Reed.co.uk’s short film competition has narrowed its 500+ submissions down to twelve exciting finalists, and now they’re asking you to vote on them.

The selected films will be put before a panel of judges (including 2AM director and BAFTA nominee Luke Snellin, Rushes Soho Shorts’ Joe Bateman, British Council Director of Film Briony Harrison, Hospital Club’s Film & Event Programmer Simone Pyne, Publicity Director for Universal Pictures Diane Kelly and, ahem, The Reel’s own Jamie Madge) who will choose the winner of this year’s £10,000 Grand Prix, as well as the Judges’ Commendation award.

When Absolute Post’s Mel Fong Brown and Saatchi & Saatchi’s Suzie Quill set up Higher Pitch two years ago it was to give the female contingent of the advertising community an opportunity to showcase their creative side. This year they’re taking the show to Cannes and enlisting a team of judges to whittle down the overwhelming number of entries to 10 outstanding pieces. We chatted to them about how Higher Pitch was formed, what they look for in great creative work and what we can expect from the Cannes invasion.

Thursday 19th April saw D&AD unzip their pencil case and reward the creative sector’s top dogs at their 50th awards show. With over 636 entries from over 35 countries being recognised with awards across In-Book and nominations, a mere 66 achieved the accolade of Yellow Pencils and had their name called out on the night. Significant winners were JWT Shanghai (for its “Samsonite Suitcase” work in Press and Outdoor) and BETC Euro RSCG (for its Canal+ “The Bear” in Film Advertising Crafts), which each scooped three Yellow Pencils.

Vimeo has long been the video-sharing site du jour for filmmakers because of its respectful audience and clever curation. In 2010 they launched the Vimeo Festival + Awards - a global celebration of creativity and quality in online video - and for this year’s show they’ve achieved more than double the entries.

With nearly 15,000 entries from 147 countries, including 4,775 entries from 42 European countries, the canny Vimeoheads have been busy filtering the shortlist down to a mere 12 videos per category. New to the festival this year are ‘Action Sports’, ‘Fashion’, ‘Advertising’ and ‘Lyrical’ and the films are being watched by a luminary panel of judges including James Franco, Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood, Chris Milk and Nick Knight. But the most important judge in the process is YOU! Until the end of April, anyone with a Vimeo account can head to the site - vimeo.com/awards - and cast their vote.

With more and more brands discovering the power of the web-series online, we thought we’d have a chat to a couple of guys who have used the might of YouTube to create a comedy show on a micro budget off their own back. Vince Foster and Tyler Haines, a pair of actors trying to make it big in Hollywood, have created the mockumentary series ‘On Empty’, an 8-parter concerning a… er … pair of actors trying to make it big in Hollywood. Shot in a delightfully (and deliberate) shambolic fashion, the series has caught the attention of Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight), and Lea Thompson (Back to the Future) and picked up an Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Comedy Series award at the LA WebFest. We spoke to Vince about how he created a series of his own.