Design Festa is a biannual international art event, started in 1994. It is open to all artists from all over the world to exhibit their creative talent freely. 7,000 artists working in a variety of mediums will be present, turning the two day event into artistic chaos. There will be booth areas(2,600 booths), an outdoor live-show stage, an indoor stage, a mini-theater space and a restaurant and cafe/bar area, all for your enjoyment during these two days filled with art, energy, excitement and discovery.

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF 05) is North America's oldest and largest animation festival. The festival is broken up into four umbrella categories. The first is for animated feature films. The New Media Competition covers Animation Short Made for the Internet, Internet series, interactive animation and "Machinima," films made with videogame software. Commissioned Films Competition covers educational, scientific or industrial film, advertising film, station-program identification, music video, television special, television pilot, television series for adults and television series for children. Independent Short Films Competition covers narrative short film under 35 minutes, non-narrative short film under 35 minutes, first film and films made for children. Founded in 1976, and held biennially ever since, the OIAF attracts international animators, producers, broadcasters, and enthusiasts to Ottawa to view films entered in and out of competition, and attend special screenings and workshops that ponder the current state and future of animation. For more information, visit www.animationfestival.ca or www.awn.com/ottawa, e-mail info@animationfestival.ca or call (613) 232-8769.

Design Festa is an international art event open to all artists from all over the world to exhibit their creative talent. Anyone who has original work can take part and express themselves through this freestyle event. There are no restrictions. Express your ideas at Design Festa for an opportunity at experimentation and the next step in your artistic lives. About 7,000 artists attended last time with more than 55,000 visitors.

2,600 booths will be set up in the event hall. This free-style exhibition is open to all mediums for exhibition, presentation and sale. There is also a dimmed lighting area for exhibiting work requiring low lighting. This space gives you the freedom to have an unprecedented style of exhibition, with multimedia work, light orientated art, performance, installation, space design and more.

Outdoor Live-show Stage:
Twenty bands will roll out performances ranging from rock to funk and jazz more.

Indoor Stage:
Fashion shows, performance, contemporary dance and more. All genres are welcome.

Mini-Theater Space:
Multimedia work and performance in the dimmed lighting area. Spotlight your independent work.

On February 11, 2009 at 7 p.m., the Kinetic Cinema screening at Chez Bushwick will feature a wide-variety of dance and movement animation videos. Curated by Doug Fox, blogger and founder of Great Dance, the program will show how directors, artists, choreographers and dancers have used different animation styles and techniques to capture, illustrate and transform human movement. The program will feature 15 clips from video and film animations, theatrical movie releases, TV commercials, music videos, performances and installations, and student projects. Among the highlighted animation techniques will include hand-drawn 2D animation, 3D animation, live-action and computer graphics, stop-motion, rotoscoping, motion graphics, real-time performance animation, machinima and other animation styles. This program builds on Fox's online guide to "50 Dance and Movement Animations," which he published in January 2009 on GreatDance.com. He has interviewed many of the artists, animators, directors, choreographers and dancers who participated in the production of the videos which will be screened and he will share insights from these conversations during the Q&A section of the program. Date/Time: February 11, 2009 7-9 p.m. Tickets: $10 at the door, no reservations. Location: Chez Bushwick, 304 Boerum St., Buzzer #11, Brooklyn, NY 11206. Phone: 718.418.4405 Web: www.chezbushwick.net Trains: L to Morgan Street Directions: Exit back of the train. Turn LEFT outside the station. Turn LEFT onto Boerum Street. The screening portion of the program will be just over an hour and discussion will follow. The following dance animation videos will be screened: BALLET DANCER WARM-UPS (2007) -- 1:13 minutes 2D animator Susan Chien, for a life-drawing class at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, created a hand-drawn animation with a stop-motion feel that captures the movements of a human model. BODY NAVIGATION (2008) -- 8:08 minutes Recoil Performance Group's dance installation with real-time, interactive graphics, premiered in Copenhagen as part of Danish Dance Theatre's LABYRINTH. Choreography by Tina Tarpgaard, and visual and interaction design by Ole Kristensen and Jonas Jongejan. Chandon -- AFTER PARTY (2007) -- 34 seconds A combination of live action and computer graphics were used in this TV commercial featuring a Tango-dancing wireframe couple constructed from a champagne bottle cap. Produced by advertising agency Dentsu America. CSI: NY -- "SECOND LIFE Virtual Experience" (2007) -- 1:47 minutes Nightclub dancing scene from CSI: NY. Machinima pioneers ILL Clan produced the in-world animations for CBS where a killer is tracked in the SECOND LIFE virtual world. EN TUS BRAZOS (2006) -- 5:20 minutes A 3D narrative-based animation about a tragic accident that befalls a great Tango dancer of the 1920s. Direction and animation: François-Xavier Goby, Matthieu Landour and Edouard Jouret. FEET OF SONG (1988) -- 5:27 minutes Inspired by African music and art, U.K.-based 2D animator and dancer Erica Russell, who grew-up in South Africa, explores rhythms, colors and moving forms. GHOSTCATCHING (1999) -- 7:10 minutes Digital artists Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar composed this 3D animation based on the captured movement and sound phrases of choreographer Bill T. Jones. This art installation premiered at The Cooper Union School of Art. HUMAN SKATEBOARD (2007) -- 32 seconds A stop-motion TV commercial created for Sneaux Shoes by animation and video production company PES. Sneaux fans are encouraged to create and share their own stop-motion skateboarding adventures. ILLUMINATED (2007) -- 4:13 minutes Animator Kevin Abbott modeled a 3D metallic character that moves to the motion-captured sequence of dancer David Curwen. Created and performed at Western Michigan University. "Joinville Dance Festival Promotion" (2008) -- 30 seconds 3D animated video promotion for dance festival in Brazil. Design and characters inspired by illustrations of dance steps in teaching magazines. Direction: Frederico Freire, animation: Magno Borgo. KINETICS (2008) -- 2:53 minutes Chicago-based visual designer Nicholas Schrunk produced this video that features the interplay of motion graphics and the break dancing of Damion "Daylight" Day, recorded with a high-speed video camera. MR.

The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences (AMAS), an organization that provides advocacy, education and community building awareness for the entertainment medium known as Machinima: the art or technique of filmmaking using real-time 3D virtual environments, has teamed up with NVIDIA

CSU Animation and Visual Effects present the fifth Australian International Animation Festival 2008. This year they have secured amazing exclusives from more than 2,200 submissions from 30 countries.

The international programs will give audiences a complete, up-to-date snapshot of the international creative animation scene. In addition are programs that focus on digital animating, puppet films and Australian-made films. There will be kids, high school aged-programs, and even a "Late Night Bizarre: program for those whose tastes are on the extreme. There will also be a series of free talks and workshops given by filmmakers from all over Australia to provide a chance to learn more about how and why these films get made. Door-prizes include Adobe, Autodesk, Wacom and HP products.

Venue: Forum 6 Cinema
Cost: $10 Single Session or $30 Full Festival Pass

Friday May 16 schedule: High School/Teen Program, International Program #1, International Puppet Animation Panorama, Launch Party

Saturday May 17 schedule: Kids Program, Seminar: Animation Now! International Animation Overview, Seminar: The State Of Australian Animation, Australian Panorama, International Program #2, Late Night Bizarre

Sunday May 18 schedule: Seminar: "Voice Wrangling," Seminar: D.I.Y. Art + D.I.Y. Funding 2.0, International Program #3, Digital Panorama, After Party.

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF 04) is North America's oldest and largest animation festival. The festival is broken up into four umbrella categories. The first is for animated feature films. The New Media Competition covers Animation Short Made for the Internet, Internet series, interactive animation and "Machinima," films made with video game software. Commissioned Films Competition covers educational, scientific or industrial film, advertising film, station-program identification, music video, television special, television pilot, television series for adults and television series for children. Independent Short Films Competition covers narrative short film under 35 minutes, non-narrative short film under 35 minutes, first film and films made for children. The changes for 2004 include an expanded range of new media categories -- growing from one generic to four sub-categories -- and additional TV categories. Traditionally shown out of competition as a program enhancement, the feature film category was first introduced at the last OIAF held in 2002, and is expected to draw even more entries this time around. Overall, a record 1,700 entries were received for OIAF 02, the most entries ever received by any international animation festival. Approximately 100 more films, selected from an anticipated 1,500+ entries, will be shown during the festival's showcase programs. The International Short Showcase, the International TV Showcase, the Canadian Short Showcase, the Canadian TV Showcase and the first-ever Kids Animation Showcase will comprise this out-of-competition series. Founded in 1976, and held biennially ever since, the OIAF attracts international animators, producers, broadcasters, and enthusiasts to Ottawa to view films entered in and out of competition, and attend special screenings and workshops that ponder the current state and future of animation. For more information, visit www.animationfestival.ca or www.awn.com/ottawa, e-mail info@animationfestival.ca or call (613) 232-8769.

Expo Licensing Latinoamarica 2007 features top level executives with decision power from Mexico and all over Latin America, the Caribbean and other Spanish speaking countries. This first international licensing event in Latin America is expected to gather participation of more than 6,000 Mexican and international attendees. Expo Licensing Latinoamarica 2007 will be your platform where attendees will sign exclusive deals, strategize with retailers, solidify promotional partnerships and much more. The exhibit show floor will occupy more than 3,000 square meters of space, in ?the state of the art" Banamex Convention Center. Expo Licensing Latinoam?rica 2007 is endorsed by ADVANSTAR, official organizer of the prestigious Licensing International Convention and Trade Show. For more information, visit licensingmexico.com.

As a featured component of Los Angeles' International AFI Film Festival, AFI DigiFest is presenting two interactive media showcases highlighting the latest innovations in digital media and their real-world applications. Presented at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' beautiful Linwood-Dunn Theater, the two days of presentations and seminars will be filled with some pretty dazzling stuff. Here's the program: Day One (November 8): AFI hosts a series of curated presentations that highlight noteworthy digital productions from around the world. Among the presentations, Marshall Herskovitz, creator of THIRTY SOMETHING, MY SO-CALLED LIFE and BLOOD DIAMOND, will preview QUARTERLIFE, a new dramatic broadband series that premieres on MySpace on Nov. 11. Presentations rounding out the day feature the best in new digital thinking from the worlds of film, television, games and mobile. Bobby Beck, CEO/President, Animation Mentor, will be part of a panel titled "The Reinvention of Storytelling through Interactive Media." Day Two (November 9): AFI presents five new prototypes incubated in the AFI Digital Content Lab: an online video platform and citizen journalist toolkit for NOW, PBS' weekly investigative news program; a strategy for retaining viewer interest during ads in a DVR environment for Bravo; a social network tailored for players, a documentary about videogame fans being produced by MTV, EA, and Mekanism; a pilot for an original dramatic machinima series created within a 3D game engine; and, finally, a unique user-generated film contest, Filmocracy, for ITVS. For more information, visit www.afi.com/onscreen/AFIFEST/2007/.

The American International Toy Fair is the largest toy trade show in the Western Hemisphere. More than 1,500 manufacturers, distributors, importers and sales agents from 30 countries showcase their toy and entertainment products. From classic toys to interactive entertainment and everything in between, it has it all. Products include action figures and dolls, games and puzzles, bicycles, tricycles and ride-ons, radio-controlled vehicles, infant and preschool toys, cars, trucks and trains, puppets and plush, computer software and videogames, playground and sporting equipment, Halloween and Christmas items, books, stationery, party supplies, and much more. More information can be found at www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Toy_Fair.