Events: Competitive Festivals

The 2nd Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) highlights films from Canada and around the globe. The festival will hand out such awards as audience favorite; best jury picked short; best jury picked feature; and best jury picked documentary. There are no entry fees or handling fees for this year's festival.

The Woodstock Film Festival (WFF) is accepting entries for its 2001 edition. Maverick awards and prizes are presented in the following categories: feature, documentary, short, animation and student film. Bill Plympton will curate and present a special award for Best Animated Film. Send preview tapes on VHS (NTSC only) with a completed entry form. Entry fees range from $25-$50. The WFF is also looking for exceptional HDTV and interactive media to showcase during the festival. There are no entry fees for HDTV and interactive material but entry forms should be included with screeners.

The Third WinFemme Film Festival celebrates films, videos and screenplays that feature female protagonists. The Women's Image Network (WIN) organizes the event. From WinFemme 1999 and 2000, five films were sold to Sundance and Showtime and several films have won both Oscar and Independent Spirit nods. Twenty films will be features in a "Best Of The Fest" screening, which traveled to six other major U.S. cities last year.

The Convergence Film/Video/Animation Festival, part of the Convergence International Arts Festival, is seeking shorts, 60 minutes in length or less. Live-action and animated works in all genres are accepted in categories of documentary, narrative and experimental. Works can originate in any format but must be available for festival screening in either Beta or 35mm and must have been completed after January 1999. The entry fee is $15.00. Cash awards for "Best of Show" are $1,000.

The 4th Annual Golden Marble Awards celebrates excellence in children's advertising. Launched in 1998, the show was founded by KidScreen magazine in partnership with seven leading industry ad agencies: Foote, Cone & Belding; Grey Advertising; Griffin Bacal; J. Walter Thompson; Leo Burnett; Ogilvy & Mather; Saatchi & Saatchi; Young & Rubicam; and YTV Canada Inc. 2001 sponsors include: Boards Magazine, Nelvana Enterprises and YTV. A team of judges will judge entries in 32 categories. In conjunction with the awards there will be the Advertising & Promoting to Kids conference.

The Krok International Animation Film Festival is an international cinema event that travels down the Dnieper River to the Black Sea. Starting in Kiev, the luxury liner makes stops in Odessa, Sevastopol and Yalta. The festival screens films that were created after May 1, 1999. The event is a great opportunity to meet artists and professionals from Europe.

Want to know what this unique event is like? Then read oTTo Alder's account of the 1997 edition in Animation World Magazine.

The first ever Georgetown Independent Film Festival will present narrative, documentary, animation and experimental films, as well as live performances and random art happenings. Entries will not be juried and there will be no entry fee. The festival welcomes submissions from all countries, in all languages, shot on all formats.

The 8th World Animation Celebration (WAC) will present awards to the best new animated works from around the world. Events include; The World Animation screenings; The World Animation competition; The Animation Hall of Fame ceremony; six one-day animation business conferences; four days of animation seminars and classes; two days of animation career planning sessions; The World Animation Marketplace and Recruitment Expo; The Battle of the Animation Studios Synchronized Swimming Teams; networking parties and receptions; and a one-day animation educators conference.

The Valley Film Festival is the first and only San Fernando Valley film festival. It is launched to bring together established filmmakers, emerging talent and their audiences on the studio backlot - just North of Hollywood. The Valley Film Festival will showcase eight shorts and eight features. Each night of the festival will be devoted to one specific theme: San Fernando Valley Specific, Foreign/World Cinema, Women in Film and Documentaries. Categories include: Animation, Comedy, Drama and Horror/Thriller. All film submissions must be made on VHS NTSC.

The 15th Annual Wine Country Film Festival highlights outstanding work in features, shorts, documentaries, animation and graduate and student films. Awards include Best First Feature (Domestic and International), Best Short in various categories, David L. Wolper Documentary Film Prizes and Audience Choice Awards. The entry fee is US$35.

Serving as the major animation festival in South America, Anima Mundi offers the Brazilian audience the best works of independent animation, the most recent studio productions and important retrospectives. Founded in 1993, the main goal of this annual event has been to present animation in its diversity of styles, techniques and subject matters. The Festival provides the audience with a wide range of open activities, including workshops, lectures and exhibitions.

LIMA, the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association, is holding their annual awards gala. The event will hand out honors to those who impacted the world of licensing in the past year. Some of the awards include License of the Year, Merit Award for Licensing Creativity and Best Brand. During the ceremony, they will induct a new member into the Murray Altchuler Licensing Hall of Fame. Cocktails will begin being served at 6:30 pm with the awards presentation starting at 7:15 pm.