This came in from Mathilde Mallen and the organizers of the Atopic Festival 2009 while I was caught up in Expo frenzy, I'm reprinting it here with her permission. Atopic, if you weren't aware, featured what I believe is the first "official" machinima festival in France:

Good morning to all,

After a lot of time of relaxing and sleeping, we like to thank you for your involution in the festival. It’s with a lot of emotion that the Atopic Festival 2009 ended, in the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie. We thank you all warmly for having participated in this beautiful project, which without you would not have arrived : the directors, the mediators, the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, the Géode, the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the CNC / Dicréam, the region of Ile-de-France, the MO5.COM association, the research laboratory EN-ER, Arte, Game One, MCD, Nova radio, machinima.fr, amusement, Nolife, Chronic'art, Ricard, the schools of cultural mediations : icart and EAC, with a reverence for the excellent Committee, and one thank you to Xavier Lardy and Nathalie Lepori.

More than 5.000 visitors were able to appreciate the wealth of the programming and its heterogeneousness. We knew how to get the attention of a wide audience, of actors in new technologies and institutionals.

The private evening dedicated to Machinima of November 2nd in the Geode was a success. 350 persons attended the projection of the Machinima ‘VolaVola " of Berardo Carboni and 3 films selected by the public and the selection committee : L'Hôtel of Benjamin Nuel, Clockwork of Ian Friar, The Body is Obsolete of Chantal Harvey.
A good media coverage allowed to inform a wide international public (the press review is in progress). You could find soon the pictures and videos of the festival on the website www.atopicfestival.com

The Human Atopic Space association, the organizer and the producer of the Atopic Festival 2009, continues its missions of production, diffusion and artists accompaniment.

To support, participate and benefit from this accompaniment, we suggest you subscribing to the association. For more information : www.humanatopicspace.com

The exploration of the virtual worlds continues. Atopic 2010 will be an exhibition, performances, conferences and Machinima film festival !

Kind regards,

Human Atopic Space,
Margherita Balzerani, Frederick Thompson, Michèle Bouhana, Anne-Charlotte Rouxel, Laura Mannelli and Mathilde Mallen.

Congratulations to the Atopic team for what I'm hearing was a really great event!