* At European Talents, newcomers can pitch their projects to an expert committee of editors and producers — with noticeable success. More than a quarter of the projects presented in the last few years have actually been realized. The 2006 jury includes Manuel Christobal (Zinkia Ent.), Susanne Schosser (EM Ent. & Junior TV), Karsten Kiilerich (A. Film A/S), Manuela Schöbel Lumb (WDR), Karen Mitrega (Super RTL), Tamas Liszka (SzimplaFilm Ltd.), Tony Loeser (MotionWorks GmbH), Ulrike Häfner (SWR Kinder & Familienprogramm).

* In the Schools section, organized in co-operation with the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, animation schools from all over the world will present their work and concepts.

Realtime – the Future of Animation

* The Realtime Film Festival (in co-operation with the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film) shows the nominations from more than 180 submissions. In the award ceremony on May 4, moderated by the jury chairman Aaron Koenig (Bitfilm Festival Hamburg), the coveted Realtime Awards in the categories Demo, Machinimas, CutScenes, Flash and VJ Visuals will be presented.

* The Realtime Sessions organized by Wolfgang Schmidt-Sichermann gives an insight into Realtime technology. Machinima Pioneer Hugh Hancock will describe the production for his feature-length fantasy film Bloodspell. Curtis Beeson from NVIDIA describes in his keynote “Pursuing Film Quality Rendering in Realtime.“

* The Realtime Screenings, in the Metropol cinema, are on May 2, before the official opening of fmx/06, during the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film. A selection of films submitted to the Realtime Film Festival will be screened.

fmx/screenings – Film Program

In co-operation with the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, Oscar winners and nominees from the categories Best Animated Feature and Best Visual Effects will be screened as well as the winners from the festival. In addition to this, at fmx/06 you can also see: CAF SIGGRAPH Selection, a retrospective for the 15th anniversary of the Ludwigsburg Filmakademie, the animago AWARD:2006 winners, as well as a selection of the best-of from the Hamburg Bitfilm-festival, the Scene.org Awards and Animation World Network publisher, Dan Sarto.

Partnership – fmx/06 and the 13th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film

The Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) is the second largest animation festival in the world. That is why a co-operation between the two Stuttgart events with their closely related content is only natural — an exchange of speakers as well as fmx/screenings, the school presentations and Realtime Film Festival. This co-operation is underlined by an important shared event: The official opening of the fmx/06 will take place during the International Festival of Animated Film Award Ceremony on May 2, with a keynote speech from Doug Cooper (DreamWorks Animation) and the opening speech by Willi Staechele, Minister of the State Ministry and for European Affairs, Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Tickets can still be bought online or at the conference. A day ticket costs 95 euros, a four-day ticket 185 euros.

Organized by the Institute of Animation, Filmakademie Baden Wuerttemberg, fmx/06 (www.fmx.de) is a non-profit event, funded by the Staatsministerium Baden-Wuerttemberg, MFG Medien-und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Wuerttemberg and FFA Filmfoerderungsanstalt, and supported by many partners from the industry. For fmx/06, the Institute of Animation is cooperating, for the first time, with the French company NX Publishing, which was previously responsible for the program and organization of Imagina. fmx is also supported by AWN, DIGITAL PRODUCTION, Eyes & Ears of Europe, sagasnet, flashconference and other media partners.