David Victori Named First-Ever Winner of 'Your Film Festival'

Related: David Victori, The Guild, Venice Film Festival

YouTube and Emirates, in partnership with the Venice Film Festival and Scott Free Productions, announced today the first ever winner of Your Film Festival – an online competition to find the world's best storytellers. Spanish filmmaker David Victori was chosen for his short film submission, "The Guilt," as the grand prize winner and will receive $500,000 to create original online content for YouTube with Ridley Scott and Michael Fassbender acting as executive producers.

Victori's "The Guilt" follows protagonist "Leo" who, after the murder of his wife, has a single idea running circles within his head – revenge. Victori was selected based on both the quality of his short film and his vision for his next project. "The Guilt" can be viewed on YouTube at youtube.com/yourfilmfestival, along with the other finalists' submissions.

"Your Film Festival has already become one of the most important festivals and the reason is obvious," says Victori. "There's no better way for a director to advance in his career than to be given the opportunity to produce one of his dream projects with Ridley Scott and Michael Fassbender."

"The Guilt" was selected as the winner (from the ten films that received the highest number of votes on YouTube) by a distinguished jury that includes both director Sir Ridley Scott and acclaimed actor Michael Fassbender.

Says Michael Fassbender of the jury's selection, "Choosing a Your Film Festival winner from the ten finalists was a tough decision. They all showed such creativity and a strong understanding of the filmmaking process. David is clearly a talented director and I can't wait to work with him and Ridley on his new YouTube project."

Content creators around the world were asked to submit a 15-minute, story-driven film of any format, style and genre to YouTube's Your Film Festival. Ridley Scott's company Scott Free narrowed the down the search to 50 semi-finalists and the YouTube community chose the final ten films. The finalists were flown to Venice via Dubai courtesy of Emirates Airline, stopping off to enjoy various events, workshops and tours before jetting to the renowned Venice Film Festival.

Your Film Festival is one of several efforts by YouTube to push the boundaries of music, art and film. It follows the incredibly successful partnership that YouTube experienced with Scott Free to help create the critically acclaimed documentary Life In A Day. Other projects like the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, YouTube Play and YouTube Space Lab are examples of the convergence of online video with traditional arts.