The Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival is teaming up with mobile video content company iThentic and Telus to launch a new online and mobile initiative to give short filmmakers a chance to showcase their work and win cash prizes.

The Shortsnonstop Mobile Movie Festival is open to Canuck and international producers who can now submit films in any language, one to three minutes in length, at shortsnonstop.com.

WSFF director Eileen Arandiga tells Playback Daily the time is ripe for her festival to offer a mobile presence.

‘We get a lot of submissions of films that seem to be perfectly tailored to the mobile platform…It just makes sense for us to move in that direction,’ she says, adding that the mobile platform has led to a ‘renaissance in traditional short filmmaking.’

Six times a year, 10 finalists will be selected by Shortsnonstop, of which one will win a $1,000 cash prize and a distribution agreement with iThentic, which will stream the short on its website. The 10 finalists will also be available to Telus wireless, ADSL and TV video-on-demand customers for download, and showcased at the 2008 WSFF.

Judges for Shortsnonstop include Arandiga, Christopher Barry of the Sundance Channel, Dan Fill of ABC TV, Australia, and Canadian filmmaker Ryan Redford (Song of Wreckage).

Shortsnonstop is managed by iThentic, which is based in Toronto and New York.

‘iThentic is delighted to be part of an ongoing celebration of short film works with one of the world’s leading showcases of short film talent — the Worldwide Short Film Festival,’ said iThentic CEO Catherine Tait in a release.

The 2007 WSFF runs until June 17.