The First Annual Queer Short Movie Awards presented by PlanetOut (www.planetout.com) and IFILM (www.ifilm.com) highlights films and videos by, for, about, or of-interest to gay, lesbian, bi or transgender audiences. Cash awards include: one Grand Prize of US$10,000 and five First Prize awards of $1000 in each of the following categories: drama, comedy, documentary, animation and experimental. Twenty-five finalists will be showcased on PlanetOut throughout the month of June for an Audience Awards competition. The awards will be announced and presented at a special Queer Short Movie Awards ceremony and program at Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

Rushes Post-production facility is hosting the second Rushes Soho Shorts Festival to showcase short film art. The festival screens 53 films in free screenings held in cafes, bars and cinemas across Soho. On August 3, the festival will hand out their awards. The five categories in this year's festival are: The Switch2.net Short Film Award for the best short film submitted by a professional filmmaker; The Sony ProMedia Newcomer Award; The Avid Softimage Titles & Idents Award; The Wam!Net Animated Short Award; and The Innovation TK Music Video Award. This year's list of judges include: Laurence Kaye (head of film, TV & multimedia, Universal Music Publishing Group), Eva Tarr Kirkhope (Metro Cinemas Ltd.), David Sin (director ICA Projects), Ken Ingles (director Film House, Edinburgh), Robert Campbell (Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe Y&R), Mike Cannaris (Mcasso Music), Dave Knight (Promo News), Trevor Beattie (TBWA), Adam Perry (Channel 5 Television), Gub Neal (head of Drama Channel 4 Television), Roger Shannon (BFI), Roger White (Music for Films), Patrick Uden (Uden Associates), John Hegarty (Bartle Bogle Hegarty), Ian Williamson & Jonathan Burley (HHCL), Clare Wilford and Bob Dorman (CGI Magazine). New to the festival this year will be a short filmmaking seminar held in conjunction with the New Producers Alliance on August 1. On-line screenings of selected films will air on Switch2.net.

As part of the second Annual Week with the Masters Festival, the festival will include for the first time, an animation competition. The competition, open to independent animation artists from India and south Asia, including students, offers a Grand Prize of US$2000 in prize money and $1000 for winners in each of the competition categories. This year's 10 masters will serve as jurors for the competition, and include David Fine, Piet Kroon, Gerald Potterton, Joanna Priestley, Normand Rogers and Alison Snowden. All entries must be animated in whole or in part; live-action films may be entered if it contains a significant animation component. The festival invites works completed after August 1, 1998, produced by citizens or residents of India and the countries of Southeast Asia, with an English soundtrack or with English subtitles. Competition categories include: independent productions up to and including 10 minutes in length; independent productions more than 10 minutes and up to and including 30 minutes in length; and student productions up to and including 30 minutes in length. Week with the Masters Animation Celebration is organized by Toonz Animation India Pvt. Ltd.

The San Luis Obispo Festival and its George Sidney Independent Film Competition showcases art in independent filmmaking. The competition features categories for features, documentaries, animation and shorts (films less than 60 minutes). An award of US$500 is given in each category for first place, and second and third place winners receive an award of merit.

The Edinburgh Multimedia and Animation Festival (EMAF) is set to coincide with the International Arts Festival which sees over 300,000 visitors. The event includes the participation of artists, companies, studios and universities worldwide. EMAF will feature conferences and workshops about the many technical advances in the animation and multimedia industry. Recruiters will be on hand for students and animators to meet. The festival is being sponsored by Digital Design Research Centre.

The Third BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards highlights the best in interactive entertainment. This year there will be 21 categories, including two special awards: best UH developer and the Berners-Lee award for best personal contribution to the U.K. industry. The 2000 awards will feature 10 new categories. The categories include: interactive arts, enhancement of linear media, news, factual, children's, learning, on-line learning, entertainment Web site, lifestyle and leisure, sports, games-mobile or networked, games-PC, games-console, interactivity, interface design, moving images, music, sound and technical innovation.

The 15th Animated Cartoon Festival For Young People is a biannual event which gives young people an opportunity to discover a wide array of productions from all over the world. The festival will hold tributes, exhibitions and workshops. The official selections will be screened within several programs during the festival. An international jury will give out official prizes to the films in competition. In addition, a jury made up of 11

TOKYOPOP.com is presenting the first AnimeOnline Festival. Animation artists working in anime style are invited to submit their original anime Internet works in Flash, Shockwave or Quicktime formats. Cash prizes will be awarded including a $10,000 grand prize for best overall work. Submissions will be judged by a panel of experts from the fields of entertainment, the Internet, technology and culture, as well as by an audience vote. Finalist entries will be posted on TOKYOPOP.com for viewing, voting and judging. All entrants will receive free membership to TOKYOPOP.com. Through AnimeOnline Festival 2000, TOKYOPOP.com wants to showcase the Asian pop culture phenomenon by combining the finest in traditional anime style with the latest tools for entertainment delivery on the Internet.

TOKYOPOP.com has extended their first AnimeOnline Festival until September. Animation artists working in the anime style are invited to submit their original anime Internet works in Flash, Shockwave or Quicktime formats. There are five categories in which participants may enter: Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Fighting (Battle), Love/Comedy, Shoujo (Girl's Anime) and Asia Pop Focus (Open Category). Participants may enter into more than one category and may even have more than one submission within a category. Cash prizes will be awarded including a US$10,000 grand prize for best overall work. Submissions will be judged by a panel of experts from the fields of entertainment, the Internet, technology and culture, as well as by an audience vote. From September 1-15, 2000, Finalist entries will be posted on TOKYOPOP.com for viewing, voting and judging. All entrants will receive free membership to TOKYOPOP.com. Through AnimeOnline Festival 2000, TOKYOPOP.com wants to showcase the Asian pop culture phenomenon by combining the finest in traditional anime style with the latest tools for entertainment delivery on the Internet.

The 43rd International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film helps shed light on two overlooked areas of film production -- animation and documentaries. The festival has become known for featuring many hybrid films called "animadocs." Besides the competition, the event holds special programs and retrospectives. Gold and Silver Dove prizes, with cash awards, will be handed out.