It used to be almost impossible for filmmakers to showcase their work and sign a distribution deal. Most of the time, they had to be connected with the good affluent peoples in the film production industry. And for those lucky ones, most of the time, their projects were simply rejected .
Well, things have now changed for good since the internet played a major role in the last few years to showcase many talented artist, filmmakers & other personalities! It is not "business as usual" and I believe this is for a better future.

Recently, a new web site came up with an innovative way to distribute film thru the WWW: Openfilm.com
Even if Vimeo & myspace have a similar concept, The OpenFilm concept took my attention since I read the article on Mashable.com

Here's an excerpt:

"Talking with Openfilm co-founder Dmitry Kozko, there are a few things that separate Openfilm from other user-generated services.

Focus — Openfilm was created for filmmakers and people who love the craft of filmmaking and independent film. This is a niche audience, to be sure, but it is also one that has been underrepresented in the user-generated space. Film students, aspiring directors and film lovers who want to see really innovative shorts are the people that use and submit video to the site.

Selection Standards — Every video uploaded to Openfilm is hand-screened for quality. If something is poorly shot or violates copyright or has nothing to say, it won’t be accepted onto the site. That’s not to say that beginners can’t submit their films and shorts to get feedback — but this isn’t YouTube where anything goes, and it isn’t trying to be.

Community Outreach — Openfilm isn’t just about having an avenue to upload your film, it’s also a community designed to help aspiring filmmakers succeed. To that end, Openfilm has an Advisory Board with some pretty impressive members. The Chairman of the Advisory Board is none other than Oscar-nominated actor James Caan (The Godfather). Caan is joined by fellow Godfather alum and Oscar-winner Robert Duvall, director Mark Rydell, and actor Scott Caan.

The purpose of the Advisory Board is to provide members of the community with access to people who have already made a name for themselves and can provide feedback.

High Quality Viewing Experience — If you peruse the Openfilm site, you’ll notice that the video player is really, really solid. The standard definition video is easily as good as some sites’ so-called high definition content and the HQ option looks fantastic even when expanded to 2560×1440. The video player can display content from 640×360 to 1280×720 and the encoding process is sharp.

Users can submit Internet uploads up to 2GB or mail-in DVDs for other content and there are no limitations on content duration — although the focus of the site is mainly on shorts, animation and music videos.

Helping Filmmakers Get Seen and Get Paid
More than just having a place to upload content, one of the most difficult things for new filmmakers is to make money off their content. To that end, if you choose to offer advertisements on your content (a la YouTube), Openfilm will split the revenue 50/50.

Users can also collect donations for their projects — something particularly cool for filmmakers who might be documenting an overall experience."

P.S.: the embeded film is just a fun creative Sci-Fi short from what we found interesting on openfilm.com!