Pocket films are no joke

Budding film-makers looking for a big break may want to think small - about 5cm by 5cm to be exact.

Organisers of Canada's first mobile film festival, Mobifest, are looking for bite-sized films that are up to 60 seconds long and produced for viewing on cellphones and other handheld devices.

"The big picture is that there's a billion [mobile] phones worldwide and an increasing percentage of them are playing back video," said Duncan Kennedy, president of Nownow, the company producing the contest.

"It's a new distribution channel for independent film making."

Similar festivals, for what is dubbed "short attention span theatre", have been launched in Portugal and Asia.

Mobifest already has a few entries, including one from United States' animator Mike Browne, whose Brokeback Chicken spoofs Ang Lee's Oscar favourite Brokeback Mountain.

"We see a lot of these submissions being funny," said Kennedy. "We hope people are going to share these laughs together and why wouldn't you want to have a joke in your pocket?"

Kennedy said so-called "pocket films" ideally had limited dialogue, because they were played on phones and often competed with background noise, and had lots of close shots and large text and titles.

His year-old, Toronto-based company produces and distributes made-for-mobile movies under sponsorship and carrier deals.

Sponsored by Palm Canada, Mobifest will accept international submissions until April 30, with the winners announced on May 17.

Finalists will be picked by online voters, who can view films at the link below.

- REUTERS