Internet giant Yahoo has teamed with Film Your Issue (FYI) to sponsor the third annual short "issue film" competition. The contest solicits video entries from young filmmakers aged 16 to 25 focussing on local or international issues important to them. Submissions need to be short—just 30 to 60 seconds—and are intended to enable young adults to add their voice to public dialog through the medium of online video.
Yahoo will be hosting the contest via its newly-acquired Jumpcut subsidiary; Yahoo will also promote the contest through its network of Yahoo-branded sites, provide a means for voting on entries, and (of course) enable contestants to create, upload, edit, and remix their footage using Jumpcut’s online video editing tools. Competition judges will include Walter Cronkite, Brian Williams, John Cusack, Wolf Blitzer, Peter Jackson, and other luminaries…including Yahoo’s own CEO Terry Semel.
"A generation of young, talented filmmakers is on the rise thanks to the explosion of online video," said Jason Zajac, vice president and general manager of social media for Yahoo! Search, in a release. "Video has the power to convey messages like no other medium. Through our sponsorship with FYI, Yahoo and Jumpcut will empower these young adults to unleash their creative and civic passion on a wide range of social issues."
"Film Your Issue has taken this young generation’s medium of short film and user-generated content and is channeling it as a formidable platform for young Americans to add their voice to the important public dialogue on pressing social issues, in both the U.S. and globally," said HeathCliff Rothman, president, Film Your Issue. "The FYI – Film Your Issue partnership with Yahoo provides entrants both the platform and the tools to engage, create and participate in the exploding online community of digital video, the world’s most powerful medium."
Entries will be posted to Jumpcut beginning February 1, 2007, with a final deadline for submissions landing on April 15, 2007. Winners will receive a summer internship at Universal Pictures, a trip to New York for the Film Your Issue awards ceremony at the United Nations Headquarters, and have their entries distributed via STARZ and STARZ EDGE. Full rules are available at the Film Your Issue Web site.
