Straight 8 reaches out to new audiences at home and abroad, thanks to partnerships with Channel 4, Rushes and the APA.

Super 8 supremos Straight 8 are gearing up for a bumper 2008. This year's competition is open for entries and the organisers have teamed up with Rushes and the APA for a Cannes Lions fringe screening at the Cannes Advertising Festival, following its success last year.

Sticks & Balls directed by Jacqueline Wright and Alice Lowe

What's more, during the Cannes Film Festival, a selection of Straight 8 films will be broadcast on Channel 4. Kate Vogel, commissioning editor of Channel 4's 3 Minute Wonder TV show, will select four Straight 8 shorts to screen in the prime time 7.55pm slot during the week of the festival. Vogel was already familiar with Straight 8, having attended several screenings and talked with organiser Ed Sayers. "I was convinced that it needed a higher profile to continue but creatively it provides a great opportunity for filmmakers," explained Vogel. "I felt like it needed to be championed in a wider arena."

Straight 8 challenges filmmakers to shoot a short film on a single cartridge of super 8 mm film. The beauty, spontaneity and difficulty of the project lies in the fact that the only way entrants have of editing their films is to take each shot in sequence. Straight 8 sends out the 8mm cartridges and takes care of the processing, so the first time entrants see their completed film is at a screening. The film delivery deadline for this batch of Straight 8s is March 26 - for more info or to get involved check out the website.

The Surrealist Brothel directed by Julia Jason


The London premiere of this year's Straight 8 films will held during the Rushes Soho Shorts festival at the Curzon Mayfair in July. But if you can't wait till then, there'll be a screening of 2007's cream of the crop at the Framestore CFC screening room in Wells Street, London at 1pm on February 13.