YouTube's Winners Announced

It is a touching story about "shenanigans" and about why everything is so important in life. It's the rendition of "Ghost", but with parenting love at its core. It's the winning video of YouTube's Project Direct.

While feeling for those who did not win, I must congratulate those who found their work receive the merits and the credits they deserve. Award-winning director of "Thank You For Smoking" and "Juno", Jason Reitman, and a panel of industry experts selected the finalists, and over the past week their movies have been up for voting for people all across the globe.

And the winner is� Lacos (Ties), a film by Flavia Lacerda, the summary of which I have written above because I like to spoil it for everybody, and there's nothing anybody can do about it. The music is awesome, beautifully fit in and chosen. On a personal note, if you get around to watch the winning video, you should pay attention to the pink the girl is holding at the beginning; if you're careful enough, you might get to see it at the end of the movie, in black and white. And I will say no more about that (winks).

Runners up were "Gone in a Flash" and "My Name is Lisa," both of which you can easily find by searching YouTube, and the same way you can look up the other 17 movies that were nominated, if you haven't already done that. They really are worth your time and effort and you can clearly see that the future of short film and short film competitions is the Internet. It's much easier to get noticed and the reach you have as a director of such a film is way broader than if you'd simply enter it in a usual competition.