YouTube and Scott Free Start an Online Film Festival ⇒

This could be huge.

{% blockquote The Official YouTube Blog http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2012/01/global-search-for-worlds-best.html %} Starting February 2, you can submit your short, story-driven videos (15 minutes or less) on Youtube.com/yourfilmfestival. Entry is free and open to people 18 years of age and above, and all genres and formats are welcome: live action short, animation, documentary, web-series episode, TV pilot — you name it. Your video must be story-driven, and cannot have been publicly shown or distributed prior to January 1, 2010. Full rules are available on the Your Film Festival Channel.

From there, the Scott Free team will select 50 semi-finalists from across the globe by June 2012. YouTube users will then vote for their favorites to select 10 finalists, whose videos will then be screened at the 2012 Venice Film Festival. A jury led by Ridley Scott will crown one grand prize winner, who will receive a $500,000 production grant to work with Scott’s team to create a new story for the world to see. {% endblockquote %}