The Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) is an annual celebration of films, events and panels presented amidst idyllic Bahamian settings, with its awards presentation and closing night bash surrounded by the pools of sharks, colorful fish and stingrays nestled among the tropical beauty of the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort, one of the festival's founding sponsors along with the Islands of The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. BIFF showcased a slate of 60 narrative, documentary and short films over the festival's four days. The festival presents three juried competition categories; the "Spirit of Freedom" (both Narrative and Documentary sections) presented by Chopard, and the "New Visions" award going to the filmmaker in the Narrative section presented by Hard Rock Caf

Each year the Brussels Cartoon and Animated Film Festival programs the "cr

The 8th Edition of the Festival Synthesis is a festival dedicated to CG movies and animations. Last year the event had 10,000 visitors. This year's Synthesis will feature a retrospective on the work of ILM. The event will also include screenings, discussions, company presentations and product demos.

Each year the Brussels Cartoon and Animated Film Festival programs the "cr

Anima 2004 provides a showcase for the entire range of animation. The 100 plus films that are screened in the official selection, the original retrospectives, exhibitions, film lectures and workshops, events such as "La nuit anim

Futuranima, held as part of the Anima Festival, is a group of discussions and workshops centered on current trends and topics concerning animation and its many applications. Targeted mainly at young professionals and students, these four days focus on the future of animation. In setting up base at the Botanique, Futuranima intends to highlight several topics in particular: the current state of play in multimedia, storyboarding both in live-action feature filmmaking and animation, as well as in animation, relationships between comic strips, video games and animation. For more information visit www.awn.com/folioscope/gb.html.

The 30th Flanders International Film Festival has introduced a new policy to encourage quality film distribution in Benelux. Money attached to the festival

The 9th edition of International Short Film Festival "Leuven Kort" is a celebration of short cinema. The festival holds an international competition for live-action short films and a non-competitive program for digifilm and music videos. Two prizes will be awarded in the live-action competition: the "Prize of the Audience" and the "Prize of the Jury.

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/.

Anima 2004 organizers have created a new competition category for Internet films, called WebAnima 2004. The competition is open to all, amateurs and professionals alike. It is intended for any animated work, using any animation technique (e.g. Flash) but excluding live-action, and made specifically for screening on the Internet. Each entrant may submit a maximum of three works. Entries must not exceed 2 MB. From the 15 finalists, the same jury will chose a Grand Prix winner, sponsored by SPIROU.COM (les Editions Dupuis S.A.). The winner will receive 2,500 Euros, in the form of one or several commissioned work(s) to be featured on the SPIROU.COM Website. For more information, e-mail anima@folioscope.be or visit www.awn.com/folioscope/anima04/gb/webanima.html.