Nokia Mobifest Toronto Fourth Annual Festival shines a spotlight on the world’s best made-for-mobile films
November 17, 2009
Nokia Mobifest Toronto, Canada’s premier made-for-mobile film festival, will present more than 35 films & videos under 90 seconds, from nearly 20 different countries on November 17th, 2009 at the Revue Cinema at 7pm. The festival screening will offer attendees the opportunity to view a variety of exceptional made-for-mobile-platform films, including 2 competitive series - the official festival selections and the completed Toronto Made-For-Mobile Challenge films; plus 2 showcase series - World Tour 2009 highlight films and a sneak peak of 2 Athletes in Motion (AIM) films.
Along with this year’s official selections, the November 17th event will screen completed works from the first-ever Toronto Made-For-Mobile Challenge. The inaugural competition saw Nokia Mobifest Toronto select five of the city’s most promising filmmakers and challenge them to produce, shoot and edit a 90-second, Toronto-themed made-for-mobile film in 24 hours. Participating filmmakers were the first in Canada to use the soon-to-be-released N86 8MP phone from Nokia – an exciting new device boasting an 8-megapixel camera with ultra-wide angle Carl Zeiss optics. The challenge winner will be announced at the screening and be presented with a $2,500 cash prize, generously donated by the City of Toronto.
The fourth annual event will also screen a sneak preview of two films from the Athletes in Motion (AIM) project, including a film directed by Jason Priestly featuring World Champion Downhill Skier, Jan Hudec. The special series of 2-minute vignettes featuring Canadian athletes was commissioned by CTV Bravo!FACT for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
As part of the mobile World Tour in 2009, the festival will also screen films hailing from the Hong Kong Mobile Film Festival, The Netherlands Viva la Focus festival and Spain’s Mofilm festival. Nokia Mobifest Toronto is one of ten International mobile film festival World Tour members – a reciprocal deal that sees notable mobile fests from around the world spotlight each other’s strongest submissions.
Nokia Mobifest Toronto founder, Duncan Kennedy, enthuses, “The proliferation of the mobile screen is undeniable. With more than 500 million video-capable mobile devices globally, the mobile platform is now the largest video and film distribution platform since the television. As usability and image technology improves, mobile video will continue to attract creative minds, increasing the quality and breadth of content offerings. We are so pleased that Nokia continues to demonstrate their unwavering support for the creative community; consistently offering unique opportunities for forward-thinking filmmakers to be recognized and excel in this rapidly growing arena.”
All official festival selections are eligible to win in one of three Nokia Mobifest Toronto award categories. The first award, Shot on Mobile, will go to the entry that best exemplifies compelling and creative content specifically shot using mobile technology. The festival’s second award will be given out to the top Animation entry, and the final honour will be awarded to the winner of the prestigious Best of Festival prize: an award that includes a one week trip for two to the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California—plus $2,000 cash. An esteemed industry jury will select the award winners by screening each submission on a Nokia device.
www.mobifest.net
