Bitfilm Festival
The Bitfilm Festival is a film festival dedicated to films that are made using digital technology. Since the year 2000 it takes place once a year both on the Internet 1 and in real life places. It is based on the Bitfilm community platform2 for digital film makers and digital film lovers.
The Internet audience decides in an online voting on the winners of the Bitfilm Awards in these six competition categories:
3D Space Award: Computer-generated 3D Animation
The big box office success of films like Shrek, Finding Nemo or The Incredibles has made it obvious that computer-generated animation is blockbuster material. Ever since it started out in 2000, the Bitfilm Festival has shown 3D CGI films – covering the whole range from Hollywood to the digital underground. The Pixar short film For the Birds, for instance, was shown at Bitfilm in 2001 – before it received an Academy Award. In 2004, Bitfilm dedicated a retrospective to the world‘s leading computer animation studio from Emeryville, California. However, the main focus of the festival is to discover new talents.
FX Mix Award: Digitally composed hybrids mixing various techniques
Today‘s cinema would be unthinkable without digital visual effects. Hardly any big Hollywood film works without computer-generated visual effects – even if it just means brushing up the complexion of the leading actress. Digital post-production is no longer the exclusive domain of Hollywood and its high-end companies. An ordinary PC with off-the-shelf software can produce stunning visuals these days. It has become easy to combine shots of real humans in front of a blue screen with animated scenes rendered in the computer.
Flash Award: Animations made with Flash
Back in 1996, the internet mainly consisted of static information with tiny graphics in order to minimize excruciating download times. As a result, the first internet animations created a real stir. The software FutureSplash managed to conjure up movement in very little time, even for users of slow modems: it did not save each pixel but vectors – mathematical formulas describing the image elements. This trick only works with twodimensional, geometrical forms, but they can then be enlarged to any size. Future Splash was bought by the software giant Macromedia (now: Adobe Systems), renamed Flash – and soon pre-installed in every internet browser. A dynamic scene of digital artists evolved around this software which hadrapdily become the existing standard for internet animation. They greeted the new production and distribution tool for their ideas with enthusiasm. In 2000, Bitfilm set up its first Flash Award. Flash films, although conceived for the computer monitor, work very well on the large cinema screen. As opposed to pixel films, enlarged vector-based films do not lose any of their quality.
Machinima Award: Films shot live in computer games
The artificial word Machinima, composed of machine, animation and cinema, describes a new way of producing films. Machinimas use so-called game engines which computer games are based upon. They represent characters and backgrounds in such a way that they directly follow the player's moves. In order to create a smooth impression, it needs to generate 25 images per second. With classic 3D animated films, it can take up to some seconds, minutes or even hours to calculate one single image. You only get movement once the film is played. By contrast, games instantly react to the commands of the players, in a split second - or in computer slang: "in realtime". As modern games offer the option of designing your own characters and backgrounds, gamers and film enthusiasts started to make their own films, in their own game worlds, and distribute them via the internet. In 2002 invited Hugh Hancock, one of the masterminds and founders of the Machinima movement to give a speech at the festival. In 2003 Hugh helped the Bitfilm team to curate a Machinima competition, so Bitfilm became the first festival worldwide with a Machinima competition.
Realtime Award: Animation made on the spot
Realtime means: the computer renders a film frame just as fast at it is being displayed, usually a 25th of a second. Unlike classical computer animation, where it might take minutes, hours or whole nights to compute just one single image, realtime animation has no waiting time. This category shows all forms of realtime filmmaking which do not rely on off-the-shelf computer games (those are presented in the Machinima category), but rather on advanced programming skills. In 2004, Bitfilm was the first film festival worldwide to introduce a competition category for realtime animation.
Mobile Award: Short clips designed for mobile devices
When Bitfilm started its mobile competition in 2003, hardly anyone could imagine films for the small screens of mobile phones – only few devices would actually play films. Today, the video function has become a standard feature of mobile phones. The big network operators have started their own mobile TV channels. In order to promote content for these new channels, the Bitfilm Festival shows films that are custom made to fit the small size of mobile screens and the short attention span of mobile users.
History of the Bitfilm Festival
The Bitfilm Festival and the internet film community bitfilm.com were jointly set up in 2000. The mission of this online platform, originally funded by the EU Media programme and the Federal State of Hamburg, is to be a home for digital film makers on the net.
From 2000 to 2002 the Bitfilm Festival was integrated into the International Short Film Festival Hamburg. In addition, Bitfilm started Germany‘s first competition for Flash Movies. In 2000 and 2001 it was a part of the Berlin Beta conference, in 2002 it was integrated into Filmfest Hamburg. In 2003 the Bitfilm founders merged these two events and became entirely selfreliant. Another two competitions for Machinima and Mobile Movies were added to the traditional sections for 3D, VFX and Flash films. In 2004 the Bitfilm Festival became the first festival worldwide with a competition for realtime animation.
The most decisive change happened in 2006 when the Bitfilm festival became a truly global festival. Since then all nominated films can be watched via the internet, the voting process relies on the internet community. Despite its focus on reaching a large community online, Bitfilm still organises real life events, usually in its home city Hamburg and one other city. In 2007 it took place in Hamburg and Barcelona, in 2008 in Stuttgart and Hamburg.