Dailymotion Sponsors Super Shorts International Film Festival, 2008

PRLog (Press Release) – Jul 11, 2008 – Dailymotion, the world's largest independent video sharing site, is to be the Principle Sponsor for the Super Shorts International Film Festival, 2008.  Running from 1st to 6th July the festival features screenings of independent short films in the Odeon in Covent Garden and an awards ceremony.   Dailymotion aims to raise awareness of its Motionmaker progamme, which promotes the best independent filmmaking talent on the web, and encourage short film producers and directors across all genres to join and upload their films.

Dailymotion is also hosting the Super Shorts Music Video Competition on its site.  Eight music videos have been short-listed by from performers including Turin Brakes, Xeena Cooper and Karoshi.  They are featured exclusively on a bespoke page at www.dailymotion.com/supershorts and can be rated by Dailymotion’s audience.  Each of the shortlitsed videos will be shown on Dailymotion’s homepage in the ‘Videostar’ position and the winners will be announced at the awards ceremony.

Kate Burns, Managing Director of Dailymotion explains, ‘We are sponsoring the festival in order to get closer to more independent British filmmakers and encourage them to join out Motionmaker programme.  We can showcase their work in High-Definition to our global audience of 36.6 million unique users as well as our offline initiatives such as IPTV and La Séance screenings in Paris.  Several of our Motionmakers have been approached to have their ideas optioned for pilots for film and TV projects, so it’s a great platform for independent short-form content.’
Stephen Follows, Super Shorts Festival Director explains, ‘Our mission is to champion the art of short films and the talent of short filmmakers. We pride ourselves in finding brilliant shorts from all over the globe.  In the last five years we've shown over 750 incredible short films, from slick 35mm shorts to weird and wonderful experimental films.’  
‘Short films are really important to the personal and professional growth on the next generation of filmmakers.  They give us all a chance to learn, to meet likeminded filmmakers and to get our work seen.  Short films allow people to build working relationships with people they may go on to work with for the rest of their lives.  Feature films have the commercial, business side which needs to be considered at all times but shorts allow much more creative and artistic freedom – it’s a chance to discover your filmmaking ‘voice’.’
The Super Shorts International Film Festival 2008 includes screenings of 'In Competition' short films including ‘late night screamings’ of horror shorts, opening and closing night parties, panel discussions on key topics relevant to short filmmakers, Q&A with well-known directors and an awards ceremony.  The main venue for the screening of short films will be the Odeon in Covent Garden, a venue which enables screenings from both 35mm and via D-Cinema digital projectors.
Dailymotion’s sponsorship involves hosting a panel discussion covering ‘Distribution of Short Films’ and advertising at the event and in the official magazine, Short Cuts. It follows Dailymotion’s tour of UK film schools and universities to increase the Motionmaker content. Dailymotion offers a mix of Official Content from partners such as Channel 4, Turner Broadcasting, Viacom/MTV Networks and Universal Music, as well as user-generated content, and moderated content from Motionmakers, which is curated by Dailymotion’s programming team.  Launched in France in 2005, it has 36.6 million unique users per month and 15,000 videos are uploaded each day.  Channels include Music, Film & TV, Arts, Sports & Extreme, Funny and Travel.

The short-listed music videos are:
Love The World – Karoshi Brothers
Safe Self Tester – Xeena Cooper
Slow Kids – Cheeky Cheeky And The
Dark On Fire – Turin Brakes/Shelly
Time Patrol – Jasmin Jodry
Turn Off The Lights And – Mahoney
Love No – Carolyn London
Long Night Drone – Neil Forman


About Dailymotion
A top 30 website worldwide (source: Alexa), Dailymotion is the world's largest independent provider of premium user generated and licensed online video entertainment (Source: Alexa and ComScore) with 2billion page views per month. Every day, 15,000 new videos are uploaded into Dailymotion's global network of localised video entertainment sites, where a programming team turns the user generated and licenced content into a high quality, entertainment experience for the 32.2 million monthly unique visitors.  

Using the most advanced technology for both users and content creators, Dailymotion provides a high quality video in a fast, easy to use Web site that also automatically filters infringing material using technical finger-printing technology. Dailymotion's mission is to provide the best possible entertainment experience for users and the best business experience for content owners.

Dailymotion.com | Suite 1.12 |  25 Floral Street | London WC2E 9DS


About Super Shorts International Film festival

The 'Super Shorts International Film Festival 2008' runs between 1st - 6th July in Central London. Created by Talent Circle the festival is now in it’s fifth year and has held over 100 events, including seminars, panel discussions and workshops, screening over 750 incredible short films, from slick 35mm shorts to weird and wonderful experimental films. In the last four years Super Shorts have awarded £13,000 ($26,000) in cash and a further £10,000 ($20,000) worth of prizes.
Main sponsors Portobello Post have introduced two new competitions alongside their ‘Short Film” award, to this year’s festival. The ‘Short Script’ and ‘Online Music Video.’  All events to this years festival are free and will take place at the Odeon Covent Garden and VMI in Soho.
For further information, visit  www.supershorts.org.uk
Or contact:
Kimberly Hitchins
Kimberly @Lutimedia.com
Tel: +44(0) 7793 185 498