The Maui Film Festival highlights life-affirming and compassionate features, shorts, documentaries animation and screenplays. Festival venues include under-the-stars Celestial Cinema, the 1,200 seat state-of-the-art Castle Theater and the oceanside open-air SandDance Theater. Special events will include Silversword Lifetime Achievement Award, filmmakers panels, Spirit of Aloha Audience Awards, a midnight VIP cruise, Taste of Wailea and opening/closing galas.

The Maui Film Festival prides itself on the presentation of life-affirming,
compassionate and transformative storytelling in exemplary films and digital cinema.
Features, shorts, documentaries and animation are accepted, as well as screenplays.
Special Events include: Silversword Lifetime Achievement Award, Filmmakers Panels,
Spirit of Aloha Audience Awards, Midnight VIP Cruise, Taste of Wailea and
Opening/Closing Galas.

A video festival for music, fiction and documentary films under 26 minutes.

Early deadline for entries: December 17, 1999.



The Nashville Independent Film Festival (NIFF) will showcase the best in independent film and video featuring premiere screenings of award winning works, seminars, panel discussions and guest appearances by nationally recognized film/video makers. The festival is one of the few Academy Award qualifying festivals for animation. Adding to the Feature, Animation, Documentary, Short Film and Young Filmmaker categories, the festival has opened up some new categories this year: Television Pilot/Episodic Television, and Family and Children Films. Entry fees range from $10 to $50.

The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) will host a three-part multi-disciplinary exhibition titled "RISD FILM: A Celebration of Contributions to the Film Industry." Curated by Burleigh Smith, head of the Film Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, "RISD FILM" will feature works by such noted RISD alumni as Gus Van Sant '75, Martha Coolidge '68, Mary Lambert '74, Bob Richardson '79, Jean De Segonzac '75 and Seth MacFarlane '95. The event will include an invitational afternoon event for industry executives, agents, managers and media; an evening fundraising event at the DGA on June 8; and a special public screening at Santa Monica College on June 10. The afternoon exhibition at the DGA will be 6 hours in its entirety, divided among the three screening rooms by animation/features, advertising/television/music videos and shorts/independents. The industry screening is scheduled from 2 - 5 pm. The fundraiser's festivities on Thursday evening from 7 - 10 pm will feature a compilation screening of selected works from the exhibition. MacFarlane, whose senior thesis at RISD evolved into the current version of FAMILY GUY, of which he is creator and executive producer, will serve as Master of Ceremonies. All proceeds from this event will be used for scholarships for film, animation and video students at RISD.

The Nantucket Film Festival is dedicated to screenwriters. The event will feature film screenings, staged readings, morning chats with writers, panel discussions, forums and an awards ceremony for best writer, feature and short. This year screenwriter Paul Schrader (TAXI DRIVER, MISHIMA) will be honored. The sponsors for the event are Entertainment Weekly, NBC, Showtime, iCast and Listerine.

In its 17th year, the Showbiz Expo and Conference is a major spot for companies to showcase their production products and discuss the future of the entertainment industry. Among this year's seminars will be "Digital Hollywood: Bringing Entertainment Project Management into the New Millennium." The event will be hosted by Creative Planet and feature a look at how new technology will transform the efficiency of entertainment production. Another seminar of interest is "Storyboards For People Who Can't Draw." The discussion will be lead by James O. Fraioli, the author of STORYBOARDING 101. On Saturday, the expo will hold "Compositing Live-Action and Animation." The seminar will be moderated by Mark Simon, author of STORYBOARDS: MOTION IN ART and owner of AARGH! Animation Inc. On Sunday, there will be a seminar entitled "Live-Action Special Effects." Various other seminars will center on production, direction, scriptwriting and much more.

DancesWithFilms is a competitive event featuring a line-up of more than a dozen full-length narrative films and sixteen narrative shorts. DWF's mission is to open a venue for new and upcoming filmmakers to present their work without the fear of politics overshadowing their screen time. The criteria for entries are: 1. Is the person attached able to raise financing (even small sums) at any point based solely on the "name"? 2. Is the person attached able to open doors that might otherwise stay closed? (They do not exclude "working" persons in the industry.) The film must have been completed no later then January 1998.

The 8th International Short Film Festival Curtas Metragens celebrates works in animation, documentaries and fiction. All works submitted must be under 60 minutes in length. The festival gives grand prize awards in each of the three categories and honourable mentions that are selected by the jury. Awards are also given to best Portuguese film and young Portuguese filmmaker. An audience prize will be given by the votes of the attendees.

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.