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.
More and more filmmakers are approaching us looking to get their film in front of a large online audience. And these recommendations are becoming a bigger portion of the films we choose to feature.
Festival trailers are a cool little sub-genre of design and animation. Short and sweet, they are nice displays of creativity.
Titular character of Marcel the Shell While festivals and online outlets still exist as two different worlds, it seems that every online mainstay wants to become a festival (see YouTube Biennial, Vimeo Festival), and every festival wants to have a presence online. We've covered Cannes and Sundance's forays, and now at the end of the yearly festival season the American Film Institute's AFI Fest has a turn with a selection of 11 shorts available through its website.
Watch our creepiest films—from the gorific Treevenge to the zombie romance, I Love Sarah Jane.
Right on the heels of Vimeo's successful celebration of itself with their own Vimeo Festival, YouTube came out last night with an exclusive event at New York's Guggenheim Museum to celebrate the best work on their site. The event was a celebration of YouTube Play, touted by the company as a "biennial of creative video.
Tony Comley talks about his latest film, 'Verse. What interested you in creation myths and in crafting your own version? The sheer scale of creation myths next to the pettiness of their usual themes makes me very happy.
France is quietly taking over the next generation of storytelling with stunning films from schools like Gobelins and Supinfocom that can stand up to Pixar's classics.
Virgin Media Shorts is fun online competition out of the UK that just finished up its third year. Sponsored by the giant Branson-lead conglomerate in collaboration with the ubiquitous UK Film Council, the event's tagline is "Championing Undiscovered Talent".
