2006 Machinima Festival at Museum of the Moving Image

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Expanded, 2-Day Event, November 4-5, with Machinima Awards Winners (" The Mackies") to be Announced at Exclusive Saturday Ceremony

NEW YORK, NY, October 17, 2006-New York City will once again play host to the Machinima Film Festival. Organized and produced by the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences and sponsored by NVIDIA, Beepa and GameVideos.com, the 2006 Machinima Festival, hailed as the "Sundance for the Video Game Set" by MTV News, returns to the prestigious Museum of the Moving Image, in Astoria, with an expanded two-day schedule, featuring panel discussions, demonstrations and screenings of the most groundbreaking works of this movement, along with the nominees and winners of the 2006 Machinima Awards ("The Mackies").

From its humble beginnings as an adjunct to QuakeCon in Mesquite, Texas in 2002, the Machinima Festival celebrates its fourth year as the definitive annual celebration of a revolutionary new breed of animated filmmaking which uses virtual spaces and popular video games like Halo 2 and The Sims 2 as source material for entirely new and often subversive works.

Among this year's record number of entries from around the world, spurred in part by the recent showcasing of Machinima in the World of Warcraft-themed season premiere of South Park, the list of 33 finalists has been announced, across such time-honored categories as Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Cinematography, in addition to such games-specific categories as Best Virtual Performance: Puppeteering and Best Virtual Performance: Custom Animation.

Notable entries for the 2006 Machinima Festival include:

Best Picture

Stolen Life

- Peter Rasmussen (Australia), Game Engine: 3D Game Studio

The Adventures of Bill & John: Danger Attacks at Dawn

- KBS Productions (France), Game: Lock On: Modern Air Combat

Best Voice-Acting Performance

Red vs. Blue

- Rooster Teeth Productions (USA), Game: Halo 2

Best Performance: Puppeteering

Tra5hTa1k

- The ILL Clan (USA), Game Engine: Torque

Best Machinima Series

This Spartan Life

- Chris Burke (USA) Game: Halo 2

Best Visual Design

Reich and Roll

- Scintilla Films (Italy), Game Engine: Iclone

Best Sound Design

No Other Destiny

- CCP Games (Iceland), Game: Eve Online

Best Writing

Male Restroom Etiquette

- Phil Rice (USA), Game: The Sims 2

The complete list of finalists is available at http://festival.machinima.org/mackies.html. In addition, the selected works are viewable at the respective sites of their creators as well as on GameVideos.com. Winners of the 2006 Machinima Awards ("The Mackies") will be announced on Saturday, November 4 at an exclusive, private ceremony.

For those interested in the technical, legal and cultural aspects of Machinima, there will be panel discussions and demonstrations throughout the weekend on a broad range of subjects, from production and design to intellectual property rights. Special surprise guests who have made the transition from Machinima to game design are also expected, along with a who's-who of leading filmmakers.

The 2006 Machinima Festival is sponsored by NVIDIA, the Museum of the Moving Image, Beepa and GameVideos.com. Festival partners include Reallusion, Linden Lab and Machinima.com; media partners include WarcraftMovies.com and sims99.com.

EVENT INFORMATION

Location: Museum of the Moving Image

35 Avenue at 36 Street

Astoria, NY 11106

Subway: R or V trains (R or G on weekends) to Steinway Street. N or W

trains to 36 Avenue.

Time: 11am-5:30pm (both days)

Tickets: Available at the door or online at www.movingimage.us

Prices: $10/day or $15/both days

Program Information: Telephone: (718) 784-0077

About the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences

Based in New York, the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences (AMAS) is a small volunteer-run nonprofit established to promote, organize and advocate the growth of Machinima filmmaking and filmmakers. The organization was founded in March 2002 by several leading members of the Machinima community, including Paul Marino, the noted author of The Art of Machinima (2004, Paraglyph Press), who currently serves as president. Their goal in creating AMAS was to make the current creative industries aware of Machinima as well as bring support & credibility to independent Machinima productions as a whole. The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences continues to support the Machinima movement with lectures, presentations, workshops along with its principal event, the annual Machinima Festival. For more information, visit www.machinima.org.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA Corporation is the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies. The Company creates innovative, industry-changing products for computing, consumer electronics, and mobile devices. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA and has offices throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. For more information, visit www.nvidia.com.

About Beepa

Beepa is a successful software company based in Melbourne, Australia. Beepa's Fraps software is one of the most popular graphic utilities on the Windows platform, allowing gamers to measure the performance of their computers and record high-quality videos for use in Machinima movies. For more information, visit www.beepa.com.

About The Museum of the Moving Image

The Museum of the Moving Image advances the public understanding and appreciation of the art, history, technique and technology of film, television, and digital media. It does so by collecting, preserving, and providing access to moving-image related artifacts; screening significant films and other moving-image works; presenting exhibitions of artifacts, artworks, and interactive experiences; and offering educational and interpretive programs to students, teachers, and the general public.

About GameVideos.com

GameVideos.com ( www.gamevideos.com) is the primary source for any and all video related to gaming culture. It serves as the video hub of the 1UP Network, Ziff Davis Game Group's suite of media properties. Ziff Davis Game Group is the largest integrated gaming media publisher in the United States, reaching over 17 million gamers in print and 11 million gamers online.

Contact: Bill Lessard

PRwithBrains for AMAS

914.476.6089

wlessard@prwithbrains.com