Tongal, Gates Foundation’s Sundance Docs To Be Distributed Digitally

Several short films from the Sundance Institute will soon arrive on the Internet. The filmmaking organization will distribute nine selections from its recent Short Film Challenge across various digital platforms starting February 3, 2015.

The Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge was created to help inspire conversation around and generate solutions to global problems like poverty. Sundance asked creators to submit their completed film or story ideas based on this philanthropic idea on creative crowdsourcing platform Tongal. The Institute received 1,387 submissions from 89 different countries.

Out of these submissions, five winners were selected for the Short Film Challenge and awarded $10,000 as well as Sundance Festival attendance. All five films are set for digital distribution, starting with Man in the Maze, from U.S. creators Phil Buccellato and Jesse Ash, which will be released via the Arizona Daily Star.

Dropping In from South Africa’s Willem Van Den Heever will debut on RYOT.org, and Isabelle’s Garden by Jeffrey Palmer of the United States will be delivered via Indian Country Today Media Network. Additionally, the film 175 Grams from Bharat Mirle of India will find a digital home on Fast Company. Sundance has yet to reveal where A Will of Iron from Nigeria’s Seyi Fabunmi and Mobolaji Adeolu will be available online.

The remaining four films made in support of the contest were commissioned by Sundance and are from four of the Institute’s alumni. Marialy Rivas

’ film Melody will be found on the New York Times Op Docs page, while Gael García Bernal’s film The Visible Hand heads to VICE Mexico. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s film The World is as Big or as Small As You Make It will debut on Upworthy, and Diego Luna’s film Nana will be available on AJ+.

Sundance’s Short Film Challenge occurred during Sundance Festival 2015 and was backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The organization started by Microsoft’s founder encourages anyone who’s inspired by the Sundance short films to join globalcitizen.org to help end extreme poverty around the world.

“The Short Film Challenge has been an opportunity for a group of filmmakers from around the world to illuminate under-told stories and raise awareness about important issues,” said Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, in the release. “With the support of the Gates Foundation, we are proud to present this selection of short films by emerging and more established voices at the Festival and hope they inspire dialogue and conversation.”

Head to the appropriate digital platform(s) on February 3 to watch the films of your choosing. In the meantime, you can watch previous Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge winners on Sundance.org/anotheryou.