01:12 (BST), 05/11/2008
2008 Machinima Film Festival
Press Release PROVIDED BY GAMES PRESS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
—The winners of the 2008 Machinima Awards were announced Saturday evening, November 1, at a special ceremony which culminated the day-long 2008 Machinima Festival ( www.festival.machinima.org).
Held at Eyebeam, a multi-disciplinary art and technology center in Manhattan, the fifth-annual celebration of films created in popular video games like Halo 3 and 3D virtual spaces like Second Life brought together a broad range of attendees, including filmmakers, cineastes, gamers, students, and technologists eager to take in the free panel discussions and screenings of nominees.
The awards ceremony, better known as “The Mackies,” began at 8PM and drew from 35 nominees culled from 200+ submissions from 20+ countries from around the world. The nominees spanned 15 categories such as “Best Series,” “Best Long-Format,” “Best Independent,” “Best Direction,” and “Best Cinematography.”
Friedrich Kirschner, Festival Director and Board Member, The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences (AMAS) released the following statement upon announcing the winners, “We want to thank everyone who made this year’s festival a reality. We are eternally grateful to Eyebeam for playing host; to the sponsorship of Beepa and the supporting sponsorship of Adobe and Reallusion. Most of all, of course, we would like to thank everyone who submitted their work, and to congratulate the winners.
He continued, “We also hope that the panels that were organized and the friendships that were made and others renewed will take this vital form of filmmaking forward to the next level.”
“Clear Skies”
Ian Chisholm
“This Spartan Life”
Bong & Dern Inc.
“World of Workcraft”
Stephen Mullane
“The Ship”
Egils Mednis
“Azerothian Super Villains”
Beckman Movie Productions
“The Ship”
Egils Mednis
“The Monad”
Polygon Fiction
“The Monad”
Polygon Fiction
“Apocalypsis Ex Machina”
Andrzej Kozlowski
“The Monad”
Polygon Fiction
“Ignis Solus”
Lars Erik Fjosne
“Chevauchée Nocturne”
Les Riches Douaniers
“World of Workcraft”
Stephen Mullane
“Tales of the Past III”
Martin Falch
“Leaving the Game”
American Film Institute - Digital Content Lab
“The Ship”
Egils Mednis
“Mass Effect”
Bioware Cinematic Design Team
Hailed as the “Sundance for the Video Game Set” by MTV News, the Machinima Festival evolved from its humble beginnings as an adjunct to QuakeCon in Mesquite, Texas in 2002, into the field’s definitive celebration and showcase. The event, which is organized and produced by AMAS, consistently draws hundreds of machinima professionals, enthusiasts and critics, who gather to explore the works of modern innovators, network and discuss the future of the industry. The list of winners is also available online:
http://festival.machinima.org/wordpress/?p=102
Based in New York, the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences (AMAS) is a volunteer-run nonprofit established to promote, organize and advocate the growth of Machinima filmmaking and filmmakers. The organization was founded in March 2002 by several leading members of the Machinima community, including Paul Marino, the noted author of The Art of Machinima (2004, Paraglyph Press), who currently serves as president. Their goal in creating AMAS was to make the current creative industries aware of Machinima as well as bring support & credibility to independent Machinima productions as a whole. The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences continues to support the Machinima movement with lectures, presentations, workshops along with its principal event, the annual Machinima Festival. For more information, visit www.machinima.org.
Founded in 1997, Eyebeam is an art and technology center that provides a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital experimentation. It is a lively incubator of creativity and thought, where artists and technologists actively engage with the larger culture, addressing the issues and concerns of our time. Eyebeam challenges convention, celebrates the hack, educates the next generation, encourages collaboration, freely offers its output to the community, and invites the public to share in a spirit of openness: open source, open content and open distribution. For more information, visit www.eyebeam.org, or contact 212-937-6580 or info@eyebeam.org.
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Bill Lessard
PRwithBrains for 2008 Machinima Festival
914.476.6089
wlessard@prwithbrains.com
-30-
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