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VES Festival to Highlight Shorts and Other Special Programs

The 2006 Festival of Visual Effects will feature a lineup of revolving showcases highlighting the creativity of digital visual effects artists from the earliest pioneers to the latest innovators. These four different programs will complement the previously announced schedule of panels and presentations being held at this year's Festival, July 6-8, at the famed Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California. Each program will be scheduled at least once per day and will be shown at the Steven Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian Theatre complex.

Visual Effects Society (VES) exec director Eric Roth noted: Seeing the short films we're screening in a terrific room like the Spielberg Theatre is a rare opportunity and we're expecting not only working professionals, but students and fans of film to take advantage of it."

* "Animation World Network Presents," a showcase of recent and new animated shorts, will include this year's Oscar-nominated THE MYSTERIOUS GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORATIONS OF JASPER MORELLO from Australia. THE BOY WITH NO NAME (U.K.), FROG (U.S.), ONE D (Canada), THE MANTIS PARABLE (U.S.) and JONA/TOMBERRY (Netherlands) are among the other shorts in this collection.

* New and Recent Works" will feature a showcase of short films, including Paul Debevec's 2004 breathtaking THE PARTHENON; ONE RAT SHORT, Best in Show winner of the SIGGRAPH 2006 Computer Animation Festival; David Takemura's GOOD BAD KARMA; and an impressive line-up of work submitted by the international computer graphics, animation and visual effects community in response to the VES' call for submissions for this program.

* "Early and Experimental Showcase" is a survey of computer graphics and animation from the avant-garde and visual effects industry. This exciting program will include two pieces from Stan VanDerBeek, POEM FIELD NO. 2 (1966) and SYMMETRICKS (1972); PIXILLATION (1970), OLYMPIAD (1971) and UFOs (1971) by Lillian Schwartz, a visionary who pioneered the use of computers for what has since become known as computer-generated art and computer-aided art analysis; and XTACISM, the final film by the late Richard "Doc" Baily.

* THE STORY OF COMPUTER GRAPHICS, ACM SIGGRAPH's landmark documentary on the history and influence of computer graphics, is a full-length film narrated by Leonard Nimoy and directed by Frank Foster. First shown in 1999, it is the "human" story of the pioneers that revolutionized visual communication, through a community with its own unique culture.

Admission to these four programs will be complimentary for full Festival and individual event ticket holders. A limited number of tickets restricted to the Spielberg Theatre Festival programming will also be available at the theater box office each day during the event. For full program listings and other information about tickets to these programs or any of the events at the 2006 Festival of Visual effects, please visit www.visualeffectssociety.com.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.