A handful of top-class artists who have been greatly influenced by the animated film genre will be present at the Galerienhaus during the upcoming 16th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film (May 5-10, 2009). In addition to specially chosen multimedia artists from the region, the Japanese designer Keiichi Tanaami and the internationally popular German-Japanese Kota Ezawa will be presenting their works. German-Japanese Kota Ezawa (born 1969) is considered a shooting star in the contemporary multimedia art scene. In 2006/2007 his works were shown in the exhibition "Out of Time: Contemporary Art from the Collection" at the MoMA -- The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Further recent highlights were the exhibition "Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960" in 2008 in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the same year "The Geopolitics of Animations" at the MARCO -- Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo in Spain. Ezawa draws on well-known elements and source material from art, culture, science and media which he reworks and stylizes on a computer. According to the 14-1 Galerie in Stuttgart "The result is reminiscent of old-fashioned comics shown as digital projections, film, slide shows or etchings". The gallery will be showing his animated 16 mm short film BRAWL from May 3 onwards, throughout the Festival of Animated Film. The film is an original interpretation of a brawl involving fans and players during a basketball game between the US teams Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers in November 2004. At the same time the 14-1 Galerie will be presenting the newest animated music film by Rock & Bluse under the title "wenn der rock brennt" ("When Rock Burns"). Well-known throughout the region, Rock & Bluse is a group of experimental artists, (Anke Bauer, Julia Finkbeiner, Pia Maria Martin and Monika Nuber) who animate felt-tip drawings with abstract and figured elements and combine images and sound to create a new musical entity. A further highlight in the artistic supporting program at the Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film '09 is the Japanese design doyen Keiichi Tanaami (born 1936), who in expert circles is looked upon as a creator of the experimental animated film. During 40 years of creativity, Tanaami, who amongst other things was employed as the first Art Director at the Japanese branch of the PLAYBOY, has created almost 60 films and continues to regularly produce films and pictures. An important characteristic of this visual artist's work -- who also produces sculptures and performance events -- is the speed with which he visualizes his ideas and thoughts on paper. The Galerie Merkle also located in the Galerienhaus will not only be showing Taanami's psychedelic-touched animated drawings but also his silk screen prints and sketches. At the same time as the works by Ezawa, Rock & Bluse and Tanaami are on show, the Galerie Naumann, the third gallery located in the Galerienhaus, will be showing creations from five contemporary international animation artists under the title PARTITUREN FUR ZEICHERINNEN UND ZEICHNER (Scores for Artists). Works by Sarah Jane Lapp (USA, born 1972) and Eva Koberstein (Munich, born 1969) will be shown as well as works by Jorg Mandernach (born 1963), Kirsten Lampert (born 1959), and Andreas Opiolka (born 1962), all three of whom are from Stuttgart. All of the exhibitions will open May 3, at 11 o'clock in the Galerienhaus Stuttgart (www.galerienhaus-stuttgart.de) as part of the supporting program of the 16th Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film '09.

Celeste Prize is a unique international contemporary arts competition in which artists decide who wins the 40,000 Euro (US$50,000) award money. The 46 finalists are chosen by a panel of international art critics: Mark Gisbourne, Adrienne Goehler, Victoria Lu, Claudio Sinatti and a panel of consultants with experience in audiovisual performance. These 46 finalists themselves choose the ultimate winners in each category. Exhibition and awards ceremony to be held in Berlin, Germany, September 2009. Artists may enter work in Video, Animation, Performance, Live Media, Live Audio Video Performance, Painting, Photography, Installation, Sculpture, or DJ/VJ Set. Awards: Photography & Digital Graphics Prize: 8,000 Euro (US$10,000) Video & Animation Prize: 8,000 Euro (US$10,000) Installation & Sculpture Prize: 8,000 Euro (US$10,000) Live Media Prize: 8,000 Euro (US$10,000) Painting Prize: 8,000 Euro (US$10,000) Entry fee: 80 Euro (US$100) Deadline: June 30 2009 Register & apply online at http://www.celesteprize.com. Celeste Prize is organized by the non-profit cultural association Associazione Culturale L'Albero Celeste.

eDIT The Filmmaker's Festival is an international platform for filmmakers from all production disciplines to meet and share ideas to make them better filmmakers. The goal is to advance the specific parts of the production process with a common purpose of creating better storytelling through understanding. Extraordinary worldwide filmmakers present their work to educate, entertain and inspire their fellow artists in a warm and personal state of the art environment. Industrial Light & Magic will present the Visual Effects of STAR TREK and TERMINATOR SALVATION at eDIT 12. Filmmaker's Festival at October 4-6, 2009.

Program

FMX 2011 promises to be another exciting conference where industry professionals interested in Global Production, Visual Art and Innovative Technologies descend on Stuttgart for four days of networking, presentations, technical demonstrations, conference papers and recruiting events. We will present exciting trends that are taking place in the industry. Full program information will be available soon!

History

FMX was initiated as an event for students labeled "Film and Media Exchange" (FMX) in 1994 and was supposed to take place every two years. As early as 1996 it became an annual event already . When the first FMX took place in 1994, the industry did not even dare to dream about the creative possibilities within computer animation and digital effects that exist today. Throughout the past fifteen years of its existence, FMX kept up with the developments and trends and has grown to become an important networking platform for those working with digital imagery.

5D GOES TO THE 2012 BERLINALE TALENT FESTIVALFEBRUARY 13TH BERLIN, GERMANY
The 5D Institute is excited to announce, for our second year, a unique event at the Berlin Film Festival. In partnership with the Berlinale Talent Campus, 5D will curate a panel discussion and masterclass on the nature of design process and the practice of world building for digital narrative media.After the success of the 5D ”Play as Process” panel and workshop at the 2011 Berlinale Talent Campus, the 5D Institute will again be part of the Talent Campus, curating 2 panels for the 2012 edition.

This illustrious panel of designers and artists will explain how screenwriters, filmmakers, designers and producers can create unique visual worlds as the settings for their films.  Our world is the product of millennia of visionary designs, inventions, and creations by imaginative thinkers who have envisioned the possibilities beyond the limits of current reality. Designers who are tasked with creating entirely new worlds and alternate universes must be able to think freely and into the unknown in order to imagine and render these narrative worlds. The discussion will connect a holistic conception of immersive design to a new process of creative collaboration, using the powerful link between the digital workspace, a non-linear work flow, and a new understanding of virtual production.

FMX was initiated as an event for students labeled "Film and Media Exchange" (FMX) in 1994 and was supposed to take place every two years. As early as 1996 it became an annual event . When the first FMX took place in 1994, the industry did not even dare to dream about the creative possibilities within computer animation and digital effects that exist today. Throughout the past fifteen years of its existence, FMX kept up with the developments and trends and has grown to become an important networking platform for those working with digital imagery.

In 2012, FMX tracks are, among others, dedicated to Virtual Production, Cinema of the Future, Animation, Visual Effects, Games, Tech Talks, Focuses on Montreal and Vancouver, Poland, Estonia, Transmedia, Virtual Humans and Controlling Complexity.

Confirmed presentations include subjects such as Worldbuilding, Previsualization, Capture Space, Framerates, Stereo 3D, Animation Wild ‘n Strange, VES Exchange, Visual Effects in India, Germany and Europe, Visual Arts, Games made in Germany, Industrial CG, Cloud Computing, Siggraph and Eurographics Papers, Young Guns

The island of Cyprus and the organizing committee are hosting a joint conference focused on building regional capacity in Cultural Heritage.

A joint event for the exchange and sharing of know-how in the areas of Cultural Heritage (CH) and Information Technology (IT) focusing on e-documentation and Computer Graphics includes:

* The 37th CIPA International Workshop on e-Documentation and Standardization in Cultural Heritage (http://cipa.icomos.org)
* The 7th VAST International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage
* The 4th Eurographics Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage (http://www.eg.org)
* The 1st Euro-Med Conference on IT in Cultural Heritage.
* EPOCH General Assembly and EPOCH SME meeting (http://www.epoch-net.org/)
* The 6th RecorDIM Roundtable (http://extranet.getty.edu/recordim/)

For questions or requests for additional information, visit www.cipa2006.org or www.vast2006.org.

CgA World 2004 heralds India's first international show dedicated to computer graphics, animation and interactive techniques. CgA will be an international expo on the latest computer graphics and animation technology and solutions. The event hopes to pull a large gathering of 2D and 3D application tools, engineers and developers. STUDIO SYSTEMS, the magazine for special effects, graphics and animation, will be the organizer of CgA. The event will attract buyers from the entire spectrum of applications of graphics and 2D / 3D animation. The exhibits shall focus on all market segments, as in: simulations and scientific visualization for automotive, aviation, defense, space, etc., product design, engineering solutions, games, interactive techniques, cartoons, television, films, GIS and imaging. The trade show

Following the success of the inaugural International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society held at the University of California Berkeley, the second conference will be held in one of the emerging IT center of the world, Hyderabad. The conference will take a broad and cross-disciplinary approach to technology in society. With a particular focus on digital information and communications technologies, the interests addressed by the conference include: human usability, technologies for citizenship and community participation, and learning technologies. Participants will include researchers, teachers and practitioners whose interests are either technical or humanistic, or whose work crosses over between the applied technological and social sciences. As well as an impressive lineup of international main speakers, the conference will also include numerous paper, workshop and colloquium presentations. More information can be found at www.Technology-Conference.com.

FICCI is organizing a seminar on "Animation, Gaming & Visual Effects" to be held at Hotel Taj Bengal, Kolkata. FICCI is undertaking a series of seminars in animation and gaming all over India. For the first time, we are doing this seminar in Kolkata, which has a rich pool of creative talent.

DK Chakroborty, principal secretary, Dept of Information and Culture, Government of West Bengal, will give his observations at the seminar. Additionally, Debesh Das, minister for information technology, Government of West Bengal, will deliver a special address.

The seminar will explore various possibilities of developing human capital in these promising areas. It would also draw a roadmap of the future of the Indian industry and indigenously produced content.

Various sessions at the seminar include:
* Developing Human Capital in Animation & Gaming: Fostering Public Private Partnership
* Future of Indian Visual Effects Industry
* Case Study Presentation on VFX work done in India
* Indian Animation & Gaming Content: What lies ahead?

For further information, visit www.ficci-frames.com.