The Savannah Film Festival, hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design, is accepting entries for the 2009 festival, to be held Oct. 31-Nov. 7. Featuring the best in independent, innovative and influential film from around the world, the annual festival presents a full range of cinematic creativity from both award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. Features, documentaries, professional and student shorts, both live action and animated, will be considered. All entries must be postmarked by July 6. The Savannah Film Festival regularly screens award-winning films before their national release dates at the beautifully restored Trustees Theater, a 1946 cinema house, and the Lucas Theatre for the Arts, a former Vaudeville venue. Savannah becomes a film lover's paradise during this weeklong event, which also features workshops, panel discussions and presentations by well-known artists and filmmakers. Films screened at the festival have come from Scotland, the U.K., Vietnam, Australia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Israel, China, Germany, Canada, the United States and Ecuador, and special guests in attendance have included Malcolm McDowell, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Peter O'Toole, Kathleen Turner, Danny Glover, Milos Forman and Alec Baldwin. Paperless entries submitted via Withoutabox's International Film Festival Submission System are preferred. Visit www.scad.edu/filmfest for the link. Entries will also be accepted in prepaid and packed containers; contestants should submit work for preview on DVD or NTSC for Region 0 and 1. Entries must either be in the English language or subtitled in English. To be eligible for the festival, feature films must be no less than 40 minutes long, and short films must be 5-25 minutes long. Submitted films and materials will not be returned unless a self-addressed, postage-paid return envelope is included with the submission. Regardless of original format, all competition films screen on DigiBeta, Beta SP format or 35mm for festival presentation. Incomplete submissions or "works in progress" will not be considered. A screening committee will view all entries, and a select panel will choose films for the festival competition. The Savannah Film Festival and the Savannah College of Art and Design do not assume liability for damage to entries due to mishandling or poor packaging during shipping. For more information about the festival and film entries, contact the SCAD box office at 912.525.5050 or visit www.scad.edu/filmfest.

The Visual Effects Society (VES) will present a Production Summit for the greater entertainment industry on October 24th. The Production Summit 09 will convene a unique consortium of leading creatives, executives and visionaries to offer a rare opportunity to examine innovative approaches to producer challenges, technology developments and the globalization of the production industry. The one-day event will bring together the entertainment community for a day of inspiration, conversation and collaboration. Practitioners from all crafts will join together to look at the present in order to start defining the future. The event will be held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey. Eric Roth, VES Executive Director, states, "Because the entertainment industry is changing so rapidly -- on the creative, technological and business fronts -- we're bringing together all industry stakeholders to discuss the challenges we all face in looking at our entertainment future. The Production Summit will be a central meeting place of common concerns and challenges that will create new dialogue and solutions across all guilds and studios." The innovative summit will bring together an international group of directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, technologists and visual effects leaders responsible for moving the industry into the next decade. As leaders in their fields, attendees will be encouraged to not only think outside the box, but also, to reinvent the box in the process of creating an entirely new production paradigm. The Sessions will include: Through the Kaleidoscope: Three interactive one-hour sessions deliver a multifaceted examination of Pre-Production, Production and Post Production. Every component in the production process affects every other, creating an intricate, complex structure. In a vital format designed to stimulate conversation among our speakers, this three-part session brings together creatives to explore every facet of making a feature, from the first idea to the final render. Directors, art directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, visual effects supervisors and other members of the various guilds discuss the overlaps, gaps, cooperation and collaboration essential to the process. XRay: Surviving (and thriving in) the Post Production Pipeline in the 21st Century With the industry becoming an ever more complex soup of multiple file formats, color space issues, unique and incompatible pipelines, content designed for everything from an iPhone to IMAX, adding stereo to the mix, and then trying to archive all your data, post production looks more like wizardry than the last step of an organized process. This session looks at the ways studios, colorists, visual effects supervisors, and post production supervisors can work collaboratively to triumph over the challenges in moving their projects to release. Hot, Flat and (getting) Crowded: The Business of Production and the new Global Economy As our world continues to shrink, businesses must adjust to the challenges of a universal economy. This session brings together business leaders from around the industry and around the world to engage in a discussion of the cultural, technological, ethical and economic issues that both stimulate and impede our progress. VES Board Chair Jeffrey A. Okun adds, "The industry overall is currently being challenged by enormous economic constraints, and has responded by starting fewer projects. They want to do them fast and inexpensively, while at the same time reaching for the highest quality. This mandate is causing tremendous stresses and strains throughout the entire pipeline of projects. This Summit will lead the discussion on how we all will get to the future, and by envisioning the future we can begin to create it. If you want that future to be bright then you need join us at the Summit!"

GameX Industry Summit is two-day game industry conference presented by the IGDA chapters in New York, New Jersey, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia. GameX Industry Summit is co-located at GameX (Games & Media Expo), a national game consumer show and 'pop culture' festival produced by Virtual Rush Gaming and NBC Universal, designed to draw from local, regional and national audiences of game players, film and TV fans, comic book buffs and tech enthusiasts. Game industry representatives interested in responding to the GameX Industry Summit "call for proposals" can review proposal guidelines online at www.gamexindustrysummit.com and e-mail their questions and final proposals to: proposals@gamexpo.us. The deadline for final proposal submissions is Monday, June 15. Chris Foster, Design Director for Harmonix Music Systems and the lead designer in the forthcoming THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND, is the first of four featured keynote speakers to be featured at GameX Industry Summit. Foster's keynote is entitled "Stone Soup: Collaboration and Communication in Game Design," focusing on how game companies can derive the greatest potential game design result from an integrated game development team. His keynote will address methods for meeting challenges in game design, and how to utilize team dynamics, personalities and relationships to shape the final game product. Foster joined Boston-area Harmonix Music Systems in 2006. He was the designer of the iPod game Phase, before working on the ROCK BAND series. Before coming to Harmonix, Chris spent nine years at Turbine, where he worked on the original ASHERON'S CALL and was one of the design leads on THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE: SHADOWS OF ANGMAR.

Think Services' Game Developers Conference (GDC), the world's largest professionals-only game industry event will return to Shanghai in the autumn of 2009 as the definitive gathering of top Chinese and international developers. Following up on the success of its first Chinese GDC event in 2007, the Game Developers Conference China 2009 (GDC China 2009) will be held at the Shanghai International Convention Center, October 11-13. GDC China 2009 will gather nearly one thousand gaming insiders to discuss such hot topics as online game development and business, internationalization and cooperation, mobile games, audio technology, visual arts, and independent games. In addition, the event will feature a technical expo attended by thousands of gaming experts. In support of the GDC's mantra that content is king, the content design of GDC China 2009 will again be carefully and critically filtered by an advisory board consisting of the most qualified industry professionals representing the key disciplines of game development. With the goal of improving the current climate of game development in China, this year's conference will focus on four key areas: internationalization and cooperation, audio technology, visual arts and independent games. The GDC and GDC China are not affiliated with any other event operators in China. The full website is now available. For more information, visit www.China.GDConf.com.

ANIMA'09 will take place in the city of Cordoba, Argentina, from October 8 through 10, 2009. The festival is organized by the Centro Experimental de Animacion and the Secretaria de Extension Universitaria, National University of Cordoba. This fifth edition of the ANIMA will be dedicated to exploring the concept of Identity Traits. Therefore, we open the following: -- Call for entries, for short and feature animation films of every genre and topic. Special interest is granted to those films where the filmmaker's expressive intention stands out from marketing requirements; and also to school productions. Participation is open for animation movies from all over the world - produced for theatrical screenings, television, video or the Internet - with special interest in those from Latin America. -- Call for papers and multimedia presentations on the concept "Identity Traits" No Entry Fee Call for entries has been extended until July 17, 2009 Deadlines: July 3, 2009 (Film, video and television animation entries) July 3, 2009 (Papers and Multimedia presentation entries) July 17, 2009 (Internet animation entries) Rules and Entry Form are available at the festival's website, http://www.animafestival.com.ar The festival will also hold a series of non-competitive screenings, seminars, workshops, specialized forums, retrospectives, and a meeting point.

Animafrik is an animation festival dedicated to African animation and designed to promote African art and animation. Events include film screenings, an art exhibition, animation workshops and panel discussion: "Prospect and Challenges of the Animation Industry in West Africa." The festival will be held in Accra and regional screenings in the coastal city of Cape Coast, Takoradi and Kumasi, the Ashanti Kingdom. Regional screenings will continue throughout the month of October. Animafrik is hoping to offer a platform for African and Caribbean animators and their counterparts in other parts of the globe to meet share ideas to promote the art of animation. The festival hopes to evolve as Africa's biggest animation event. The festival is liaising with the International Animated filmmakers Association, ASIFA, National Animation Associations, Individual practitioners and producers from the African continent to submit films for the event. The concept of the screening is to expose Ghanaian/West African audience to various techniques and styles of animation and challenge animators and would be animators to explore other mediums. It is also to bring cinema to young people, especially children, to offer them something specifically package for their viewing pleasure and education. A minimum of 300 minutes of animation will be screened each day with daytime screenings for children. Screenings will be on country or regional bases.

eDIT The Filmmaker's Festival is an international platform for filmmakers from all production disciplines to meet and share ideas to make them better filmmakers. The goal is to advance the specific parts of the production process with a common purpose of creating better storytelling through understanding. Extraordinary worldwide filmmakers present their work to educate, entertain and inspire their fellow artists in a warm and personal state of the art environment. Industrial Light & Magic will present the Visual Effects of STAR TREK and TERMINATOR SALVATION at eDIT 12. Filmmaker's Festival at October 4-6, 2009.

Anime Supercon (ASC) is now Animation Supercon, as it returns for a 4th year to an all new, bigger & better location; the Doubletree Miami Airport Hotel and Convention Center. Animation Supercon will replace Anime Supercon as the shows focus shifts to encompass the entire animation world, and not just Japanese anime. Set for October 2-4, Animation Supercon is a three day festival and convention dedicated to Animation, Cartoons, Anime, Comic Books and Video Games. Animation Supercon will feature celebrity guests, artists, animators, writers, vendors, Q&A's, parties, costume contests, anime programming, cosplay, panels, photo shoots, live music, video games and more as it takes over 100,000+ square feet of the Doubletree Miami Airport Hotel and Convention Center. This year's event will also host the inaugural Supercon International Animation Film Festival (SIAFF) which will feature animated films and shorts from across the globe. The event kicks off at 3:30PM, Friday, October 2 and the fun continues almost around the clock until 6:00PM, Sunday, October 4. Over the weekend-long event, attendees will have a chance to meet and converse with celebrity guests and artists from all corners of the industry. Our initial guest list includes two very special cast reunions from Futurama and Pinky & The Brain. Our first round of guests includes: Billy West: Star of Futurama (Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, Dr. Zoidberg), Ren and Stimpy (Ren and Stimpy), Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd), Doug (Doug) and The Woody Woodpecker Show (Woody Woodpecker). John DiMaggio: Star of Futurama (Bender, Flexo, Elzar), Gears of War (Marcus Fenix), Chowder (Shnitzel), Final Fantasy XII (Gilgamesh, Migelo), Samurai Jack (The Scotsman) and Princess Mononoke (Gonza). Phil LaMarr: Star of Futurama (Hermes Conrad, Rev. Lionel Preacherbot), Samurai Jack (Samurai Jack), Family Guy (Ollie Williams, The Judge), Transformers: Animated (Jazz, Omega Supreme, Jetstorm), Mad TV, Justice League (Green Lantern), Static Shock (Static) and Final Fantasy XII (Reddas). Maurice LaMarche: Star of Futurama (Kif, Morbo, Calculon, Lrr, Donbot, Hedonist Bot), Pinky and The Brain (The Brain), Tripping the Rift (Gus), Xiaolin Showdown (Master Fung), Inspector Gadget (Inspector Gadget), Tiny Toon Adventures (Dizzy Devil), Transformers (Six Gun) and The Critic (Jeremy Hawke). Rob Paulsen: Star of Pinky and The Brain (Pinky), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Raphael), The Tick (Arthur), Animaniacs (Yakko), Transformers (Air Raid, Slingshot), GI Joe (Snowjob, Tripwire) and Fraggle Rock (Boober, Sprocket). Allen Bellman: Golden Age Comic Book artist for Timely / Marvel and Lev Gleason. Mr. Bellman's credits include Captain America, The Patriot, Let's Play Detective, The Human Torch, The Sub-Mariner, All Select Comics, Marvel Mystery Comics and All Winners Comics. Nakia Mann: Comic Book Artist of Zoom Suit and Codename: Power. Other guests include: Manny Aguilera (artist), Wendy Lo (designer / writer), Kill Miss Pretty (musical guests), Deleon Walters (artist) and Joel Estrada (artist). More guests will be announced shortly. For more information and updates visit: www.animationsupercon.com The convention hours of operation are: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2: 3:30PM -- 2:00AM SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3: 11:00AM -- 2:00AM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4: 11:00AM -- 6:00PM Tickets are currently available online and at select vendors. General Admission (3) Day Weekend Pass: $20 if reserved between now through July 25, 2009 $30 if reserved between July 26 and August 31, 2009 $35 if reserved between September 1 and September 30, 2009 General Admission at the door is $40 for a weekend pass. Single day passes will be $20 for Friday or Sunday and $25 for Saturday. Children under 10 receive free admission. Parents, Police officers, Fire Fighters and Military receive a $10 discount. Special V.I.P. tickets are available as well. The Double Tree Miami Airport Hotel & convention center is located at 711 NW 72nd Ave, Miami, FL 33126. The Double Tree has over 100,000 square feet of total convention space to accommodate the growing attendance of Animation Supercon. Discounted room rates for convention are available. See our website www.animationsupercon.com for details.

Anim'est, the Bucharest International Animation Film Festival, is an international competition festival organized by Estenest, a non-profit cultural association seeking to promote cartoons and animated films from all over the world, especially Europe, and specifically Romania. Official categories in competition: -- Short film -- Less than 50 minutes: Short animated films made after January 1, 2007, that has not previously competed in any Anim'est Festival. -- Feature film -- More than 50 minutes: Animated feature films made after January 1, 2007, that has not previously competed in any Anim'est Festival. -- Video clip and advertising -- Short animated film made after January 1, 2007, primarily together with existing music covering minimally 80% of the footage or a short commercial film made upon a request to support the sale of a product or service or to promote a brand, program or event. -- Student film -- A short animated film made by a student or a film school after January 1, 2007 that has not previously competed in any Anim'est Festival. -- Romanian shorts -- Romanian animated films completed after January 1, 2007.

5D|09 The Immersive Design Conference will take place October 1-3, 2009 on the campus of California State University, Long Beach, co-produced by the Art Directors Guild and the University Art Museum.

Last year’s event, which united 1,000 diversified entertainment industry professionals and students, explored the latest ideas in the practice of immersive design from such speakers as Henry Jenkins (MIT), Gore Verbinski (director), Paola Antonelli (MOMA), Mike Benson (ABC Ent.) and Sebastian Sylwan (Autodesk), among others.

For more information about 5D visit: www.5dconference.com.