01/08/2012 - Portuguese filmmaker Bernardo Nascimento and Catalan filmmaker David Victori’s short films are among the 10 finalists in YouTube's first film festival

Two European shorts, North Atlantic by Portuguese filmmaker BernardoNascimento and The Guilt (photo) by Catalan filmmaker David Victori, have made it to the final of Your Film Festival, YouTube’s first film festival created by American director Ridley Scott.

North Atlantic is Bernardo Nascimento’s first film, and has already been awarded Best Cinematography at the 2011 Vila do Conde Short Film Festival in Portugal. This film about an air traffic controller based on an island on the Azores archipelago who comes across a pilot lost over the Atlantic was produced by Portuguese production company Caravana Filmes and English production company Monocle Films.

Produced by Roxbury Pictures and Argucia, The Guilt is Catalan filmmaker David Victori’s second short film, after his first titled Reacción (lit. “Reaction”). Carlus Fàbrega and Cesç Gómez star in this short, which is both a tale of revenge and a convincing plunge into the fantastic genre.

Of 15,000 short films submitted to Your Film Festival from all over the world, only 50 made it to its semifinal. Now there are only 10 finalists. As such, Nascimento and Victori have won a ticket to the next Venice Film Festival, where their films will be screened alongside the other eight titles also to have made it to the finals: two American, two Australian, one Brazilian, one Bolivian, one Lebanese, and one Egyptian.

The winner is to direct a film on a budget of $500,000 to be produced by Ridley Scott and to star Michael Fassbender. Scott and Fassbender, who worked together on Prometheus, will choose and announce the winner during the Venice Film Festival.

(Translated from French)