HCM CITY (VNS)— Sixty-six films from young directors worldwide will be screened during the third annual online international short-film festival, YxineFF, beginning on Saturday at website www.yxineff.com.

With "Individual" as its main theme, the online festival will offer a broad range of individual voices presented to global audiences until December 15.

The president of   Marcus Manh Cuong Vu, said the themes of many films this year focus on children, teenagers and school life, revealing similar interest of the younger generations in today's flatter world.

The festival received 150 entries from mid-April to mid-July.

Only 66 out of 150 films will be screened, and the selections will be divided into two main competitions and two categories.

In the international competition, 15 films from 11 countries will depict surprising and interesting cinematic experiences.

The local competition is designed for Vietnamese directors, consisting of 10 films, of which half are from Ha Noi, four from HCM City and one from Singapore.

Apart from two competitions, the category Panorama will present an overview of Viet Nam's short films over the last three years, with 18 films from around the country.

The films are varied in genre from comedy to horror, from animation to documentary.

The In Focus category consists of seven programmes with different themes to honour the creativity of directors.

Vu said the festival demonstrated the development of three years of work on films that were international and professional, and of high quality.

"We hope that the voices of the young global generation will be heard and shared through films presented at the festival this year," he said.

With the slogan Sharing - Love - Cinema, YxineFF began in May 2010 with a target audience of young independent filmmakers and cinema lovers.

The festival focuses on the interactive features of an online network in an era of advanced technology.

In 2010, it attracted more than 1 million views and almost 2 million views last year on the projects' websites.

Vietnamese and international audiences can watch the films, all with English subtitles, on the festival's website from Saturday to the closing of the festival by the end of the year. — VNS