The 15th Annual Slamdance Film Festival, scheduled to take place, January 15-23, 2009 in Park City, Utah, officially launched its Call for Entries today, looking for short and feature film submissions in all genres. New this milestone year, Slamdance is also accepting music video submissions. Entry forms, rules and regulations are available on the Slamdance web site -- www.Slamdance.com. The early submission deadline is August 25, 2008 and includes a significant entry fee discount. The final submission deadline is October 10. The 2008 festival received more than 3,300 submissions from all over the world, but only 20 features in the narrative and documentary feature categories combined screened in the main competition, which is strictly devoted to films without domestic theatrical distribution, from first-time feature directors, working with relatively low budgets. Slamdance has remained true to its founding mandate that it is a festival "by filmmakers, for filmmakers," whereby the programming team is comprised of filmmakers, many of whom are Slamdance alumni. Slamdance will screen about 100 films in total. All film selections will be posted on the 2008 festival page during the second week of December. Presenting sponsors of the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival are Kodak and Indie Road. For the first time, Slamdance will also showcase music videos. As a year-round organization, Slamdance serves as a showcase for the discovery of new and emerging talent and is dedicated to the nurturing and development of new filmmakers and their cinematic vision. The feature competition programs are reserved for first time directors working with limited budgets, thus enabling the festival's mission to give exposure to emerging filmmaking talent. Slamdance is programmed through a unique democratic method, just one of many elements that make Slamdance a pioneering standout among its festival counterparts. Every film is programmed by majority rule by a committee of filmmakers. Slamdance alumni are recruited to serve as programmers, so first-timers are represented and assisted by Slamdance veterans. The mantra of "by filmmakers, for filmmakers" resounds at every level of the organization, and plays a part in all of its undertakings. With the renowned film festival as its core, Slamdance has expanded its ventures to include the popular Slamdance.com website, writing competitions for screenplays, teleplays and horror scripts; the Anarchy Online Short Film Competition; the Dirty Dozen Short Film DVD Series; and a $99 Special short film production project. Each year several Slamdance films have been purchased and distributed commercially, and almost all films were invited to other festivals around the world. Acquisitions from the 2008 festival include PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, which will be released by DreamWorks, JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER and TRAILER PARK OF TERROR. Slamdance films have won Spirit Awards, the Palm d'Or and even an Oscar. Alumni include NAPOLEON DYNAMITE director Jared Hess ('03 PELUCA); THE DARK KNIGHT director Christopher Nolan ('99 award-winner FOLLOWING); the Russo Brothers ('97 entry PIECES) and MONSTER'S BALL and upcoming James Bond film THE QUANTUM OF SOLACE director Marc Forster ('96 Audience Award winner LOUNGERS). Participation in the Slamdance Film Festival helped to discover these filmmakers and to propel them into their next feature productions. The 2008 Slamdance Screenplay competition received over 1,500 submissions. Winners will be announced in September. Past winners of the screenplay competition, THE WOODSMAN by Nicole Kassell and Stephen Fetcher, MARIA FULL OF GRACE by Joshua Marston, and NEO NED by Timothy Boughn, were made into award winning films. 2006 Screenplay Competition winner DROOL is currently heading into production with Upload Films, with writer Nancy Kissam also directing. As ever, Slamdance has its Park City headquarters at the top of Main Street at the Treasure Mountain Inn.

The mission of the Vermont International Film Foundation is to foster dialogue on issues of War and Peace, Justice and Human Rights, and the Environment through film and community events. The annual event is the oldest human rights and environmental film fest in the world. The festival gives filmmakers, scholars, activists and film lovers a place to view, discuss, and celebrate the finest in socially conscious films. For more information, visit http://www.vtiff.org.

The 16th Annual Digital Hollywood Spring is a leading conference for the entertainment, media and technology executives. The event will feature special events, exhibits, sponsorships and speaking engagements. More than 300 industry speakers will be participating in the event. For more information, call (212) 352-9720 or visit www.digitalhollywood.com.

The 16th Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market allows short filmmakers the opportunity to showcase their work to an international audience of distributors, buyers and producers who are searching for new talent and content. The market offers viewing areas of more than 3,000 new titles and special screenings. The 700-page market catalogue highlights the films presented at the market. The event gives industry professionals a chance to meet and work on setting up future deals. The European Union MEDIA programme is a supporter of the market.

The Independent Arts Festival offers space to exhibit, show and perform any form of creativity especially those in the independent scene. The event is focused to up and coming young artists who have never exhibited their art before. The festival also invites international, independent and professional artists to share their artwork. The motto of the event is: "Art is not boring." The festival also wants to give attention to the comic and zine scene. The event will feature a reading corner where visitors will be able to read comics and zines, and give comic artists and zine publishers the possibility to come and show or sell their products. For more information visit www.sztuka-fabryka.be/festival/.

The Florida Motion Picture and Television Association (FMPTA) is hosting the Crystal Reel Awards (CRA). The Crystal Reel Awards have been compared to Florida

From December 3-10, film fans flock to Leuven. For the 17th year straight, the International Short Film Festival Leuven offers a broad and very colorful selection of the best short film has to offer. Expect hundreds of new shorts, animation films, videos, documentaries and innovative cross-overs, selected out of thousands of international entries. The festival is a round-up of a great year in cinema, but also looks at the future. Besides being a platform for the short film medium, it also acts as a major talent hunt, where tomorrow’s filmmakers are able to present their first professional productions.

Festival Highlights

EUROPE IN SHORTS: Sundance, Clermont Ferrand, Regensburg, Hamburg, Locarno… our festival team travelled all over the world in search of the very best European short films. Once home, we go through over 2000 entries and select only forty, the cream of the crop of European shorts. The European competition shows films from over 17 countries.  In the non-competitive programmes dozens of new European shorts will be screened, in sections as "The Labo", "Short Films for Children", "Animation Nations" and "Finest Irish Shorts".MILESTONES IN SHORT FILM HISTORY: Milestones in Short Film History” is a collection of the most influential short films made throughout a century of cinematic history. It entails thirty movies produced between 1900 en 2000 that are typical of certain movements and evolutions in movie history or that introduced new techniques, procedures, styles, genres or directors. Together with the programma, the ISFFL presents a publication with the same title (Dutch-English) in witch all films are discussed.SHORT FILM COMPETITION:The ISFFL organises a Flemish and European Short Film Competition in which audience awards and jury awards are being granted. Besides the ISFFL awards the Flanders Audiovisual Fund grants 5 “Wildcards” for new Flemish film talent. The value of the prizes reaches almost 300.000 euro. The winners are announced at the award ceremony, on the last day of the festival, December 10thINDUSTRY ACTIVITIES: Each year, the International Short Film Festival welcomes countless young filmmakers and film professionals from all over the world. This edition boasts quite a few professional activities this year: an info session about Crowdfunding (organised by MEDIA Desk Flanders and SACD), a 2-day seminar about the Short Film in Flanders, a lecture by the Danish-American short film professor Richard Raskin “Story Design in Short fiction Film” and many more.

The 17th Woods Hole Film Festival is one of the premiere independent film festivals in New England and is dedicated to showcasing the work of emerging filmmakers, with a special section for filmmakers from New England. Held each summer on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the Woods Hole Film Festival is seeking film and screenplay entries. More information can be found at www.woodsholefilmfestival.org or by emailing info@woodsholefilmfestival.org.

The 18th annual Dusty Film and Animation Festival and Awards will showcase more than 100 films by students graduating from the BFA Film, Video and Animation Department at the School of Visual Arts. The program includes three days of screenings of short films, videos and animations; a screenwriters night, where professional actors read excerpts of screenplays by graduating seniors; and an awards ceremony and gala reception with notable presenters from the film industry.

Each year, outstanding achievements awards are presented in the following categories: screenwriting, cinematography, video, editing, directing, film, acting, traditional animation and stop-motion animation.

2007 Festival Schedule
* Tuesday, April 24: Screenwriters Night
The National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South, 7:00 pm

* April 25 - 27: Screenings
Directors Guild Theater, 110 West 57 Street, 10:00 am - 10:00 pm

* Monday, April 30: Awards Ceremony
Directors Guild Theater, 110 West 57 Street, 6:30 pm

* Monday, April 30: Gala Reception
Le Parker Meridien Hotel, 118 West 57 Street, 8:30 - 10:30 pm

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.sva.edu.

Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, one of the UK's leading showcases and meeting points for emerging talent, returns to Bristol's harbourside from 18-23 September 2012. Join the festival for six days packed with screenings, workshops, networking, special guests and gala events, with a dazzling programme spanning film, visual art, animation, performance and music.

The full programme is now available online where you can also find delegate passes and tickets on sale. www.encounters-festival.org.uk