In what is quite possibly one of the most interesting pieces of news I’ve heard recently, YouTube have announced that they will be launching a film festival next month, entitled Your Film Festival, that will start off online and then send ten finalists to this year’s Venice Film Festival, which will run from 31st August to 10th September.
Yahoo Movies report that Your Film Festival will be accepting submissions of short films up to fifteen minutes in length from 2nd February to 31st March, from which fifty semi-finalists will be selected by Scott Free Productions, Ridley and Tony Scott’s production company, whose credits include Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, and American Gangster.
These fifty semi-finalists will then be launched on their own YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/yourfilmfestival, where viewers can watch and vote for their favourite short films. Ten finalists will then be jetted off to the 69th Venice Film Festival, where a jury led by Ridley Scott himself will judge the winning short, which will receive a $500,000 grant from YouTube to produce a work with Scott Free Productions.
(Translation: This could be a chance of a lifetime.)
YouTube are set to be promoting the competition at Sundance Film Festival this month and then South By Southwest (SXSW) in March to encourage young filmmakers and producers to consider YouTube as a serious pathway to industry attention, and with a film competition like this launching, you have to believe that they’re taking themselves and filmmakers seriously.
“Short filmmaking is exactly where I started my career 50 years ago, so to be helping new filmmakers find an entry point like this into the industry is fantastic,” said Scott.
The competition is open to entrants across the globe, with subtitles added to international films. All you have to be is 18, and have not had your short distributed prior to 1st January, 2010. And with a bit of luck, hopefully it will be held annually, to give filmmakers this kind of chance every year.
Taken from YouTube’s description of Your Film Festival:
“The global search for the world’s best storytellers.
This is Your Film Festival. You have until March 31st to submit a short, story-driven video. There’s no entry fee. It can be any format – short film, web-series episode, TV pilot – and any genre. In June, audiences around the world will vote, sending 10 deserving storytellers to open the 2012 Venice Film Festival where a Grand Prize Winner will be be rewarded with a $500,000 grant to create a new work, produced by Ridley Scott and his world class team.”
YouTube have put together a brilliant and inspirational video to promote the competition below, interviewing directors Fede Alvarez, Jon M. Chu, and Josh Raskin, all of whom started out in short films. Alvarez has since signed on to direct the upcoming The Evil Dead remake with Lily Collins in the lead; Chu has directed the second and third Step Up films, as well as the Justin Bieber: Never Say Never documentary, and the upcoming G.I. Joe: Retaliation; and Raskin’s short film I Met The Walrus was nominated back in 2008 at the Academy Awards.
So if you’re an aspiring filmmaker, or you know someone who is, this is definitely something to pay attention to.
You have until 31st March.
Go.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NllTI0Y0fJc’]
