The evening will start with the 2011 FUTURESTATES Audience Award-winning film, That Which Once Was, followed by a screening of Takesue’s latest documentary, Where Are You Taking Me. The filmmaker will be present at the screenings.

Enjoy the trailer below for That Which Once Was…

For more information on this event, visit the Big Screen Plaza website.

Indiewire: Two Spirits Receives the Audience Award from PBS-Independent Lens
Lynda Nibley’s documentary Two Spirits has received the PBS-Independent Lens Audience Award, recognizing its status as the highest-rated film of the 2010-11 season by the measures of online voting and other forms of audience support.

Pop Matters: Cuba, An African Odyssey
El-Tahri’s fascinating documentary, produced in 2007 with the French-German television network Arte and premiering in two parts on ITVS’ Global Voices this month, traces the complicated history of Cuban efforts to help African independence movements during the Cold War.

Institute For the Future blog: Karim Ahmad introduces FUTURESTATES
Karim discussed his goal of tackling complex and often controversial topics often not seen on public TV, as well as the potential to engage new audiences across a wider range of platforms.

About.com: The Transmedia Approach to Documentary Development and Marketing
The Garbage Dreams multiplatform brand is the film’s issue. More specifically, the brand is the issue of waste disposal, recycling and how all that effects human life on Earth. That’s what the film’s about. That’s what the game’s about. That’s what the discussion is about. The issue is the brand. Branding by issue is a different way of conceiving and developing a movie’s marketing strategy, but it certainly seems appropriate for documentaries.

NCME Blog – News Hub: Building Inclusive Communities
One such project is the Independent Lens documentary Welcome to Shelbyville and the accompanying Shelbyville Multimedia engagement campaign, produced by Active Voice. Following the May 2011 PBS broadcast, Welcoming Gathering potlucks and Community Cinema screenings, held nationwide, ITVS partnered with the U.S. State Department to host a special screening of Welcome to Shelbyville for policy makers, advocates, service providers, and government officials working on refugee resettlement issues.

Visit our pressroom to find additional coverage of ITVS programs.

Find your shades … it’s getting bright around here!

The producers of FUTURESTATES have launched brand new predictions … think of these as “forward stories” (as opposed to “back”). Just fire up the Predict-O-Meter and take a walk down Premonition Lane to see what’s ahead.

And that’s not all…Check back on the FUTURESTATES site  in the weeks to come to cast your vote in our Predict-O-Meter poll, where you get to vote on which prediction is most likely to come true and find out how you can join a live online event with the winning filmmaker.

Don’t get left in the past! Follow FUTURESTATES on Twitter and Facebook.  Watch the trailer after the jump >>

But first: we’re very happy to announce that ITVS has partnered with Telegraph 21 and The Big Screen Project to provide a very special Grand Prize to the winner.

In August, the winning film will be shown on the big screen, in the bustling heart of the Big Apple. Located four blocks from the Empire State Building, on the Chelsea/Midtown border, The Big Screen Project at the Eventi Hotel has become a magnet for New Yorkers seeking fine cuisine and food for thought. Learn more about the project here.

And so without further ado, we are pleased to announce the winner. Drum roll, please…

The winner of the 2011 FUTURESTATES Audience Award is That Which Once Was by Kimi Takesue. Set in 2032, the film follows an 8-year-old Caribbean boy who — after being displaced by global warming — fends for himself as an environmental refugee in a hostile Northern metropolis and forms an unexpected friendship with an Inuk ice carver.

Congratulations to all the films and filmmakers — it was a very close race — and thanks to everyone who watched and voted. Stay tuned to Futurestates.tv and the Futurestates Fan Page and Twitter feed for more updates on the original online series over the summer.

Watch this web-savvy interview with filmmaker Kimi Takesue, courtesy of Max Pearlstein’s A Well-Lighted Place.

You’ve watched the films. You’ve shared, commented, and liked. Maybe even loved. There have been ups and downs, laughter and tears. And this May, you get to decide who will take the laurels in our inaugural FUTURESTATES Audience Award.

From today until May 30 at midnight, the race is on to launch your favorite FUTURESTATES film into hyperspace. Head back to FUTURESTATES.TV, catch up on any films you missed, and check out the fan pages for each of the films.

You can vote once a day, and polling closes at midnight on May 30. We’ll announce the winner on June 1, 2011.

BEHOLDER
Watch on Futurestates.tv or Like on Facebook

REMIGRATION
Watch on Futurestates.tv, or Like on Facebook

ASPARAGUS
Watch on Futurestates.tv or Like on Facebook

SPRING OF SORROW
Watch on Futurestates.tv or Like on Facebook

DIGITAL ANTIQUITIES
Watch on Futurestates.tv or Like on Facebook

EXPOSURE
Watch on Futurestates.tv or Like on Facebook

THE DIG
Watch on Futurestates.tv or Like on Facebook

WHITE
Watch on Futurestates.tv or Like on Facebook

WORKER DRONE
Watch on Futurestates.tv or Like on Facebook

THAT WHICH ONCE WAS
Watch on Futurestates.tv or Like on Facebook

ITVS and Tribeca All Access host a free screening of shorts from the second season of FUTURESTATES on Saturday, April 23rd at 2:30PM at the Clearview Cinema in Chelsea. This year’s selection, listed below, highlights Tribeca All Access alumni as well as emerging New York filmmaking talent:

Beholder
Directed by Nisha Ganatra
Sasha, a resident of the socially conservative gated community Red Estates, makes a discovery about her genetically engineered unborn child that causes her to rethink her allegiances.

The Spring of Sorrow
Directed by Suzi Yoonessi
Two sisters live a nomadic life, displaced by global warming. Trapped in the desert in the midst of a water shortage, Isabelle tells her younger sister Lily a fairytale that explains how this tragedy came to be.

Digital Antiquities
Directed by JP Chan
In 2036, all digital media is permanently stored in “the cloud.” Data recovery store employee Cat, and Kai — a young man with an old compact disc — discover a secret that will unite them forever.

White
Directed by A. Sayeeda Clarke
It’s another 120-degree December day in New York City. With no money to pay for medical care for his pregnant wife, Bato races against the sun to save his family.

Filmmakers will be in attendance for the Q&A, as well as ITVS’ Claire Aguilar and TAA staff. To attend this free screening, please RSVP to rsvptaa3@tribecafilminstitute.org

Additional episodes of FUTURESTATES are available to stream free online.

Each year ITVS participates in the festival by meeting with filmmakers involved in the Tribeca All Access program. From April 22-28, ITVS’ Vice President of Programming Claire Aguilar will be in NYC to participate in the All Access development meetings with producers of color.

Three ITVS-funded films will also be on display at this year’s festival, including: Donor Unknown, Give Up Tomorrow, and When the Drum is Beating.

Plus, a special All Access screening of shorts from the second season of FUTURESTATES will screen on Saturday, April 23rd at 2:30PM at the Clearview Cinemas in Chelsea. This year’s selection, listed below, highlights Tribeca All Access alumni as well as emerging New York filmmaking talent:

Beholder
Directed by Nisha Ganatra
Sasha, a resident of the socially conservative gated community Red Estates, makes a discovery about her genetically engineered unborn child that causes her to rethink her allegiances.

The Spring of Sorrow
Directed by Suzi Yoonessi
Two sisters live a nomadic life, displaced by global warming. Trapped in the desert in the midst of a water shortage, Isabelle tells her younger sister Lily a fairytale that explains how this tragedy came to be.

Digital Antiquities
Directed by JP Chan
In 2036, all digital media is permanently stored in “the cloud.” Data recovery store employee Cat, and Kai — a young man with an old compact disc — discover a secret that will unite them forever.

White
Directed by A. Sayeeda Clarke
It’s another 120-degree December day in New York City. With no money to pay for medical care for his pregnant wife, Bato races against the sun to save his family.

Filmmakers will be in attendance for the Q&A, as well as ITVS’ Claire Aguilar and TAA staff. To attend this free screening, please RSVP to rsvptaa3@tribecafilminstitute.org

Additional episodes of FUTURESTATES are available to stream free online.

For complete schedules and listings, visit the Tribeca Film Festival’s website.

The short White takes place amid a 120-degree December day in New York City. With no money to pay for medical care for his pregnant wife, Bato races against the sun to save his family. Watch the film and other sci-fi shorts from the second season of FUTURESTATES today.

Plus, read this excerpt from filmmaker A. Sayeeda Clarke as she describes some of the motivation behind her central character, Bato.

“I saw Bato biking through the stifling, oppressive sun bearing down on him, and around him lots of empty space. The sun is a main character in Bato’s world. Even during Christmas/Kwanzaa/Hanukkah the sun shines. In a world where the sun shines everyday, how does one protect oneself from it if not equipped genetically? Well, like oil and gas and diamonds and gold and land and so much more, there will always be a way to acquire what you need for a price.”

Find more about the genesis of White on FUTURESTATES.tv.

Director Suzi Yoonessi describes how the environmental reality of Mono Lake informs her futuristic fairy tale and how she used the Persian stories from her childhood to bring a cautionary tale about climate change to life.

Watch Spring of Sorrow now on PBS.org as part of Future Fridays.

As the world faces an environmental apocalypse, a group of archaeologists venture into a toxic desert wasteland, determined to unearth a lost civilization. Can this ancient disaster help them avert their own ruin? Watch The Dig today, and find other shorts from the second season of the online original series FUTURESTATES.

Plus, read this filmmaker tidbit below from director Bennett Cohen and find out what inspired him to set a modern day love story inside a futuristic, environmental meltdown.

In his Four Quartets,  T.S. Eliot wrote: “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.” For me, Eliot’s words are especially appropriate when it comes to science fiction, or any sort of futuristic, speculative fiction. We use our imaginations not merely to predict the future, but to shed light on the present, and on ourselves, and gain a new and deeper understanding.

That’s where The Dig began for me – using the future as a window onto the present, exploring themes and emotions that affect us now as much as they might in the future.  Added to that was my long time interest in archaeology, and equally long time desire to write about it dramatically.  So, The Dig actually began with the intention of using both the future and the past – and using both to gain a bit more understanding of what we face today.

The issues I grappled with are not unfamiliar ones: environmental breakdowns, global warming, the specter of mass extinctions – including our own – and a looming dystopia that could affect all of us – and may do so sooner than we think.  There was something else I knew I wanted to be at the center of The Dig: a love story.  Dealing with issues like global warming and extinction in the abstract tends to relegate it to an intellectual debate with little in the way of real emotional stakes.  But personalizing it, and showing the human loss that could result from it, gives it an emotional impact that it can’t have any other way.  And that emotional impact was also something that I knew I wanted.

Find out more about the film and filmmaker on FUTURESTATES.tv.