In true Hollywood hyperbolic style, Yahoo! Internet Life (the Web portal's consumer magazine) is hosting the first high profile, and high-budget, online film festival dedicated to "elevate the online film space" in Los Angeles during Academy Awards week, March 22-23, 2000. Held concurrently at the famed Standard Hotel, Chateau Marmont and the Director's Guild of America, Yahoo! Online Film Festival promises a "showcase exhibition in which online film companies, studios, digital technology companies, and other movie-related sites will exhibit their web presence in pool-side bungalows, cottages, and suites at the two hotels" in addition to traditional film screenings at the DGA.

The festival has programmed six features as well as 24 live-action and animated short films to screen simultaneously at the Los Angeles venues and on the web site. The feature films scheduled to screen include The Sadness of Sex, directed by Rupert Wainwright (Stigmata); From There to Here, directed by Charles Herman Wurmfeld; Foreign Correspondents, directed by Mark Tapio Kines; The Definite Maybe, Sam Sokolow and Rollins Lobl; Home Page, Doug Block, and the much anticipated Time Code 2000 from Director Mike Figgis.

It was the announcement of the World Premiere of Time Code 2000 at the festival that catapulted the Yahoo! Online Film Festival profile as a new millennium phenomenon. Figgis shot the film daily, in sequence and in real time, using four hand-held digital video cameras, creating sixty 93-minute segements. Screening at Yahoo! Online Film Festival allows for the film to be mixed live by Figgis in an attempt, he has been quoted as saying, to show that films can be edited through montage rather than cutting. Each four of the film characters perspectives will be on screen at the same time, creating a spatial and temporal disjunction while at the same time allowing for the audience realization that all the stories are simultaneous.

The festival showcase of both live-action and animated shorts has been culled from what is quickly becoming traditional sources, including favorites from both iFilm.com (Sunday's Game, Billy Jones, Black People Hate Me and They Hate My Glasses, More) and AtomFilms.com (Men Named Milo, Women Named Greta, Mum) that have had wide play at various film festivals; Honkworm.com (Fishbar #9 Big Hat Fad, Fishbar #10 The Delectable Peanut), and other top creative houses, as well as various independent filmmakers (Snooze, I Still Miss Someone, The Remember, Jimmy Ritz) and student works (Vedma, Descent). In groundbreaking Web style, the short films are currently being streamed online for viewing and voting to determine the winning film from site visitors.

Clearly marking a major step forward, the festival will profile dozens of Web-based content providers in a market-like setting at both hotels, and offer a number of panels each day, including "Incubating Online Entertainment Companies", "New Content for a New Medium", "Short Films: Reborn on the Web", "Bringing Hollywood to the Web", and "Taking a Feature to the Net".

Companies, players and speakers scheduled to sit on the various panels include Diane Zoi (Amazon.com), Rodger Raderman (iFilm Founder), Evan Aronson (CreativeOutpost.com), Jeff Morris (Yack.com CEO), Rick Hess (Propaganda Films), Dan Sullivan (pop.com), Todd Harris (HitPlay CEO), Kevin Wendle (iFilm CEO), Mika Salmi (AtomFilms CEO), Jeremy Bernard (ReelShort CEO), Alexis Magagi-Seely (1st Intl. Leonardo DiCaprio Film Fest) and Spike (Spike and Mike Animated Shorts) among many others. The festival has also garnered the participation of traditional movie companies such as New Line Cinema and Mandalay Entertainment.

An additional participation of the dot.com's will be seen at the Festival's trade show. AtomFilms, for example, has secured exhibition space at the Chateau Marmont where they plan to line the poolside terrace with monitors displaying Atom content via DVD. Inside, two computers will display the Atom site, in addition to having a display of their upcoming Oscar DVD. They have estimated traffic numbers from Yahoo! to total nearly 4,000 attendees. Also expected at the Festival is the very traditional festival party circuit, with hotly contested tickets to private receptions each night.

The Festival's Web Premiere screening, where both innovative companies and individuals will be showing new, unseen works for the first time, represents one of the most exciting and complicated screenings at the event. Works from Honkworm, AtomFilms, Wild Brain, Steven Bratter for "7 & A Match" (a film trailer shot in HDTV and shown both on film and video for comparison), Crushed Planet, Split Screen (John Peirson) and Shockwave will be included. The Web Premiere screenings are expected to draw 300 audience members at the DGA.

In an on-going quest to cut though the exhibition and distribution clutter that so often surrounds the film industry, Yahoo! Internet Life Online Film Festival has positioned themselves to deliver a unique opportunity to bring content creators in direct contact with their audience. At the same time, they may also be offering filmmakers such as Figgis a New World vista -a horizon upon which to place the next great vestige of filmmaking innovation and experimentation.

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As the Yahoo! Online Film Festival continues its Web-cast portion of the festival screenings, organizers and participants are preparing for the traditional theater venue exhibition which will mark the end of this first-of-its-kind film festival on March 22-23 in Los Angeles. Although the live screenings are still to come, the festival has been in full-swing online as its worldwide audience chooses which short films will participate via the online voting system.

Festival Programmer Heather Kellogg, who screened over 400 short and animation submissions, explained the process: "Online, there are 11 animations and 13 shorts that are being streamed. The viewers have the ability to vote on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest) of what they want to see at the DGA screenings; 6 animations and 6 live-action shorts will be shown as our "winners" and screened live at the DGA in addition to the features and our "web premieres". This made it possible for me to step back from the traditional job of having a screening committee pick our finalists and winners and give the job over to the democracy of the web: film fans of the web pick our winners."

Short format filmmakers who have been accepted into the festival are, more than ever before, able to control the marketing aspects of festival screenings at Yahoo! Online Film Festival as their voting campaigns take on a nearly Oscar-race worthy profile. "When I announced the film line-up, the filmmakers, their friends, family, people who worked on the film, producers, actors and everyone under the sun started their own campaigns," remarked Kellogg. "Billy Jones, for example, is perfect case study. Director Christopher Bell's mom worked nonstop writing to friends and family. She mobilized such an amazing voting contingency that she actually maxed-out the mailbox for her son's short (the voting process is actually a computer program, with a maximum number of votes receivable-a maximum number so high, the festival never thought the window could be reached)."

Kellogg, who also programs films at Sundance Film Festival, spent her programming time looking for films that could not be included or would otherwise be missed at conventional festivals. Looking at both traditional submissions as well as searching the web for innovative and current works, Kellogg accessed the most cutting edge Web content providers for a wide range of work. "With the rise of content companies such as AtomFilms, iFILM, Media Trip and their contemporaries, we had a wide range of works to choose from. Some of our submissions were well seen numbers (Sunday's Game, More, Black People Hate Me and Hate My Glasses); we wanted to include these films to showcase the success and popularity these highly successful companies have brought to the forum.

"Additionally, the animation Web companies have works that were created for the Web and have only been seen there: the Fishbar series from Honkworm, Protest from PitchInc. and the new acquisitions from Level13 at Film Roman all have a cult popularity that were of special interest to the festival."

Independent filmmakers who are part of the online portion of the festival have also discovered a popularity previously unthinkable via a festival circuit. "Nothing really prompted me to submit to Yahoo! Online Film Festival," admits Jimmy Ritz Director Bill Flannigan, "as it was I must have sent out ten submissions that particular week. So when Heather called to tell me I was in, and explained what being part of the festival actually meant, I was a bit surprised. But being online has already been a big success for me; I've been able to let people around the world see the film. People I'd never have been able to get to before."

Access to a worldwide audience had some filmmakers concerned about protecting their films and their broadcast rights. "A few filmmakers were hesitant to be involved, wary that their works would be able to be downloaded and "stolen" from them," confirmed Kellogg. "Also, many new web companies that act like they are conducting "film festivals" are actually distribution companies that are looking for rights to the films and profits for themselves."

In this particular, Yahoo! Online Film Festival is a very traditional festival, serving only as a screening festival. The Festival did not ask for any rights, and while they have put the films online, they are only able to have them up during the period of the festival (a four-week viewing period). Once the festival is over, the films come off the site.

"Filmmakers, film programs, and reps of the films, were initially a bit scared by the idea," continued Kellogg. The possibilities of online viewing are still not completely known and many filmmakers have been burned by the web. Also, many filmmakers want to be able to qualify for Academy Awards and have the ability to license their shorts to traditional channels, such as HBO. These organizations have strict rules against showing work on the net. The filmmakers are not able to license their works to these outlets in some cases if they have screened on the web. I was very careful to tell filmmakers that they needed to have their Academy-qualifying screenings, for example, before they were put up on the Yahoo! site. Since I have worked in film acquisitions I am acutely aware of these difficulties and did not want the participants to lose any chances of success with their works in the future."

Dot.com industry insiders, while tight-lipped about specifics, appear to be using the Yahoo! Online Film Festival platform as a major announcement showcase as well. Scheduled press releases and news events are being timed to coincide with the festival press conference on Wednesday, March 22. Additionally, those companies who have short films under Oscar consideration are using the festival platform to promote their films.

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"This isn't a film festival, it's a promotional opportunity for Yahoo!...", said AtomFilm founder Mika Salami on his way the stage at the opening press conference for the First Annual Yahoo! Online Film Festival held March 22-23, 2000.

Indeed, it appeared that money won while filmmakers lost as name and profile did more to reap the rewards of the first ever online/onsite film festival.

Announcements were made nearly hourly about major new alliances and partnerships between the burgeoning dot.com film exhibition/distribution/
creation industry and "old" Hollywood, while all but the most famous filmmakers were left out of the press rush.

Dot.com entertainment companies plied their wares from trendy suites at both the Standard and Chateau Marmont, each one trying to out-promote the other. Considering the crush at all the suites, the much-hyped convergence between Hollywood and the Internet was the most successful part of the festival as big name insider-players hopped on the dot.com wagon.

Executive Producer John Sloss, who works closely with indie-filmmakers such as Kevin Smith, Richard Linklater, Errol Morris and Christine Vachon's Killer Films, signed on with POP.com, the Dreamworks Studio backed site from Ron Howard, Steven Speilberg, David Geffen and Brain Grazer.

AtomFilms announced a partnership with Propaganda Films to create content using Propaganda's filmmakers including Morgan J. Freeman (Violet Crumble), Jamie Babbitt (Sleeping Beauty) and Paul Boyd (Choke).

Reelshort.com announced a partnering with Universal Pictures; Shockwave.com signed on filmmaker David Lynch (The Straight Story); SightSound.com announced completion of Quantum Project (the first feature film produced specifically for distribution over the Internet); James Belushi launched Hitplay.com's targeted video network, and Honkworm.com signed David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, The Practice) producer Jeffrey Kramer.

However, from the beginning filmmakers were left out of the gold rush as the festival settled into a hungry convention mode. Festival screenings, held at the DGA, were scheduled at the same time as the panels and seminars, which made for some half empty screenings. The highly anticipated world premiere of Time Code 2000 from Mike Figgis had to have additional theaters added to seat the overflow crowd, yet Figgis only spoke to one audience-leaving the others to experience his digital filmmaking experiment cold.

In the most surprising and disappointing screening, the festival booked the presentation of the winning shorts from their online portion of the festival into the smallest theater at the DGA, resulting in turn-away crowds. Although all the filmmakers were present, festival programmers did not introduce the filmmakers nor offer a standard Q&A session post-screening. As far as film festival protocol was concerned, this faux pas capped two days worth of a general lack of concern for filmmakers throughout the festival.

Positioned snuggly among the elite of Hollywood's famous sites, the festival experienced growing pains right from the beginning as festival interest nearly toppled festival expectations. Two thousand attendees overwhelmed the panels and exhibits, and festival organizers moved fast to shift at least the panel sites to accommodate the crowds.

Several short filmmakers were frustrated by the lack of communication from the festival organizers who, to be fair, had worked so hard in the planning stages of the festival to make the filmmakers feel welcome. It appeared organizers simply were not prepared for the demands made upon them by the crunch of the attendees who cared less about viewing films and more about getting to the dot.com companies.

The list of celebrities lending their profile to the small screen included Salma Hayek, Holly Hunter, Nicholas Cage, Dustin Hoffman, Richard Dreyfus, Jodie Foster, Quentin Tarantino, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Brad Pitt among others. However, it was the appearance of Ron Howard, Jeffery Katzenberg and Brian Grazer at the POP.com suite on Thursday that drew the biggest crowd. The promised public announcement was never made, but the high-level trio stood on a balcony to create a photo-op for the dozens of press below.

As a festival event designed to showcase Internet-friendly films, the Yahoo! Online Film Festival failed to remember the filmmaker in its rush to bring the new Movie-Net to Hollywood. As a market designed to introduce the Net to a nervous film establishment, the Festival succeeded wildly as it established a bridge between the two worlds.

Winners of Festival awards included, Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine Filmmaker for the Future: Christopher Bell, director-Billy Jones; BeachBlanket.com Best Online Female Director: Allison Shulnik, director-Vedma; Best Short Films/Animation (as voted by the web audience): Fishbar#10: The Delectable Planet (Janet Galore); Protest (Steve Katz); MuM (Nicholas Peterson); Race Speedster (Scott Rosann); Vedma (Allison Shulnik); More (Mark Osborne); Descent (Kevin Souls); Chuck Webber's Land of Abuesement (Mike Wellins).

Live-Action short winners included: My Ding-A-Ling (Brad Abelson); Billy Jones (Christopher Bell); Sunday's Game (Gene Laufenberg); The Sick Sense (Bill McNally); Babie (Jonathan Michals); I Still Miss Someone (John Lloyd Miller). Sony Cameras were awarded to three short filmmakers: John Lloyd Miller, Steve Katz and Christopher Bell.

FilmFestivals.com reporter
Kathleen McInnis