If you’re a movie buff and would-be auteur, here’s your chance to see how you measure up to the likes of Tim Burton, Sofia Coppola or Quentin Tarantino: our Cast Me! application on Facebook.

Pick a genre, cast your friends, design the costumes, write the script and release your masterpiece - come on, let’s see what you’re made of!

Click here to find out more

The sharper eyed among you may have noticed a new link at the top of this page: Festival Program. We’ve put together a list of all of the competition entries, divided into the four categories with direct links to each film.

There are over 650 of them - now all that’s left for you to do is find a few extra hours in the day to watch them all by April 2nd! And of course, don’t forget to hit the “Vote” button when you see something you like.

At last, after months of build-up as we received and processed hundreds of entries, it’s time to start screening and voting in the 2nd edition of our Online Film Festival.

The voting and screening period starts today, February 2nd at 1pm GMT*, and will continue for two months, until 1pm GMT on April 2nd 2009. At the end of this period, your top ten choices in each of the four categories will be shown to Spike Lee and the professional jury so they can pick the overall winners of those enticing cash prizes (over $125,000 in cash awards to be precise).

Once again, here’s your chance to influence today’s indie film scene and tomorrow’s crossover hits…so get voting!

*UPDATE: All videos for the 2nd Babelgum Online Film Festival were published but, due to some technical issues experienced with the voting widgets, voting was not fully enabled until February 6th at 5 PM GMT. Although voting was to commence from February 2nd, it has now been reset to the above date and time. Any votes before this date have not been counted.

This comes a little late due to technical hiccups but for anyone who missed Friday’s post on the Babelgum blog, I’m pleased to announce the launch of the 2nd Babelgum Online Film Festival.

Spike Lee is again chairman of the jury. At our press conference in Toronto he said, “The dilemma when you get out of film school or for anyone wanting to become a filmmaker is how am I going to get my work seen? Babelgum is just a great vehicle for young people all over the world”.

So whether you’re just out of film school or have a little more experience, now’s your chance to give your film career a real boost. Like Richard Recco, who has now signed a deal to develop Officer Down into a full-length feature as a result of winning the Short Film award.

This time we have 4 categories: Documentary, Short film, Animation and Mini Masterpiece - this last one is for quirky, provocative or experimental films of up to 5 minutes long.

We’ve got more good news to report from our “Looking for Genius” winner Andrea Lodovichetti.

After receiving his Babelgum award in Cannes for short film “Sotto il mio giardino (Under my garden)”, he’s now won 1st prize in the “International Discovery Award” at the Rhode Island International Film Festival 2008 in Providence, Rhode Island (USA).

This award came a few days after the same film won second place at the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy.

Congratulations Andrea! And good luck at Charlotte, North Carolina next month.

A very interesting in-depth interview with Andrea Lodovichetti was featured yesterday on i-ITALY, the Italian-American Digital Project website. As we all know, Andrea won the Babelgum Looking for Genius Award for his short film Sotto il mio giardino (Under my Garden).

In a conversation with fellow filmmaker Chiara Montalto, Andrea talks about his first forays into filmmaking, his inspirations and his thoughts on Italian cinema now and back in the days of neo-realism.

Aspiring and upcoming filmmakers can learn a lot from those with more experience behind the camera. Insights from an industry expert can go a long way in shaping the skills of novice directors and helping them avoid classic mistakes as they try to get their work noticed.

The good news is you don’t have to fly to New York or L.A. to meet one of the world’s most respected independent filmmakers…

Spike Lee gave Lisa Nova an exclusive interview for Babelgum. He told Lisa (of YouTube fame) about financing his first film, filmmaking in the digital era and what it takes to become a successful director.

This is essential viewing for anyone wanting to make it as a filmmaker, be it in Tinseltown or elsewhere.

Ten clips of the interview are now available to view - naturally for free - on the brand new BOFF Highlights Channel.

So now we know who won the 2008 Babelgum Online Film Festival, let’s get to know the filmmakers. Wonder how it must feel to have your film hand-picked by Spike Lee, and get 20,000 Euros into the bargain?

Check out our bite-sized features on each of the 7 winners, on new channel “The Winners” on Babelgum, along with a video of the whole award ceremony from start to finish, with Spike Lee and presenters Kris and Kris.

And see photos of the event and party at Le Baoli in Cannes.

Last night, chairman of the jury Spike Lee announced the winners of the first Babelgum Online Film Festival at a gala ceremony in Cannes, and presented them with their well-deserved prizes. Click here to see the list of winning films.

After the exciting awards ceremony, the filmmakers (and jurors!) celebrated into the small hours at chic nightspot Le Baoli. The winners of the audience contest  - Jennifer Shorr and Jimmy Philémond-Montout - were also there to join in the celebrations.

Congratulations to all the winners! Interviews with each of them and footage from the ceremony will be coming very soon on Babelgum so watch this space.

This was the last week of the Toywatch Contest. And the winners are…:

Vince Mascoli for his comment on “A Letter to Colleen”

Stephen Judge for his comment on “Steal this Film”

Ellie Gurney for her comment on “Waiting…”

Bad_Mood for the comment on “Phantom Punch”

Amandahugandkiss for her comment on “Pre-Life/Post-Life”

Chiao98 on the comment on “What is Tragedy?”

Congratulations to all of you!