Prix Imagina/FIFI
15 -31 January

From Sunday 15 January through to Sunday 30 January, cybersurfers will have the opportunity to vote for the best animated film to be awarded with the Prix Imagina/FIFI. To participate, log onto the FIFI Internet site (internet-film.org) where the 12 films in competition selected by the FIFI selection committee are to be presented as of 14 January.

Organized by Imagina and the International Festival of Internet Films, the Prix will go to the most creative and innovative interactive audiovisual work with the condition that it has a URL address. The Prix will be announced during the award ceremony at Imagina on 2 February in Monaco.

Nine works by French creators in competition

The Internet vote opened 17 January for the first Prix Imagina/FIFI, to award the best animation. All of the nine visual works were made with Macromedia Flash software and represent an important endeavor in terms of their interactivity, falling into four categories: games, humorist, experimental and art.

Casse-tete by Sophie Estival (independent production, Paris) is a web version of hangman in which the cybersurfer si to discover several words. The animation is both original and humorist. Another game, Le piano graphique by Jean-Luc Lamarque (Invivo Productions, Paris) allows the cybersurfer to play with an alphabet of characters and sounds on his keyboard.

In the category humorist fiction, Nabo Rabanne - Escape from Paris by Maschas Constantin (Sonarstudio Productions, Paris) portrays a new adventure of the fashion designer and almost clairvoyant Paco Rabanne. Also the very short film by Philippe Croz entitled La tartine (independent production, Annecy) in which the piece of toast is eaten and is reincarnated as a mouse…

Mutation by Bruno Samper (Panoplie Productions, Montpellier) is an interactive fiction work based on different systems of organic mutation. The spectator can participate in the birth of a being. Presented as an experimentation laboratory, Globz by Olivier Besson (independent production, Paris) is also an interactive fiction piece in which the role of the visitor is fundamental. The only collective work, Contagion (produced by the group of the same name, Paris) proposes a stroll through the universe of this artist company.

Finally, two works could be classified true interactive art pieces. 12 notes by Agnes de Cayeux (Paris) proposes 12 visual, interactive and accompanying sound voyages into the screenplay by Bernard-Marie Koltes entitled "Douze notes prises au nord." Les 5 mots by Philippe Bruneau (independent production, Rennes) proposes a poetic musical animation of …five words.

Festival International du Film de l'Internet
14 - 17 March

FIFI is a traditional festival with a future vision that intends to present the works of artists and multimedia creators via the Internet acting as a virtual meeting place between artists and computer technicians, amateurs and professionals, the public and the cyberfilms. FIFI intends to expose new talent by creating bridges between the various fields emerging in the audiovisual sector, which they have renamed DIGIMA. The festival accepts films shot with a digital camera for Internet distribution, webcam or flash works, digitalized animations or other works including experimental works made with the new tools. The audience vote is to take place from 16 February to 16 March and the winning films are to be announced on 17 March.

In 1999, FIFI bestowed its award to Kimble Special Agent , a " film " in Flash by Ian Hothersall and Peter NRG. With a slick graphics style similar to cartoons and a comic story line (agent Kimble terrorizes the poor Bill Gates), the film went on to win numerous prizes.

To date, the film has been seen by a mere 5 million visitors (kimble.org). The creators then decided to attack Slobodan Milosevic with a second film as hilarious as the first.

New for this second version, The Plug-In Festival Concept will connect FIFI into other festivals and the works presented for an audience vote. These festivals include Imagina (Monaco/Paris), Lisbon's Cyber 2000, and Montreal's FCMM (Festival du Nouveau Cinéma et des Nouveaux Médias).

Other FIFI additions for the year 2000 include an interactive writing workshop and a Selection From Another World, notably Portugal/Brazil.

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Gustav Podroe