There are films, and then there are art films. So if there's porn, why isn't there art porn?

Well, various artists have tried over the years, but often when artists try to make erotica there's either too much gauzy abstraction or too many wailing saxophones on the soundtrack. This past winter, however, the Sundance Film Festival premiered Destricted, a compilation of seven shorts by bona fide artists given the task of exploring contours of cinematic sex in intelligent and provocative ways. Matthew Barney, Marina Abramovic, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noe, Marco Brambilla, Richard Prince and Sam Taylor-Wood all participated, and the result was, if not arousing, at least interesting. Irreversible director Gaspar Noe contributed a strobe-lit one-performer extravaganza, Barney's piece was typically symbolic, but Kids director Clark's, in which performers are auditioned for a porn film, was, at almost 40 minutes, considered a mini-feature that ranked alongside his best work.

Now, the U.K. filmmaker community site Shooting People is sponsoring a viral video competition that celebrates Destricted's latest distinction: the anthologoy film is, according to its producers, the most sexually explicit film to not be classified as pornography by the British film rating board, which means that it can be shown in regular commercial cinemas. In celebration of this honor the site invited filmmakers from around the world to create and upload their own racy shorts, and the entries are now online for viewers to vote on.

Shooting People required entrants to follow three simple guidelines: the films could not break any U.K. law; they had to be films that could be legally shown on the site; and they had to be made in a responsible way that treated the cast and crew "fairly." Additional guidelines, which are printed on the site, offer a mini lesson in how to shoot sensitive material responsibly. For example: "Actors should never be auditioned or rehearsed in the director or producer's home. Hire or borrow an independent space, search the Shooting People archive for ones near you. It is always best practice to have more than 1 person from the production in the room during an audition/rehearsal. It is essential if any nudity, sexual acting or reading scripts with sexual language is involved. It prevents misunderstandings and protects both sides."

The winner of the contest will be chosen by Larry Clark, who will view all the entries and write actual film reviews of all six finalists. The entries so far can be seen here. If you just want to watch the creme of the crop, click here for the "top six."