My good friend Wim Wenders (actually, I only met him once, at the “Wings of Desire” L.A. premiere, but he seemed nice) reportedly is one of the judges for a film contest site called Filmka.com. The Movie Blog notes that:
“Former Fox TV exec Sandy Grushow has joined with ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ producer Deepak Nayar to create Filmaka.com, a web-based movie studio that is attracting aspiring filmmakers with promises of big coin for their feature films or series pilots.”
“Filmaka.com hosts a series of contests judged by a jury that includes Wim Wenders, Paul Schrader and Werner Herzog. The entrants submit a fee and a three-minute short, of which Grushow said the site has received 3,600 from 95 countries. Filmaka.com hosts the shorts for the curious, but when the contest is over, Grushow and Nayar will produce the winner’s feature film with coin ‘in the range of $2 million to $3 million.’”
The site runs 12 smaller contests a year, with different themes. The rules are kind of confusing, but the gist of it is that Filmka community members vote on “entry level” finalists, and the top 10 vote-getters each receive $500 and the option to do a “jury level” film, for which they receive an additional $1,000. Three “jury level” winners compete for the $2 million -$3 million prize.
After you submit your short, be sure to send the link our way (via the Idea Submission section) so other Your Blog readers can check it out.