January 20–26
SF Film Society Cinema
1746 Post Street (Webster/Buchanan)

Back by popular demand! One of the most highly anticipated anime releases slated for 2012, 'Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos' continues the powerhouse manga/anime narrative allegorizing the industrial revolution in Europe. In this alternate reality, alchemy is the most advanced form of science. And, while the earlier parts of the series focused on the quest to find the fabled Philosopher’s Stone, this new extension of the 'Fullmetal' tale presents a fugitive alchemist with mysterious abilities that leads Edward and Alphonse, the Elric brothers, to a distant valley of slums inhabited by the Milos, a proud people struggling against bureaucratic exploitation. Edward and Alphonse quickly find themselves in the middle of a rising rebellion, as the exiled Milos lash out against their oppressors. At the heart of the conflict is Julia, a young alchemist befriended by Alphonse. She’ll stop at nothing to restore the Milos to their former glory—even if that means harnessing the awful power of the Philosopher’s Stone.

Each year the Sundance Film Festival selects 200 films for exhibition from more than 9,000 submissions. More than 50,000 people attend screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance, Utah. In addition to discovering filmmaking's newest talent through the Festival's program of documentary, dramatic, and short films, Festivalgoers experience live music performances, panel discussions with leading filmmakers and industry figures, cutting-edge media installations, parties celebrating the Festival community, and more.

January 13 & 15 at SF Film Society Cinema

1746 Post Street (Webster/Buchanan), San Francisco CA 94115

More info: http://www.sffs.org/content.aspx?catid=928,942&pageid=2492

Back by popular demand! The Annecy International Animated Film Festival, led by Serge Bromberg, who garnered the Novikoff Award at this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival, is widely regarded as the most important festival for animation in Europe and as a bellwether for the evolution of one of the most creative forms in cinema. The Best of Annecy—a reprise of the ever-popular SF International Animation Festival program—presents a dynamic and entertaining array of shorts that appeared in Annecy this year.

The Eagleman Stag (Mikey Please, England, 9 min)
How to Feed the World? (Denis Van Waerebeke, Poland, 10 min)
The Lost Town of Switez (Kamil Polak, Poland, 21 min)
Luminaris (Juan Pablo Zaramella, Argentina, 6 min)
A Morning Stroll (Grant Orchard, England, 7 min)
Paths of Hate (Damian Nenow, Poland, 10 min)
Plato (Léonard Cohen, France, 8 min)
Sidewalk Scribble (Peter Lowey, Australia, 3 min)
Sticky Ends (Osman Cerfon, France, 7 min)

The Feature Animated Film Arrugas (Wrinkles) nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2012 ANNIE Awards will be screened at the LAEMMLE FALBROOK 7 from Dec 9th to Dec 15th at 1.20PM daily.

6731 Fallbrook Ave West Hills, CA

 

Based on Paco Roca´s comic of the same title (2008 National Comic Prize), WRINKLES is a 2D animated feature-length film for an adult audience. Wrinkles portrays the friendship between Emilio and Miguel, two aged gentlemen shut away in a care home. Recent arrival Emilio, in the early stages of Alzheimer, is helped by Miguel and colleagues to avoid ending up on the feared top floor of the care home, also known as the lost causes or “assisted” floor. Their wild plan infuses their otherwise tedious day-to-day with humour and tenderness, because although for some their lives is coming to an end, for them it is just beginning.

 

Dear Animation World Network,

I am pleased to inform you of an event this week at Museum of the Moving Image relating to animation and puppetry. On Sunday, December 4, the Museum will present “The Evolution of Puppetry,” a special presentation by Brian Henson, son of Jim Henson and chairman of The Jim Henson Company. This will be a personal overview of the groundbreaking technical achievements in animatronics and digital puppetry that continue to be a part of the Company's legacy. One part of the talk will address the use of live puppetry in animated works, illustrated with a clip from Sid the Science Kid. I hope you can share the event details below with your colleagues.

Thank you,

Sonia Lupher

Museum Intern

 

For inquiries, please contact Tomoko Kawamoto, Public Information Manager (tkawamoto@movingimage.us / 718 777 6830)

 

 

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.

Dear Animation World Network,

I am pleased to inform you of an event this week at Museum of the Moving Image relating to animation and puppetry. On Thursday, December 1, the Museum will present the New York premiere of legendary Czech animator Jan Svankmajer’s new film Surviving Life and a reception to celebrate the exhibition Surviving Life: Collages by Jan Svankmajer. The exhibition features 50 collages created by Svankmajer and his crew and used in the production of the film. I hope you can share the event details below with your colleagues.

Thank you,

 

Sonia Lupher

Museum intern

For inquiries, please contact Tomoko Kawamoto, Public Information Manager (tkawamoto@movingimage.us / 718 777 6830)

 

 

 

 

Surviving Life: Collages by Jan Svankmajer, Exhibition of 50 Collages by the Czech Animator and Short Films on View at Moving Image

November 17-February 26, 2012
Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue (at 37 Street), Astoria, NY

 

Reception and New York premiere screening of new film Surviving Life on December 1. Reception at 6:00 p.m., screening at 7:00 p.m

 

The International Animated Film Festival "Les Nuits Magiques" show the treasures of animated films to audiences, screening shorts and feature animated films not viewed on TV and in theaters. The event will feature an international short films competition, feature films, special programs, young audience programs, introduction workshops to animation...

Entry form and rules available online www.lesnuitsmagiques.fr from may 15th to augusth 31th

Visit www.iafistanbul.com for more information.

The 4th annual 2011 Machinima Expo (MachinExpo) will take place on the weekend of the 19th and 20th November 2011 in the virtual world of Second Life™ (www.secondlife.com) and live on the web (www.machinima-expo.com). The Festival celebrates the art of Machinima, which is 3D animation created in real-time. The MachinExpo will feature screenings, panel discussions, interviews and opportunities to meet and learn from machinima filmmakers all over the world.

191 machinima films were submitted to this year’s Expo. Four films will be selected by a handpicked jury, One film will win the Grand prize and 3 will win Jury prizes. The prizes will be announced during the weekend events. A selection of the other submitted films will be screened during the expo as well as the week running up (and the week after) to the event. All films will stream 24/7 at the Expo web portal (www.machinima-expo.com).

There is no cost to attend the Expo either within Second Life or to watch via the live steam web portal. If you’ve never been to Second Life before, we recommend you download the free software and try it out before you attend.

The weekend event is being sponsored by Muvizu (www.muvizu.com), Reallusion (www.reallusion.com) and the machinima filmmaker Anim8tor Cathy (www.undisclosedstudio.com). They all have made generous donations to help provide with the running costs and prizes at this year’s Machinima Expo.

Earlier this year, it was announced that the MachinExpo is collaborating with the New Media Film Festiva (www.newmediafilmfestival.com), a real-life festival taking place in Los Angeles in May 2012, the Expo’s films selected by the screening jury will be also screened at the New Media Film Festival.

For more information see http://blog.machinima-expo.com/ and http://www.newmediafilmfestival.com/