1. A computer-implemented method for generating photo-realistic facial animation synchronized with speech, comprising: storing, in a computer memory or computer storage device, a statistical model of audiovisual data over time, based on acoustic feature vectors obtained from actual audio data and visual feature vectors obtained from real sample images of an individual's articulators during speech; storing, in an image library, the real sample images of the individual's articulators during speech, including storing for each of the stored real sample images the visual feature vectors obtained from the real sample image as used to generate the statistical model; receiving an input set of acoustic feature vectors for the speech with which the facial animation is to be synchronized; using a computer processor, applying the received input set of acoustic feature vectors to the statistical model, the statistical model thereby generating a visual feature vector sequence; selecting, using a computer processor, a sequence of real sample images from the image library, such that the selected sequence matches the visual feature vector sequence generated by the statistical model by comparing visual feature vectors in the visual feature vector sequence with visual feature vectors associated with the real sample images in the image library; and using the computer processor, concatenating the selected sequence of real sample images to provide a photo-realistic image sequence of a talking head with lips movements synchronized with the speech.