Yep the submission clock has started for 2012′s Vimeo Festival + Awards. The categories have been opened up this time round to include Advertising, Lyrical, Action Sports and Fashion (a DN favourite), all of which could net you a cool $5,000 grant, while the Grand prize once again sits at a hefty $25,000.

There’s a brand new line up of judges – including our animator man-crush, Eran Hilleli – and you have until February 20, 2012 to get your entries in at a cost of $20 (or $5 for Pro/Plus subscribers).

We can’t wait to see you all bring your A-game to the competition.

The 2012 Vimeo Festival + Awards: Submissions now open! from Vimeo Festival + Awards on Vimeo.

To celebrate Rieusse’s invention, Mont Blanc and Wim Wenders have issued the challenge to “seize the moment” and capture the beauty of a second.

Just shoot one second of video/film and if Wim Wenders picks your flash of beauty you could win a trip Berlin.

For all the competition details visit the Mont Blanc website.

“To participate, people all over the world can download this footage and create their own version of a film – which can then be uploaded back onto www.straycinema.com. All films are voted on by the online community.

The top five films and the director’s edit will be navigated out of the ‘digital world’ and into the ‘real world’ at a multimedia screening event, tailored for an online and real world audience.”

If you’d like to get involved full details about this year’s Stay Cinema project can be found after the jump.

Stray Cinema – An open source film from Stray Cinema on Vimeo.

Collabor8te are looking for scripts of any genre, up to 15 pages, with budgets up to £10,000. Ten scripts will be shortlisted and go through a development period after which the strongest eight will move into production, to be completed in 2012 by a production team of new and established talent. The films will then make their way on to the festival circuit before being exhibited on DazedTV.

Submissions are due by 3rd October 2011, and you can find full application details after the jump.

Back in March Nokia continued their support of the short film format through the use of mobile phone cameras, with the launch of the Nokia Shorts competition. Filmmakers around the globe were challenged to create a two minute video pitching the short they’d create with a $5,000 bursary and a Nokia N8 phone. Over 600 filmmakers stepped up to the challenge, but only the eight pitches below [edit: 7 now as the Homecoming pitch is no longer available] were chosen to take their ideas through to completion and duke it out for a final $10,000 grand prize to fund the ultimate winner’s next film.

Nokia Shorts Pitches

Splitscreen: A Love Story – Pitch from JW Griffiths on Vimeo.

Daniel – Nokia Shorts Pitch from aurora fearnley on Vimeo.

Pearls from jasonvangenderen on Vimeo.

Sand from Joe Marcantonio on Vimeo.

The Rider from Josh Brooks on Vimeo.

Nokia Comedy Short Pitch 2011 from Ryan Maples on Vimeo.

The Adventures of a Cardboard Box (Pitch) from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

As part of The Nokia Shorts Weekender, a three day event run in conjunction with the Edinburgh International Film Festival last weekend, the eight completed mobile movies had their world premiere on the big screen with JW Griffiths’ innovative Splitscreen: A Love Story crowned the winner.

DN was lucky enough to be invited up to Edinburgh for the Nokia Shorts premiere and grabbed some interview time with; Jason Van Genderen (Pearls), Ryan Maples (Thunk in Public), Temujin Doran (The Adventures of a Cardboard Box), Josh Brooks (The Rider), Aurora Fearnley (Daniel) and JW Griffiths (Splitscreen: A Love Story) who were all present to represent their films.

Here’s James Griffiths’ winning Splitscreen: A Love Story:

Splitscreen: A Love Story from JW Griffiths on Vimeo.

And my personal favourite, Temujin Doran’s The Adventures of a Cardboard Box:

The Adventures of a Cardboard Box from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

You can watch all the shortlisted films after the jump.

Also, in case it passed you by at the time, take a look at Luke’s first short Patrick:

PATRICK from Luke Snellin on Vimeo.

As a site dedicated to the community that bore it, in addition to a post detailing the strategy that got TBC before so many eyes, SotW launched The Great Film Competition (which El Vez & I were pleased to take part in as judges), which would give one lucky filmmaker the opportunity to have their short hit the web via the SotW Presents package. Over the last month many films have been submitted, watched and rated and today the winning film Matter Fisher has been been unveiled at SotW. As someone who had the privilege of following the The Great Film Competition process from the inside, I can tell you that the quality of films were extremely high and the fact that David Prosser’s BAFTA-nominated animation came out tops speaks volumes as to it’s quality.

Matter Fisher from Moth on Vimeo.

Moby, along with Saatchi & Saatchi, and international video sharing community Vimeo, is throwing down the gauntlet to the next generation of young filmmakers with a unique Music Video Challenge based on the theme of this year’s New Directors’ Showcase – ‘Hello, Future’.

So here’s the brief: Visualise the concept of ’Hello, Future’ in the form of a standout music video inspired by one of three tracks selected from Moby’s new album, ‘Destroyed’. The winner will be announced at this year’s Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase in Cannes on 23rd June, as well as on the Vimeo website. Not only will the winning Film Director have their film shown in front of more than 2,500 delegates at the ever popular New Directors’ Showcase, in the Grand Audi of the Palais, their promo will be introduced by Moby in a live video link, and they will be offered the chance to work on a project in a key office in the Saatchi & Saatchi Global Network.

Follow the jump for full details.

Check out the video for more details:

Nokia Shorts 2011 Trailer from Nokia HD on Vimeo.

Head over to the Life Just Is Facebook page to view the designs and cast your vote by the 21st February.

Fancy making a music video for the fantastically named Bedford trio Ice, Sea, Dead People, well now you can!

The band have shot a video for the song in a green screen studio back in May which you can download and add anything you want to in the background.

There’s some example videos already up. It’s very easy to do if you’ve got a Mac or a PC – we don’t want perfection, we just want to see people show off some good ideas.

Surprise us, whatever, have fun with it!!! If you need a concept for your video then, it’s about ‘being right about being wrong for someone’ (i.e. it’s pretty open – things don’t have to necessarily ‘work’ with each other, capiche?)

Go to: http://www.iceseadeadpeople.com/greantee/ for some simple instuctions.

If you can impress Ridley Scott by adhering the same rules as the original series of films and upload your finished film to the YouTube channel before 8th August, you’re in with a chance of becoming the sixth installment of the campaign…oh and walking away with one week’s work experience at RSA and a 21:9 home cinema setup.

Full details after the jump.

*For those of you who tend to skip the small print: “By entering the promotion, entrants automatically assign without charge full copyright in their submissions on a world- wide basis.” If that doesn’t sit right with you, you’ve been warned!

For a while now Vimeo has been the de facto home for filmmakers to showcase their work, provide constructive criticism, and generally eat hours of my online viewing life. Instead of the dancing cats, pratfalls or five minute memes of YouTube, Vimeo provides community forums, film challenges and screening events that all go some way towards pushing the craft of filmmaking ever upwards. So the lack of an official Vimeo online film festival seemed conspicuous by its absence.

Perhaps the delay comes from wrangling such an impressive panel of judges or passing the hat for the $25,000 grant that goes to the ultimate winner to assist in the production of their next film? Whatever the reason, the Vimeo Film Festival is now live and open for entries until 31st July. Entry will cost you $20 or $5 if you’re already signed up as a Plus member on the site.

Vimeo Festival + Awards — arph from arph on Vimeo.

Longtime DN friend Danni Lizaitis has, with co-directed Sam Burr, the short documentary The Retirement Village (below) in the running and it would be mighty good if you could pop over and vote for it – it’s clearly the best of the three.

The Retirement Village from First Light on Vimeo.

Set within 200 acres of idyllic woodland, Whiteley Village is described as a haven for retired pensioners. Founded in 1907 after a £1 million bequest in the will of William Whiteley, the village caters for older people of limited means. It is home to almost 400 residents who have been selected from hundreds of applications each year.

And lo if it wasn’t just a joyous little movie full of teen romance and hope and the wonderful Bill Milner in the lead role. This is the perfect Friday afternoon film to get you in the mood for the weekend.

MIXTAPE from Luke Snellin on Vimeo.

Ctrl.Alt.Shift is a youth initiative that’s challenging young filmmakers (aged 18-25) to tackle the issues of poverty and injustice through their creativity. The five winning treatment directors will get the opportunity to work with film mentors Noel Clarke (Adulthood), Shynola (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy), Paul Andrew Williams (London to Brighton) and Saam Farahmand (Part of the Weekend Never Dies), with the five produced shorts having their soundtracks scored by critically acclaimed artists the Young Knives, Shy Child, Metronomy, The Thirst and Chipmunk.

The closing date is January 31st so get over to Ctrl.Alt.Shift for entry info. Good Luck!

Nobody’s Perfect is a newly launched charity short film competition that’s open to 16 – 25 year olds interested in directing, producing, acting, writing or composing regardless of previous experience.

Submitted material will be judged by musician Sandi Thom (‘Punk Rocker’), actors Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter), Tom Hardy (Band of Brothers), JJ Feilds (Northanger Abbey) and Georgia Groome (Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) and director Paris Leonti (Daylight Robbery), who’ll be choosing 6 winners to come to London at the end of September to work on the Nobody’s Perfect short films, which will ultimately have a red carpet screening at the Odeon Cinema in Covent Garden, London on October 21st 2008.

Head over to the Nobody’s Perfect site for full details.

If you want to be in with a chance to grab a copy for your collection – and help spread the word about Directors Notes at the same time – either submit a review of Directors Notes to the iTunes store or post about us on your blog. Either way drop a line to directorsnotes@googlemail.com to let us know so we can stick your name in our competition hat.