HI-TRANSFER

On February 2, we opened submissions to Your Film Festival, a competition to find the world's best storytellers and connect them with a global audience. Created in partnership with Ridley Scott and Scott Free London, the Venice Film Festival, and Emirates, Your Film Festival will send 10 finalists, as chosen by you, to the 2012 Venice Film Festival where a grand prize winner will receive $500,000 to work on their next project.

Today, we'd like to introduce the newest member of the Your Film Festival team, award-winning actor Michael Fassbender.



Fassbender joins Ridley Scott as a Your Film Festival juror, as well as co-executive producer on the winner's grand prize project. This means that he and Ridley will work together to produce the winner’s next film project! With credits including Shame, X-Men: First Class, 300 and Inglorious Basterds, Michael brings world-class experience ranging from some of the biggest blockbusters to the most critically acclaimed indies.

If you haven't submitted yet, consider this your 1-month warning. Submissions close on March 31 at midnight ET. For more information, check out the Your Film Festival channel.

Good luck!

Nate Weinstein, entertainment marketing manager, recently watched “Kevin Allocca: Why videos go viral.”

The annual independent film extravaganza known as the Sundance Film Festival is underway in Park City, Utah. For film lovers who couldn’t make it this year to meet to-be-discovered filmmakers and rub shoulders with celebrities, we're bringing Sundance to you here on YouTube.

Last year, we showcased past and present short films in the YouTube Screening Room. This year, we’ve teamed up with Sundance Film Institute to premiere a collection of films that are available for the first time for digital stream.

Films include Obselidia (Independent Spirit Award Winner), Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007 Sundance Film Festival documentary on the arcade gamer competitions in the ‘80s), New York Times Critic’s Pick Lord Byron and 1994 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award Winner What Happened Was.

To mark the last weekend of the festival, we’ll premiere Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie tomorrow at the same time the shock humor duo showcase their world premiere at the 2012 festival. This star-studded comedy features Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and is already picking up buzz in Park City.

For the best of Sundance and thousands of other titles, get more into movies at YouTube.com/Movies.

Mildred Padilla, Movies Merchandising Manager, recently watched “Brick.”

Today, the first of hundreds of The Walt Disney Studios movies from Disney, Disney·Pixar and DreamWorks Studios are coming to YouTube. These titles join thousands of full-length feature films from major Hollywood studios that already are available to rent at YouTube.com/movies.

Fans of animated movies? We’ve got the beloved animated classic, Alice in Wonderland and the newly envisioned Winnie the Pooh. Love Disney·Pixar? We have hits like Cars and Cars 2 all in one place. Up for a little bit of adventure? We’ll take you from the darkest depths of the oceans with all four of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, including the most recent blockbuster in the franchise Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

So gather the family and friends to watch your favorite Disney movies at YouTube.com/movies. Check back in because even more of the great Disney classics and new releases will be added in weeks to come, including our YouTube Movie Extras with behind-the-scenes clips, interviews, and more.

Minjae Ormes, Movies & TV Marketing Manager, recently watched John Lasseter Talks About His Hawaiian Shirt Collection.

On November 7, 1991, Magic Johnson told the world he’d been diagnosed with HIV and promised that “I plan on … living for a long time.” 20 years later, Magic proves that you can be an entrepreneur, talk show host, successful businessman, educator and more, living with HIV.

To show our support for all the work Magic and the Magic Johnson Foundation have done, we teamed up with Warner Bros. to donate a portion of the proceeds anytime you rent a movie on YouTube from the Magic Johnson Collection presented by WB. During the month of November 2011, proceeds from your rental will be donated to the Magic Johnson Foundation, and the collection includes Sandra Bullock’s Blind Side, classic inspirational movie Chariots of Fire, family movies like Lean on Me, and more coming in daily.

For more information on the Magic Johnson Foundation, its programs on college access, digital literacy, and its local centers in the US, please visit here. We’d also like to recognize YouTubers giving inspiration to the HIV community like Christopher, Rebekkah, Andre, Ben and others. To find out how you can learn more or get tested for HIV/AIDS please visit http://aids.gov/locator/.

Elizabeth Ferdon, YouTube Content Partnerships, just rented the movie “Space Jam.”

On July 24, 2010, thousands of people around the world recorded videos of their lives to take part in Life in a Day, a cinematic experiment to document a single day on earth. From more than 4,500 hours of footage recorded and uploaded to YouTube, Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald and executive producer Ridley Scott created a 90-minute feature film that offers an entertaining, surprising and moving view of life on earth.

After a theatrical release in countries around the world including appearances at the Sundance, Berlin, SXSW and Sydney film festivals, Life in a Day is finally coming home to YouTube—in its entirety, for free.

Starting today you can watch Life in a Day on YouTube, available with subtitles in 25 languages. So if you haven’t seen it yet or want to relive the experience that The Times of London considers “a thrilling piece of cinema” and the Washington Post called “a profound achievement,” now’s your chance.



If you’d like to own Life in a Day, a DVD is also available. You can find more details about this, and the whole project, on the film’s official YouTube channel.

Tim Partridge, Marketing Manager, recently watched "One Year Later: Cathy and Bob Linginksi."

Nicole Kidman, Nicolas Cage and Joel Schumacher. Two Oscars and countless nominations among them, this team is bringing you a new thriller called Trespass that is out in theaters today, and even more—it’s available on YouTube Movies in the US as well.

Director Joel Schumacher sat down to talk with us about what lead to the decision to release Trespass on YouTube as well as in theaters, experiences in the film industry and his cast-driven films, which you can see with our YouTube Movie Extras. As Joel says, “I know certain people in my industry are furious about … their films being shown in anyway than they were supposed to be meant to be seen [in theaters]. However, there’s no stopping technology.”



Trespass joins other YouTube Movies like Kevin Smith’s Red State that had a pre-theatrical release on YouTube, one of the many ways we want to help you get more into movies.

Elizabeth Ferdon, YouTube Business Development, watched “A Time to Kill.”

Back in May we brought new release movies and more for rent to YouTube in the US. Last month, we took it to Canada. Now, over a thousand full-length feature films from major Hollywood and British studios are available for rent in the UK at youtube.com/movies.

We’ve got some cracking films to keep everyone entertained through the upcoming winter months and beyond. From blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Reservoir Dogs, to new releases such as Hanna, Fast Five, and Red Riding Hood, and even British classics like Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, you can find many of your favourite films in high quality available to rent now at youtube.com/movies.

There’s always more to explore on YouTube. Many movie pages also feature YouTube Movie Extras with free behind-the-scenes videos, cast interviews, parodies, clips and remixes from YouTube’s unique community of content creators. Over time we'll also be adding additional videos and features to YouTube Movie Extras so that you can get even more into movies on YouTube.

Britain has a long history of cinema, starting from the first moving pictures being developed on celluloid film in the UK. Now British film buffs can be part of the digital revolution too, at youtube.com/movies.

Matteo Vallone, YouTube Business Product Manager, recently watched “The Big Lebowski.”

We love discovering new talent at YouTube, and today we are presenting 10 short films made by this year’s Ghetto Film School fellows, together with the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The culmination of the GFS students’ work is debuting on YouTube to coincide with a public screening at the Lincoln Center in New York City.

Over the last 15 months, the group of GFS teenage filmmakers worked with guest instructors like Spike Jonze, David O. Russell, Amy Adams, Jason Reitman, Lee Daniels, and Ed Burns to hone their storytelling skills. Three of these talented filmmakers are leaving Lincoln Center tonight with $1,000 scholarships from Google to continue advancing their artistic pursuits, and here are their works:

"Former Self" from Remery Camacho



"Mama’s Boy" from Ralston Ramsey



"Upstaged" from Antonello Velez



You can also watch all 10 of this year’s Ghetto Film School shorts on the GFS YouTube channel. Congratulations to all of the GSF fellows for their hard work!

Minjae Ormes, Movies & TV Marketing Manager, recently watched “15 Years of Film Distribution.”

UPDATE 9/15: We now have the first 10 minutes of Citizen Kane available to watch for free. The preview is embedded below, and you can click to rent if you'd like to see the full film.

In celebration of the 70th anniversary of its release, Orson Welles’ seminal work Citizen Kane joins the thousands of movies available on YouTube.



What makes Citizen Kane a film worthy of your attention? Let us count the ways, and find more on the YouTube Movie Extras playlist for Citizen Kane:

• American Film Institute (AFI) voted Citizen Kane the #1 “Greatest Movie of All Time.” Twice. 
• Welles and his cinematographer Gregg Toland popularized the technique of “deep focus” which makes you see everything in the fore-, middle- and background in focus. You’ve seen it in movies ranging from The Shining to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 
• Director Steven Spielberg is among many filmmakers who credit Citizen Kane as a major influence, and even paid homage to Citizen Kane in the last scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. 
• You almost never got to watch this film. The negatives of Citizen Kane were destroyed in a warehouse fire decades ago. Thanks to a surviving positive print and digital restoration, Citizen Kane is now on YouTube today. 

To get more into movies like Citizen Kane, check out the YouTube Movie Extras that include commentary from directors like Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, a five second take on the film’s most iconic line and even a puppet parody.

Minjae Ormes, YouTube Movies and TV Marketing Manager, recently watched "Bernard Herrmann: A Master of Movie Music."

As the world is starting to see Life in a Day—the documentary distilled from 80,000 videos submitted to YouTube from 190+ countries—many people have asked us how the film is structured. Woven into the collage of videos from Australia to Zambia, from the heart of bustling cities to the remote reaches of the earth, are responses to three universal questions: What do you love? What do you fear? What’s in your pocket? Check out some of the answers to these questions in the Life in a Day trailer:



To celebrate the one year anniversary of Life in a Day’s filming date, we’d love to hear your answer to these questions. So tell us, what do you love, what do you fear and what’s in your pocket? Upload a video to YouTube, share a photo on Google+, tweet us with the #lifeinaday hashtag and invite your family and friends to join. Let’s spark a dialogue and continue the passion of Life in a Day by highlighting the things that connect us across the globe.

For more information about Life in a Day and where to see it this weekend, visit the Life in a Day channel.

Raymond Braun, Entertainment Marketing, recently watched “Life in a Day Teaser #1: Slim Up.”

Today, we’ve got some exciting updates from editor Joe Walker and Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald about Life in a Day, the documentary shot by YouTube users about a single day on Earth.

First, as we previously announced, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the film’s making, there will be a sneak-peek premiere in cities across the US on July 24, five days before National Geographic begins to release the film in theaters nationwide. If you want Life in a Day to play in your town, visit the Life in a Day channel and request a screening. National Geographic, in partnership with Cinedigm, will collect your requests from now through August, and will try to bring the film to those towns and cities where the demand is highest (either for the July 24 premiere or the following release).

Second, you can also check out the Life in a Day Trailer Remixer. If you haven't already seen the trailer, we recommend watching it. After that, go to the Life in a Day channel or directly to the Remixer page, where you can edit and publish your own trailer to share with your friends and the world. All of the trailers will appear on the Life in a Day channel, and National Geographic may feature some of their favorites at the film’s premiere.





One more exciting announcement: Life in a Day opened theatrically this weekend in the United Kingdom to critical acclaim! According to a critic from The Telegraph, the 5-star film is "Extraordinary…the summer's most inspiring film." For users in the US, don't fret: National Geographic is bringing the film to theaters across the country in late July.

Be sure to subscribe to the Life in a Day channel for all the latest news, and check out the Life in a Day Facebook page for daily updates.

Nate Weinstein, Entertainment Marketing Manager, recently watched the "Life in a Day Trailer."

Every spring, the Short Film Corner at Cannes features hundreds of the world's best shorts. Now, for the third year running on YouTube, you'll be able to watch 10 of the best, courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada's 7th Annual Online Film Competition.

How does the competition work? The curators at the NFB picked their favorite films from the Short Film Corner, choosing an eclectic mix of languages and genres. To vote, all you have to do is watch and thumbs up the ones you like. Voting is open to users across the globe. NFB will tally the votes and the winner will be announced at Cannes and on the NFB's YouTube channel on May 19.



Enjoy!
Nate Weinstein, Entertainment Marketing Manager, just watched The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger

Here at YouTube, we can’t get enough video. When it comes to movies, we’re just as excited: YouTube hosts a great selection of movie trailers and showcases a variety of independent films in our Screening Room; last year we announced the ability to rent movies from Sundance Film Festival; and this year at Sundance we premiered Life in a Day, a documentary film about a single day on earth filmed by thousands of YouTube users, produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.

Today, we’re announcing another step in our goal to bring more of the video you love to YouTube: the addition of thousands of full-length feature films from major Hollywood studios available to rent in the US at youtube.com/movies. In addition to the hundreds of free movies available on the site since 2009, you will be able to find and rent some of your favorite films. From memorable hits and cult classics like Caddyshack, Goodfellas, Scarface, and Taxi Driver to blockbuster new releases like Inception, The King’s Speech, Little Fockers, The Green Hornet and Despicable Me. Movies are available to rent at industry standard pricing, and can be watched with your YouTube account on any computer. The new titles will begin appearing later today and over the coming weeks to www.youtube.com/movies, so keep checking back.

But your movie experience won't begin and end with a single film. With 35 hours of video uploaded every minute to YouTube, there’s a sea of content that can add to your movie experience. Many movie pages feature YouTube Movie Extras -- free behind-the-scenes videos, cast interviews, parodies, clips and remixes from YouTube’s unique community of content creators. Movie pages also showcase reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, so you’ll see feedback from critics before you decide what movie to get into. Over time we'll also be adding additional videos and features to YouTube Movie Extras so that you can get even more into movies on YouTube.

Learn more about movies on YouTube or visit YouTube.com/movies to start watching now.

Camille Hearst, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched "300" and Matt Darby, Product Manager, recently watched "The Matrix."

This May, NYLON’s Young Hollywood issue comes to YouTube for the second year in a row. Visit the NYLON channel for coverage of the hottest young stars including Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, Chloe Moretz, Lucy Hale, and not one, but two Harry Potter witches. Check out exclusive interviews only seen on YouTube and behind the scenes footage from the NYLON photoshoot, and here's a video to get you started:

On July 24, 2010, thousands of people around the world uploaded videos of their day to YouTube to take part in Life in a Day, a historic cinematic experiment to create a documentary film about a single day on earth. From over 80,000 submissions, executive producer Ridley Scott and Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald have crafted a 90-minute feature film that paints a surprising, moving and entertaining portrait of the world today.

The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and was simultaneously live streamed here on YouTube. However if you missed it, or want to see it again on the big screen, worry not. National Geographic will be bringing ‘Life in a Day’ to theaters around the US on July 24th, 2011 - the first anniversary of the day the movie was shot.

To whet your appetite, the official trailer for ‘Life in a Day’ has just gone live.



For those outside the US, stay tuned for information about international releases in the coming months, and remember, you can subscribe to the official ‘Life in a Day’ channel to be the first to hear news and updates from the team.

Tim Partridge, Marketing Manager, just watched “The ‘Life in a Day’ trailer.”

Combine some tinseltown stardust with a forward-thinking director and what do you get? Hollywood's first feature-length film created specifically for the internet.



Presented by Lexus and now playing in the YouTube Screening Room, Girl Walks Into A Bar is a comedy about a seemingly unrelated group of characters spending a single night at ten different bars throughout Los Angeles. Directed by Sebastian Gutiérrez, the film stars (among others) Carla Gugino, Zachary Quinto, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Josh Hartnett and Emmanuelle Chriqui as a desperate dentist, an undercover private detective, a pickpocket, a gangster, and an exotic dancer.

Since the movie is chaptered, you can either watch it in its entirety or in installments via the playlist below.



Enjoy!

In December, we announced that “Life in a Day,” a documentary film directed by Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald, produced by Ridley Scott, and filmed on July 24, 2010 by thousands of YouTube users around the world, was finished—and would have its world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival on January 27.

Today we’d like to share with you the first in a series of clips we’ll release between now and the world premiere. In this clip, beautifully shot by Toniu Xou and Patricia Marinez del Hoyoa of Spain, a young girl climbs a human castle in the small town of San Jaume dels Domenys in the Spanish province of Tarragona.



If watching this clip gets you excited for more, subscribe to the Life in a Day channel to be automatically updated when new clips are released.

And, most importantly, don’t forget to tune into the world premiere of “Life in a Day” at 5pm PT on Thursday, January 27, to see the 1,125 clips—out of more than 80,000 submitted—that made it into the final film.

Live in an incompatible time zone? Not to worry. The film will be re-broadcast at 7pm on Friday, January 28, in your local time zone, whatever that may be. The film will be closed captioned and subtitled on YouTube in 25 languages, and will provide an additional option for audio description (AD) in English. This will be your only chance to see “Life in a Day” before it is released later in 2011, so don’t miss out!

And for those of you who want to experience Sundance even more intimately, check out the Life in a Day channel daily from January 24 to January 27 to see on-the-ground updates from Kevin Macdonald and a group of contributors to the “Life in a Day” project whom Kevin has invited to join him for the world premiere. You can also submit questions on the channel during that time for a chance to take part in a live Q&A with Kevin and the 20 contributors following the world premiere.

Tim Partridge, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched Homeless Man with Golden Radio Voice."