Article

30-second film festival to air on digital screens around the globe

ART BY CHANCE is a festival of ultra-short films that will be seen "by chance" on digital signage screens.

January 30, 2011 by Christopher Hall

Thirty-second short films could be coming to a digital signage display near you.

ART BY CHANCE, an "Ultra Short Film Festival" now in its third year, premieres its 30-second-long entries on public digital signage screens around the globe in May.

Show organizer Hatice Caglar of Istanbul, Turkey, said in a recent e-mail that the festival's ultrashort films will be found "unexpectedly" in non-theatrical venues in 20-plus countries and 200-plus cities around the world on 20,000-plus digital screens located in public transportation hubs as well as shopping centers, airports, public squares and university campuses.

ART BY CHANCE films will also be shown in other film festivals and summer festivals as a program later in the year, Caglar said. Entries will be accepted online through April 8. According to the festival website, screening partners include Adspace Digital Mall Network, JCDecauxMEA, Firefly Communications and Clear Channel Outdoor UK.

The theme for this year's festival entries is "change," and the festival is open to films of nearly all varieties, from fiction to animation to documentary and video art, with the exception of training and advertising films.

The jury members for this year's festival include Walt Disney Producer Don Hahn; ARTE France Cinéma Executive Director Michel Reilac; and British Independent Film Awards founder and Director Johanna Von Fischer, according to a press release.

ART BY CHANCE organizers said the festival allows filmmakers to share their work with the largest audience ever reached by a short film festival — a vast audience reachable only by taking films out of cinemas and screening them in public places on digital signage.

ART BY CHANCE 2011-Call for submission! from ART BY CHANCE on Vimeo.