I CASTELLI ANIMATI: only the best of world of animation in one great, fun event. World famous authors, International Competition, Italian Competition, Web Competition, special effects, workshops, seminars and much more...Admission Free!

The Barcelona International Television Festival (FITB) is a three-day screening for children and young people from around the world: documentaries, animations, TV programs and series. Two prizes: UNICEF and CREATIVE will give awarded. The program includes MEDIA LITERACY, screenings from the ITC service of the department of education of the autonomous government of Catalonia and the exhibit of secondary school news programs, commercials and fiction videos organized by the Blanquerna Communication Department of the Ramon Llull University. The free event takes place at Auditorium of the Museum of History of Catalonia, Pl. Pau Vila, 3, Barcelona. For more information, visit www.oeti.org.

The 12th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books event celebrates and animates the written word through panel discussions, poetry readings, cooking demonstrations, book signings and music. The festival affords book lovers the chance to meet bestselling authors, publishers and other literary figures. The hundreds of exhibitor booths, stage events and popular children's characters keep it entertaining for all ages. Admission is free, but tickets are required to attend author-panel discussions and lectures because of limited seating. Free tickets will be available at all Ticketmaster locations in Southern California. The two-day takes place April 28, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, and April 29, from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm, on UCLA's campus. General event information about the festival is available at www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/ or by calling 1-800-LA TIMES, ext. 7BOOK.

RFX is hosting its annual technology BBQ, featuring free training, product debuts and a chance to meet developers. Below is a list of attending companies: * Alias - Maya 7 & Motion Builder 7, talk with Senior Application Engineers. * Apple - Shake 4, meet Developers and Support Team. * The Pixel Farm - Debut of PFClean (dust removal and clean-up tools), also PFTrack (3D tracking) PFPlay (2k playback). See Shake/PFTrack/Maya workflow. * The Foundry - Furnace 3 Debut Meet with the Developers. * mental images - mental ray + FREE TRAINING meet experts from mental images. More info on training here. * Next Limit - Real Flow + FREE TRAINING talk to fluid dynamics experts. More info on training here. * Silhouette - Debut of Roto with 2D paint. * Cirque Digital - GDI Explorer (asset management). * WaveGen - Textureloader Pro for Maya. * The Gnomon Workshop - Training DVD's. * Pixologic - Zbrush - 3D modeling RSVP to rsvp@rfx.com, including your name, company, email, phone and street address. The event will run from 12:30

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 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.

The 16th Annual Digital Hollywood Spring is a leading conference for the entertainment, media and technology executives. The event will feature special events, exhibits, sponsorships and speaking engagements. More than 300 industry speakers will be participating in the event. For more information, call (212) 352-9720 or visit www.digitalhollywood.com.

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/.

The 18th Annual Society for Animation Studies Conference, held at Trinity University, has a theme

1st Annual Portfolios.com Awards Show will highlight the best advertising, graphic design, Web design, photography and illustration of 2003. An international panel of judges will judge online, and the Winners' Showcase will be announced and shown online. For more information, visit www.portfolios.com/award, e-mail customerservice@portfolios.com or call (800) 303-9277 ext. 261.