Flashforward and the Flash Film Festival are the world's first and largest gathering of Flash users. The event has more than 70 confirmed speakers, which include digital and design visionaries Matthew Carter, legendary type designer; Stefan Sagmeister, renown graphic designer; Laurence Lessig, digital rights attorney; and Ze Frank, Website humorist and developer. Flashforward, created by lynda.com and United Digital Artists, and sponsored by Macromedia, the creator of the Flash application, is the world's premier Flash event, and has been attended by more than 20,000 Flash developers and designers. The San Francisco conference, the 13th Flash event in five years, features three jam-packed days of workshops, seminars, technology showcases, exhibitions, networking receptions and the Flash Film Festival, honoring the best Flash creations in 15 categories including animation, video, 3D, original sound and art. For more information, visit www.flashforwardconference.com.

The 13th LA Shorts Fest is the largest short film festival in the world. Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences accredited. In past years, 33 participants have earned Academy Award nominations including 11 Oscar winning short films. The festival annually attracts more than 10,000 moviegoers, filmmakers and entertainment professionals looking for the hottest new talent. We have honored some of Hollywood's legends of the past: Charles Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Robert Wise; along with actors Martin Landau, James Woods, Gary Oldman and directors Tim Burton, Bryan Singer, Jan de Bont, Paul Haggis and Shane Black. Submit online at www.LAshortsFest.com.

The 14th Annual EPM Entertainment Marketing Conference will be held November 11-13, 2002, at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City, CA. The longest running conference for entertainment marketers features a full schedule of case studies, workshops, and presentations examining how entertainment is marketed, and how to leverage entertainment tie-ins to market goods and services.

Special Early Bird registration is available at $895 per-person through August 23. The regular registration fee for the conference is $1,095 ($995 for subscribers to any EPM newsletter) through October 18, and $1,195 ($1,095 for subscribers) thereafter.
Conference registrants may also register for any of three pre-conference workshops. For complete conference agenda and registration form, visit http://www.epmcom.com/html/entertainment.html#3
To register by phone or for further information contact Riva Bennett at 212-941-0099.

The Conference is produced by EPM Communications, Inc., publisher OF ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING LETTER, THE LICENSING LETTER, YOUTH MARKETS ALERT, and other newsletters, directories and research reports

914 712 2610
lens@visibilitypr.com

Filmfest Dresden is an independent film festival with international and national competition categories as well as supporting events. It began a year before the opening of the Berlin Wall. Due to its screening of rarely shown films, it has developed over the years into an internationally recognized short film festival, especially in the field of animation.
Filmfest Dresden is dedicated to the short film genre and its manifold forms of expression. It sees itself as a podium in which the abundance and diversity found in the latest productions from around the world can be presented to enthusiastic film audiences and professionals from the media.
The best films will be awarded by the respective juries.

The 14th Annual Slamdance Film Festival, scheduled to take place, January 17 - 25, 2008, in Park City, Utah, officially launched its Call for Entries today. "We are currently accepting short and feature film submissions in all genres for the 2008 edition of the festival. Submission forms, rules and regulations are available on the Slamdance web site - www.Slamdance.com. The early submission deadline is August 27, 2007, and includes a significant entry fee discount. The final submission deadline is Oct. 9.

The 2007 Festival received more than 3,500 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 2007 Festival page during the second week of December. Presenting sponsors of the 2008 Slamdance Film Festival are Kodak and fox21. Additional sponsors will be announced as they are confirmed.

The 14th International Animated Film Festival "The Magical Nights" will show the treasures of animated films to audiences, screening short and feature animated films not viewed on TV and in theaters. The event will feature an international short films competition, feature films competition, special programs, young audience programs, animated film methods lessons, introduction workshops to animation, teacher's day, theater administrator's day and education day. For more information contact Fabrice de la Rosa at: tel.: +33 0556517660; fax: +33 0556511286; e-mail: contact@lesnuitsmagiques.fr or Web: http://www.lesnuitsmagiques.fr.

At fmx/09, international speakers will provide an insight into the creation, production and distribution of digital entertainment and discuss innovative approaches in the industry and research. Numerous panels, workshops and presentations draw a discerning audience, two-thirds of whom are professionals while one-third is made up of students.

In an open atmosphere and in casual encounters. top names of the industry present their latest achievements, hard- and software companies demonstrate their innovations, recruiters search for new talent and schools and universities feature their programs and graduates. fmx/09 takes place in Stuttgart, Germany, from May 5-8, 2009.

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.

Cartoons on the Bay

March 22cnd-24th Rapallo, Italy

Cartoons on the Bay 2012 will be held from March 22nd to 25th. The 16th Edition of the Festival will take place in Rapallo, Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino. The guest country will be India and the main theme of the year will be Sport in cartoons, to celebrate 2012 London Olympic Games.

The first day of work will be devoted to a series of meetings in which the the major animation companies will attend and a retrospective of the best products of featured and animated films in recent years.

In view of the London Olympics, the festival will focus on cartoons and sports with the celebration of the second edition of the Premio & Sport Cartoons produced in collaboration with the Circolo Sportivo della Rai. Among the novelties of the birth of the new Harlequin Award dedicated to the best cartoon taken from comic book (which is added to the Harlequin Award dedicated to cartoon and cartoon and videogames and books) and Pulcinella Award dedicated to Live Action sitcom and series for children not in animation.

With the birth of the Pulcinella Awards, we also wanted include today's growing attention to hybrid products made of flesh and blood actors and animation support.

Roberto Genovesi, artistic director of Cartoons on the Bay-concludes the process of transforming the festival that today can be considered a full member of the European reference point for cross-media animation.