The Sundance Institute partnered with MediaStorm to leverage the power of the MediaStorm Platform to distribute the winning films of the 2015 Sundance Short Film Challenge.

The Sundance Institute’s Short Film Challenge, hosted in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is a collection of stories that place a spotlight on what is shared across humanity regardless of economic, cultural and geographic differences. These films illustrate how we can support one another to end poverty and hunger once and for all. This year’s stories are from five amateur filmmakers from Nigeria, Mexico, India, and the U.S.; as well as four films from professionals including Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady; Gael Garcia Bernal; Diego Luna; and Marialy Rivas.

The films premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah and will be available for free via the MediaStorm Platform and on sundance.com.

The Sundance Institute needed a toolset to maximize its global reach; design and present the stories in an intelligent way; and deliver information that would engage and inform audiences.

The MediaStorm Platform proved to be the ideal solution:

• Design Cinematic Experiences: As a premiere institution for independent film, Sundance cared deeply about how the stories were presented online, both individually and as a package. The MediaStorm Platform allowed Sundance to create a cinematic feel in the presentation of the material and interactive entry points for each story.
• Drive Smart Distribution: One of the foremost goals of the Short Film Challenge is to maximize global reach. The Platform is ideally poised to meet this goal through several of its features; including its trackable embed capability and easy solution to multi-language subtitling.
• Engage Audiences: The Short Film Challenge seeks to inspire ordinary viewers to take action on issues raised in the films. The Platform’s customizable menu allowed Sundance to attach a wealth of detail to its videos, including information on how to get involved and learn more about each issue.

"The MediaStorm Platform gives us a chance to distribute and engage with audiences in exciting new ways, bringing more context and interaction to the Short Film Challenge where we have 14 total short films. We're able to share and control and enhance the presentation using the tools we found with MediaStorm."

— Joseph Beyer, Director of Digital Initiatives, Sundance Institute