Cop Festival and Cop Festival Reloaded--a pair of sets from Japan's wildly popular short film series--arrived in New York City this week, and Saturday marks the final opportunity for Gotham filmgoers to check the movies out at Lincoln Center's New York Video Festival.

Started by Japanese filmmaker Makoto Shinazaki, Cop Festival films are ten-minute genre pieces shot quick, cheap and dirty--in some cases, over the course of a few hours. The selection of films at Lincoln Center includes videos by internationally renowned directors such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Ryuichi Honda.

Shinazaki curated the rarely seen shorts in these "best-of" assortments especially for the NYVF. Cop Festival screens Sunday, July 31 at 9 p.m., while Cop Festival Reloaded screens Saturday, July 30 at 10:30 p.m.

The Short Shorts Film Festival kicked off its 7th annual competition and tour of Japan earlier this month with screenings in the trendy Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo. $60,000 in prizes was awarded to filmmakers in three categories: National (Japan), International (non-Asian), and Asian. “Rien de Grave” (dir. Renaud Philipps, France) took home the Grand Prix, and “Shirotaku” (dir. Toshiro Sonoda, Japan) was honored with the Asahi Super Dry Award, which includes a $30,000 grant to fund the filmmaker’s next project. The official programs of 78 competition films were selected from over 2,000 submissions received from over 80 countries. For more information about the festival and winners, visit their website.

Short film fans in Hollywood should mark their calendars for Aug. 13-14, when the inaugural HollyShorts Film Festival is set to launch at Tinseltown's Space Theater.

Organizers have programmed an international selection of 22 films, including Justin Liberman's Tribeca favorite Y Nada Mas and Brett Simmons' Sundance-screened thriller Husk. The twenty other shorts in competition represent an international array of filmmakers from as far away as Poland, India and Thailand.

"We are thrilled to present the brightest work from up and coming directors and writers," said festival co-founder Dan Sol. "Art is coming back to Hollywood, and we are looking forward to making HollyShorts an annual gathering, where the filmmakers can have their masterpieces showcased in front of their industry peers."

American entries include Kelly Rigg's reality-game-show parody Bluff Point, Alex Alba's documentary Runway Job and Frederick Taylor's self-explanatory Dolls with Issues.

The 11th Annual Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films & Short Film Market, held from September 20-26, 2005 at the Camelot Theatres, announces that Kathleen McInnis will join the Festival as the Director of Short Film Programming this year. The largest short film festival and market in North America screens approximately 350 films from over 40 countries annually. Over the past 10 years, 46 of the short films nominated for Academy Awards have played at the Festival, with six of the nominated films screened at last year’s Festival. For more information about the festival, visit their website.

San Francisco's Film Arts Foundation will host the latest installment of its True Stories series Aug. 17, featuring a pair of shorts about the work and legacies of two Bay Area artists.

Jane Levy Reed's “My Eyes were Fresh: The Life and Photographs of John Gutmann” profiles of an artist raised in the German-Jewish culture of Breslau and Berlin before religious persecution provoked him to start a new life in the United States. The event's organizers recognize Gutmann (right) as someone "whose art and life forged a link between the European modernism of the early twentieth century and the burgeoning artistic culture of SF Bay Area in the second half of the century."

Karina Epperlein's “Phoenix Dance” takes a closer look at Homer Avila, a professional dancer who lost a leg to cancer, yet recovered and returned triumphantly to the stage. Epperlein will be in attendance to discuss her film following the screening.

Each film runs 30 minutes, and the program starts at 7:30 at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Advance ticket purchase is recommended.

In case downloading ringtones and games to your cell phone just seems so passe, mobile TV pioneer Shorts International has announced that it will partner with British wireless provider Orange to provide downloadable short films.

According to a release, the Shorts TV service is available immediately to Orange's 14.3 million customers around Great Britain. For their part, Shorts International has accumulated the world's largest dedicated short film library since its inception in 2000.

Shorts TV adds to the comprehensive film guide Orange already makes available to it subscribers, including movie news, trailers, interviews and listings. For interested Orange customers, the collection of short films and animations is available through the TV and video section on Orange World.

Chris Landreth's Oscar-winning animated short film Ryan (right)—based on the life of troubled Canadian animator Ryan Larkin—is set for US distribution on Aug. 2.

Rhino Home Video plans on releasing a special-edition DVD featuring the title film as well as a curious blend of biography and autobiography. Additional work by both Landreth and Larkin will be included among the disc's special features.

Larkin was an acclaimed filmmaker in his own right before drug and alcohol addiction sidelined him in the 1980s. Landreth's innovative film intercuts animation and documentary footage to track Larkin's influence and legend.

Ryan screened at more than 100 festivals in 93 countries over the last year. Other films on the 90-minute disc include a making-of documentary and Larkin's own Oscar-nominated 1969 short Walking.

A scene from Daria Price's Survival of the Fittest, featured at this week's Reel Venus Film Festival (Photo: RVFF)

The third annual Reel Venus Film Festival gets underway tonight in New York, showcasing nearly four dozen short films and videos by women filmmakers from around the world.

The festival, split into nine roughly one-hour programs over the next three nights, includes award-winning meditations on everything from art (Christine Lombard's Sophie Matisse: A New York Painter) to eating disorders (Jamie Babbitt's A Memoir to My Former Self) and even collectibles (Ellen Lake's Trina's Collection).

Festival director Melissa Fowler says the festival was launched in 2003 with a mission to celebrate the short film as a viable art form, as well as to promote the work of women filmmakers and video artists.

"The festival has definitely garnered a warm response from filmmakers and industry alike," Fowler adds. "This year's festival presents it's strongest work of all 3 years, which contains work from first-time directors and seasoned industry filmmakers."

Hollywood filmgoers are getting ready for the third annual HypeFest, a two-day event blending scores of short films, music videos, commercials and promo clips. The event takes place July 30-31 at Tinseltown's CineSpace movie lounge.

HypeFest's selection committee recently chose 55 entries for competition in three categories: DIY, which is presented to a compelling project completed on a limited budget; the Style Council Award, which recognizes a project for its unique style and visual panache; and Stash Magazine's Animation Award, which honors the best animated project.

The festival will also host the world premiere of the 2005 Global Student Animation Awards Finalist Showcase, as well as a screenplay competition.

"In our third year we are seeing greater crossover between various arms of the entertainment industry -- film, commercial, music video -- and are excited to see what the cross-pollination yields," said Jessie Nagel, Festival Co-Director, in a statement.

Jonathan Levine's Shards (right), about a DJ and graffiti artist who struggles to beat drug addiction following a friend's death, took the eighth annual HBO Short Film Award at this year's American Black Film Festival in Miami.

The award carries a $20,000 cash prize that Levine will share with Shards co-writer and fellow AFI graduate Jonathan David Boyce. The short has earned accolades for the pair in festivals across the US, from Brooklyn to San Francisco.

The film beat out four others in competition at the festival, including former ILM effects artist Marcus Stokes' The Catalyst and Maurice A. Dwyer's and Adetoro Makinde's culture-clash drama In Time. Each of the runners-up take home $5,000 prizes.

Calvin Sun's and Brian Foo's "Big Trouble in Little China" (Photo: AAIFF)

The 2005 Asian American International Film Festival kicks off this weekend with a selection of short programs featuring the work of Asian filmmakers based around the world.

Young American filmmakers take center stage Saturday with the For Youth By Youth program, covering topics from gentrification ("Big Trouble in Little China") to a stuck-up girl with a bit of a... problem ("Lyk OMG, You Have Gum On Your Shoe"). Also showing Saturday is Taiwan's "Thunder Lannyang," which recounts the true story of a man who resurrects traditional Baguan opera after retiring from a lifetime of manual labor.

Sunday's screenings include Singapore's "G-23," which joins eight other film in the Table For One program. Among the others--which revolve around the theme of coincidence and fate--are Ernest Woo's experimental "I'll Have an Espresso, and Just a Water For..." and New York filmmaker Kit Hui's Cannes-captivating short "Missing."

The festival runs until July 31 at the Asia Society, IFC Center and the Cinema Arts Centre.

The Manhattan Short Film Festival is in the early stages of recruiting crew members for a feature film project it plans to award the director of this year's best film.

Festival founder Nicholas Mason says the crew call is aimed primarily at film students looking for work immediately after graduation in 2006. The feature will go into production next May, followed by national distribution.

Roughly 20 to 30 spots are open for applicants, and Mason says the festival is arranging sponsorship to see that the jobs are paid positions.

"It's not necessarily just for people in New York or California, where (film) is surrounding us," Mason says. "I really hope it opens up the doors for people who come to New York as a dream. It's a very exciting time in their lives, and it's an enjoyable adventure."

The SXSWclick Festival, ran by the good folks at South By Southwest, have announced the finalists for their online short fest. The five finalists are: "101" by Matt Ogens, "Finding the Unknown God" by Lorenzo Llanillo Jr, "Jane Lloyd" by Happy, "MAN UP" by Arturo Cabanas, and "Robot-ussin" by Nikc Miller. The five minute and under selections can be viewed (in Quicktime) and voted on by online viewers. A People's Choice Award and a Jury award winner will be announced next month.

A scene from Gabriel Cheifetz's election film "Battleground Minnesota" (Photo: Media That Matters)

The Fifth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival continues its international tour Thursday with a stop at Portland, Maine's SPACE Gallery. The festival comprises 16 short films addressing various approaches to civic and community involvement.

Media That Matters premiered in New York on May 26 and has since screened around the world from Arizona to Australia. The Portland event follows a successful showing in Youngstown, Ohio, last weekend.

The festival has carved out a popular niche with its emphasis on youth, activism and social issues. To shape this year's line-up, organizers at Arts Engine, Inc. say they had to pare down their selections from more than 450 entries.

“We were thrilled to double our number of submissions from last year,” said Arts Engine executive director Katy Chevigny in a statement. “There is an increasing demand for independent media, and we’ve found the most entertaining, timely and innovative work out there. We can’t wait to bring these vital perspectives to audiences around the country.”

Paste Magazine, which was recently named among the 50 Best Magazines by the Chicago Tribune and is a favorite around the indieWIRE office, has announced a call for entries for Paste Shorts Fest 2005.

They are seeking the following categories: Animation, Children/Family, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Experimental, Foreign-Language, Flash/Shockwave, Music Video and Student.

The festival, which will screen shorts films and have live music, will take place October 14-15 in Decatur, GA, which Paste describes as 'Mayberry meets Berkeley.' Selected films will also be included in their DVD sampler for the year-end Film Issue.

Microcinema International, which has been exhibiting and distributing independent film and video since 2000, recently curated Summer Edition 2005, a program of new shorts that will screen at the Duke City Shootout Digital Film Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico on July 22nd. The selection of films from all over the world include Ari Gold's "Culture," Rick Kent's "Starlet," Steve Whitehouse's "Kunstbar," Chicheng Peng's "Whizeewhig," Stephen Arthur's "Vision Point," Chirstinn & Jake Whyte & Messenger's "Text Field," Chieh Huang's "Birdon," Lee Isaac Chung's "Sex and Coffee," and Brett Simon's "Counterfeit Film." A DVD of these shorts can also be purchased from Microcinema.

Other filmmakers include: Gregory Bourdeau, Zack Bent, Tim Clague, Varda Hardy, Rob Tyler, Ellen Lake, Jim Haverkamp and Joyce Ventimiglia, Shizuko Tabata, and Helen Grace.

The Duke City Shootout is a "high-definition digital filmmaking competition where winning screenwriter/directors are paired with professional mentors in a race to shoot, edit and premiere 12-minute screenplays in only seven days."

Filmmaker Daryl Goodrich's five-minute short "Inspiration," which was made as a way to showcase London as the ideal city for the Olympics, helped secure the city as the winning bid for the 2012 Olympics. The short "features four underprivileged children from across the globe watching London win the 2012 bid. In the second part, the kids are grown up and competing as Olympic cyclists, runners, swimmers and gymnasts." Goodrich's short was up against some fierce competition: Steven Spielberg for New York and Luc Besson for Paris. Archie Thomas reports for Variety. (Subscription required.)

Rooftop Films, the ongoing film festival series that projects short films on Brooklyn rooftops, is bringing San Francisco's Hi/Lo Film Festival to the roof of the Automotive High School in Williamsburg, Brooklyn tonight. Hi/Lo presents "high concept/low budget" films such as Bill Macomber & Tony Schloss' "Valium and Grass,"a hynotic, sonic collage of B-movie and home movie footage; Charles Roxburgh's "Candy Girl," about a Sovia era space girl who races to the moon to save the world while keeping her dog from going crazy; and Rob Tyler's "Magic Hostess," which offers a Charlie Chaplin/Tati inspired tribute to 20th century technology. View tonight's schedule here. (And if it is still raining, they are planning to do the event inside.)

Tonight in Manhattan, Gen Art hosts Ignite! 2005 NYC at the Puck Building. The multimedia event features more than two dozen short films in a multimedia viewing environment—including live performances, video installations and DJ work by Tommie Sunshine.

Among the films showcased are Chris Conforti's animated Frog—about the troubling misadventures of a frog searching for water—and Talmage Cooley's Dimmer, a documentary look at blind street kids in Buffalo, N.Y., with music by Interpol.

"At Gen Art Ignite!, audiences can kick back living-room style with a beer in hand while indulging in the best in short-form cinema art," said Gen Art film division director Jeffrey Abramson. "Last year, we drew 2,000 people to this event in New York."

The event starts at 8 p.m. at the Puck Building, 293 Lafayette St.

There are many types of film festivals out there, fests that celebrate dancing for the camera, films made in 24 hours, shorts shot on Super 8, you name it, and there is a probably a fest out there somewhere to showcase every particular nuance and fancy. To add to this eclectic mix is a newcomer called The Slomo Video Festival, which will show 120 one minute films that are in slow motion.

Slow Mo's goal for the fest is best described in their own words:

"Remember when you were a kid and you could stare at ants crawling around for hours, or just space out and look at the ceiling or the patterns on the floor? SloMo Video is a recreation of that meditative place in the present. It is a video experience that isn't afraid to put a 78 record on at 33 1/3rd and kick back in a beanbag to ponder the mysteries of space and time."

A still from Slink Moss' latest film, Factory (Photo: Slink Moss)

The NewFilmmakers Series continues at New York's Anthology Film Archives tonight with a program appropriately titled, "The Glorious 4th, A Few Days Late." Four hand-picked short comedies will precede Roy Szuper's feature, Gonzo Music Diaries.

Kelly Sebastian's "A Girl and a Goldfish" kicks things off, followed by Dave Mulkoff's "Gof Cart Driving School"--the story of a Hollywood go-fer who must attend driving school after running a stop sign on a studio lot.

Slink Moss' abstract "Factory" provides a set of surreal images from a demolished factory in upstate New York, dwelling on everything from dreams to airplane food. Finally, Jay Critchley's "Providence Dirt Newsreel" manipulates old newsreel footage to recount the colonial history of Providence, R.I.

"It's basically our late Fourth of July," said NewFilmmakers executive producer Barney Oldfield. "We do it every year with beer and some food. We've had action films, and last year we had a rock and roll show with a live band. We really try to make it fun."

The L Magazine is having Short Filmmaker Showdown, a competitive film series tonight at Crash Mansion at 199 Bowery at Spring Street in NYC, with free Kronenberg from 6-9 PM and the filmmakers showdown from 7-10 PM.

Moviefone, which originally began as a way to avoid long lines at the theater by buying movie tickets online, has now added short films to its online content of movie reviews, interviews, movie times, trailers, etc. The Moviefone Short Film Festival is currently screening 15 short films online, including 10 online premieres that have screened at major film festivals such as Tribeca and Sundance. "Focusing largely on humorous shorts, the initially showcased films include live-action and animated shorts in categories such as On the Job, Offbeat & Oddballs, True Romance and Friends & Families." Shorts include: "Tim Tom," "Pol Pot's Birthday," "Free Radicals," "Roslyn," and "Reality School." The festival has also announced a call for entries, where filmmakers can submit their short. Selections will be judged by a industry panel this Fall. Visit the Moviefone Short Film Festival here.

Ryan Fleck's award winning short film, "Gowanus, Brooklyn" is joining the club of short films made into features ("Five Feet High And Rising" "Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade"). "Gowanus, Brooklyn," which screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and Sundance, is about "Drey, a 12-year-old Brooklyn girl who discovers her teacher smoking crack after school and is compelled to investigate further." The Reeler reports on the recently greenlit project, which will star Ryan Gosling and Anthony Mackie.

Filmmaker Jem Cohen (Photo: STV)

There are "independent" filmmakers, and then there are independent filmmakers. The genuine article is his own crew, editor and often his own producer.

Take Brooklyn filmmaker Jem Cohen, whose 20-year career features an uncompromising blend of narrative work, experimental shorts and acclaimed music films with the likes of R.E.M., Fugazi and Vic Chesnutt. His latest short project, NYC Weights and Measures, premiered June 17 on PBS' Reel NY.

The film provides atmospheric glimpses of the city's geography and population as filmed by Cohen over the years. "It’s a great place to shoot," Cohen said during a recent shooting expedition beneath the Manhattan Bridge. "But it's kind of endlessly heartbreaking that it keeps getting more and more homogenous, and is less and less itself."

Cohen says he has also experienced increasing police crackdowns while filming on city streets. He has been accosted numerous times around New York, and had his film seized in January while traveling via Amtrak to Washington, D.C. (For more about Cohen's efforts to reclaim the footage, visit indieWIRE's companion blog, The Reeler).

Nevertheless, the filmmaker remains an undeterred one-man show. "All the politics and shenanigans of the film industry, I've seen it up close," he says. "I even worked in it for ten years. I did my time. This kind of work--shooting on my own on the street--it isn't about business, and it'll always be more my thing."