With so much attention focused on feature-length films at the Sundance Film Festival, it is easy for the short films to get lost in the shuffle. This year, however, Sundance is pushing the short film programs pretty heavily. Starting tomorrow, the “10 Shorts 10 Days” feature appears at sundance.org/festival/shorts, where one short from the festival will appear for free for an entire day, with nine more to follow consecutively. In addition, 45 of the 83 short films in the festival are available at for viewing and/or download at iTunes, Netflix, and Xbox. The entries this year span a wide array of subject matter and themes, from straight-ahead comedy to action/thrillers and gripping drama. Entries have come from all over the world as well—from as far away as China, Iceland, and Denmark.

If you have a Netflix account, the entire animated film program is now streaming there for free. If not, just wait until Wednesday Jan. 23 to watch Director Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung’s multi-layered experimental short Because Washington Is Hollywood for Ugly People when it appears on the “10 Shorts 10 Days” site. This rapid-fire cutout animation piece, shot with a Sony HD CAM, is a biting satire of world politics and the public’s endless fascination with facile celebrity news. The effect of Tin-Kin Hung’s quickly moving and surrealistically adorned, flat images produces a film that’s very modern in its subject matter, but not too dissimilar from Terry Gilliam’s early work on Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Read On at Scene-Stealers.com

Live Blogging Starts Friday, January 18

The editors of Digital Content Producer and millimeter would like to welcome you to our third annual BlogLive at the Sundance Film Festival. We’re on our way to Park City to cover the annual film festival, which serves as both a celebration of independent filmmaking and a gathering of the tribes for directors, cinematographers, editors, and actors.

In the blog we’ll be posting information about the latest happenings, information on who is using what technology, as well as interviews with Sundance filmmakers, technology and sponsor venues in Park City, as well as a “Short Film Patrol” covering this year’s shorts program, presented by Digital Content Producer and millimeter Associate Editor Eric Melin. We kick off Sundance 2008 with a preview of this year’s BlogLive podcast series–an interview with Be Kind Rewind director Michel Gondry.

Check back often, as we’ll be updating multiple times throughout the day, starting January 18. Have a great Sundance if you’re attending, and if not, BlogLive Sundance 2008 is your source for realtime coverage of the festival.

Featured Post:

The Chimney Pot Helps Downloading Nancy Make the Grade for Sundance

Stockholm, Sweden – 17 January, 2007 – Digital Vision, the premier supplier of picture enhancement systems for film and television post-production, announced that Swedish post-production house The Chimney Pot used its Film Master system to digitally master and grade the highly-anticipated Sundance dramatic competition film “Downloading Nancy.” Read on at The Briefing Room

More news from Sundance 2008