Sundance Boosts Signal For Cellphone Cinema

Cellphone movies got a big vote of confidence last week – from Robert Redford, of all people, star of The Sting and director of Ordinary People. Just days after celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Sundance Institute -- the independent filmmaking organization that he founded in 1980 -- the '70s heartthrob confirmed his dedication to the future of movies with the announcement of The Global Film Short Project. Founded in association with the mobile phone industry trade group GSM, the cellphone filmmaking initiative is the first high-profile move to pair established filmmakers with the new micro-medium.

“Cell phones are fast becoming the ‘fourth screen’ medium, after television, cinema, and computers,” Redford said. “We feel this experiment embodies fully our quarter century dedication to exploring new platforms to support wider distribution of independent voices.”

Filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine), Justin Lin (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), Maria Maggenti, (The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love), Cory McAbee (The American Astronaut) and Jody Hill (The Foot Fist Way) – all Sundance Film Festival alumni - will each produce a 3-5 minute film that will premiere at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona next February.

John Cooper, Sundance Film Festival's Director of Programming, who will oversee the project, said the new medium of cellular filmmaking "holds tremendous promise for maximizing the impact and international reach of the short film genre."

Whether that will turn out to be the case remains to be seen, but the cellphone industry is certainly gunning to make that promise a reality. See related movements by mobile players looking to gain a foothold in the action: "Cellphone Shapes Cinema"; "YouTube hopes to be on mobile devices"; "Mission: Impossible? Not according to Nokia"; "Anime Network Launches Video Channel on Sprint."