14 DAY TRIAL // The Pocket Film Festival is an event made with and for mobile phones in order to reward the creativity of mobile phone users. The event will take place over the period of three days at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
The Pocket Film Festival lists more than 1,500 films made only with mobile phones. Some of them are longer, some are shorter, depending on the recording performances of the camera. Furthermore, some are more absurd and others are plain ordinary, on the basis of how much creative the handset user might have been.
During the three entire days that this event will take place, almost 200 films will be presented for the audience to watch and discuss. Although video recording performances on mobile phones have not developed enough as to reach an exceptional quality, some films turned out to be of an acceptable quality.
Even more, the fact that mobile phone video recordings might not look just as good as those made with a regular camera, might lead into making the artistic or innovative perspective be even more appreciated by the jury. After all, a rough, unpolished look can sometime turn out to leave a more artistic impression.
The first edition of the Pocket Film Festival took place two years ago and festival director Laurence Herszberg observes the fact that great evolution has taken place since then. Now, mobile phone recording quality is often close to that of a regular camera, although not just the same. Even more, the festival has evolved from judging films shot by amateurs to having even cinema directors take their chance at the big prize.
There will be contestants from all around the world, including Japan, Brazil, South Africa, Korea, China and the United States. The Pocket Film Festival is sponsored by mobile operator SFR and will announce their winning recording on Sunday.