Sundance is over, and with this, the last batch of 2011 Sundance short films released to the Screening Room, this unique collaboration between the most prestigious North American festival and YouTube will be over too. Well.
A new Thursday, a new set of Sundance shorts. This is the second of three batches of 2011 in-competition shorts that Sundance is sharing via the YouTube Screening Room, and the fourth of five short programs.
If I could have somehow avoided the news about Sundance starting today, I would havetoday is the start of the 34th straight Sundance Festival that yours truly will be failing to attend. 34 times have films been watched, pitches been made, deals been sealed, without me.
In last week's first program, Sundance reached back into its archives and issued forth a lineup of short films by four directors who are debuting features films in this year's festival. Today, a new set of 4 short films have been made available through the YouTube Screening Room, this time by four directors who are alumni of the Sundance Labs, the teaching side of the larger year-round Sundance Insitute.
Word came out yesterday of Sundance's plans for the online exhibition of its short films this year. The American film festival giant first debuted short films on the internet in 2006, but we have yet to have two years of the same approach since.
The Portable Film Festival, an online festival with a number of categories from short films to music videos to art films, has just wrapped up and announced this year's winners. Previous SOTW's, Apricot and Sign Language (which also took the Virgin Media Shorts competition) earned praise this year, but the top prize went to the Spanish music video, Hamor.
So in my rush to post the new PES film, I failed to realize it was just one in a series of top-notch releases by the premium cable giant, featuring new or web-premiere work by several of the most unique and beloved short-form animators out there. If you love animation you should know these folks and be stoked about this collection Showtime has put together.
The Doorpost Project is the best online film competition out there. I realize that might not be saying much as the web is lousy with short film competitions.
I watched a ton of skate and surf movie as a kid growing up in the hotbed of alternative sports culture, Southern California. I was an accomplished if not spectacular practitioner of both, and would eat up the opportunity to see new tricks, new athletes, performing at the top of their game, re-watching those VHS tapes to the point of destruction.
We like reading up on animation festivals because more often than not you can find several of the winning short films online already. Ottawa International Animation Festival is North America's premier showcase for animation, and having wrapped up at the end of October has proven itself no exception—some of its excellent winners are already up on the web.
