YouTube Sending 10 Films to Venice Film Festival

The Venice Film Festival is truly coming into the 21st century: This year's festival will include screenings of 10 short films submitted by YouTube. The films were chosen as part of the site's first Your Film Festival contest, overseen by Ridley Scott, the AP reports. Finalists, which included two Americans as well as filmmakers from around the world, were announced today; 15,000 films had been submitted.

After all are screened at the Venice Film Festival, a jury will choose the final winner Sept. 2. In addition to glory, the winning filmmaker gets a $500,000 grant to create original online content with the help of Scott's production company, the Washington Post reports. Watch all 10 films here. (More film festival stories.)