I’m kind of into film fests and I’ve always wanted to go to SXSW and dangit, I should have planned on going this year.  Some musician friends are doing a showcase and some other friends are flying in from Amsterdam for the fest.  So I had a few good reasons to go.  Turns out I also could have gone to this party being sponsored by Poptent on the 14th:

Click on the poster for a little more info.  It looks like a few of the Poptent staff will be at the event.  So if you’re a member of the site it’ll be kind of cool to meet the people-versions of the photos that approve and “like” your submissions.

I know that the contest site Mofilm is also going to have some kind of presence at SXSW this year but I haven’t read anything specific.  I saw that they picked some of their past winners and gave them free trips so they could document the fest.  If anyone’s heard anything about other video contest entities doing anything at the fest this year, lemme know.

Great news folks, today we’re welcoming a new sponsor to VCN; the excellent contest site MOFILM.com. Though I’ve only entered one or two of their competitions in the past, I’ve always loved the concept behind MOFILM because they combine two of the most exciting things a filmmaker can experience; winning a video contest and getting accepted to a film festival.

Every MOFILM contest is connected to a different renowned International Film Festival or media event and the winning submissions are screening during the fest. There are categories for different well-known products and the top winners in each category win money AND a trip to the featured festival. Winning money is nice but winning money and being able to spend it in New York or India or London would obviously be extra sweet.

Interested in getting in on the globe-trotting, cash-winning action? Well if so you still have 17 days to submit to MOFILM’s current contest the “Barcelona : 2011 GSMA Film Competition.” The top winners in each category will win a lot of cash plus a trip for 2 to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.  I have wanted to go to spain since I read Don Quixote and tasted my first tapas back in college. So I think I’m going to have to get my act together and submit something for this one.

There are lots of categories to choose from. Each MOFILM competition is like 8 video contests rolled into one.  The big daddy of the contest is the special Pepsi “Refresh your World” project. Three filmmakers will each win $10,000 and then at the festival, Pepsi will announce one grand prize winner that will receive the opportunity to shoot a short film for Pepsi Spain. There are a bunch of runner-up prizes too. Take note: The Pepsi contest has an earlier deadline of Jan 22nd. MOFILM has a special relationship with Pepsi and this is the first of seven such competitions that will take place in 2011.  If you’re anything like me, you’re probably already thinking about recycling your Pepsi Max Crash the Super Bowl entry, right?  Well this time Pepsi isn’t really looking for commercials.  They want short films that are based on one of several themes.  You don’t even have to include Pepsi in your video and if you do, it doesn’t get you any extra points.

Most of the brands are different in each MOFILM contest.  This time the  featured brands are AT&T, Mountain Dew, Tropicana, American Red Cross, Findus and Young’s.  Each of these categories have top cash prizes of $6,000 to $8,000 plus trips for 2 to Barcelona.  Adobe and Motorola are also running a “short film and ad” contest that works a little differently than the other competitions.  Check out the details here.

Like I said, there are still about 2 1/2 weeks to go before the January 31st deadline.  So get filmin’.  And if you do enter and win a prize, let me know and I’ll post about your good fortune.  And if you win a trip to Barcelona, why not consider taking your e-pal Beardy as your +1?  To read the full contest rules and to download the creatives briefs for the different brands, click here:  http://www.mofilm.com/competitions/barcelona2011/

It seems like this contest started taking entries forever ago, but the “Life’s Good” HD film fest sponsored by LG has finally announced their grand prize winner.  Contestants were supposed to submit films that were shot in HD and followed the theme of “Life’s Good.”  There were several categories (sports, fashion etc) but it was a narrative film that took the top prize of $100,000.

The LG winner is called Nuit Blanche and was directed by Arev Manoukian.  Here’s the official description:

“Nuit Blanche explores an experience many of us have lived before – a fleeting yet powerful connection with a perfect stranger. Set in a dark cobblestone street in the 1950’s, a man catches the gaze of a woman in a cafe across the street. This split-second moment becomes suspended in time, as the two gravitate towards each other in a hyper real fantasy where nothing can hold them back.”

I just watched all 3 minutes and 22 seconds of the short film and all I can say is “F*CK YES!”  I have seen some amazing video contest entries before but this is hands down the most impressive one I’ve ever come across.  It starts off slow but then gets awesome and finishes beautifully.

Grand Prize Winner.  Prize: $100,000

That’s outrageous, isn’t it?  My only grievance is that it seems like this was a pre-existing short film and that it wasn’t shot specifically for the contest like so many of the entries were.  The credits say that the short was “made in part with the support of the National Film Board of Canada’s filmmaker assistance program.”  In fact, it looks like the short was produced by the very successful production company, Spy Films.  Oh well, it’s still fantastic.  I mean, did you notice that the guy blew a piece of glass out of his way there at the end?  All those fancy effects and expensive production values and that little moment is what made the short for me.  It just goes to show that even in the CGI era we live in, the best films are those that use effects to express fundamentally human and universal ideas and emotions.

If you want to see just how much post-production work actually went into this short, click here to watch a video about the Making of Nuit Blance.

The BBQ restaurant chain and sauce maker Famous Dave’s just announced the winners of their first “Famous Fan Film Festival.”  BBQ lovers were supposed to shoot a short movie parody that incorporated Famous Dave’s in some interesting way.  The grand prize was only $1,000 but I was amazed by the amount of love that went into some of the 30 entries that were received.  Here’s the first place winner:

First Place.  Prize: $1,000

That was neat.  But I the second place entry cracked me up:

Second Place.  Prize: $300 in cash and gift cards

I wish I could grill you!  The guy who delivered the long monologue deserves an extra gift card just for remembering all his lines.  You know what, I think I’ll post the third place entry too.  It’s worth watching simply because the girl playing Mrs. Robinson is hotter than…hold on, let me check the famous dave’s website for a metaphor….Got it, she’s hotter than a full bottle of Devil’s Spit!

Third Place.  $250 in cash and gift cards.

Like I said, even though the prizes in this contest were small, the contestants went all out.  Check out this Top Gun parody that got an honorable mention.  It was disqualified because videos were supposed to parody a single scene and they did like a whole crazy trailer.  But they, and everyone who entered, got some Famous Dave’s gift cards as a thank you.  So why did so many people put so much work into their entries when only a thousand bucks was at stake?  From the looks of the videos, no pros entered this contest; only real, hardcore Famous Dave’s fans.  Plus the theme of the contest was a great one and probably inspired a lot of people.  Hopefully famous Dave’s will see this contest as a successful test run and do something bigger down the road.

Image ganked from Time.com. In your face, Time!

The other day I was up way too early and I was watching the only thing on TV that wasn’t Yu-Gi-Oh or an infomercial; Morning Joe on MSNBC.  Anyway, I’ve got it playing in the background while I’m on the computer (probably watching Doritos entries) when I notice that Kevin Spacey is a guest.  So I turn up the volume and guess what he’s talking about?  A video contest.  Specifically, one of the biggest video contests of the year; The Stella Artois Film Project.  But I just barely consider this one a video contest.  It was really more of a short film competition.  In my tiny mind, the only things that qualify this as a video contest are the facts that the films had to be submitted on-line and that there was a specific theme that each filmmaker needed to try and fulfill.  The theme was “perfection” because as any hipster can tell you, Stella Artois is the perfect beer.

Kevin Spacey explained that a winner had finally been announced and that they had a big party to celebrate the night before.  Here’s the winning entry by Jason Musante Klein.  I can’t embed so click on the photo below to view it.

First Place. Prize: $50,000

All the finalists in this contest where super slick.  Seriously, there were some major productions submitted.  The judges were pretty top notch too.  The winner was picked by Kevin Spacey, Sasha Baron Cohen, Lawrence Fishburn, James Blunt and Judy Dench.  Seriously, holy Sh&*%, man.  That’s an insane jury.  Wowza.  Those big names all probably agreed to participate because of Kevin Spacey.  His company, TriggerStreet co-founded the competition with Stella Artois.  TriggerStreet by the way is a really awesome  company/website/concept thing he and producer Dana Brunetti created to help emerging talent sneak through the gates of the Hollywood system.  It’s a great idea and the ‘A’ list celebrities who acted as judges this time around and the huge cash prize should tell you that TriggerStreet Films means business.  Check out their website here: http://www.triggerstreet.com.  Hmmm, Triggerstreet.com has a little box on it that flashes a “quote of the day.”  Below is today’s quote. Could there possibly be a better motto to sum up what video contests are all about?

“Ability is of little account without opportunity.”  – Napoleon Bonaparte