The REEL Challenge offers $15,000 in prizes to filmmakers for videos on Copyright Here’s your chance to make a short film or PSA (90 seconds or less) about why copyright is important for creators who make a living from their work, and how the illegal copying and mass distribution of movies on the Internet ultimately hurts the creative industries and youThis contest is a chance for artists to express themselves on these issues and to win several cash prizes. Three prizes...

What follows are the short films from this weekend's San Francisco International Animation Festival that in my opinion were most fantastic and that I think in one way or another stick with me forever. I Forgive You (Pierre Mousquet, Cauwe Jerome, Belgium 2009)Played as part of the Best of Annecy Program. An animation style reminiscent of The Simpsons. Two wrestlers fight, plot turns unexpectedly and the result is hilarious. San Francisco crowd chuckled with glee. Jean-Francois (Tom Haugomat, Bru...

Since I'm a fan of Spirited Away, I was looking forward to seeing Mai Mai Miracle at the San Francisco International Animation Festival this morning.  Mai Mai Miracle is directed by Sunao Katabuchi, who is a protege of Hayao Miyazaki's and worked as his assistant director on Kiki's Delivery Service.  Miyazaki, who has received much critical acclaim for at least a dozen films and is considered the Walt Disney of Japan, is one of the few Anime directors who has managed to make films that hav...

What is it about animation that can capture emotion and feeling so well?  It probably has a lot to do with the subjectivity.  Because so much attention to detail is paid by the creator to every single frame in animation, there's a lot of room for the animator to display the kind of feeling she means to and the world we see on screen ends up being the animator's brain poured out into their craft.  As opposed to other mediums which are limited by available actors and sets, etc., animation is li...

Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, a 4 part visual representation of the Decemberists' 2009 album The Hazards of Love was meant to only be a one-time show- a backdrop for a performance of the album played live start-to-finish in LA. The result was so well received the film is now being shown in festivals. Last night it opened the San Francisco International Animation Film Festival, which runs until Sunday. Guilherme Marconde and Andrezza Valentin, husband and wife team who w...

American Theatre of Harlem is currently accepting submissions for its 7th Annual CULTURES COLLIDE Community Film Festival. This year's festival runs from March 3 - March 6, 2011. CULTURES COLLIDE celebrates the efforts of multicultural films and filmmakers and features an industry panel.  In addition to the Audience Choice selections each night, the Festival, located in the arts community of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, culminates in the presentation of the Community Treasure award. For questions and...

Today is a very exciting day!  The San Francisco International Film Festival begins, it runs  November 11–14, 2010.This year is the fifth annual.  Last year I had to miss it, but two years ago I met Gene Dietch and pondered the differences between hand drawn animation and digital, talked with Nina Paley about children's animation, and was introduced to the mind-blowing world of Encyclopedia Pictura, among other things.  That year I also interviewed founder Sean Uyehara about animation...(...

November 2010 video program online now on the Streaming Festival. If William S. Burroughs, Surrealism or Hannah Hoch ring a bell, these Dalibor Baric films are made for you: a selection of mind blowing - if not stirring - video trips with awkward wonders, magic and a fair share of insanity, all straight from the obscure world of Baric. http://www.streamingfestival.com/program/dalibor_baric.php             ...

  "The Future of Animation" panel took place Sunday, October 10, at UA Cinema 6 in East Hampton, at the Hamptons International Film Festival, panelists included Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson (director and producer of Toy Story 3), Thelma Adams (US Weekly, New York Film Critics Circle), Signe Baumane (Birth, Teat Beat of Sex), and Jim Cox (Over the Hedge, RingTales co-founder). New Yorker cartoon editor and Cartoon Bank founder Bob Mankoff will moderate.   "...

Santa Fe Film Festival Facing Bankruptcy, Shakes Up Management In the wake of past corruption scandals, the Santa Fe Film Festival struggles to pay off debts to filmmakers while undergoing a change of management  By John C Morley, The Morley ReportSeptember 21, 2010 – Over two years ago, Camerado producer Jason Rosette learned through one of his actors that his latest feature, "Lost in New Mexico: the strange tale of Susan Hero", had appeare...

CAMBOFEST, Cambodia ~ Call for Entries Continues through November 1st  Cambodia's longest running international movie event! UPDATE: For the 4.0 Edition, CamboFest hosts the long-belated Cambodian premiere of Robert Flaherty's classic documentary, "Nanook of the North" - 88 years after its release -  with the kind permission of Flaherty Seminars. Founded in 2550 (2007), CAMBOFEST: Film and Video Festival of Cambodia is one of the only annual international movie events in Cambodia ...