The FOCAL International Awards, now in their 18th year, winners will be announced in a virtual programme streamed across FOCAL’s Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube channels hosted by Jo Caulfield, a stand-up comedian, presenter, and comedy writer who has worked with the biggest names and shows in British comedy.

All shortlisted nominees across 14 categories (Production, Restoration & Preservation, Janes Mercer Researcher of the Year) have been announced and available on FOCAL’s website https://focalint.org/awards/the-focal-international-awards-2021

These awards are the leading and most complete set of awards for the archive footage industry, we hope you can join us on the 24 June to honour all the nominees and celebrate with the winners.

For further details or to contact FOCAL – awards@focalint.org
www.focalint.org

Given the ongoing uncertainties for international travel, IASA’s conference will again be held online, from 27th to 30th September 2021.  And this year we introduce a new innovation: a series of daily sessions corresponding to different time zones that match our global presence. This ensures that everyone can participate, whatever the time in their home nation. Be part of our international community of sound and audiovisual archivists!

Call for presentations is open! https://2021.iasa-web.org/call-presentations

IASA wants our current inability to meet physically to be an opportunity to broaden our links with sound and audiovisual archives around the world. The IASA 2021 virtual conference comes at a historic moment as our lives have changed and, consequently, the way our archives work. The preservation of our sound and audiovisual memories has been the aim of IASA for more than half a century. Therefore, this conference is the space in which ideas, projects, and memory for the future are presented and exchanged.

Our virtual conference will be programmed according to three different time zones: the Americas, Europe/Africa, and Australasia. This allows anyone in the world to participate at suitable times, while creating a virtual bridge between nations across all continents. 

The conference programmes in each zone will be coordinated by the following institutions:

Radio y Televisión Nacional de Colombia (for America)
Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (for Europe and Africa)
Universiti Putra Malaysia (for Asia and Australasia) 

We want a strong dialogue that analyses the current situation and discusses the new generation of sound and audiovisual archives. We want to listen to voices from all over the world and try to close the gaps that separate us. Therefore, your participation is necessary to make the IASA 2021 Conference a unique space for reflection.

We intend to provide a virtual platform that gives presenters a choice of either live-streamed videos or pre-recorded videos. Live and pre-recorded presentations will be made available online according to the published schedule.

IASA welcome proposals for conference presentations on the following topics:

A.   From cataloguing to interoperable metadata

B.   AI applications for discovery and access

C.   Copyright and ethics 

D.   Digital preservation and conservation

E.   Research, dissemination, and publication

F.    Digital content management

G.   The current situation and problems in preserving our audio-visual memory

H.   New profiles in audiovisual archives and training 

Please submit your proposal by completing the form here: https://2021.iasa-web.org/call-presentations