Filminute, the international one-minute film festival, is now inviting members of the public to vote online for its inaugural People’s Choice award. 27 outstanding films from around the world, including nine British collaborations, are competing for the viewers’ choice of best one-minute film, with the winner to be announced mid-October 2006.

Filminute 2006 is open to public voting from now until 30th September 2006 at www.filminute.com. All shortlisted films will be reviewed by a respected international jury across the film, arts, literature, advertising and production industries, and will also be eligible for the kudos of winning the film luminary judges’ ‘Best Filminute’ accolade.
In 60 seconds, each shortlisted film manages to include all the same ingredients that make a great feature film – storyline, characterisation, cinematography and a little bit of magic. The Filminute project’s goal is to
challenge filmmakers to create one-minute films that resonate beyond that one minute - a story with character and impact with the potential to evolve into a series of one-minute films, a broadband or broadcast series, or even into a feature film.
Filminute’s esteemed jury includes Ekow Eshun (Artistic Director, Institute of Contemporary Arts UK), Craig Davis (Chief Creative Officer, JWT Worldwide), Raul Galvez (Founder of the Toronto International Latin Film Festival), and the Santa Maddalena Foundation's Board of Directors, Selection Committee, Board of Advisors and Fellows. This input will include Oscar, Pulitzer, and Booker Prize winners such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Zadie Smith, and Isabella Rossellini.

John Ketchum, head judge and founder of Filminute, comments:
“I’m honoured to head up the jury for the inaugural Filminute International One-Minute Film Festival.
Audiences will be entertained, amazed, and inspired by the selection of films on the Filminute 2006 shortlist.
These chosen submissions represent the best of a very contemporary and relevant one-minute format.”

Judge Ekow Eshun adds:
"A great one-minute film will last longer than a minute! Sometimes in a full-length film, you'll get one scene that resonates beyond the length of the full film. The one-minute film is the reverse of that; in one minute, a great one-minute film will capture an idea that stays with you far beyond one-minute. The one-minute film is like a stained glass window: in one frame, in that one shot, you get the world".
"Filminute catches up with the pace of the world. Most new initiatives tend to replicate what was. For instance, we see festival after festival starting up and they all tend to be repeating themselves. Here (with Filminute), we are acknowledging the way people communicate and entertain themselves -- it has changed.
Filminute is keeping up with that change. It is not trying to replicate the past. Filminute's form tries to make sense of the present"

British entries to Filminute (which can be viewed at www.filminute.com) include:
•
AERIAL PHOTOS: DIRECTOR: Studio Amoeba - UK / CANADA
•
CLOWN HEARTED: DIRECTOR: Andrew Matthews - UK
• FRONT: DIRECTOR: John Riley - UK / ROMANIA
• THE HUMAN CORAL: DIRECTOR: Michelle Coomber - UK
•
IT COULD BE: DIRECTOR: Wayne Campbell - UK
•
LINE: DIRECTOR: Anton Groves - UK / ROMANIA
• MENDIP LODGE 01: DIRECTOR Ben Woodcock - UK
• MENDIP LODGE 02: DIRECTOR: Ben Woodcock - UK
• XPLOSION: DIRECTOR: Craig Kirkham - CANADA / UK