A Decrease, but Not a Disappearance, of Dot-Coms at Sundance

Much has been made about the reduced dot-com presence at the Sundance Film Festival this year, but there still has been a lot of online activity there.

At a Thursday-night party in Park City, Utah, new-media studio Hypnotic and partner Universal Pictures announced the winner of the Hypnotic Million Dollar Film Festival. First-time director David von Ancken was awarded a $1-million production deal for his short film “Bullet in the Brain.” Von Ancken’s film was selected from five finalists by a panel of judges that included Universal Pictures Production President Kevin Misher and director Jay Roach (“Meet the Parents”).

Earlier this week at Sundance, Hypnotic acquired the worldwide home-video distribution rights for “Bit Players,” directed by actor-director Andy Berman (“The Wonder Years”). In addition, the studio attained worldwide distribution rights to “Peter Rabbit and the Crucifix” and “Shoot,” two short films that bowed at Sundance. Those two films, which will be distributed online and offline, will debut later this year at https://www.hypnotic.com.

Also at Sundance, Internet film portal IFilm on Wednesday announced five nominees in 18 categories for its inaugural Online Movie Awards, which will honor online movies available on sites across the World Wide Web. MediaTrip.com’s “George Lucas in Love” received the most nominations (six), followed by Urban Entertainment.com’s “Soledad” (four) and IFilm’s “405: The Movie” (three). Starting today, online users can cast their votes at https://www.ifilm.com. Winners will be announced March 20.

And at its Park City party, held in a rented barn Monday night, film site AtomFilms unveiled three short films created by Internet filmmakers and co-produced by Ford Motor Co. and the J. Walter Thompson ad agency. The debut of the comic films, which feature the Ford Focus in various ways, followed an announcement by AtomFilms about a six-figure content, syndication and advertising deal with the car maker. The films may be viewed on AtomFilm’s site (https://www.focusinfilm.com).

“Y News”: Teens interested in catching up on the news can get a quick dose online. Last week marked the debut of “Y News,” hosted by IJ (Internet jockey) JoJo Wright. Wright also is the nighttime personality on local pop radio station KIIS-FM (102.7). The daily video segment, which provides a mix of world, national, lifestyle, trend, entertainment, education and sex stories, among other topics, appears on Clear Channel Communications’ radio station site KIISFMi.com. Geared to a 12-to-24-year-old audience, the news is delivered by Wright with irreverence (“Here are a couple of things to toss into your brain”) and imprecise reportage (“Jennifer Lopez and the group Dream have CDs coming out soon or now.”).

Quick Bits: Music site Sonicnet.com is looking for a “Big Shot Talent Scout” who will travel to Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest Music Festival and pick five up-and-coming bands that have what it takes to “make it.” Applicants can apply at https://www.sonicnet.com until Feb. 14, when 100 semifinalists will be selected at random. Semifinalists will then test their music knowledge against Sonicnet.com’s experts until one music fan proves to be the winner. Among other prizes, the winner will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Austin for the March 14-19 festival and $3,500. . . . Every Wednesday at 4 p.m. until March 7, ABC.com will conduct a one-hour chat with the latest contestant to be “executed” from the network’s prime-time series “The Mole.” Fans who log on to https://www.abc.com will be able to ask the contestant questions, get strategic information and try to guess who the mole really is. . . . Meanwhile, tonight’s episode of “Norm” on ABC will feature a short scene containing a joke without a punch line. That’s because viewers are being asked to click on https://www.abc.com to submit their own. Visitors can enter as many responses as they like until Sunday. The Feb. 9 episode of “Norm” will include four winning jokes, including those submitted for previous opportunities during the Jan. 5, Jan. 12 and Jan. 19 episodes. A pop-up style balloon will appear on the TV screen identifying the joke writer’s name and hometown after each funny line has aired. . . . And there is still time to say “I do” to “The Wedding Planner” online sweepstakes. Until Feb. 15, visitors can register to win a host of prizes, including a $1,000 shopping spree at wedding site TheKnot.com and a trip for two to the Caribbean, at https://www.spe.sony.com/movies/weddingplanner, the Web site for the Jennifer Lopez-Matthew McConaughey feature opening in theaters today .

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Michele Botwin can be reached at [email protected].