The 4th Annual Chicago International Movies & Music Festival

We’ve always said that Chicago is a hotbed of TV and film production talent. Last year’s CIMMfest had us salivating at the wealth of global talent that was being supported locally, and this week we were happy to hear the announcement of their 2012 edition.

The loose netting which groups all the events of the four day-long festival, is ‘Where Movies and Music Meet’. Films are a big part of it, and the weekend will represent many genres and backgrounds, including a screenplay of Irvine Welsh’s rave novel ‘Ecstacy’, a documentary of the founders of the Sugarhill Gang who have battled to regain control of their stage name, and a fictional feature film about youths fighting to save their roller disco. In addition, expect an eclectic mix of live sights and sounds; artists playing out live scores, short music videos, music-culture themed features, stunning VJ-DJ sets, along with a handful of Q&A session and other learning and networking opportunities. As the CIMMfest website puts it, “The films come from all countries and cultures [...] they just have to be about music and/or use music in a creative, integral way. The live performances are inspired by film or feature visual accompaniment.”

The weekend culminates with and awards party, with awards in five categories: Best Feature Fiction, Best Documentary Feature, Best Short Fiction, Best Short Documentary, and Best Music Video.

April 12th-15th are the dates for this year’s vibrant fest, and tickets are available for individual films or as a festival pass, allowing you full access to almost 70 films, 20 musical performances, and several afterparties for just $60. Check out the lineup, and buy tickets here.

For a sneak preview, check out the trailer below of ‘Charles Bradley: Soul of America‘. Showing at The Society for Arts on Friday, April 13 at 9pm, ‘Soul of America’ follows singer Charles Bradley as he releases his debut album, at the age of 62. The releases rocketed him from a hard life in the projects to world tours and being in Rolling Stone’s top 50 albums of 2011.

Trailer Credits
Director: Poull Brien
EP/Producer: Alexander Brough
DP: Stuart McCardle
Editor: Poull Brien
Titles: Robert S. Dunbar
Music: Charles Bradley and Menahan Street Band

by Lee Jarvis.

One week left for submissions!

The Vimeo Festival + Awards are back for their second season, and the deadline for you to submit is fast approaching. Submissions close on Monday 20th February so this is the last call to enter your projects into one (or more) of their 13 categories. Entries are open to everybody, from hobbyist trying to break into the film industry to students to professional filmmakers and everyone in between.

The categories in which you can enter include Animation, Captured, Documentaries, Experimental, Motion Graphics, Music Video, Narrative, Remix, and Series, along with four new categories for 2012; Fashion, which explores the blurred boundary with visual arts; Action Sports, acknowledging the increase in thrilling, fast-paced adventure video via more accessible, durable and wearable HD cameras; Advertising, and it’s expanding territory as short entertainment; and, Lyrical; incorporating videos that showcase the natural world or personal experience with dramatic styles and effects such as extreme slow motion or time lapse.

An independent jury consisting of category winners from 2010 plus two industry experts/ famous faces / pioneers will be the judges, and prizes include $5,000 grants to winners in each category, plus a whopping $25,000 grand prize, all hoping to inspire and enable the filmmakers to create and produce further projects.

“More and more creators earn visibility, credibility and, ultimately, work by showcasing their videos online.” said Jeremy Boxer, Director of the Vimeo Festival + Awards. “The aim of the Vimeo Festival + Awards is to become the gold standard for creative online video. We designed the program to focus on discovering the best new talent and to give that talent a platform that will catapult their careers to the next level.”

If you are interested, need inspiration, or further clarification, then check out the new promo video below, take a quick peek at what happened last time around, or view the full 2010 show.

Vimeo will accept submissions through February 20, 2012 for a $20 (U.S.) fee per video ($5 for Vimeo Plus and PRO members) at vimeo.com/awards. Entrants can submit any original work that premiered anywhere online between July 31, 2010 and February 20, 2012 or any original work that has never been premiered before. All entries must comply with the Official Rules of the Vimeo Festival.

This year’s Vimeo Festival + Awards event will be happening in New York from June 7-9, and tickets will be available soon.

by Lee Jarvis.

The world’s only film festival dedicated solely to bike-themed independent short movies takes place every April in bike-loving Portland.

Ranging from animations to documentaries to love stories to comedies and much more, the Filmed By Bike festival is approaching the ten year mark, and has just opened up a call for entries for the 2012 festival. Submissions are limited to eight minutes and must revolve around the central theme of cycling (obviously). In each of the previous years, hundreds of entries are submitted, but only the best 30 make the cut, as evaluated and judged by an esteemed jury of nine bicycle and film enthusiasts from the Portland-Seattle area. There is no fee to submit a movie, entries are open to worldwide filmmakers, and the deadline for entries is January 20, 2012.

Staged at and around the Clinton Street Theater in Portland, Oregon, the festival involves music, bike culture, street partying, unicycles, penny farthings, and movie screenings, and has attracted bike lovers and film makers from across the country. Although there are no plans to extend the festival to other cities, there are DVDs for sale and limited screening rights available from the website.

Filmed by Bike 2011 takes place the weekend of April 13-15, and you can get into the mood and prepare for your submission by checking out the 10th Anniversary Festival Trailer below. The trailer was made by producer Burk Webb, a filmmaker well known for both cyclocross videos and movies about unicycling zombies(!) featuring his Unicycle Bastards crew in Portland, Oregon.

by Lee Jarvis.

Media professionals worldwide will gather to celebrate all things computer graphics with the week-long extravaganza that is VIEW Conference and VIEWFest, featuring four award-winning keynote speakers and the Italian premiere of Disney/Pixar’s ‘La Luna’.

Taking place in Turin from October 25th to 28th, VIEW Conference is four days of “inspirational talks, extraordinary educational workshops, and astounding visual and audio experiences“, and is attended by a vast scope of TV, Film, Video, Graphics and Audio professionals . It sees contributions from various filmmakers and computer graphics artists, as well as the inventors and visionaries behind products and technologies that have changed the way we work.

Recently they have announced the addition of Randy Thom, award winning Sound Designer for Skywalker Sound. Thom’s first film credit was as a post-production Sound Recordist for the film Apocalypse Now (1979), and he has since designed, edited, or mixed the sound for 99 live-action and animated films, receiving two Academy Awards and a further 14 nominations along the way.

Other keynotes speakers include Sharon Calahan, Director of Photography / DP at Pixar, Tom Wujec (Autodesk fellow) and Cory Doctorow (contributor to The Guardian / The New York Times / Publishers Weekly / Wired). There are far more speakers and workshop hosts, including; Scott Farrar (Senior VFX supervisor, ILM, ‘Transformers 3′), Roger Guyett (VFX Supervisor, ILM, ‘Cowboys & Aliens’), Davide Pesare (Technical Director, PIXAR, ‘La Luna’), Enrico Casarosa (Director, Pixar Animation Studios, ‘La Luna’), Peter Nofz (Digital Effects Supervisor, Sony Pictures Imageworks, ‘Green Lantern’), Adriano Rinaldi (Head of Effects, MPC, ‘X-Men: First Class’), and many more.

Discussions over the four days will touch on topics such as the impact of games in modern design, robotics, augmented reality, the challenges of designing, character rigging for animation feature movies, and helping people understand how to turn concept art into creatures. VIEW Conference also appeals to professionals from other areas of visual effects and computer graphics, by delving into the world of Graphics Designers for automotive design, vizualisation and in-vehicle safety, as well as medical imaging. There will be workshops on design and innovation, as well as exhibitions from industry names such as Autodesk, Adobe and Nvidia.

For more information check out http://viewconference.it/

Immediately preceding the conference, is VIEWFest, the Computer Animation Festival and Italian evolution of global touring digital film festival Resfest. Running from 21st to 23rd October 2011, VIEWFest features director Enrico Casarosa from Pixar Animation Studios introducing the Italian premiere of ‘La Luna’. other higlights screening include “In Praise of Love (Elogie de l’amour)”, written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, ‘Fratellini D’Italia’ (‘Garibaldi and the kid Brothers of Italy’), and futher Italian premiers.

For more information check out http://www.viewfest.it/


by Lee Jarvis.

The Chicago Underground Film Festival is an annual event showcasing independent, experimental and documentary films from around the world. Building on last year‘s success, CUFF once again provides a place for cutting-edge filmmakers and film fans to delve into the lesser known (or, lesser-screened) independent film scene. Established in 1993, the festival has become the largest underground film fest in the country, and has also grown into an important date in Chicago’s cultural scene.

“What you get for your money is not just admission to the films but admission to a subculture”

– Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

When Jay Bliznick and Bryan Wendorf began CUFF, they wanted to create a festival for the kind of films they wanted to see, which were, in their words, “primarily films that the established film festival circuit – increasingly dominated by distributor product – refused to show.” Unlike many other independent film events, they aimed not to imitate old guard, market-driven events such as Sundance, but instead chose to focus on the artistic, aesthetic and fun side of independent film-making. CUFF promotes works that dissent radically in form, content and technique from both the tired conventions of Hollywood and the increasingly stagnant IndieWood mainstream.

This year’s festival is held once again at the Gene Siskel Film Center, and will offer a mix of independent features, shorts, documentaries, experimental films, fine art films, avant-garde videos, as well as nightly parties and concerts, drawing on the cross-over blend of artistic creative talent that is thriving in Chicago.

The event runs from Thursday June 2nd until Thursday June 9th, and the schedule can be found here.

by Lee Jarvis

This weekend, Chicago welcomes the third incarnation of CIMMfest. The Chicago International Movies and Music Festival is a weekend full of entertainment highlighting the crossover between film and song, punctuated with short documentaries, live concerts, panels, art exhibits, music videos and more. Musicians, indie filmmakers, producers, directors, students and enthusiasts from all backgrounds get the chance to mingle and enjoy works from a whole depth of like-minded folk.

“We’re really excited to bring together movies and music from all over the world to Chicago. CIMMfest is unique in its scope, from ethnographic films about Balkan folk songs to Mike Watt in concert, to video mashup DJs, to live musical accompaniments, and music from all over the map: Brit pop, hip hop, gospel, experimental, Americana, funk, industrial, and more.” says Josh Chicoine, CIMMfest Director. ” We aim to show our interconnectedness through the lens of film and music.”

The Festival sees 70 films being screened from over 20 countries, and includes 17 world, North American and US premieres. There are also free screenings at the Chicago Cultural Centre, a variety of afterparties at venues including Subterranean and Berlin, a Record Store Day celebration event at Big Star, and an event called Chicago Punk Night at Double Door.

Tickets for various screenings and events are available individually, via this CIMMfest page at Brown Paper Tickets, or you can purchase a Movie Pass, which lets you see all 30 of the films for one price of $45. Included with your ticket is a one-year subscription to Time Out Chicago magazine ($9.99 Value).

So, get out and about over the next three days and see and share as much of the festival as you can!

Fancy a quick preview? How about ‘Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then’….

2nd Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then trailer from Brent Green on Vimeo.

The story of a man who builds his cancer-stricken wife a magical house in a desperate act of love, accompanied by an all-star musical line-up. Self-taught animator Brent Green uses stop-motion photography to illuminate Leonard Wood’s doomed gesture. See it at WPAC, 2215 W. North Ave., Saturday, April 16 at 10:30pm.)


by Lee Jarvis.

Before the Chicago Food Film Festival, there was the NYC Food Film Festival, which is now approaching its 5th year. The festival sprang from the imagination of Festival Director George Motz, the documentary filmmaker behind the award-winning Hamburger America film and book, along with co-creator Harry Hawk, formerly of Schnack and Water Taxi Beach. Through documentaries, features and short films, the Festival showcases the best, and the most memorable, of the world’s favorite foods. Along with a heaping helping of mouth-watering films, the festival serves up the food that guests are watching on the screen for a multi-sensory, full-bodied experience.

In 2009, acclaimed director Ron Mann called the festival “his absolute favorite” after his film Know Your Mushrooms was screened and followed by a 10-course mushroom-inspired tasting menu from Next Iron Chef star Brad Farmerie of Public and Double Crown. Other past events have included a screening of Whole Hog by Joe York, during which over 1000 people feasted on whole hog barbecue. Following a screening of the food film classic Big Night, the audience enjoyed a re-creation of the famous Timpano featured in the film. And at the World Premiere of Florent: Queen of the Meat Market, for one night only the audience was treated to memorable menu items from the shuttered iconic restaurant.

The First Annual Chicago Film Festival will take place over September 24-25th 2010 and is an exhibition only. Starting in 2011, the Chicago Food Film Festival will be a competitive film festival accepting entries in the Spring of 2011.

Chicago Food Film Festival 2010 Trailer from George Motz on Vimeo.

THE FILMS…

Beer Wars
Dir. Anat Baron – 90 mins website
An amazing journey into the heart of corporate beer and the small independent brewers it leaves in its wake.

The Best of Hamburger America
Dir. George Motz – 15 mins website
An abbreviated version of the film that was the nexus of the NYC Food Film Festival.

Celeriac
Dir. John D. Reilly – 2:20 mins
A nail-biting super-short thriller about a stalk of celery and a knife.

CUD
Dir. Joe York – 16 mins website
Meet Will Harris, a 5th generation rancher that has rejected the corn-fed, feedlot cattle model in favor of raising grass-fed cattle.

The Death & Life of Ice Cream
Dir. Orrin Zucker – 3:20 mins website
Mezmerizing time lapse of melting ice cream. Amazing to see on the big screen.

Eat Your Fill
Dir. Mark Irving – 13 mins website
A man embarks on his annual mission to eat every menu item at the Wisconsin State Fair that is either deep fried or on a stick.

Mr. Okra
Dir. TG Herrington – 12 mins trailer
A portrait of a man who sells produce from his rolling farmstand/pickup truck in New Orleans. Winner of the Audience Choice Award, 2009 NYC Food Film Festival.

Obsessives: Soda Pop
Dirs. Meredith Arthur and Eric Slatkin – 13 mins website
Get to know John Nese, the owner of Galco’s Soda Pop Stop in Los Angeles, and his lifelong obsession with independent soda-makers. Winner of the Audience Choice Award, 2010 NYC Food Film Festival.

The Perfect Oyster
Dir. Craig Noble – 6 mins website
There really is no one who can wax poetic about oysters like Brent Petkau. 2008 NYC Food Film Festival Feature Film Award winner Craig Noble returns with this portrait of a man and his oysters.

Pie As A Lifestyle
Dir. Michael Gebert – 6 mins website
Take a trip to the Chicago pie shop Hoosier Mama in this episode of Michael Gebert’s video podcast Sky Full Of Bacon.

Check out THE FOODS, the full schedule, and buy tickets at the official site, Chicago Food Film Festival.

Lee Jarvis.

Online video website Vimeo has just announced that they are to hold their first ever video festival and awards event. In contrast to other online video sites, Vimeo focuses on original content, quality production and editing, and allowing users to share their work with groups of their peers.

Having just celebrated their fifth anniversary, Vimeo will launch the Festival + Awards in New York City on October 8-9, 2010 at IAC Headquarters and the SVA Theater. The Festival promises to “bring the world of online video to life like never before”, with two days of screenings, education, panels, installations, parties, and more. Line up, activities, speakers and of course, parties, will be announced shortly. Submissions for the awards are now open, and categories include….

The Vimeo Award: The Best Video Award will be selected by a group of judges from multiple categories and the Vimeo Awards staff. Winner will receive a $25,000 grant to produce new work.
Narrative: Live-action narrative fiction told through the medium of film/video.
Remix: A film/video that is comprised of elements such as sound and picture of other works which then combines them to become a metamorphic work.
Original Series: A periodically released collection of episodic content.
Documentary: Short films/videos that seek to document compelling actuality or reality.
Music Video: Short films/videos that accompany a complete piece of music or song.
Animation: A simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures or frames.
Motion Graphics: The use of the principles of graphic design to create a film/video using animation or filmic techniques.
Experimental: Short films/videos that experiment with new ideas, forms, techniques, and expressions that are often characterized by the absence of a linear narrative.
Captured: Videos that capture an artistic expression or performance.

Honorary Awards:

Digital Maverick: Honorary award for pioneering spirt in the world of online video.
The Feature Presentation: Honoring the vanguard and innovative release of unique feature film online.

The Vimeo Awards will accept submissions from June 3, 2010 – July 31, 2010 for a $20 (U.S.) fee per-video ($5 for Vimeo Plus members) at www.vimeoawards.com. Entrants can submit any original work as long as it has premiered online between June 3, 2008 and July 30, 2010 or has never been premiered anywhere.

For more information on the Vimeo Festival & Awards, head to http://vimeo.com/awards.

Lee Jarvis.

LATV FEST ’10 brings together creative TV & digital content producers
with development execs, agents, advertising executives, technology
solution providers.

July 12-15, 2010

Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel

Expanded 4-day conference: *Networking events *Enlightened panel
discussions *Never before seen screenings *Guaranteed Pitch Meetings
(Register ASAP for priority access)

A La Carte Offerings: *Pitch Critiques *Mentor Round Robins *Premium
Pitch Packages

Featured Speakers: *Howie Mandel, Actor/Comedian/TV Host, David Hudson,
TBS/TNT *Mark Horowitz, NCIS *JD Roth, 3Ball Productions *Kevin Pollak,
Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show *Michelle King & Robert King, THE GOOD WIFE

Register Now with Promo Code 10MATCH for a $100 savings!

www.latvfest.net

Founded in 1946, Cannes is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious film festivals. 2010 sees American Director Tim Burton take on the role of President of the Jury, and the opening film has been announced as Robin Hood, the epic blockbuster by British director Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, and will be presented out of competition on Wednesday 12th May.

One lucky grand-prize winner will receive a trip for two to the Cannes International Film Festival, enjoying a three-day, two-night stay in the picturesque French Riviera and VIP access to the 2010 Canes International Film Festival (May 12-23), courtesy of the festival’s official beer partner Stella Artois®. Beautiful scenery and free meals await at the hotel, La Manoir de L’Etang, a 19th century manor house that was once home to Pablo Picasso. Then, travel to the festival in style with free transportation. Once there, get access to the festival’s red carpet, VIP events, select film screenings and the Stella Artois® hospitality area!

PRIZES INCLUDE:
• Round-trip airfare to Cannes
• Three-day, two-night accommodations with free meals at La Manoir de L’Etang
• Access to the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival red carpet
• Access to select VIP events
• Tickets to select film screenings at the festival
• Access to the Stella Artois® hospitality area at the festival

For full contest rules and your chance to win, head over to http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/static_content/surveys/index.php?tonyact=showsurvey&surveyid=1020.

To get instant updates on all film-related competitions, why not join our 10,000 strong Facebook Page.

Lee Jarvis.