Left Lane Cartoons is sponsoring a Holiday Art Contest. All children, ages 5 to 13, are invited to submit an illustrated book report of their favorite novel. Six winners will receive art books. Entries may be sent to: Left Lane Cartoons, Box 53074 - 10 Royal Orchard Blvd., Thornhill, Ontario, Canada L3T 7R4. For more information, visit www.leftlanecartoons.com.

The Tribeca Underground Film Festival showcases works in all genres and visual forms with a length ranging from 5 to 30 minutes. Chosen films will screen as part of the Tribeca Screening Series. Fore additional information, visit www.TribecaUndergroundFilmFestival.org.

Since its launch on December 3, 2004, Alias

CGARCHITECT.COM, the leading online magazine for architectural visualization artists, is hosting of the biggest online visualization competition in the CG industry -- 2005 Architectural Visualization Competition. The competition will start with an open call for entries. A panel of expert judges will select the top 30 entries to participate in the actual competition. With each challenge the field will be narrowed until the final three have been selected. What separates this challenge from the rest is the range of challenges that participants will be asked to compete in, and the individual critiques that each contestant will receive from the expert judges. The winner will be announced at the 4th Annual SIGGRAPH 2005 CGarchitect.com party in Los Angeles in August.

The competition is sponsored by the top software, hardware, and CG service providers in the industry, with prizes totaling more than $90,000 in value. The first place winner will walk away with a prize package valued at just more than $36,000 including a brand new HP workstation xw6200, configured with an Intel

As a way to thank its customers who recently purchased Storm and/or Water FX, TutorFX.com is hosting two new competitions. The goal of the contest is to see just how far contestants can stretch their brains using the concepts and methods learned in the recently released Water & Storm Tutor FX tutorials.

Water War and Storm War prizes include: a Grand Prize of $50 American Express Gift Card, 2nd Prize of $25 American Express Gift Card and 3rd Prize of Free Fire FX & Real FX Tutorials upon release. For Contest rules and details, visit www.tutorfx.com/html/news.html.

CREATIVE SCREENWRITING MAGAZINE presents the AAA Screenplay Contest, a chance for a few talented writers to take the next step in their writing career. The winning script and synopses for the top 10 screenplays have been requested by the following companies: BenderSpink, David Foster Prods., The Donner Co., Endeavor, Escape Artists, The Gersh Agency, Hofflund/Polone Management, International Creative Management, New Line Cinema, Paradigm, Radar Pictures, The Radmin Co., Spring Creek Pictures, VH1, Weintraub/Kuhn Prods., Winkler Films and Zide/Perry.

The winner of the AAA contest will be profiled in CREATIVE SCREENWRITING and the names of the top 10 finalists will be published in CS WEEKLY. Finalists and their screenplays will also be publicized in press releases and ads placed in industry publications.

Prizes include $3,000 cash for the Grand Prize winner, plus the winning script mailed to more than 100 agents, managers and development execs who have requested it, screenwriting software, a subscription to CREATIVE SCREENWRITING and free admission to Screenwriting Expo 4. Second and third places receive $500 cash, free software, subscription and admission. Plus the top 10 have synopses for their scripts submitted to more than 100 agents, managers and producers who have requested them.

The entry fee is $40. For more details, visit www.creativescreenwriting.com/aaa.

Zango, the provider of exclusive free premium content online, announced the official launch of its Game Playmakaz Contest for independent game developers. The winning submission will be awarded a $50,000 game development contract with Zango. Finalist submissions will also be considered for Zango licensing agreements. Zango will announce the winning game during the Austin Game Conference in Austin, Texas.

Game experts Mark Long, from Seattle-based Zombie Studios and Paul Steed, author of books on creating and modeling characters for videogames, are slated to judge finalists based on overall design, creativity, fun factor, playability, stability, size, music and sound, and will make the final selection. All game entries will be played and tested by an in-house Zango Games team, and 12 finalists will be chosen for review by the judges.

Game developers can access contest rules and the contest application form at the Zango booth, March 9-11 during the Game Developers Conference at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco. Contest rules are also available at partner.zango.com/. Submissions can be sent to Zango online, via e-mail at games@zango.com, or to Attn: Game Playmakaz Contest, Zango, 3600 136th PL SE, Bellevue, Washington, 98006.

"Similar to the film industry, there is a great need for cultivation and support of innovation and creativity in the game industry," said Charles Balas, senior games producer at Zango. "In an effort to promote and locate exceptional independent game developers, we created Game Playmakaz, providing an outlet for talented up-and-comers to secure publishing deals and have the chance to win a $50,000 game development contract. Modeled after what Sundance and Project Green Light have done for artistry in film, Zango has created a way for passionate gamers to make money doing what they love most."

The Zango service provides users with free access to premium games, humor and entertainment content, and downloadable applications, in exchange for connecting them with targeted product and service offerings while browsing online. For more information, visit www.zango.com.

The Crystal Vision Awards honors the best in film, television, corporate and video production. Industry judges will review shows for creativity, originality, directing, technical excellence and copywriting and then award point that possibly earn entries either a gold or silver award. Winners will be notified via e-mail if they have won. For more information, visit www.crystalvisionawards.com.

International Open Image (IOI) 2005 provides a channel for a collective of thoughts, skills and ideas to be expressed, explored, discovered and promoted. It is an opportunity for established professionals and emerging talent to have their work appreciated by a mix of their industry peers and the wider public at large. Entries can include the mediums of photography, digital imaging, illustration and painting. The selected showcase entries will be picked for being high quality, contemporary interpretations on the theme of travel. The selected winning entries will be showcased in at an established Central London Trade & Consumer show that has in excess of 15,000 visitors a year. For more information, visit www.refocus-now.com/Pages/IOI2005.htm or e-mail info@refocus-now.com.

STASH DVD MAGAZINE will host the First Annual Global Student Animation Awards. Animation, visual effects and motion design students are invited to go head to head with their peers from around the planet as the first annual Global Student Animation Awards gear up to find brilliant emerging talent and connect them to the best companies in the industry. Students are encouraged to enter their most outstanding projects in three categories