YouTube has launched a film festival on line, taking place between 2nd February and 31st March.

Ridley and Tony Scott’s production company company, Scott Free Productions, will select 50 finalists from the submissions and ten will make it through to a screening at the Venice Film Festival, where the overall winner will be announced.

Apart from a minimum age of 18, the only criteria for entry is that the film should be no longer than 15 minutes and not have been distributed prior to January 1st, 2010. YouTube are particularly interested in promoting young film makers, with Ridley Scott saying: “Short filmmaking is exactly where I started my career 50 years ago, so to be helping new filmmakers find an entry point like this into the industry is fantastic.”

The short listed 50 will appear here on the YouTube Film Festival channel, for users to view and vote for their favourites.