Festival. The prize money for both festivals totals 62,500 Euros.
Animation In New Media
The excitement will rise on Friday from 11am onwards (Metropol 3) at the "Animation In New Media" discussion panel which will be looking at web-based models for (self) marketing and new formats in animated film. Jonas Miebach (Shortstream.eu) will be providing an "Overview of current video portals and social networks and their business models". Thomas Schneider-Trumpp (Scopas Medien AG/Clayart) will be presenting "Online portfolio: your own website and production". After lunch Darren Walsh (Passion Pictures, UK) will continue on the subject of "Web-based marketing strategies and techniques”. Theodore Ushev, a filmmaker from California will then speak on the subject of "New formats for animated films". After the final discussion at 7pm the film programme "Animation whiz kids on the web" will be presented. The symposium will be held in English. Entrance is free for accredited visitors (registration is unnecessary).
Last few free places in the workshops. And alterations to the schedule
Music in animated film is one of the key issues at this year's Festival. A few places are still free for Nik Phelp's "Music & Animation" workshop (Saturday at 11am) and in the miniworkshop with VDJ Oof from Paris (Monday at 3pm).
Unfortunately the Screenplay workshop with Heike Sperling has been cancelled for personal reasons. There are still places available in the workshop with Christoph Simon (Film language for Animation, Monday at 10am) and – wait for it! – even in the workshop with Michel Ocelot! (The One Minute Script Class, Monday at 2pm). Interested parties can register for all workshops by calling +49-711-92546-123.