Taiwan International Children's TV & Film Festival (TICTFF) is a bi-annual film festival founded by PTS (Public Television Service Foundation) since 2004. It is one of the first competitive TV and film festivals in Asia fully dedicated to children. This five-day festival features various "Screening Sessions" for all types of children programming, "Kids as Directors" workshops, "Playground," "Theme Countries" and "International Competition." The organizer, PTS also extended the physical film festival into large virtual educational outreach program. More than 100,000 exercise books were distributed to elementary school networks. The teachers and young students could engage in learning activities by watching programs aired on the PTS. In all, TICTFF 2006 had the largest scope of screenings and influence in all film festivals in Taiwan. Heading into the 3rd edition, TICTFF will promote quality children programming worldwide and let the young participants play and learn. The main theme will be "Magic Changes." One of the festival's most important activity is " Kids as Directors". The pre-festival workshop will assist children from ten local elementary schools to produce their respective short programs. The completed works will also be screened during the festival. One of them will receive the Children's Jury Award. For more information, visit www.tictff.org.tw.

The Phoenix Film Festival is the largest festival in Arizona and accepts features, shorts, animated shorts, student films and foreign films in both short form and feature length. The festival has repeatedly been called "the best filmmaker festival" by filmmakers who have attended. The screenplay competition offers a cash prize and studio exposure. Go to www.phoenixfilmfestival.com for more information.

Suzuki Auto has teamed with the New York International Latino Film Festival (NYILFF) and Cinedulce.com to host its first nationwide animation contest, Animate! -- La vida Suzuki, which will run through February 29, 2008 and conclude with the winning animation being featured at the 2008 NYILFF in July.

The online animation contest gives animators over 18 years of age, and who are U.S. residents, an opportunity to create original animated work with an Urban Latino feel that reflects the Suzuki "Way of Life" brand proposition, which promises vehicles for active lifestyles, adventurers and thrill-seekers. Submissions must be no more than three minutes in length and feature Suzuki Auto branding and a Suzuki automobile, such as the dynamic XL7 crossover SUV.

The Grand Prize winner, to be announced in March, will receive an all-expense paid trip for two to the 2008 NYILFF, where the winning animation will be featured, and a grant of $5,000 to produce a series of two webisodes that will run on Cinedulce.com site in June and July. Participants should visit www.cinedulce.com/ for complete submission guidelines and to submit the online Entry Form. Online animation video submissions will be accepted on the contest website.

For more information, visit http://www.media.suzukiauto.com/.

Escape Studios is hosting the Escape Awards, which aims to find the best in emerging talent. The event offers work placements at top U.K. companies, which include Aardman, Cinesite, The Mill and Lionhead Studios. Other sponsors include Alias. Each category contains criteria written by a sponsor. The skills being sought are varied and as a result these awards will appeal to an extremely wide range of artists. Visit www.escapeawards.com for more details.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) hosts FRAMES, Asia's biggest convention on the business of entertainment. FRAMES every year is inaugurated by the Indian Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting and the government both at the federal and state level participates in it actively. FRAMES is a congregation of more than 1,500 professionals from global media and entertainment giants. The areas that its focus on are animation, gaming, digital film making, special effects, convergence, motion pictures, music, radio, broadcast etc. For more information, visit www.ficci-frames.com.

Starting May 7, submissions for the 2008 BlueCat Screenwriting Lab, will be open. Short and feature length screenplays are welcome. All screenplays entered for consideration will be evaluated for narrative promise, emotional impact, original voice and personal spirit.

Based on these criteria, three writers will be named BlueCat Fellows and flown to Los Angeles for one week of intense development in the home of the motion picture industry, all expenses paid. In addition, each fellow will receive $1,000.

Working with professionals of the motion picture industry, the BlueCat Screenwriting Lab Week will focus on your goals of your screenplay, while helping you shape and define your identity as a screenwriter and an artist of cinema.

The BlueCat Screenwriting Lab will include:
* Rewrite mentoring with veteran screenwriters
* Feedback from credited feature film directors
* Roundtable sessions with producers
* Workshop with professional actors
* Brainstorming with Below-the-line Crew
* Pitching work with development executives
* Packaging and budgeting input tailored to your screenplay
* Staged readings with a live LA audience

For more information, visit www.bluecatscreenplay.com/screenplay_lab/call_for_entries.php.

Since its inception three years ago, the European Independent Film Festival has become the premier arena in Europe for independent filmmakers to screen their films to large international audiences, exchange ideas with other indie filmmakers, as well as to network with producers, talent scouts, agents and distributors.

Many of the award-winning films from previous editions of The European Independent Film Festival have gone on to achieve great success. Several producers / directors have found the much needed support to push their careers forward and find funding for new projects.

The films officially selected to screen at ECU 2008 will be judged by a panel of industry experts and will compete for an array of prize packages from sponsors Avid, Scriptshark, Final Draft, Fuji Film, My Space, Bebo and Azureus.

The early deadline for submissions is Dec. 15, 2007 and the late deadline is Jan. 15, 2007. Independent filmmakers are invited to submit their films at www.ecufilmfestival.com.

The British Animation Awards, also known as the BAAs, were launched in 1996 and are a biannual event that covers the whole spectrum of contemporary animation production in the U.K., from short films to features, music videos to student and experimental work, animated commercials, creative use of new technologies, sound, TV and film graphics, and children's entertainment. Categories are judged by peer groups and there is also a children's jury. The Public Choice Awards give the general public an opportunity to vote for their favorites in selected categories via screenings held in cinemas across the U.K. Winners receive a one-of-a-kind piece of sheep-themed artwork created by an inspirational fellow artist or animator. BAA is introducing a new category in 2008 to celebrate talented artists lending their voice to animated work. The Best Character Voice Performance award will be sponsored by The Sound Company. Interested entrants should visit www.britishanimationawards.com for details on entering and to download the appropriate forms. The deadline for student work is Oct. 31, 2007 and all other category entries need to be received by Nov. 30. Entrants whose work has been short-listed for judging will be notified and three finalists from each category will be screened in extract on the awards night (March 13, 2008) when the winner is announced. Juries are made up of experts in the animation, arts and broadcast industries.

NVIDIA and CGSociety have teamed up to offer another NVArt competition, this time the focus is on architecture and landscape design. Titled Art Space: Architecture and Landscape, this digital art competition challenges participants to create awe-inspiring architecture and landscape designs. First prize is 2 NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500 cards, and 1 week 'all inclusive' holiday valued at $10,000 (USD). Second prize is NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500, and a $500 (USD) American Express Gift Card. Third prize is NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500, and a $500 (USD) American Express Gift Card. Entrants must be members of CGTalk or CGSociety. The entry process will walk you through a free signup if you are not already registered. For details, visit http://events.cgsociety.org.

Aubagne International Film Festival supports the young cinematographic creation and musical creation related to picture. The festival has a feature and shorts competition. For features, the event screens first and second films of any genre that feature original music. For short films, the event screens first, second and third works running less than 30 minutes of any genre as long as the film presents original music or a particular treatment of the sound. For more information, visit www.cineaubagne.com.