The Caribbean Advertising Federation (CAF) has announced their call for entries for the 2008 ADDY Awards. The annual competition recognizes creative advertising excellence in the Caribbean in all media — print, broadcast, multi-media, online, out-of- home and public service advertising.

The ADDY Awards competition is a three-tier local, regional and national competition, conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). Local winners from the CAF will compete in the American Advertising Federation’s 4th District competition in Florida. The winners
of that competition will then be eligible for the ultimate prize — a National ADDY Award, announced in June 2008.
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The Int’l Fest of Cinema and Technology Announces 2007 Award Winners

(January 16, 2008) The Int’l Fest of Cinema and Technology announcedthe winners from its 2007 festival tour. This past year’s festivalevents featured a wide variety of films in different award categories.Festival events took place in The Philippines, Washington DC, NewYork, Jacksonville, Florida, Los Angeles, Burlington, Vermont andLondon. The International Fest of Cinema and Technology has beenpresenting touring film festival events since 2002. The IFCT WorldTour is designed to give exposure to independent films many of whichpreviously had been underexposed to the public. The festival’s mottois it seeks to “discover the undiscovered film.” The “technology” inthe festival’s name occurs both in the content of the festival, whichtends to focus on themes of technology or feature unique creationtechniques, as well as in the method of showcasing content at theevents.

Among this year’s award winners were a few award “sweeps” includingTHE RECE!PT Directed by Tim Garrick which won The IFCT 2007 Award forBest Short and The IFCT 2007 Award for Best Comedic Short. THERECE!PT is an innovative and comedic homage to Run Lola Run starringMatthew D. McCallum, Kristen Bell, and Dina Meyer. About his multiplewins, Garrick stated “We are extremely honored to have won the BestComedic Short and Best Short awards for the IFCT 2007 World Tour. Theopportunity to be part of a truly international film festival wasamazing. We were thrilled that our film found a home in IFCT’sprestigious 2007 line up.”

Other winners of multiple award categories included the French shortfilm “Play the Game,” Directed by Stéphane Barbato, which won The IFCT2007 Award for Best European Short Film, Runner-Up for Best Short andand Honorable Mention for Best Cinematography in a Short Film. Playthe Game is inspired by a true story taken from the First World War.Razor Fish Directed by UK filmmaker Helen Williams won The IFCT 2007Award for Best UK Short, Honorable Mention for The IFCT 2007 Award forBest UK Short and Honorable Mention for The IFCT 2007 Award for BestFemale Director. Razor Fish stars Academy-award winner Brenda Fricker(My Left Foot) About her win, Williams stated “This is my secondshort and entirely self funded. It has been a labour of love oneveryone’s part with the entire cast and crew doing it out of thegoodness of their hearts.” The film Ed I Hide Directed by SuzanneLaine and Len Peltier won The IFCT 2007 Award for Best Screenplay andThe IFCT 2007 Award for Best Female Director

IFCT has a large selection of animated films and films with FX andinnovative visuals. Henry Selick’s short animated film “Moongirl” wonThe IFCT 2007 Award for Best Animation. Selick is the stop-motion gurubehind The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.Protocole33 Directed by Benoît Lestang won two awards: The IFCT 2007Award for Best Visual FX and The IFCT 2007 Award for Best VisualInnovation. Lestang has worked as a special effects make-up artist onover 50 feature films. Other animation winners for 2007 included BlurStudio’s “In the Rough” for The IFCT 2007 Award for Best ComedicAnimation, Life in Transition for The IFCT 2007 Award for MostInnovative Animation, Les Humains (music video for aKido) Directed byFélix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël and Thien Vu Dang for The IFCT 2007Award for Best Music Video and Fauna Sutra Directed by Johan won TheIFCT 2007 Award for Best Short Short Animation Directed by JohanKlungel and originating in The Netherlands.

In the festival Documentary category, The Loci Dogma directed byCanadian filmmaker Justin Antippa won The IFCT 2007 Award for BestExperimental Documentary and also Runner-Up for The IFCT 2007 Awardfor Best Cinematography in a Documentary. The film “scans theauthor’s unconsciousness throughout his genetic and environmentalaffiliation.” The World Naked Bike Ride Directed by Johnny Zapatos wonThe IFCT 2007 Award for Best Documentary and The IFCT 2007 Award forBest Director of a Documentary. The Legend of the Holy Fishermendirected by Daniele Atzeni won The IFCT 2007 Award for BestCinematography in a Documentary.

Other winners in the festival Short Film categories included IlRitratto Ovale (Oval Portrait) by Directed by Nestore Buonafede- TheIFCT 2007 Award for Best Cinematography in a Short, Un Dia En La VidaDirected by Marco Orsin- The IFCT 2007 Award for Best Dramai,Radio-The IFCT 2007 Award for Best Canadian Film, Do Not DisturbDirected by Douglas Stark- The IFCT 2007 Award for Best Thriller,Bunny and Clydo Directed by Rocky Jo-The IFCT 2007 Award for BestAction Film, The Last Alchemist Directed by Nicolas Caicoya- The IFCT2007 Award for Best Sci-Fi Film, Anna Directed by Michael Fandl - TheIFCT 2007 Award for Foreign Thriller, The Milky Way Directed by SeanBloch- The IFCT 2007 Award for Best Student Film, Last Night Directedby Scott Patch- The IFCT 2007 Award for Best Microbudget Short andRoad Rage by Kate Duhamel-The IFCT 2007 Award for Best Short ShortFilm.

The Int’l Fest of Cinema and Technology also has a post-2007 freescreening of highlighted animated shorts from last year which istaking place January 29th in Melbourne at The Loop (located at 23Meyers Place), beginning at 8pm. The schedule for IFCT’s upcoming 2008tour which will be beginning shortly can also be found at the website. For the complete list of The Int’l Fest of Cinema and Technology2007 award winners visit www.ifct.org.

Collins College is hosting an “Animation Sketch-Off” and a Q & A session with professional comic and animation artists Shannon Denton and Jay Fotos. The winner of Collins’ “Animation Sketch-Off” will receive four complimentary passes to Phoenix Cactus Comicon 2008, Arizona’s largest comic book, anime and pop culture convention 26-27 January. To RSVP for Collin’s “Animation Sketch-Off” and Q & A session, call 480-966-3000 or visit www.contactcollins.com. Participants need to be present to win.
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The Savannah Film Festival, hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), is accepting professional and student film submissions for the 2008 festival, taking place 25 Oct. through 1 Nov. Competition categories include animation, documentary feature, documentary short, narrative feature, narrative short and student works. All entries must be postmarked by 16 June. Notification of selected entries will be completed by 15 Sept.

Paperless entries are preferred and can be submitted via Withoutabox’s International Film Festival Submission System (BrigitFest) at www.withoutabox.com. A paper entry form can be downloaded as a pdf file at www.scad.edu/filmfest by clicking on the “call for entries” link.
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The WebGuild today announced their second annual WebGuild Web 2.0 Conference and Expo to be held on Tuesday, 29 January 2008 from 11 AM to 5 PM at the Santa Clara Marriot. This year’s WebGuild Web 2.0 Conference and Expo is geared towards entrepreneurs, startups and web professionals that want to learn the most up-to-date, industry best business practices for Web 2.0 companies. The event features keynotes, panels, expo, awards, networking sessions, reception, music, food and drinks.

The event’s five tracks will include Web 2.0 industry experts speaking on the new economics of web startups, funding, partnerships, public relations, overcoming legal issues and exit strategies. Attendees will learn from industry experts and thought leaders, connect with the companies changing the rules of the game and those redefining the future.
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Hallmark Cards, Inc., today announces America voted Erin McGuire - a Sarasota, Fla., design student - the best of the best, beating nine other finalists to be named the Grand Prize winner in the company’s national card competition. McGuire’s design features a girl handing a card to a bird to enable the card’s delivery. The colorful, whimsical design garnered more attention than she suspected.

The 10 finalists received $250, with Hallmark matching that amount in a contribution to the Global Fund. Their designs
also were made into actual Hallmark cards currently for sale on http://www.Hallmark.com/you through the end of February. McGuire’s card will be sold on http://www.Hallmark.com/you through the end of the year. Just like the entire Hallmark (PRODUCT) RED collection, 8 percent of net wholesale sales of these cards will go to the Global Fund. As the Grand Prize winner, Erin received an additional $2,250, with Hallmark matching it in a contribution to the Global Fund.