Yahoo! has announced its partnership with Sundance film festival. The internet company will stream 12 shorts from the festival on its recently redesigned video hub starting January 19, when the festival’s begins.

Photo: Robert Redford, left, with Ross Levinsohn of Yahoo!,
from www.nytimes.com

Sundance program includes about 50,000 independent film players that will demonstrate their works in Park City, Utah. Yahoo! launches special panel discussions and sponsors short film award. In addition, Yahoo! street teams will be giving away tickets to sold-out screenings.

Sundance was founded by Robert Redford, who said he had decided to partner with Yahoo “to stream shorts after meeting last year with Ross Levinsohn, the Internet company’s executive vice president for the Americas”. Redford commented that Levinsohn «certainly knows technology but passionately believes content is the ultimate distinguisher.»

According to the spokesperson, OMG!, Yahoo!’s celebrity news portal, will highlight the event and unveil a series of marketing programs. For instance, one plays with a phrase ‘spinning a yarn,’ and is about telling a cinematic story in which Yahoo! plans to ‘yarn bomb’ Park City. The event includes placing ‘knitted art’ around town and on a dedicated food truck.

Yahoo!’s partnership with Sundance is a new move for the company, a reversal, says The NY Times. Yahoo has not sponsored any festivals in recent years, in contrast to rivals like Bing and YouTube.

Yahoo! will surely benefit from this partnership as big cultural events attract lots of people. Using the standard marketing tools, Yahoo! will expose this audience to its other projects and services.