Webcuts.07 — The Internet Film Fest in Berlin was a cool event this year, again! First we had a panel for our VIP guests with Karin Wehn (University of Leipzig), Marc Schleiss (winner of Webcuts.06), Eckhard Jäger (founder of Webcuts), Tillmann Allmer (interfilm berlin) and Jennifer Hoffmann (HFF Potsdam). The screening of the nominees and the award show were both fun and continued at the After-Show party. The image above shows me with the winners for Best Animation Matthieu Landour und Edouard Jouet from Paris at the ceremony. We also had a show simultaneously on an island in Second Life with our exclusive movie theatre. So, to get an idea of what you missed, check out www.webcuts.org. You can find a video coverage of the evening here at freshmilk, an interview with Eckhard Jäger and me and more photos here.

Berlin Mitte, Prenzlauerberg, Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg is tagged with Webcuts posters and stickers.

radioeins in Berlin did an interview with some people from the mstreet. It was live, quite nice and really, really short.

The winners of this year’s Webcuts.07 were chosen by the jury last night. It took many hours until we finally decided on the best clip in each category. Yet, it’s still top secret who the winners are, as we will announce them next Thursday, October 11th at the Webcuts.07 Awards. Many thanks to the members of the jury (from left to right): Ludwig von Reiche / mental images, Prof. Susanne Mayer / HDM Stuttgart, Prof. Ulrich Weinberg / HFF Potsdam, Sven Assmann / interface!berlin, Katrin Holetzeck / Eastside Film and Andy Polaine (both absent).

The nominees for this year’s Webcuts Awards are set — but still a secret! The best 22 movie clips from around the world will be presented on October, 11 at the CineStar Original Berlin. Tonight the jury will meet to decide on who will be the winners for best design, best animation, best story and best film.

The team of Fantoche 07 — International Animation Film Festival in Baden/Switzerland invited me to visit the festival. I was the curator for a small section Flash & Co which enables visitors to explore the diverse world of digital animation. The selected movies are from past Webcuts screenings — the Internet Film Fest in Berlin I help organizing. Thanks a lot to Duscha Kistler and Nicole Göbel for inviting me and letting me participate! The festival was a great inspiration and I met a lot of very talented and interesting filmmakers and sound designers like Max Bauer. He is one of around 20 Foley artists (sound makers) in German-speaking countries. He works as a Foley artist for film and television productions and he creates live sound effects for theatre productions. Together, we plan a special event in Berlin, but the details are still secret. I shot a couple of pictures and movies with my mobile which you can find here.

Webcuts.07 is near! Tell everybody! We call for submissions! And there are great prizes again this year — worth a couple of thousand euros! Just go to www.webcuts.org and submit your movie! deadline for entries is September 15th, 2007.

Extracts of the official selection of Webcuts.06 are currently presented by Motor TV — Berlin-based nationwide music TV channel. The clips are broadcasted throughout the entire broadcast, so you will see the Webcuts movies every now and then. You can watch Motor TV here online or if you live in Berlin and Brandenburg you can watch it on TV via DVB-T.

Freshmilk exclusively reported on Webcuts.06 online. You can watch their coverage at freshmilk.de. I think they did an amazing job. Don't miss the interviews with Prof. Weinberg and this year's winners!

I thought I could have a rest after Webcuts.06, but in fact, the press and the media are very interested in presenting Webcuts.06. We’re proud to announce that Die Welt features our festival on the homepage. Check it our here.

Andy Murdock (San Francisco) — maker of Lots of Robots and winner of Webcuts 04+05 had a speech about his 3D animated feature movie project. He explained the technical methods and creative processes behind the creation of this solo project. It was a very interesting and inspiring afternoon at the HFF Potsdam. Many thanks to mental images, our main sponsor and Prof. Weinberg, who made this possible for Webcuts.06. You can find some pictures by Peter here.

Webcuts.06 was crowned with success. The show was sold out, there were brilliant films and we had a party far into the night! Anina — founder of 360°Fashion presented the winner for the special award. She’s really a blogging-pro. Read the whole coverage at her blog here!

RTL II News interviewed me about Webcuts.06 this afternoon and they showed it on their prime time news tonight. You can watch the news as a podcast here (interview starts at 7:00).

Lovely blogging fashion model Anina from 360Fashion arrived from Paris tonight and I brought her to the hotel. She will award one of the prizes for Webcuts.06 tomorrow. And Andy Murdock, the winner of last year arrived from San Francisco! Things are getting exciting, now!

The interview for Freshmilk is online. You can watch Eckhard Jäger and me explaining Webcuts.06. Click here.

The winners of this year’s Webcuts.06 are determined by the jury. It was a 5-hours-process and we had a hard to time to find the best clips in the categories. Yet, it’s still top secret who the winners are, as we will announce them next Thursday, October 12th. Many thanks to the members of the jury (from left to right): Ludwig von Reiche / mental images, Prof. Eku Wand / HBK Braunschweig, Prof. Susanne Mayer / HDM Stuttgart, Sven Assmann / interface!berlin, Prof. Ulrich Weinberg / HFF Potsdam, Gerrit Wahle / UFA and Ilona Koglin / Page (absent).

I totally forgot to post this news on my own blog: The first Webcuts podcast is online for you to watch and download. You can find the “Podcuts” at blog.webcuts.org.

Promoting Webcuts.06 – the Internet Film Fest I released this year’s teaser trailer for the event. Meanwhile, I'm working on a new main trailer.

Today our blog for Webcuts.06 – the Internet Film Fest has been launched. We will keep you in touch with all the latest in the progress of the festival. And we soon will have a video podcast which will feature the best artists and movies of previous Webcuts festivals. Unfortunately our new member of the organization team Mara is missing on the current photo (we’re going to fix that).

This afternoon I watched Sehnsucht (Longing), a movie by Valeska Grisebach. Told in a realistic style that sometimes has the feel of a documentary, the story is situated in a village not far from Berlin. I think it would be a very good short film rather than a — sometimes very slow — feature film.

Tonight I was at the award ceremony for the Berlinale short film selection. The Golden Bear went to Jonas Odell who some of you might know by the music videos he did for Franz Ferdinand. The film ALDRIG SOM FÖRSTA GÅNGEN (Never Like The First Time!) about people’s “first time” is just brilliant! I couldn’t find any clips of the movie, only at MTV.

This afternoon I went to see Knallhart (Tough Enough) by Detlev Buck. The movie tells of a drastic change in the life of young Michael Polischka. He moves from the bourgeois Berlin district of Zehlendorf to the social realities of Neukölln, a district marked by unemployment. A good movie with fresh and creditable acting, only the soundtrack was terrible: white New York rock music à la The Kills (don’t get me wrong — I love them) doesn’t fit to a German / Turkish / Arabian district like Berlin-Neukölln.

Yesterday, I was at the world premiere of V for Vendetta — directed by James McTeigue, produced by Joel Silver, The Wachoski Brothers and Grant Hill based upon the comics by VERTIGO. Part of the movie was filmed in studios in Berlin.
Of course, Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving were there, too and I was pretty excited to see them live. I was sitting in the theater looking forward to the screening when suddenly the side door opened and Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving appeared next to me heading to their seats!
As always, Natalie Portman was enchanting and Hugo Weaving did some nice dubbing (his face is always hidden behind a mask) — I just love to hear him speaking. So, people, don’t go and watch the German version — you must see the original one!

Finally, after my dental surgery, I can go to the Berlinale and take advantage of my accreditation. It already started last Thursday, but today is my first opportunity to watch one of the hundreds of films. More later this evening…

This afternoon I had a meeting with the Peter and Lars of Pictoplasma who organise conferences and events on contemporary character design. They maintain an extensive web-archive and publish books and resource books on the topic.
Together with Jenny and Ecki of Webcuts — the Internet Film Fest and Mara from media.net bb we agreed on teaming up and organizing something together as we’ll both have our events later this summer — nothing confirmed yet, but it’s gonna be thrilling!