Youtube Launches Online Film Festival; $500,000 Prize to be Awarded at Venice Film Festival

In a bid to move beyond its image of being the first stop for funny homemade videos and music, Youtube today announced an exciting development in their efforts to become a more serious media platform – the Your Film Festival, a competition for aspiring film makers. The festival is a collaboration between Youtube, famed director and producer Ridley Scott (Gladiator, American Gangster, Black Hawk Down), Scott Free London, the Venice Film Festival, and Emirates.

Applicants from all over the world will be able to submit their 15 minute videos of any genre to the Your Film Festival channel on Youtube from February 2nd, then the videos will be whittled down to 50 semi-finalists by the Scott Free production company. From there, Youtube users will then vote for their favourites, making this step in the festival process quite democratic and audience driven – then the ten finalists will have their films screened at the prestigious Venice Film Festival. One winner will then be crowned by a jury headed by Ridley Scott, who will receive a production grant to work with Scott’s team for the value of $500,000.

The festival will provide an opportunity for aspiring film makers to make a name for themselves, as the competition is free to enter and the films will have to opportunity to gain massive exposure due to Youtube’s massive global reach, and provides a new pathway to the established Venice Film Festival. The decision to engage with both an established Hollywood director and highly respected international film festival on Youtube’s part indicates how collaborations between traditional and new media will become the way forward if both sectors are to thrive.

Vimeo have already established a relationship with the Sundance Film Festival in the US, with an announcement on their blog today detailing that a number of Vimeo users’ films will be shown at the festival this month, while funding platform Kickstarter also has films going to the festival. All this indicates that the web continues to be a place of opportunity and innovation for artists, and that the traditional established festivals are recognising the potential that the web has as a breeding ground for creativity.