Online magazine SHIFT presents DOTMOV Festival 2008, a digital film festival aiming to discover talented creators and provide them with an opportunity to show their works. Works submitted from all over the world will be screened throughout the world venues from November 2008 (Date will be different depending on the venue). Last year’s total submission was 297 works from 34 countries. This year’s tour will be Sapporo, Sendai, Shizuoka, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Sao Paulo.

They will accept all work including prize-winning works or works submitted to other contests in Japan as well as in other countries. Submissions are accepted regardless of nationality and open to both professionals and amateurs. If some contests forbid sending your work to other contests, please respect their requirements. Animation, images, sounds, music, text and illustrations in your work should be original. However if the author give a permission to submit, it doesn’t have to be your original. Works submitted for the past edition of DOTMOV festival cannot be accepted.

Deadline is 20 September 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

Anima, the international animation festival, will take place February 20-29, 2009 at Flagey, Brussels in Belgium. Anima, Brussels Cartoon and Animated Film Festival, seeks to promote cartoons and animated films from all over the world. It also seeks to foster a dialogue between professionals, filmmakers and the public, and to raise awareness of quality animation among film and television distributors. The Festival is organizing an international competition as well as a national competition for films produced in Belgium; both competition are open to all animated films and make no distinction between formats or techniques, regardless of its geographic origin. Official categories: Short-film, Student film, Music videos and Commercials, Feature-film, Feature-film for children, Belgian shorts. There is no registration fee.

Deadline is 15 October 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

The aim of the WA Community Awards is to highlight and publish remarkable projects that might otherwise remain unnoticed by the international public but have the potential to inspire exciting questions about contemporary architectural discourse. Architects from ALL countries can submit ALL of their buildings (realized or not) for the appreciation of the WA Community. Recent projects (not older than 10 years) will have more chances to be shortlisted for the Awards. Students, landscape architects, engineers may also submit for the awards projects they are the author of: we do not check or accredit diplomas.

Projects submitted to the WA Portal until 24 October 2008 will be considered for the 2nd Cycle. All projects submitted earlier can be reconsidered if their pages are updated with significant new material by their architects. Visit the site to learn more.

“FEEL PLANET EARTH” Cifial Design Award, is organized with the aim of promoting design, both as a culture, and as a tool, capable of proposing innovative solutions to man’s approach to his social and natural environment. The object of this contest is to promote the exchange of ideas and spread the values of design, offering new approaches to tasks products and services, visualizing, interpreting technologies, etc. Its theme arises from the day-to-day concerns around the huge transformations that are presently taking place in our society economy culture and environment, and which the present paradigms seem to be unable to deal with.

The goal of this award is to identify and disseminate design contributions to help build a path towards sustainability on issues that we all face, and must urgently discuss. It will be run on a two-phase selection based firstly on an Abstract submission and then a further development for those selected.
The theme for the 2008 Award will be the over-dependence on non- renewable sources of energy in the current pattern of development.

Any design work on this issue, whether a vehicle, a public transport service, a cooking device or a lighting system, a water pump or any other practical or theoretical contribution, as well as a synopsis from an MsC or PhD dissertation, can be proposed. English will be the only accepted language for the competition. Registration - Phase 1 is from 1 November to 31 December 2008. Visit the site to learn more.

Since launching Mobile Broadband last year 3 have led the charge amongst the mobile operators. Mobile Broadband is a service offered by 3 that gives customers access to the internet on their PC or laptop using a USB modem and 3’s HSDPA network. 3 have sold over 500,000 broadband dongles in the UK alone and over 1 million across Europe. Mobile Broadband and dongles are becoming more widely understood but there is still an education job to do to communicate their benefits, and that’s where Don’t Panic comes in.

They wanted to organize a competition that allows artists and creative types as much freedom as possible, while still creating a visual message which related to 3’s mobile dongle (they are offering you £500 after all!). We want you to create a personal, unique piece of work representing freedom, communication, locality or whatever you can draw from 3’s mobile-broadband Dongle. You can take any part of it as your inspiration: it’s name, it’s functionality, it’s color scheme, mobilization, the Internet, whatever.

As well as a £500 cash prize, the winner (as selected from a public-voted shortlist) will also have their work reproduced as part of a limited edition collection of posters available through east London, as well as being used in a flyer poster campaign and included on stickers inside the Don’t Panic packs. The collection will be exhibited in the Truman Brewery in October where the winner can come down and showcase their skills in a live art studio with some of the UK’s leading creative artists.

This is a chance for you to shine, to create something cool, desirable and beautiful and have it seen via various media throughout the world. If you’re interested in submitting a piece of work, please head over to Don’t Panic for the full brief. The competition will open for submissions worldwide on 1 Sept and run until 28 Sept.

The 11th annual Step inside design competition is now open. All submissions must have been printed or published for the first time between October 1, 2007, and October 1, 2008. There are numerous categories, from illustration to student work. Note that all entries have fees for qualification.

Entries must be postmarked no later than October 1, 2008. Winners will be notified by December 1, 2008. Winning entries will be published in the March/April 2009 STEP inside design 100 Annual. Only 100 entries will be selected for inclusion in the Design 100. Visit the site to learn more.

The Dynamic Graphics Re:Design Competition gives readers the chance to have their best redesign work showcased in print. Because entries will be judged according to the quality of the redesign work plus how much improvement it demonstrates, you will need to submit both before and after materials. Entries that lack materials showing the project prior to redesign will not be considered.

Deadline has been extended to 29 August. Visit the site to learn more.

Entries for the 2009 International CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards will be accepted today through September 24, 2008, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced today. This annual competition honors outstanding design and engineering in 34 consumer electronics product categories. The 2009 Best of Innovations honorees will be announced at the New York Press Preview on November 11, 2008 at the Metropolitan Pavilion and showcased at the 2009 International CES, January 8-11, 2009.

“We have instituted new judging criteria this year so that Best of Innovations provides an even higher standard of excellence. Once again, CEA’s Innovations Awards will highlight the most cutting edge technological breakthroughs in the consumer electronics industry,” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president of conferences and events, CEA. “We are continually impressed with the high quality of product submissions we receive for this highly competitive and popular program.”

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Sony Electronics Inc. has launched a nationwide video contest to find the best examples of people using high-definition products to express their passions. Starting August 19 through September 15, individuals can submit their entries online at whatsinyourhdna.com.

The video contest asks PC-owners the question, “What’s in your HDNA?”, and to showcase their answer in a one-minute video relating to music, movies, videos, games and pictures. An example featuring popular vlogger KATERS17 asking the public to submit their video can be found at whatsinyourhdna.com.

HD technology is at the core of Sony’s DNA and the contest seeks to find individuals who personify VAIO style - superior Sony HD technology plus multimedia experience. The perfect centerpiece for the contest, Sony’s VAIO line of notebooks offers superior craftsmanship, integrated HD technology, and an eye for style.

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This internationally recognized design competition is open to young industrial designers who are still studying or who have graduated within the last two years. Current industrial design students as well as recent graduates have until January 31, 2009 to submit their product concepts to Braun (the participation is free of charge). The total prize money amounts to EUR 36,000. The winner of the BraunPrize will receive EUR 12,000 in prize money and a (paid) six-month internship in the Design Department at Braun. The other finalists will each receive a prize of EUR 5,000. The remaining prize money will be distributed in the form of special recognition awards at the discretion of the jury.

Visit the site to learn more.