The 32nd Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) will take place from May 6 to 11, 2025. With focuses on artistic animated films and the promotion of young talent prizes totalling over 45,000 euros will be awarded across five competitions. Filmmakers worldwide are invited to submit their works starting September 1, 2024.
The submission deadline for the following short film competitions is November 15, 2024:
International Competition for animated short films
Student Competition for animated short films
Tricks for Kids – competition for animated short films and series for children
Trickstar Nature Award – competition for animated short films on nature and the environment
The submission deadlinefor the feature-length film competition AniMovie is January 15, 2025.
Film submissions are handled via the online submission platform Shortfilmdepot. Registration forms and regulations as well as more information about the festival, the competition categories, and the contact persons can be found on the ITFS website.
The STUTTGART ANIMATED WEEK leverages synergies with parallel events: At the same time as ITFS, the co-production market Animation Production Days (APD) and the FMX – Film and Media Exchange conference take place. This unique combination of festival, conference, and market draws up to 6,000 professional visitors to Stuttgart each year.
The First Steps Awards is the most important German prize for young filmmakers. This year, the expert jury has made its choice from over 200 entries and announced the nominees. The winners will be announced on Monday, September 30 at the Theater des Westens in Berlin and broadcast as a livestream in the ARD Mediathek from 19:30 CET. The nominations alone are associated with a prize of 1,000 euros.
Among the nominees is MORIA SIX by Jennifer Mallmann, produced by our CREATORS from FFL Film- und Fernseh-Labor Ludwigsburg and funded by MFG, was nominated in the “Documentary” category. The film takes a critical look at the new European refugee policy, using the example of the controversial conviction of six refugees who were held responsible for the devastating fire in the Moria camp on Lesbos in September 2020.
PEAR GARDEN (director: Shadab Shayegan) is nominated in the “Short Steps” category and uses a purist drawing technique to sensitively tell the story of a grandmother who has lost her breasts through a mastectomy and the associated fears of her grandchild. More about PEAR GARDEN
SCRUBBY (director: Paul Vollet) is also nominated in the “Short Steps” category. The titular creature wants to live in its mother’s thick fur forever. But in his search for security, Scrubby realizes that even strong people sometimes lose their strength and need someone to lean on. More about SCRUBBY
We congratulate everyone involved and keep our fingers crossed!
Our CREATORS from Studio Soi are preparing for a variety of projects that will require experienced 3D animators on location at their studio in Ludwigsburg, Germany.
3D Animation (Maya) with professional experience in character animation (full-time, fixed term of approximately one year) – Job description
Please apply with a link to your most recent animation reel and a short CV to: work@studiosoi.de. Please use the subject line: Application for 3D Animator.
Trude’s flatmate (TV series)
August 12, 2024
Open Call for THE CREATIVE LÄND CHÄLLENGE
Image: MFG
Who realizes the best in their field in our country? To answer this question, MFG Baden-Württemberg is organizing a new competition: THE CREATIVE LÄND CHÄLLENGE. As part of the new campaign THE CREATIVE LÄND, the MFG is looking for high-quality, value-oriented work from eleven areas of the cultural and creative industries. Full-time creative professionals with their company headquarters or main residence in Baden-Württemberg can take part. Deadline: September 23, 2024.
Under the motto “Share your values – Show your works”, the new competition challenges the creative industries in Baden-Württemberg to showcase their work in a synopsis. Because breathtaking and inspiring things are happening in many areas, but often enough only the industry itself takes note. THE CREATIVE LÄND CHÄLLENGE gives all participants the opportunity to present themselves as part of a powerful cultural and creative sector and thus achieve broader recognition and visibility. This is aimed not only at their own sphere of influence, but also at companies from other sectors that are enthusiastic about new ideas and creative collaborations.
The competition is open to all full-time creative professionals from the following eleven sectors: Architecture, book market, performing arts, design, film, art, music, press, broadcasting, software and games as well as advertising – in other words, everyone, regardless of whether they are freelancers, small offices, agencies or large publishing houses. Professional works that deal with the developments and challenges of the present, for example topics such as regionality, cross-innovation, democracy or sustainability, have the best chances. A high-caliber jury will select the best entries. In addition to an exhibition of the works, there is also a prize of €1,000 and a broad-based social media campaign. The award ceremony and vernissage will take place at an evening event on December 4, 2024.
Not from one of the eleven sectors yourself? Or nothing suitable in your drawer at the moment, but perhaps a hot tip for colleagues? Then you are welcome to draw the attention of all those whose work deserves more visibility to the competition. The social media campaign for the competition also offers the opportunity to share and forward posts.
THE CREATIVE LÄND CHÄLLENGE is a competition organized by MFG Baden-Württemberg. Prizes are awarded to works from all eleven sub-sectors that represent the cultural and creative industries in Baden-Württemberg in a high-quality and value-oriented manner. It is part of the “THE CREATIVE LÄND” campaign and is sponsored by the Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Tourismus Baden-Württemberg.
August 12, 2024
RnDeep are looking for a Pipeline Developer and Team Lead VFX/Animation (m/f/x)!
Our CREATORS from RnDeep – a company specializing in CGI pipeline development in Europe based in Stuttgart Feuerbach – are looking for a Pipeline Developer and Team Lead VFX/Animation (m/f/x).
They are looking for you with 5+ years of professional experience. You will contribute your expertise in a hybrid working model as a Pipeline Software Developer from the areas of media and entertainment, especially VFX and animation, and help manage 2 junior developers.
The tasks:
Development of long-lasting and robust customized software solutions using various technologies such as Python, Qt, Java- / TypeScript, C++, Unreal, Angular.
Management and support of 2 junior developers as well as organizational support of the entire team in internal projects.
Conceptual collaboration on a research project in which we implement animation tools using Unreal and web technologies
Creation of architectures and assessments of new project requirements
A great community of 12 freelancers from the fields of design, architecture, photography and film
Freshly cooked lunch together every day
Beautiful, bright premises and outdoor area for lunch in summer
A fully equipped kitchen
A large desk + storage area
Hard facts:
260€ per month (incl. internet, water, cleaning service)
Studio subsidy possible
Top public transportation connection: Metzstraße stop (SWR) in Stuttgart East (U1, U2, U14)
If you are interested, please contact Julia Skala directly: juliacskala@gmail.com Instagram: @juliacskala Mobile: +49 (0) 1573 240 3382
August 5, 2024
Jobs at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg’s Animationsinstitut
The Animationsinstitut is part of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and one of the world’s leading institutions for Animation, Visual Effects, Technical Directing, Animation/Effects Producing and Interactive Media. In their Research and Development Department, a highly skilled and motivated team of researchers, engineers and artists works on the next generation of tools, workflows and content for Film, Animation, VFX and XR-Immersive Media.
They currently have the following vacancies:
Virtual Production Engineer (m/f/d), part time (50 %) The responsibilities include: Technical support in the virtual production environment incl. Mocap, Ncam, LED wall (incl. controller), studio lighting, high-end graphics workstation Supervision of virtual productions at the FABW incl. basic lectures Support for non-linear production formats (XR) with new technologies Job posting and application
Lecturers to conduct a workshop on “Diversity-oriented teaching” The six major German film schools (German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB), Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), International Film School Cologne (ifs), Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) and Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg) drew up a joint position paper with specific voluntary commitments entitled “Together for Gender Equality” at the beginning of 2018. A common goal of the film schools and part of the voluntary commitment is to strengthen the diversity skills of teaching staff. To this end, workshops are to be offered for teachers at the film schools between October 2024 and July 2025. Job posting and application
THE LÄND joint stand at Gamescom 2023 (Photo: Tobias Vollmer)
MFG has been organizing a joint Baden-Württemberg stand in the business area of Gamescom in Cologne since 2013. The exhibiting games companies have the opportunity to present their latest developments to trade visitors and make contacts with the international games scene. In 2024, the theme of the event will once again be “THE LÄND – Games made in Baden-Württemberg“.
This year, eight companies will present themselves at THE LÄND joint stand. Our CREATORS from b.ReX, Stuttgart, UP Designstudio, Stuttgart and Zeitland media & games from Ludwigsburg will be part of the stand, too. Zeitland will be presenting their latest strategy game Camp Chaos, which can also be tried out.
Other exhibitors include GameBoot, kr3m. media, LFK, StickyStoneStudio and TinyRoomStudio.
The THE LÄND joint stand can be visited from August 21 to 23 in the Business Area (Hall 4.1, Stand C64). Come by!
Gamescom 2023: Visit by Robert Habeck, Vice Chancellor of Germany, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (Photo: Tobias Vollmer)
Gamescom 2023 with our CREATORS from Pixelcloud (Photo: Tobias Vollmer)
Our CREATORS from UP Designstudio have advertised various open positions. Since 1994, UP has been creating user-oriented design solutions in Stuttgart. Over the years, product design has evolved to include competencies in additional areas such as product communication and web design.
Apply now and become part of their team!
Full Stack Developer (System Administrator) (m/f/d), Permanent position, Part-time
They also have internships and working student positions available in the fields of communication design, interior design, UX design and marketing. And they are always happy to receive unsolicited applications!
The nominations for the Emmy Awards2024 have been announced!
The series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was nominated in the category “Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Season Or A Movie”. Accenture Song VFX (with – among others – visual effects supervisor Emanuel Fuchs), Scanline VFX and PIXOMONDO were involved in the creation of the series. RISE also have every reason to celebrate: they contributed to the visual effects of the series “Fallout,” which has been nominated in the same category.
PIXOMONDO were also involved in the series “3 Body Problem” and “Winning Time”, both of which were nominated in several categories.
The 76th Emmys will be awarded on September 15, 2024 in Los Angeles. We are keeping our fingers crossed for all nominees!
