Are you a short film-maker looking to take the leap into features? Do you have the burning desire to tell a story and need funding and support to realise your project? Round three of Microwave, Film London’s micro-budget feature film fund, is now open for applications.

FILMMAKERS TO CHOOSE THEIR OWN ENTRY FEE FOR GLIMMER : 7th HULL INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 21st-26th April 2009

Given the number of entries they normally receive and the costs of watching and reviewing them, for the recent Hull International Short Film Festival in April, submissions fees were introduced (tho kept free for those from the region). While making sure that people were serious before sending in their film, fees could put off the poorest filmmakers and limit the range of films submitted, so for next year - in a move with echoes of Radiohead's recent In Rainbows - filmmakers are invited to pay what they can. While being open about the costs involved in running a successful fest, they hope to encourage a debate about festival fees and a responsible reaction from those submitting - some shorts have festival costs written into the budget, while in some parts of the world, the postage and duplication costs alone can be offputting.

Wow. When Mike Leigh goes comic, he really goes for it. Happy-Go-Lucky , the tale of Poppy, a North London primary school teacher with a very un-London persistently sunny nature and a whole host of whacky quips, gets driving lessons and talks too much. That's the film. The latest Mike Leigh film. No, really.

Welcome to Page to Screen # 1, Laurence Boyce’s newest column that takes a look at some of the best books related to cinema, TV and anything else that fits into our broad remit. From serious academic tomes to graphic novels, weighty reference material to film tie-ins there’ll be something here for everyone to feast your eyes on when not actually in the cinema.

Get Connected, the charity that provides a helpline for young people, are launching Nobody's Perfect, a new website for young writers, actors and directors to showcase their talents to professional writers, producers and directors. Young people between 16 and 25 can submit film, scripts and music to win the chance to produce six short films that address issues like self-harm, sexuality and bullying. 

Top British movie producer Nick O'Hagan (Fever Pitch, Tideland) is supporting Nobody's Perfect by judging entrants and mentoring the winners.

"I'm always on the lookout for new British talent and I'm confident this competition will unearth some exciting young writers and directors and I look forward to working with them on the project."

Juried film fest is looking for innovative, creative, entertaining shorts that bridge the best of the online and offline worlds...

Show us what you've got!

This was submitted by Chris using the open content submission - and if you click to read more, includes an 'Eat My Shorts' comedy film contest with the winners screened at the Groovy Movie Picturehouse - the world's first (and only?) solar powered cinema.

This September (25-28th) will see the launch of the first ever International Comedy Film Festival in Torquay, on the south west coast of England. The inaugural week-long event will take place in an area affectionately dubbed the "English Riviera" and in many ways the spiritual birthplace of classic British comedy.  Peter Cook, who was crowned the world's greatest comedian by his peers in a recent survey of 300 writers, directors and comedians, was born in Torquay. A close runner-up in the survey was one John Cleese, who will remain forever associated with the town thanks to his role as the world's most irascible hotel owner, Basil Fawlty. The sitcom Fawlty Towers, set in Torquay of course, has also been voted the best British sitcom of all time. It's a comic legacy that certainly deserves to be celebrated.   

John Cleese said: "I'm delighted to learn that Torquay is launching its International Comedy Film Festival.  I think of Torquay as being the home of British comedy.  The first time I saw Bruce Forsyth was in the Babbacombe Pavilion in the mid 50s; we had a very successful Monty Python shoot there in 1970; it was then that I met the famous Donald Sinclair, the model for Basil Fawlty; and I for many years followed the hilarious antics of Torquay United at Plainmoor." 

BRITDOC 08: 23rd-25th July, Keble College, Oxford.

BRITDOC is the bespoke documentary film festival connecting international funders, distributors and filmmakers, from the Foundation behind such films such as We Are Together and Black Gold. 

The festival this year boasts a double theme: Comedy and Music. Director Larry Charles (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Borat) will be attending for a masterclass and key-note speech, while special musician guests include Mercury Prize nominee Nitin Sawhney and acclaimed composers Michael Nyman and Jonathan Dove. 

From LazyFilm:

There are only two things that can make any motion graphic artist flinch and that's rotoscoping and chroma keying. Why? Mainly because both processes are time consuming and arm numbing. However despite all these, rotoscoping and chroma keying still remains to be very important in the industry we move in. Which is why, lately, software companies are launching new products that aim to lessen the pain in rotoscoping.

Here we will talk about the Top 5 best rotoscoping softwares currently available that deliver accurate and fast mattes.

"In 1744 a simple experiment was conducted in Sweden to reproduce the underlying cause of the Aurora Borealis in a laboratory, what we would now think of as a room. A small hole in a shade "the size of a large pea" let through a ray of sunlight that then was refracted through a prism. The small patch of light broken into a spectrum of colours then traveled through a medium of turbulent air directly above a warmed glass of aquavit. The resulting image landed on a screen a few short feet away and looked like what was seen dancing in the sky on many long Swedish nights, nature's sublime entertainment in the real pre-history of cinema."

Continued here. An Animate Projects commission for Channel 4 in association with Arts Council England. Awarded Best Film at Cutting Edge at the British Animation Awards 2008. Thanks FMG.