YouTube Embraces Indie Film

As YouTube inches closers to consumers' living rooms, the site has launched Screening Room, a showcase for high-quality, independent short films.

As video sharing site YouTube gets closer and closer to consumers’ living room television, it’s no surprise the service is trying to come up with ways to offer higher quality content than, say, teenagers doing karaoke via a Web cam or eight years-olds staging sock puppet plays. To that end, YouTube has announced Screening Room, a dedicated area of the YouTube site featuring high-quality shorts from independent filmmakers.

“The YouTube Screening Room will connect films and audiences in the world’s largest theater, not only providing filmmakers with a much-needed showcase, but also helping you find new high-quality content every two weeks,” the company wrote in its blog. “While some of these films have played at film festivals around the world, others will be showing to a wide audience for the first time.”

Initial offerings include an Oscar winner from Norway, an Oscar nominee from the United States, along with an animated opera from Sweden and a short piece by indie faves Miguel Arteta and Miranda July. YouTube plans to showcase films from Germany, France, Austria, Kenya, Ireland, and Australia and other countries. Users who have logged in to YouTube will be able to rate films YouTube says it will be sharing advertising revenue with the filmmakers, as well as offer links through which viewers can purchase a copy of the film.

Atom Films long ago took a shot at offering high-quality short films online, but the idea never really caught on with large audiences. Perhaps with YouTube’s dominant position in the online video arena, independent short films will finally have a way to reach wider audiences.