When Pixar animation studios made Vancouver its new home earlier this year, it gave the city two gifts: a free, completely kick-ass tourism promo video (check out 0:46-1:31 to see some of the studio's most beloved characters settle into our city and give us heaps of praise: "is there a place more beautiful than Vancouver?"); and, more importantly, it legitimized our city's place as a new media capital. As Chief Creative Officer of Pixar says in the video, "some of the finest animation filmmakers and animators are Canadian". It's probably safe to assume that a good chunk of that talent resides here in Vancouver.

To help celebrate and bring attention to these filmmakers -- whether they are students, emerging or firmly-established professionals -- the Vancouver Short Film Festival is hoping to draw a significant amount of animated entries for its fifth annual event.

Full disclosure: I am volunteering as a marketing coordinator for the festival. This has given me a glimpse into what it takes to organize a major film event and, more interestingly, how such an event finds its identity. Although the festival will be celebrating its fifth birthday this year, it will only be its second year as a festival that accepts professional entries. The VSFF started as a student film festival and expanded its programming last year.

In an email interview, VSFF Marketing Director Sandra Garcia explained why the festival made the move. "We found there was a missing niche in BC for a shorts-only festival that featured professional-level shorts, so it just felt right to expand our programming that way. We still love showing works by emerging filmmakers because the quality gets better every year, and it's so interesting to see the difference (and similarities) in narrative and technique between students and professionals."

She added that accepting professional entries places the VSFF on the festival map: "We definitely felt more of a professional vibe last year as the first Vancouver Short Film Fest. We hope this continues on in future years as we gain more credibility in the industry and make our festival one of the places to be during the Fall festival period."

Sandra also explained why the VSFF is hoping to attract more animated entries: "We've never gotten any animation entries at the professional-level, so we'd love to be able to feature one or a few, given that Vancouver is such a great hub for digital and new media. It would also be nice to compare the quality between people working in the industry and artists coming out of animation school."

But the festival is not limited to animation artists.

"We get all types of genres, from drama to comedy to animation and documentary. Length is usually as short as 2 minutes and as long as 15. We love programming all genres; it makes for a great film-watching experience," said Sandra.

The festival gives entrants the chance to win great prizes such as a re-screening on Movieola: The Short Film Channel, dinners with industry professionals, cash awards, as well as networking opportunities. With after-parties on both nights of the festival, filmmakers will have plenty of time to connect with one another as well as industry pros.

Essentially, as Sandra puts it, "The VSFF is a two-day extravaganza of short films and two nights of partying!"

The Vancouver Short Film Festival is accepting entries from B.C. filmmakers until August 1, 2010. Entries must be 15 minutes in length or under. Selected entries will be screened on October 28-29, 2010.

All images courtesy of Sandra Garcia at Middle Child Marketing.