This week Alberto Tognazzi launched the Movil Film Fest in Spain. Inspired by Bruno Smadja‘s Mobile Film Festival in France, on his turn inspired by the Nokia Shorts already introduced by Nokia during the Raindance Film Festival in 2003.

I think this is a great initiative for Spain, especially with its great appetite for film culture and production here, do see “Babel” and “El Laberinto del fauno” if you haven’t had the chance yet to view some of Spain’s latest movie quality.

Thanks to the mobile phone technology now everyone can participate and shoot a 1-minute movie in the search for more exposure or fame. The Movil Film Fest welcomes any type of short film made with a cell phone with a maximum duration of one minute; four awards will be given to the best mobile shorts, in the categories of Best Short, Best Sequence Shot and Best Photography.

Shorts can be uploaded until May 13 in 3gpp or mp4 format to the Movil Film Fest website or send by MMS (check website for all details). The four awards will be judged by several prominent Spanish film industry people at an award event at the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España in Madrid on June 7.