YouTube has announced it will launch an online film festival logically entitled Your Film Festival that will take submissions of short films up to 15 minutes in length between February 2 and March 31. Fifty semi-finalists will be selected by Scott Free Productions, Ridley and Tony Scott’s production company. Then, 10 finalists will be chosen to go to the Venice Film Festival in August.
Photo: Your Film Festival logo and main page, a snapshot from www.youtube.com/yourfilmfestival
The semi-finalist 50 films will form a channel on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/yourfilmfestival. There, users will be able to view the films and vote for their favorites. The 10 finalists’ winning films will be shown during the 69th annual Venice Film Festival, and Ridley Scott will lead a jury in selecting a winner, who will receive a $500,000 grant from YouTube to produce a work with Scott Free, reports official YouTube blog.
«Through this program, YouTube will give filmmakers the opportunity to reach a vast audience, screen their work during the Venice Film Festival and potentially be rewarded in a career-changing way,» Robert Kyncl, global head of content at YouTube, said in a statement.
Last year, YouTube released the feature-length documentary ‘Life in a Day,’ which was co-produced by Scott and stitched together videos submitted by YouTube users. This year’s cinematographic effort of YouTube will target young filmmakers and producers, though anyone can submit a film. The only restrictions beside length are that entrants must be at least 18 years old and that the work can’t have been distributed prior to January 1, 2010.
Your Film Festival will also be doing outreach at both the Sundance Film Festival and South By Southwest to urge filmmakers to participate in Your Film Festival.
YouTube has already held film contests in the past, but the global Your Film Festival is the first to be on such a big scale. YouTube is working hard to develop its programming. Last year, the Google-owned company launched more than 100 video channels from partners including Hollywood production companies, celebrities and new media groups.
