
Film contest offers prize for best movie shot entirely with camera cell phones
"I hope people studying film will take it as my generation's chance to provide a new language, a new way of thinking," says Sudhanshu Saria, a senior at Ithaca College taking part in the cell phone film contest. Ithaca College has invited high school and college students across America to submit a 30-second movie shot entirely with a cell phone, and there is a $5,000 prize offered. The submission deadline is Jan. 10. A winner will be chosen from among 10 finalists and announced online Jan. 30.
About 130 million Americans own cell phones with camera capabilities and approximately half of those camera phones also shoot video, said Roger Entner, an analyst with Ovum, a Boston-based technology consulting firm.
This fall, MTV launched "Head and Body," a comedy series of eight programs created exclusively for cell phone users. Last year, Zoie Films, an Atlanta-based producer of independent films and festivals, ran what it billed as the world's first cell-phone film festival.
And in October, the Forum des Images in Paris held its first Pocket Film Festival, which included everything from 30-second shorts to mini-soap operas to full-length features.
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