IFCT, the International Festival of Cinema and Technology, announced its list of 2003 award winners from its annual event held last week in New York City. Despite the East Coast blizzard occurring on the first few days of the event, IFCT received steady turnouts of attendees during the festival events which were held at both the Remote Lounge Screening Room and the Tribeca Grand Screen.

Some of the most popular IFCT content was the animation which included over 40 projects by some of the industry’s top 3D animators and innovative animation creators. “Terra” the new sci-fi animation by Los Angeles based Menithings picked up two animation awards including “Best Use of CG Imagery” and “Best Virtual Character.” The awards for “Best Animation” and “Best Editing” went to DJ QBert’s animation “Wave Twister” which is a 50 minute innovative sci-fi musical journey. Spain’s Pasozebra Productions animated film “Sr. Trapo” (Mr. Cloth) also did quite well in the competition being named as runner-up for “Best Animation,” “Best Virtual Character” and tying with Blur Studio’s Aunt Luisa for the honorable mention for “Best Use of CG Imagery.” Duck Soup Studio’s 3D animation “The Snowman” was winner of the “Best Comedic Animation” competition- the piece about aliens abducting and interrogating a snowman left audiences in hysterics. The environmental themed tale about a monster, “Henry’s Garden,” produced by Simplistic Pictures won “Best New Animation Director.” Other animation award winners were handed out to International participants including “Butterfly” created by Belfast’s Glenn Marshall which won the “Best Experimental Animation” award at this year’s event, the animation “Sottosopra” by Cristina Seresini from Milan won the “Best Microbudget Film” award, and German piece “Momentum” created by German animator Claus Winter won the award for Best Student Animation. Ms. Seresini and Mr. Winter attended the event making the trip to the U.S. even with the harsh weather’s potential interference.

Other festival highlights included the North American Premiere of the 3D sci-fi Film “Cyberheidi 3D” created by the German company Virtual Experience. The 3D screening at the Tribeca Grand thrilled the audience who each received pairs of 3D glasses for the screening which is tagged by the company as the “Bavarian answer to Lara Croft.” The film’s producer Alaric Hamacher was in attendance to receive the “Best Student Film Award” as well as the runner-up for Best Director. Other multiple winners included “The Book of Stars” which scored three times winning three awards: “Best Director,” “Best Cinematography” and “Best Actress,” “The Sweatbox” for Best Documentary, Italy’s “La Gavetta” (The Tin) won “Best Dramatic Short”, Tricia Nolan’s short “Rattler” won “Best Comedic Short” and the sci-fi short film “Hope” won the awards for “Best Special Effects” and “Best Actor.” Tim Geser the director of “Un Momento” took away the award for “Best New Director.”

The International Festival of Cinema and Technology announces its award winners from its IFCT 2002-2003 World Tour. The tour began December 2002 in Paris, France and concluded August 24th in New York City. Tour locations included the CN Tower, Canadian Broadcast Centre, La Defense (La CNIT), and the Los Angeles Sony Culver Studios. The IFCT 2002-2003 World Tour is designed to give exposure to indie films many of which previously had been underexposed to the public. Many of the tour films incorporate themes of technology; however, technology also comes into play in how the films are showcased at the event itself.

In addition to showcasing indie film talents, the IFCT 2002-2003 World Tour repeatedly broke new technological ground. The IFCT London and IFCT Paris events became the first film festival to take advantage of recent breakthroughs in miniaturization. Employing a newly developed ultra-lightweight DLP projector and lightweight DVD playback system, the IFCT London and Paris system weighed less than five lbs, yet yielded vivid and stunning image quality. IFCT Toronto 2003 expanded upon the miniaturization concept with the advent of a complete playback system that included projector, DVD playback system and sound system that weighed a mere ten lbs. IFCT Los Angles featured a display of new technology which converts regular interlaced digital video to 24p with stunning results.

The winners of the tour were selected by a panel of over 50 judges who are based in London, Paris, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York. These judges consisted of film reviewers, magazine editors, music composers, acting teachers, and award winning directors.

IFCT 2002-2003 World Tour Animation Winners,

Best Animation

WINNER: Limboscape (Traditional Animation directed by Tim Finn)

RUNNER UP: An Apple a Day (”Darkly comic” computer Animation from Colombia directed by Juan Duque)

HONORABLE MENTION: Knights of the Dinner Table (Flash Animation Comedy about Role Playing Gamers directed by Andrew Babb)

Best Computer Animation

WINNER: An Apple a Day (Directed by Juan Duque)

RUNNER UP: Damned (Computer Animation about chess pieces coming to life. Directed by Alex Crouch)

HONORABLE MENTION: A Streaming Video (Computer Animation adventure story directed by Chris Vallone)

All award winners are listed at [ www.ifct-tour.org ]
The complete list of awards can be found at the International Festival of Cinema and Technology website [ www.ifct.org/awards.html. ] In 2004, IFCT will launch a touring event which will showcase a different crop of new films as well as a few select 2003 award winners. The International Festival of Cinema and Technology is also opening up for submissions for 2004 selections.