Submissions overview

Now that we've completed the Call for Entry, submission, and review stages, we've got some updated numbers on where Filminute films came from this year.

While Filminute has customarily attracted a significant portion of our festival audience from India, this is the year we saw India overtake all other countries in submissions. Over 15% of submissions came from India, surging past a flood of US filmmakers. You will see 2 Indian films on this year's shortlist.

The US has been a late entrant to the party and for the first time caught up to our UK volume of submissions. Central and Eastern Europe continue to be a powerful source of films, and that's been consistent since the Filminute's inception in 2006.

We also saw our broadest array of films from Central and South America, with submissions from Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.

More insights to come. But it all becomes tangible tomorrow when we announce the Filminute 2010 shortlist. Let the screenings begin!

The Filminute 2010 Jury

We are pleased to welcome Ronald Bergan, Neill Blomkamp, Tanuja Chandra, Jan Lumholdt, and Mark Tutssel to the Filminute 2010 jury.

Filminute has always been ambitious in its pursuit of critical, strong, and respected jury members. This year is no exception. At the back of our minds when making our final shortlist of 25 films, we always think about films that are worthy of our jury and worthy of our worldwide audiences' time.

Interesting to note: our juries and our voting public have never agreed on their selection of the "best" film, and we consider that tension an important and exciting part of the festival.

An imperfect "Thank You"

An inspiring load of films have arrived over the past few days. There's always drama like that as we approach the 20 August submission deadline. What I'd like to pause and note is the impact that various web postings via Twitter and blogs have had in getting the word out.

Not only has this activity drawn in film genres we needed more of, it has also helped get Filminute on the radar of filmmakers in countries we've not had representation from before.

For instance, here's a screen cap of recent Twitter posters, and that's just scratching the surface — thus the imperfect "Thank You"...

10 days left to submit your film

★★★ 20 August 2010 ★★★ rapidly approaches. There is always a goldmine of films that arrive at the last minute, and we are always delighted to see them.

If you haven't already, join Filminute on Facebook or follow Filminute on Twitter.

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Submissions..the home stretch

In 11 days, we'll close the door on submissions and begin to make our final selects for Filminute 2010. The persistent and perennial August 20 submission deadlines rules us for 8 months, and then we agonise for a few days making the final cuts. The endless viewing of films, the back and forth between our management team and prospective filmmakers — it always pays off. 

Our selection committee is picky and prickly, and for a reason. We expect our audience and our jurors to be picky and prickly so it's best that we be brutally critical first. Now 5 years into the festival, we owe quality to a worldwide audience when Filminute 2010 goes live on September 1 every year.

Last year, so much of the festival was intertwined with social media, especially with the appearance of LINE on the shortlist. That one-minute film originated as a Twitter post by Twitter fiction writer Arjun Basu. It went on to win our People's Choice award winner, and the twitterati definitely weighed in on that outcome!

Following on that, leading up to September 1 we ask you to do 2 things: join us on Facebook and/or on Twitter, because these platforms are becoming increasingly central to the Filminute festival experience.