Harley Davidson Australia has launched a film contest for those who dream ‘to wake up with a Harley.’ The project Open Road Film Festival developed with 303Lowe is an online short film festival seeking to find new talents.

A dedicated web site features a motivating mystery short film in which a man in a helmet is shown lying on the bed with hands cuffed to it. A young woman takes a motorcycle key out of his pocket and goes out. As he’s getting released, he runs to the door to see her driving away on his Harley. On the threshold under his feet he finds another key and a card. ‘What’s the beginning?’ reads the tagline and the documentary part of the video begins explaining the idea and rules of the competition.

The festival is created in collaboration with production company FINCH, director Gregor Jordan and actor/producer Bryan Brown. They will judge the submitted up to 6-minutes long films and choose winners who will be awarded with cool prizes from the motorcycle company and Canon, which also sponsors the festival.

The No. 1 winner will receive a Harley-Davidson Iron 883 and a Canon 1Dc body, while runners-up and people’s choice sharing will be awarded with Canon professional DSL bodies and lenses. A total of ten films will be short-listed for competition.

Canon has also recently launched Project Imagint10n, a contest that encourages consumers to submit their most imaginative photographs based on ten elements of storytelling for the participating celebrities to create short films inspired by the photos.

Harley-Davidson is now offering Australians new 24-hour test rides luring with the idea of ‘waking up with a Harley’. The festival will support the promotion.

Films will appear online at openroadfilmfestival.com where a panel of industry experts including Brown and Jordan will judge the submissions according to such criteria as film craft, storytelling and originality. Film can be submitted until October 5.