The public packs into VIEW 09.

The VIEW Conference 2009 [http://www.viewconference.it/] is the 10th International Computer Graphics Conference, which started on November 4^th and will last until the 7^th of November 2009. It's held in the beautiful city of Turin, in the north of Italy, where I had the pleasure of attending this event, now for the fourth time.

Previously I have had the opportunity to tell the wonderful series of events happening at the Torino Incontra Conference Center to a magazine, a blog, and a CG portal. This year I have the great honour to talk to Animation World Network's readers.

The sparkling energy behind VIEW is Maria Elena Gutierrez who is driving a group of partner institutions, private and public sector, in investing in innovation and knowledge-sharing in the field of Technology and Creativity.

Prize to be handed out Sunday night to the Short Film Least Deserving of the Finances Wasted On Its Production. This year there are many films in contention.

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By Dan Sarto

Take a quick glance at some of the people I met up with yesterday while stumbling around the annual Animator's Picnic and later, while trying to get warm at the Arts Court cafe and Aniboutique.  Old friends, new friends, a pretty uninspired procession of eviscerated gourds. Oh, and have I told you, it's cold here? Aye?

Last year's Opening Ceremonies at the Grand Salle in the Bonlieu. Can't wait!

By Dan Sarto

My flight to Geneva leaves tomorrow morning at 7:50, an ungodly hour to begin 24+ hours of delirium shuffling through airports, getting groped by stink-eyed security drones, squeezing into airline seats designed for anorexics, all the while wondering why I’m not home asleep in bed, or watching Archer reruns while sipping a delicious Kamikazee.

Just in the last year, while traveling to events, I’ve had my laptop perused for 30 minutes by a grim-faced soldier with a flak vest, Baretta 9mm and little sense of humor, I’ve endured strange hands on my package that weren’t my own or my wife’s, I’ve set off a metal detector with a long forgotten Bit O’Honey bar in my back pocket (at least I could dry my tears at the gate with yummy nougat).  I’ve even been engaged at a customs desk for 10 minutes of banter by a policeman who went to grade school with Andrew Stanton. I never would have guessed that “Andy was a good drawer” way back in 4^th grade. No matter where I travel, my embarkation gate is always the last one in the terminal, past the mop bucket, around the corner from the dusty construction zone, right next to the kiosk that only sells overpriced vitamin water and 20 magazines with Lady Gaga or Simon Cowell on the cover.

Contrary to popular wisdom, not only is travel these days less than fun, it downright blows.

However, at least I know that after 24+ hours of travel starting in the wee hours tomorrow morning, I’ll arrive in Annecy.  Though I loathe the path, the destination is worth the hassle. 

Gore Verbinski, the director of Rango, accepts his award for Best Animated Feature.

By Rick DeMott

If you asked me whether the Annies had become irrelevant a few years ago, I, and many in and around the animation industry, would have quickly said, yes. But see what a few years have done. The Disney boycott really forced the hand of ASIFA and put them into a position to fix the problems many had been complaining about for years. Moves such as keeping Annie voting to professionals and forming the member's favorite category for the larger membership have gone a long way in bringing a sense of legitimacy back to the long running awards show.

Tomorrow is the final day for the unique CG short film animation training project created by Czech animation education group Anomalia and taught by Arconyx Animation Studio head Kenny Roy. The two week project was part of a summer marathon of animation courses at Anomalia, all taught by experts from top world studios such as Pixar, Valve and Aardman Animations.

AniFest, a traditional animated film festival is to enjoy its 12^th year. One of the biggest film events takes place in Teplice from 26^th April to 1^st May 2013. Film lovers will be offered a large selection of the best Czech and foreign film productions. At the end of April, Teplice will for the 12^th time host AniFest, an International Festival of Animated Films. The event not only offers a variety of films, but also includes a competition, which received 1400 entries from almost 70 countries around the world. The best 149 movies have been included in the programme. This year's festival is under new management, since former director Jakub Hora was replaced by Petr Šplíchal, who brings both managerial expertise and a great deal of experience of film production.

Day 1 and the contestants are already tired.

SIGGRAPH 2009 Fjorg! competition started at 9am Monday, August 3 in New Orleans. In it’s third year, the event attracted many talented animators both students and professionals.

The competition, created by Patricia Beckmann as an Iron Animator event challenges the competitors to create a short film (15-45 seconds) from concept to finish in the short time span of thirty-two hours. To make the task more demanding, distractions are scheduled throughout the day to entice them away from the film making process.

Crazy Eights creators take home the Red Baton at pitch fest.

The festival’s last day begins with Red Stick’s now-annual Pitch Contest. It might not as well attended as KidScreen’s similar event, but the presenters are every bit as passionate about their projects and after several days of tutoring from industry pros they’re ready to rock: Tim Raglan wants to turn his beautifully illustrated kids’ book Uncle Mugsy (featuring a stuffy bulldog and his mischievous niece and nephew in a Victorian canine universe) into a movie, followed by “many episodes or sequels depending on your personal preference;” Greg Farren and Jeremy Melton merge hot rodders (only their characters race spaceships, not cars), 1950’s-style sci-fi and rockabilly music into an inspired mixture called Crazy Eights; Digital Tap’s Martin Grebing presents Zap Squad, a team of adolescent superheroes (“they’re not your average kids next door”) on time travelling adventures; Patrick, a local cartoonist whose last name I missed offers Guns McMenanin, “the most bad-ass repo man in LA,” and Chris – again last name missing – does as much stand-up as pitching (“this is the most attractive crowd I’ve ever seen at an AA meeting”) while presenting two projects – Spells, a gross-out effort starring a trio of macabre witches (“mean-spirited fun for everyone”) and El Mucho Grande, Wrestler for Hire. (“He’s so big it took two women to give him birth.”)

The Festival Garden open air screening.

By Nancy Phelps

This year the sun was shining down brightly on the Trickfilm Festival in Stuttgart in more than one way.  Outside, the sky was a beautiful blue and in the screening rooms the films were as brilliant as the sun.

While the competition programs were strong and the feature films in competition offered some interesting surprises, and the highlight of the festival for me this year was the large number of special presentation screenings.

With 170 films in the competitions plus another 800 films screened in special programs and over €61,000 in prize money, Trickfilm Festival has become a major  international event.  Even though it is becoming a large festival with an audience attendance of over 50,000, Stuttgart manages to retain the very personal feeling of a smaller festival making every one of the 2,000 accredited guests feel welcome and special.