Openfilm today announced the public launch of its video sharing website www.openfilm.com. The site showcases a selection of short films and animations displayed in high resolution.

If you’re creating short films, you’ll want to check the site out. In addition to offering high-quality video, the site has a revenue-sharing program.

I’ve embedded an example, the animated short film Papiroflexia, to demo the player.

“Openfilm is focused on ‘user-generated films’ – original high quality videos and animation with high production values and artistic merit, from shorts and web series to feature-length films,” explains Timothy Pastushkin, Co-Founder and CEO of Openfilm. “There is an ever-growing number of professional quality films created by independent filmmakers, whose production values are closing the quality gap between Web video and Hollywood.”

Content Selection

Videos submitted to Openfilm are pre-screened by the Openfilm staff to ensure they meet the site’s high standards of production quality.

The site currently offers over 700 original short films of all genres on more than 180 channels featuring independent filmmakers, production studios, film festivals and film schools including Vancouver Film School, Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival and others.

Openfilm offers a 50/50 advertising revenue sharing program to all content providers. The website’s limited amount of selected content will enable the best producers’ works to finally stand out.

User Experience

Openfilm presents all videos in a large, high-definition player, capable of displaying videos in 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, at resolutions from 640×360 pixels up to full HD at 1280×720 pixels, and bitrates from 700 kbps to 1500 kbps. The site’s classification of content as either “video” or “animation” as well as ability to browse the content by genres from Action to Video Art makes it very easy for viewers to locate what they seek.

Openfilm’s in-house production staff, which also produces original web shows that appear on the site, processes all approved submissions to ensure high quality playback. Attention is also given to details that are often ignored on other video sharing sites: thumbnail control, transcribing full credits from the videos, generating subtitles and translation dubs in English and Spanish, inclusion of production photos and multiple thumbnails, and more.

Content Partnerships with Film Festivals and Film Schools

Several film festivals and film schools have joined forces with Openfilm.

Among them is Vancouver Film School, Miami International University of Art & Design, Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival, South Beach International Animation Festival, and Montreal-based Young Cuts Film Festival.

Michael Ryan, Director of the Young Cuts Film Festival, stated, “We found a great fit and a great opportunity in working with Openfilm – their focus on creating an exciting venue for young, independent filmmakers to exhibit their works marries up perfectly with our own endeavors, and the social networking dimension of Openfilm.com adds significantly to the quality of interaction between filmmakers and viewers.”

Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival’s Executive Director Yanik Ruiz-Ramon commented: “Openfilm helps us in our quest to provide ever more exposure for Philadelphia’s filmmakers. And they are doing it in high quality Flash video. This, for us, is the most important part. We’re very impressed with the quality of their content (both video quality and the actual product).”

Noreen Legault, Director of the South Beach International Film Festival, added: “We’re very excited about our cooperation with Openfilm. We look forward to establishing a new on-line dimension to our festival, all the way from streamlined submissions over the Internet to holding a series of virtual on-line mini-fests, in addition to our traditional screenings.”