The 11th edition of Milano Film Festival will be held next September in Milan, at the Piccolo Teatro and Castello Sforzesco. The event features two International Competitions open to feature and short films of any genre, language, running time and format, provided that they have been produced after Jan. 1, 2005.

The festival stands out for its continuous and careful attention to young and talented filmmakers from all over the world that are able to experiment with genres, languages, techniques and formats and offer therefore an always wider view

AutoWeek Design Forum has leading design professionals share creative insights and industry trends with hundreds of automotive and non-automotive professionals and students. In a keynote address, John Lasseter will offer a behind-the-scenes look at THE INCREDIBLES and a sneak peek at Pixar's eagerly-anticipated CARS, scheduled for release in June 2006. The event takes place at the Riverview Ballroom, Cobo Conference/Exhibition Center and runs from 8:00 am - 8:30 pm. For more information, visit www.autoweek.com/designforum.

The 12th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books event celebrates and animates the written word through panel discussions, poetry readings, cooking demonstrations, book signings and music. The festival affords book lovers the chance to meet bestselling authors, publishers and other literary figures. The hundreds of exhibitor booths, stage events and popular children's characters keep it entertaining for all ages. Admission is free, but tickets are required to attend author-panel discussions and lectures because of limited seating. Free tickets will be available at all Ticketmaster locations in Southern California. The two-day takes place April 28, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, and April 29, from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm, on UCLA's campus. General event information about the festival is available at www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/ or by calling 1-800-LA TIMES, ext. 7BOOK.

RFX is hosting its annual technology BBQ, featuring free training, product debuts and a chance to meet developers. Below is a list of attending companies: * Alias - Maya 7 & Motion Builder 7, talk with Senior Application Engineers. * Apple - Shake 4, meet Developers and Support Team. * The Pixel Farm - Debut of PFClean (dust removal and clean-up tools), also PFTrack (3D tracking) PFPlay (2k playback). See Shake/PFTrack/Maya workflow. * The Foundry - Furnace 3 Debut Meet with the Developers. * mental images - mental ray + FREE TRAINING meet experts from mental images. More info on training here. * Next Limit - Real Flow + FREE TRAINING talk to fluid dynamics experts. More info on training here. * Silhouette - Debut of Roto with 2D paint. * Cirque Digital - GDI Explorer (asset management). * WaveGen - Textureloader Pro for Maya. * The Gnomon Workshop - Training DVD's. * Pixologic - Zbrush - 3D modeling RSVP to rsvp@rfx.com, including your name, company, email, phone and street address. The event will run from 12:30

The 12th annual Sedona International Film Festival & Workshop is a four-day festival featuring more than 125 films, including features, documentaries, shorts and animation. The Frank Warner Workshop brings Academy Award-winning, industry professionals to Sedona to teach, inspire and share their knowledge with the next generation of filmmakers. Students get an once-in-a-lifetime chance to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the industry

Flashforward presents the 12th Flash Film Festival, an online competition and live awards ceremony as part of the Flashforward Conference. The selected finalists come from Argentina, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, the Slovak Republic, the U.K. and the United States. The Festival jury of 30 Flash artists and experts will choose the winners in each of the Festival's 15 categories, including Application, Art, Cartoon, Commerce, Educational, Experimental, Game, Motion Graphics, Navigation, Original Sound, Story, Technical Merit, 3D, Typography and Video. Voting for the People's Choice Award is open to the Internet public through June 28 on the Flashforward site at http://www.flashforwardconference.com/peopleschoiceform.asp. The results of this 16th award will also be announced July 8, the evening of the Flash Film Festival in New York City. For more information, visit http://www.flashforwardconference.com/, e-mail registration@flashforwardconference.com or call (877) 4-FLASH-4 (1-877-435-2744) in the U.S. and Canada or (805) 640-6679 outside the U.S. and Canada.

12th International Film Festival "ETIUDA&ANIMA 2005" will feature an international student and short film competition. The following prizes will be awarded at

The 12th edition of Milano Film Festival collects and selects short and feature films from all over the world and is open to films of any genre, running time, language and format, provided that they have been produced after Jan. 1, 2006.

The call for entries for the State (T)error season is open to works of any language, format and length, produced even before Jan. 1, 2006. The submission deadline is May 31, 2007. Stories depicting crimes, injustice and massacres, committed under the banner of democracy, freedom, security or religion. Terrorism as a strategy of so-called democratic governments. A deliberate, organized, thoroughly planned terrorism consisting in warfare actions, ban on dissent and slanted news coverage. These are the main characteristics of this out-of-competition season, that the festival presents in 2007 for the third year in a row.

The film project will be further enhanced, as a result of a year of commitment in the search for and distribution of films from all over the world. Special consideration will be paid to filmmakers depicting unknown stories and cultures, to independent productions that are usually ignored by commercial circuits. In particular, the aim is to focus on those countries that manage to produce films despite their economic, political and social difficulties. Furthermore, larger participation of feature films will be encouraged.

For more information, visit www.milanofilmfestival.it.

For the first time, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will include "The Comix Strip," an entire section of the popular event dedicated to showcasing comics, graphic novels and manga. "The Comix Strip" will feature booths from prominent comic book publishers, retailers, and distributors as well as the inimitable writers and artists who create these hip and unique works. Comix Strip-related programming will include a special Festival panel to be hosted by LOS ANGELES TIMES pop culture writer, Geoff Boucher, entitled "Comics: Superheroes of the Page and Screen." Panelists include Jeph Loeb, co-executive producer of the smash TV hit HEROES and writer for some of the industry's most well-known characters, including Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America and Wolverine; Mike Mignola, creator of HELLBOY; and Steve Niles, creator of the 30 DAYS OF NIGHT graphic novel franchise. Other panels include "Reading Manga: A Japanese Phenomenon Comes to America," and "Graphic Novels: Every Picture Tells a Story." Additional comic book luminaries are slated to participate in autograph sessions at booths throughout the weekend. Image Comics, Boom! Studios, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Animation Magazine, and Animal Army Comics are among the list of exhibitors. More than140,000 attendees are expected this year, as the festival brings together a cool, eclectic and family-friendly line-up of talent, storytellers, celebrities, musical performances and literary giants. The Festival will be held April 26 and 27 on the UCLA campus. General event information can be found at http://latimesfestivalofbooks.com/ or by calling 1-800-LA TIMES, ext. 7BOOK. Admission is free, but tickets are required to attend author/panel discussions and lectures. Because seating at these events is limited, tickets will be made available for a $.75 per ticket fee at Ticketmaster.com and through select Ticketmaster locations in Southern California beginning at Noon on April 20 and until capacity has been reached.

Flashforward and the Flash Film Festival are the world's first and largest gathering of Flash users. The event has more than 70 confirmed speakers, which include digital and design visionaries Matthew Carter, legendary type designer; Stefan Sagmeister, renown graphic designer; Laurence Lessig, digital rights attorney; and Ze Frank, Website humorist and developer. Flashforward, created by lynda.com and United Digital Artists, and sponsored by Macromedia, the creator of the Flash application, is the world's premier Flash event, and has been attended by more than 20,000 Flash developers and designers. The San Francisco conference, the 13th Flash event in five years, features three jam-packed days of workshops, seminars, technology showcases, exhibitions, networking receptions and the Flash Film Festival, honoring the best Flash creations in 15 categories including animation, video, 3D, original sound and art. For more information, visit www.flashforwardconference.com.