The Mozilla Blog

We are proud to announce that Firefox Flicks will welcome back:  Edward Norton (Oscar Nominated Actor), Shauna Robertson (Producer of hit comedies, including Superbad & Knocked Up) and Couper Samuelson (We Own the Night and Sundance Winning short, Whiplash ), to the judging panel, along with new judges Bob Harvey (EVP Global Sales and Marketing for Panavision), Franklin Leonard (founder of the Black List) and Catherine Ogilvie (EMEA Marketing for Dolby).

All individuals and teams that submit an entry will have the chance for their Flick to be seen by millions of people around the world. On top of this, contestants will be entered to win cash prizes that can be used to pay their tuition, buy equipment, or fund their next creative project.

• Grand Prize Award – The GPA Winner will be awarded the opportunity to take their passion for filmmaking to the next level and be flown to Los Angeles to work with top Hollywood producer, Couper Samuelson, script developer, Franklin Leonard, and other talent as well as Panavision to create their best :60 spot that will be premiered at a TBD time.
• Early Entry Awards — There will be multiple chances to win $1,000 for submitting a flick early (first early Flick deadline submission is April 3^rd, 2013). The top three early entry submission Flicks will be included in the final round. There will be three early entry awards. The second deadline will be in June.
• Regional Winners — One winner from each contest region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific) will win a $5,000 cash prize and one runner up from each contest region will win a $2,500 cash prize.
• People’s Choice Award — Flicks Fans will be able to vote for their favorite flick during the People’s Choice Award voting period August 1 through August 31. The three winning Flicks will receive exposure of their films throughout Firefox channels Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, Mozilla.org…as well as an amazing Firefox Flicks swag bag.

Deadline for entries is July 31, 2013.

For more information, including submission guidelines and categories, and to enter, please visit www.firefoxflicks.org. Don’t forget to check out last year’s winners for some inspiration: http://vimeo.com/firefoxflicks

Firefox Flicks Judges

Edward Norton has acted in the films Primal Fear, Everyone Says I Love You, The People vs Larry Flynt,American History X, Rounders, Fight Club, Keeping the Faith, The Score, Death to Smoochy, Frida, Red Dragon, The 25th Hour, The Italian Job, Down in the Valley, The Kingdom of Heaven, The Illusionist, The Painted Veil, The Incredible Hulk, Pride & Glory and Leaves of Grass and Stone.

He has been nominated for two Academy Awards, for Primal Fear and American History X, and won a Golden Globe along with numerous other awards for his performances. He produced and directed Keeping the Faith and also produced Down in the Valley (Cannes Film Festival selection), The Painted Veil, Leaves of Grass and the documentary By The People: The Election of Barack Obama.

Norton is also a committed social and environmental activist, supporting the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities, Enterprise Community Partners, the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, the Libby Rouse Fund for Peace, the Signature Theater Company and Friends of the High Line. Recently Norton founded CrowdRise, an innovative new web platform that brings the power of crowd-sourcing and the fun of social networking to fundraising and volunteerism.

Shauna Robertson has produced some of the best comedies of the last decade. Her list of credits include Meet the Parents, Elf, Anchorman, The Forty Year Old Virgin,Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Shauna is a Canadian who moved to Hollywood to start working in the movies at age 17.

Last year she left the movie business to pursue her dreams of working in the non profit sector. In March 2010 she and her boyfriend, Edward Norton, launched the new web based company Crowdrise (http://www.crowdrise.com/) that helps individuals and charities make fundraising impactful and fun.

Couper Samuelson runs Jason Blum’s Universal-based production company, Blumhouse, which in the last year has produced the horror hit, Sinister, the fourth Paranormal Activity movie, and a sequel to the 2011 hit, Insidious, due in the theaters this August. Prior to Blumhouse, Samuelson produced the forthcoming Paramount release, Destination Wedding. Made for $100,000, that film will be the lowest-budget feature produced and released theatrically by a major studio in the modern era. Samuelson began his career at Mark Cuban’s 2929, where he co-produced movies including James Gray’s We Own The Night and Two Lovers, both of which were nominated for the Cannes Palme d’Or.

Bob Harvey, EVP Global Sales and Marketing for Panavision, the premier supplier of cinematography equipment to the motion picture industry for the second half of the20th century, has been in the business over 30 years. While working for Atari as Director of Sales for the coin op div. owned by Warner Communications, he became friendly with Clint Eastwood who helped him secure his SAG card in 1982. Warner transferred him to Panavision in 1984 where he started as Director of Marketing. He became very involved with production from start to finish of principal photography. He is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers, a charter member of the IFP for independent films, a recipient of a FINDI award for his work with new and independent filmmakers and is thought of as a mentor to many successful filmmakers today.

Franklin Leonard is the founder of the Black List, the yearly publication highlighting Hollywood’s most popular unproduced screenplays and the startup birthed to continue its mission.  Over 200 Black List scripts have been produced as feature films earning more than 140 Academy Award nominations including two of the last four Best Pictures and five of the last ten screenwriting Oscars. Franklin has worked in development at Universal Pictures and the production companies of Will Smith, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, Leonardo DiCaprio, and John Goldwyn. Before Los Angeles and all things film related, Franklin was – at different times - a business analyst at McKinsey & Co., a weekly columnist for the Trinidad Guardian in Port-au-Spain, Trinidad, and the communications director for John Cranley’s 2000 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in Ohio’s first district.  Since 2010, he has been named one of Hollywood Reporter’s 30 Under 30, Black Enterprise magazine’s “40 Emerging Leaders for Our Future,” AOL Black Voices “30 Black Hollywood Game Changers” and Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business.

As General Manager, EMEA Marketing, Catherine Ogilvie is responsible for brand, product, and partner marketing throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Catherine joined Dolby in 2009 as Vice President, Global Corporate Communications.

Prior to starting at Dolby, Catherine was Executive Vice President and General Manager at Edelman, the world’s largest independent PR agency, where she led the San Francisco office, building award-winning integrated communications programs for clients.

Previously, Catherine served as Director, Global Marketing and Communications, for the Almond Board of California, and as Senior Director, Marketing, for Napster, the original peer-to-peer music service. Catherine has also worked as a management consultant based in Munich, Germany, working with international media clients such as Bertelsmann, Kirch Gruppe, and Universal Studios.

Catherine studied theatre at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, England, and pursued post-graduate business studies at the University of London earning a Master’s degree in Marketing and Communication.

We are proud to announce the return of Firefox Flicks, Mozilla’s global video competition  that invites Firefox fans and filmmakers to create short videos, or “Flicks,” that help tell the Firefox story. Last year was a huge success and we received more than 400 videos submission from thousands of filmmakers all over the world.

In 2013, the theme of Firefox Flicks is “Get Mobilized.” Its about enabling more people to take advantage of the full power of the Web and giving them better access to easily discover, enjoy and share content that can change their lives. Through Firefox Flicks we are creating energy for our upcoming mobile OS that will deliver on this promise. Everything you need to know about creating a Flick for the contest can be found in the filmmaker’s creative brief.

We want to rally the entire Mozilla community, users, fans, creators, filmmakers and animators everywhere. Starting February 13, filmmakers will submit a Flick that is 60 seconds or less that will be used in online and broadcast media campaigns.

Prizes for winners include:

• Early Entry Awards — There will be multiple chances to win $1,000 for submitting a flick early. The top three early entry submission Flicks will be included in the final round.
• Regional Winners — One winner from each contest region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia) will win a $5,000 cash prize and one runner up from each contest region will win a $2,500 cash prize.
• People’s Choice Award — People will be able to vote for their favorite Flick during the People’s Choice Award voting period August 1 – August 31. The three winning Flicks will receive a Firefox Flicks swag bag.

We’ll be sharing more details over the coming months, including Hollywood judges, additional prizes, events and more. You can visit www.firefoxflicks.org for more details. Check out last year’s winners for some inspiration:

Be a Hero
Bogata, Columbia — Andres Felipe Mesa Rincon

Fenwick & Candy
Balmain, Australia — Gavin Fenwick Christensen, Candice Thom

I’m Falling in Love with Firefox
Cheongju-si, South Korea — Lee Sang Woo

Paranoid
London, UK – Sean O’Riordan, Remy Bazerque, Andrew Alderslade, Eleonore Cremonese

Squares
Toronto, Canada – Eric Perella, Andre Arevalo, Mark Galloway

Where the Weird Things Are Not
Alarzia, Spain –– Ferran Brooks and Ivan Cordero Raiminguez