IMAGINE: / 25th Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival15 to 26 April 2009 – Pathé TuschinskiFrom April 15 to 26, the festival will see its 25th edition. An anniversary therefore, but that is not the reason we gave the AFFF a new label.So why is there a new name? * Because the term 'fantastic' is too often confused with the more limited term 'fantasy'.* Because we think that IMAGINE: not only sounds better, but also implies an invitation to the audience: 'Just imagine that...'* But above all, bec...

The programme for the 3rd Edinburgh International Film Audiences Conference(EIFAC) has been finalised - and we're sure you'll love the line-up as much as we do. The event will be truly international: we have contributors from across Europe, and even from down under, talking about audiences from Nairn to Taipei. Papers cover individual films and entire film festivals, the past and the future, babies to baby boomers - but they all focus on empirical film audience research. Take a look at the full ...

It's interesting that Cannes has decided to interrogate the relationship between authors and audiences in their 60th year. Part of this interest lies in the much-talked of user-generated content UGC sites like Youtube and Myspace and the valuation of these sites in the marketplace. Certainly, in the entertainment industry we need to start asking ourselves how such UGC is positioned alongside more expensive and expansive forms such as traditional cinema. At CFC Media Lab, where I have been Di...