The Portable Film Festival 2006 is a free, international festival of short films downloadable to portable video devices. Launching on September 13 and running until October 22, this year’s program will feature over sixty pre-selected films compressed especially for viewing on Sony PlayStation Portables, iPod Videos, 3G phones, laptops and even deskbound computers.

Entries have been received from Australia, the Netherlands, the US, the UK, Romania, Canada, Austria, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Singapore, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. The festival competition features two award categories: The Filmmakers’ Peer Review prize, for the film judged best overall by participating filmmakers, and The Portable Film Festival and MySpace Viewers’ Choice prize, for the online audience favourite.

Films submitted include animations, desktop experiments, video-clips, documentaries and short narratives.

There is also a category for new works by filmmakers under 18 years of age. From September 13, www.portablefilmfestival.com will transform into an interactive portal for viewing, downloading, reviewing, forwarding and voting. Users who sign-up will receive their own viewer profile and can manage their list of favourite films, talk to other viewers, adjust their ratings and submit reviews. From October 22, a ‘best-of’ videocast will beam the winners and festival favourites to subscribers around the world.

The Portable Film Festival is an initiative of a Melbourne-based network of creative monkeys. Live festival events - from parties, to workshops and symposiums will be based in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide this year. A portable trailer for downloading films in the street will tour Melbourne and Adelaide throughout the festival.

The Portable Film Festival is a cultural event set within a new culture. The festival encourages filmmakers to explore the potential of the small screen medium, and asks audiences to think about cinema from a new perspective. In short, without cinemas.