Yahoo has raised the curtain on nine of the short films from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, enabling audiences to watch these independent shorts without an invitation to Park City.
Being Yahoo, the films will be presented with photos, some background information and other editorial context, and the opportunity for viewers to vote and comment on their favorites. This year Yahoo is taking that one step further by presenting the filmmaker who got the most votes with the inaugural Yahoo Audience Award and a $5,000 prize at the Sundance Film Festival’s Official Awards Ceremony on Jan. 28.
Yahoo is the official sponsor of the Short Film Program at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, which runs January 19-29 in the Utah cities of Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance.
In addition to this involvement, Yahoo Movies is providing exclusive film-related content and original news daily from their correspondents at the event, while its sister omg! Now will cover Sundance from its own perspective by sharing celebrity and entertainment moments.
Yahoo Movies gets more than 26 million users per month, and a comScore Media Builder Custom Report in October 2011 found that omg! was the most popular among 75 original video programs, as defined by Yahoo, including Hulu, MSN, AOL, Forbes, PopSugar, IGN, TMZ, New York Times, Smosh.com, ABC News, Sugar, Funny or Die, She Knows and CraveOnline.
The nine shorts included in the Yahoo showcase are: ’92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card; Aquadettes (pictured); The Arm; Debutante Hunters; Dol (First Birthday); Henley; Long Distance Information; Odysseus’ Gambit; and Una Hora por Favora.
“Yahoo is the home for major entertainment events online and this year, we’re bringing film buffs with us to one of the world’s most significant film festivals,” said Mickie Rosen, senior vice president of Yahoo Media Network. “We look forward to providing film lovers a role in Festival voting with our new Audience Award and keeping them connected with minute-by-minute reporting. Some of the best filmmakers started their careers developing short films and now our audience has the chance to pick what could be the next big name in the film industry.”
Related links:
http://ycorpblog.com/2012/01/19/yahoo-kicks-off-2012-sundance-festival
http://screen.yahoo.com/sundance
http://screen.yahoo.com
http://filmguide.sundance.org
http://omg.yahoo.com
http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/sundance
