Animafrik, an African animation film festival that seeks to promote African art and animation will take place October 5th to the 9th, 2009.

Animafrik draws the relationship between art and animation and plans to offer a platform to showcase Africa's finest works with screenings, workshops (including workshops for children), exhibits, and professional meetings under the theme "Telling Our Own Stories". There will also be regional screenings in various cities following the festival.

DVD submissions may be sent by courier to: Animafrik Festival, No.5. Anowa Link, Tesano, Accra, Ghana; or by mail to: P.O.Box KN 150, Kaneshie, Accra, Ghana.

The submission deadline is July 31 2009.

More information can be found on the Animafrik 09 website

Labels: Africa, call for submissions, festivals

Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, and Dru Pagliasotti are calling for academic papers on the phenomenon of yaoi and BL anime and manga fandoms in a global context. Here's the CFP:

This edited, interdisciplinary volume seeks to examine the new representations of same-sex attracted males in boys' love and/or yaoi -- that is, male same-sex romance or erotica as featured in manga, manwha, anime, videogames, fanfic, fanvids, artwork, and other media derivative of the genre's Japanese origins. The collection's primary focus will be the ways in which fans in countries and cultures other than Japan interpret and use these genres, although the editors are open to contributions about boys' love fandoms in Japan as well. We want to provide a broad overview of scholarly essays and research in yaoi / boys' love studies and so encourage work from all disciplinary perspectives. Scholarly work about slash fiction is welcome, too, insofar as the genre is discussed within the framework of boys' love / yaoi.

Papers should be between 5,000 to 20,000 words in addition to any illustrations and well-grounded in theory and methodology. Shorter works will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Potential approaches might include:

o Controversies and Legal Issues
o Fandoms and Fanfic
o Theoretical Models of Gender and Sexuality
o Genre Development and Adaptation
o The Publishing Industry
o Concepts of "Race" / Ethnicity in Yaoi and Boys' Love
o Queer / Gay Discourses of Yaoi / Boys' Love
o Comparison of Boys' Love and Yaoi Expressions in World Regions

Submissions must be previously unpublished (conference presentations are acceptable) and in English. Manuscript format, especially citations and references, should accord with the Chicago Manual of Style -- see ChicagoManualofStyle.Org.

We encourage you to submit preliminary proposals by July 31, 2008, although these are not mandatory. Notification of preliminary acceptances will be sent by August 30. Manuscripts and artwork must be complete by November 15. Please note that all final decisions will be made upon seeing completed works, not proposals or abstracts.

Proposals, papers, and questions should be emailed to anthology AT yaoiresearch.com.

Further information and discussion can be found at www.YaoiResearchWiki.com.

The collection will be published by McFarland & Co. in 2009.

Labels: anime, books, call for submissions