Back in January, YouTube, Ridley Scott and Emirates announced Your Film Festival, a competition giving online filmmakers the opportunity to create short, story-driven videos for the chance to go all the way to the Venice Film Festival and to win $500,000 towards their next project.  Today YouTube has announced the top 10 finalists and you can watch their films here.

The finalists will be flown out to Italy where they will see their short films screened at the Venice Film Festival.  Each of the filmmakers will also have the opportunity to pitch a new project idea to Ridley Scott’s production team, Scott Free Productions.  The Scott Free team, Michael Fassbender, and other jury members will name the $500,000 grand prize winner on September 2, 2012.

YouTube will follow the ten finalists, selected over the past month by over 3 million people who watched, shared and voted for their favorite films, as they travel to Venice.  Behind the scenes footage and more will be posted on the Your Film Festival YouTube channel.

And now, without further adieu—the films of the ten finalists!

88:88

Joey Ciccoline & Sean Wilson (USA)

Bat Eyes

Damien Power (Australia)

Cine Rincao

Fernando Grostein Andrade & Fernanda Fernandes (Brazil)

The Drought

Kevin Slack (USA)

El General

Diego Pino Zamora (Bolivia)

The Guilt

David Victori Blaya (Spain)

North Atlantic

Bernando Nascimento (United Kingdom)

Super.Full.

Niam Itani (Lebanon)

Scruples

Adrian Powers (Australia)

This Time

Ramy EL-Gabry (Egypt)

Megan O’Neill is the resident web video enthusiast here at Social Times.  Megan covers everything from the latest viral videos to online video news and tips, and has a passion for bizarre, original and revolutionary content and ideas.