Haute Event: 2010 Vimeo Festival & Awards

Attendees from across the world gathered in New York City for the first Vimeo Festival & Awards. The two-day festival from Oct. 8-9 was held in IAC’s white Frank Gehry-designed building, while the Saturday night awards show was held at the Chelsea Theater. The Vimeo Festival and Awards are held because of the video work being shared by independent creators choosing the internet to premiere and share their work.

The weekend commenced with comedian Reggie Watts giving the opening remarks. The festival was divided into “innovation” on Friday and “inspiration” on Saturday. Each day featured a mix of panel discussions and workshops to learn from professionals in the film making world. There were a variety of topics from film production, funding, digital rights, Final Cut Pro, storytelling and getting the most out of your Vimeo experience.

The festival concluded Saturday night with the crowning of this year’s award winners at the awards ceremony hosted by Ze Frank. This included nine video categories including narrative, documentary, animation, motion graphics, music video, experimental, remix, captured and original series, as well as two honorary award winners and one $25,000 grant for the best overall video. The winners were decided by a distinguished panel of judges including, M.I.A, David Lynch, Ted Hope, Lucy Walker, Morgan Spurlock, DJ Spooky, Nick Campbell, Jose Luis de Vicente and Roman Coppola.

The highlight of the evening was the first U.S. large scale architectural projection mapping performance in which Frank Gehry’s iconic IAC headquarters transformed into a traffic stopping, ten minute audio-visual display. The closing night party was also filled with excitement as people mingled and rubbed elbows amidst some of the best creative minds in online videos.