This weekend in New York City, the Machinima Filmfest 2008 was held at Eyebeam, a workshop-cum-gallery space in New York City.

The festival honors what Wikipedia describes as "a collection of associated production techniques whereby computer-generated imagery (CGI) is rendered using real-time, interactive 3-D engines instead of professional 3D animation software."

Much of today's machinima is created in FPS and RPG and other game engines, from World Of Warcraft through Halo 3 and beyond.

So as part of the exhibition, the multi-industry, multi-discipline judging committee awarded entrants in the competition with Mackies, the festival's award.

Though the film festival shows that some creators are using the game engines to make machinima completely dissimilar in art style from the game whose engine it uses, the pastiche-adaptation of game assets is still an important part of the festival (i.e. World of Workcraft, The Spartan Life.)

All of the nominees are viewable at Machinima.org's Mackies nomination page. The list of winners, with links to their works, are reproduced here:

Best Long Format: "Clear Skies" [WMV link], Ian Chisholm
Best Series: "This Spartan Life", Bong & Dern Inc.
Best Short Format: "World of Workcraft", Stephen Mullane
Best Independent: "The Ship", Egils Mednis
Best Student Work: "Azerothian Super Villains", Beckman Movie Productions
Best Direction: "The Ship", Egils Mednis
Best Virtual Performance: "The Monad", Polygon Fiction
Best Voice Acting: "The Monad", Polygon Fiction
Best Visual Design: "Apocalypsis Ex Machina", Andrzej Kozlowski
Best Cinematography: "The Monad", Polygon Fiction
Best Original Music: "Ignis Solus", Lars Erik Fjosne
Best Sound Design: "Chevauchée nocturne", Les Riches Douaniers
Best Writing: "World of Workcraft", Stephen Mullane
Best Editing: "Tales of the Past III", Martin Falch
Best Technical Achievement: "Leaving the Game", American Film Institute - Digital Content Lab
Best of the Festival: "The Ship", Egils Mednis
Outstanding Achievement in Game Cinematics: Mass Effect, Bioware Cinematic Design Team
The Award for Contributions to Machinima: In Memory of Peter Rasmussen

Gamasutra has also posted an interview with Machinima Festival organizer Friedrich Kirschner, with more details on this year's festival and the state of the art of machinima.