The Melbourne International Student Animation Festival (MISAF) is being organized by the Melbourne Animation Posse in partnership with Cinemedia specifically to showcase the best of student animation from around the world. A jury will select the films to go forward into the competition screenings. Tapes of all films (including those not selected for competition screenings) will be available on request to festival-goers who wish to view them on a monitor in the festival lounge. All MISAF screenings are from tape rather than film print. All selected films will receive a certificate. Additionally they are also eligible for "Best of Programme" and "Best of Festival" awards. All submission tapes will be retained by MISAF as part of an on-going archival resource for Australian animators.

Flickerfest is a short film festival that travels to various cities around Australia. Starting with a 7-day event in Sydney the event will take place in Kempsey, Canberra, Scone, Sawtell, Darwin, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Alice Springs and Byron Bay. The festival, now in its third year, has screened to audiences of over 10,000 people. Every year Flickerfest presents special programs of short films that showcase the work of specific regions.

The Australian Effects & Animation Festival is dedicated to the arts and creation of visual effects and animation. Australian visual effects guru Karen Ansel will be honored during the event. She has worked on such films as NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS, FLUBBER, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME and THE MASK. The annual AEAF Awards night will occur on Tuesday, February 27 where industry professionals will be awarded for excellence in their fields. For the first time ever, the AEAF 2001 Flash Animation Festival will highlight the best in animation created in Flash. Tim Alexander from Industrial Light & Magic will give a discussion on the water effects that went into THE PERFECT STORM. Ken Beilenberg, visual effects supervisor at PDI, will be discussing the company's work on their new 3D feature SHREK. From the U.K., Mark Coleran of Useful Companies at the renowned Pinewood Studios will look at the live computer graphics utilized to create Lara Croft's highly anticipated first feature film, TOMB RAIDER.

The Melbourne International Animation Festival is a non-competitive international festival showcasing Australian and Melbourne animation. The festival will be comprised of the best of the world's most recent animation, retrospectives, kid's films, other specialized screenings, a small number of animated feature length films, talks and other events around the city. Submissions are welcomed and all films will be selected by a jury.

Silicon Pulp animation gallery is celebrating Katsuhiro Otomo's anime opus, AKIRA, with Akira! Akira! Akira!, an exhibition of rarely seen artwork, merchandise, manga and more. Produced in 1988 and based on his cyber-active manga classic of the same name, Otomo's groundbreaking film is the best known and arguably still the best anime to emerge from Japan. The two-hour epic took over one billion yen, 2,200 shots and 160,000 animation cels to make - more than twice the number used in most Hollywood feature-length animation at the time. Akira! Akira! Akira! features over 50 original cel artworks, plus posters, uncut card sets, lobby cards, comics & book editions, and a wide assortment of related merchandising, including such rarities as an original program & flyer from opening night in Japan '88, a set of German & Spanish lobby cards and a Thai theatre poster. The exhibition will also feature an Akira-inspired installation by Italian artist Ludovica Gioscia on the theme of telekinesis - the ability to move objects through force of will alone. By combining the film's soundtrack with digital footage projected on a plasma screen, the installation transforms simple movements into telekinetic exercises.

The Australian Effects & Animation Festival 2002 is a unique opportunity for Australians to learn the creative and technical secrets behind some of the biggest VFX/animation projects from Hollywood and around the world. It provides an exclusive access pass to the leading personalities in the global VFX and animation community. BLOCKBUSTER SESSIONS Leading industry figures from Australia, New Zealand, the US and the U.K provide the lowdown on projects such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Ice Age, Band of Brothers, Moulin Rouge & more .... A dedicated screening room will be running the greatest animation and VFX work from around the world throughout AEAF 2002: the latest and the greatest from industry pioneers such as ILM, Blue Sky VFX and Cinesite along with all the entries submitted to the AEAF Awards 2002. AWARDS NIGHT & PARTY The AEAF Awards are Australia's peak industry awards, recognising and rewarding excellence and creativity in 12 categories of competition. Now in its seventh year the AEAF Awards attract entries from Australia and all around the world. All the finalists will be screened at the prestigious Awards night on February 27, 2002 followed by a gala party

The Melbourne International Student Animation Festival (MISAF) contains six competitive sessions of the cream of local and international student and first-time films, as well as a special retrospective focus on the incredible work that has come out of the Royal College of Art in the UK over the last 15 years and concludes with a best of session on the Sunday night.

Films will be screened on Betacam tape in the pristine projection facilities of the Treasury Theatre.

The Melbourne International Animation Festival (MIAF) 2002 will screen the best of the worlds most recent short animated films in six competitive sessions, as well as a best of Australian panorama, kids sessions, digital animation, Japanese anime, best of student work, retrospectives and other specialised screenings winding up on the final night with a best of the festival.

Entries are open to all animated films made since 1999. Please refer to the website for downloadable entry forms and regulations.
Entry deadline: April 25th.

AusFest 2002 is the inaugural Australian Digital & Video Film Festival. Films will be selected for screening that successfully tell an entertaining, thought-provoking or moving story, and the audience will be asked to award their favourites.

Categories include:

Features,
Shorts,
Music Videos,
Documentaries,
Extreme Sport,
Animation and
High School.

All submissions are free, and films must have been shot on a digital or video medium.

Aspiring Spielbergs! Here's your chance to show your film in major cinemas around Australia and the UK and at the same time raise money for The Big Issue who help the homeless and unemployed. The Festival is being held in November at Sydney's Valhalla, Melbourne's Cinema Nova, the Judith Wright Centre in Brisbane, Mercury cinema in Adelaide and the North of the UK for the sister festivals. There are 4 categories of entry:- Animation, Documentary, General and Novice.

For Australia the entry deadline is October 11, 2002, so get your crazy, wacky, serious or bizarre ideas onto film or DV!!!! The Festival will also show previously made films that meet the criteria. The Big Issue Film Festival is also a wonderful way to have professionals in the industry see your films. Submissions can be as short as 30 seconds but no longer than 10 minutes and a homeless or unemployed character/person or the words ``what's the big issue?'' must appear somewhere in the film.

For more information email: bigissuefilmfest@hotmail.com Entry forms will soon be posted on www.bigissue.org.au