50 awesome short films to check out on YouTube

YouTube is about more than videos of cats, or skaters falling over. The world’s most popular video-sharing platform is also now a repository for classic films, a movie rental service and a sports broadcaster.

The company also has several projects which it says are aimed at pushing creative innovation, including YouTube Symphony Orchestra, YouTube Play, and YouTube Space Lab. Another of these projects is Your Film Festival, which kicked off earlier this year and encourages users to submit “a short-story driven video”.

The competition, run in collaboration with acclaimed director Ridley Scott’s production company Scott Free, has reached the semi-final stage. From here, YouTube users will be able to vote and whittle the 50 semi-finalists down to 10 finalists who will attend the Venice Film Festival.

A grand-prize winner will then be named by a special jury, which includes Sir Ridley Scott and acclaimed actor, Michael Fassbender, and awarded a US$500 000 YouTube original production grant to work with Scott Free.

Among the semi-finalists is Letting Go by South African, Daniel McCauley. The film portrays an old lady on her death-bed, who is visited by a man in a suit, whose job is to convince her to die having forgiven the pains of her past.

Letting Go — Daniel McCauley (South Africa)

Aisha’s Song — Orlando von Einsiedel (United Kingdom)

An Exclusive — Krzysztof Szot (Poland)

Biondina — Laura Bispuri (Italy)

Bat Eyes — Damien Power (Australia)

Boot — Damien Power (Australia)

Das Tub — James Cunningham (New Zealand)

Dr Grordbort presents: the Deadliest Game — James Cunningham (New Zealand)

Ebony Society — Tammy Davis (New Zealand)

Kiss — Alex Murawski (USA)

Stop. Watch. Love, Brad Herbert (USA)

Good Pretender, Maziar Lahooti (Australia)

Scruples, Adrian Powers (Australia)

The Telegram Man, James Francis Khehtie (Australia)

Then and Now, Paul Johannessen (Japan)

Wickate , Niralji Ravishanker (Malaysia)

Fish, Shaun Escayg (USA)

The Return Address , Abi Varghese (USA)

Bench Seat , Anna Mastro (USA)

Learning Spanish the Hard Way, Eric Stolze (USA)

Sold, John Irwin (USA)

The Drought, Kevin Slack (USA)

The Debt Collector, Alan David Morgan (USA)

88:88, Joey Ciccoline (USA)

Doorhandle Thoughts , Carlos Crespo Arnold (Spain)

Cortometraje Teta y Sopa, Alberto Gomez (Spain)

North Atlantic, Bernardo Nascimento (United Kingdom)

Our Mission: Pascal, Johanna Pyykk (Sweden)

The Obstacle , Maxim Neafit Bujnicki (Ukraine)

No Exit, Jesper Isaksen (Denmark)

The Guilt, David Victori Blaya (Spain)

Picnic, Gerardo Herrero (Spain)

Start the Engine and reverse, Andrey Zagidullin (Russia)

Super.full., Niam Itani (Lebanon)

This Time, Ramy EL-Gabry (Egypt)

Photo For Baba, Harel Yana & Moti Malka (Israel)

On My Doorstep, Anat Costi (Israel)

Skin of Glass, Lukas Dhont (Belgium)

Ter Ter, David Lucchini & Fabien Carrabin (France)

Secular Quater #3, David Gidali (USA)

Skatesistan: To live and skate in Kabul, Orlando von Einsiedel (United Kingdom)

I’ll Keep an Eye on You, Torben Bech (Denmark)

La Carta, Angel Manuel Soto Vazquez (Puerto Rico)

El Porvenir- Episodio 1 Hermanos, Manuel Alejandro Anell (Mexico)

Storm, Cesar Cabral (Brazil)

Camino Al Cementerio, Mijael Milies and Carla Past=E9n (Chile)

El General, Diego Pino Zamora (Bolivia)

Cine Rincao, Fernando Grostein Andrade & Fernanda Fernandes (Brazil)

Turkish Coffee, Thiago Luciano (Brazil)

The Child, Sebastian Mantilla (Spain)