This year, the Vancouver International Digital Festival begins a partnership with the Vancouver International Film Festival. As a result, the Digital Festival will kick off the Film Festival, thus bringing together talent in the animation community with representatives of global film and television. An official press release on the event is available here:

Vancouver International Digital Festival moves back to the future
VIDFEST 2007 touches down September 22 to kick off the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Vancouver (6/18/07) — Organizers of the Vancouver International Digital Festival today officially announced a new partnership with the Vancouver International Film Festival.

This means a move for the 2007 Vancouver International Digital Festival, now running from September 22-25 to kick off the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) and link top-notch digital creatives and producers with leaders of the global film and television community.

“Vancouver is becoming known as a worldwide leader in digital media and our new partnership with VIFF reflects the evolution of a convergent digital entertainment marketplace,” says Lynda Brown, president of New Media BC. “The Vancouver International Digital Festival has always been about peer-to-peer networking within our industry. This year, we’re taking our match-making cred to the next level.”

Now in its fourth year, the 2007 Vancouver International Digital Festival offers creative exchange and business opportunities for producers and creators of digital media, including animation, games, web 2.0, mobile and interactive content. The theme for this year’s festival is Reminiscing about the Future.

2007 Vancouver International Digital Festival highlights include:

   •Ori Brafman, co-author of the best-selling The Starfish and the Spider: the Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, discusses the hidden power behind the success of Wikipedia, craigslist, and Skype, and examines commonalities between eBay and General Electric and the abolitionist and women’s rights movements.

   •The fourth annual International Partnering Forum: this invite-only event introduces and facilitates business matchmaking between international digital media companies. Past participants include: Warner Brothers Animation (USA), Flickr (Canada), and Virgin Mobile (Australia).

   •Artist and festival favourite Joshua Davis presents an intensive half-day Get Creative workshop on using Macromedia Flash MX and Action Script to build a program that does design work.

“We’re especially proud of our progam this year,” says Kirstin Richter, creative director of the Vancouver International Digital Festival. “Our reputation as a world-class event is a privilege and one that we’re committed to earning again this year as we celebrate pushing the boundaries of creativity in digital media.”

Presented by New Media BC, the Vancouver International Digital Festival is Canada’s biggest annual digital content event, connecting international business leaders and top creative minds in the fields of animation, games, web 2.0, mobile and interactive content. 2007 festival supporters include: Telefilm, British Columbia Film and Canadian Heritage. For more information, visit www.vidfest.com.