Take Note, Hollywood.
Here’s the future of your distribution model. The Guardian reports this morning that video-sharing service YouTube has launched an online short film festival where 10 winners will be sent to the Venice Film Festival to compete for a $500,000 prize.

The competition comes on the heels of YouTube’s successful launch of the independent short film “Life in A Day,” which
was produced by Scott Free, a British company owned by directors Ridley and Tony Scott, the newspaper reports. The filmmakers will pick 50 semi-finalists and users will be able to pick the 10 finalists.

“Through this program, YouTube will give film-makers the opportunity to reach a vast audience, screen their work during the Venice film festival and potentially be rewarded in a career-changing way,” YouTube boss Robert Kyncl, told the newspaper.

Ridley Scott tells the newspaper that, “Short film-making is exactly where I started my career 50 years ago, so to be helping new film-makers find an entry point like this into the industry is fantastic.”

Get cracking, indie kids. The future beckons. Who’s the new Tarantino among you?