Director, producer, writer and actor Spike Lee is hosting MoFilm's amateur video competition at the Cannes Lions 2009 Advertising Festival.

The "You to the Power of 12 - U12" competition will be judged by brands such as Best Buy, PepsiCo's Doritos, HP, Kodak, Philips, Unilever's Omo and Visa, to name a few. The brands will decide which video is most creative and the winner will get $120,000 in prizes and a chance to be on set of Spike Lee's next production.

"The 12 brands combined have the ability to collectively reach 70 percent of people on planet earth," said Jeffrey Merrihue, chairman of Mofilm, London. "Collectively the brands are reaching their communities to get the word out.

"Mobile is allowing filmmakers another channel to display their short videos and share their stories," he said. "Brands are learning to operate in this environment and are finding that their consumers, who live in an unvarnished, real-time, real-life world, are looking for real relationships with brands.

"By participating in the Mofilm U12 competition, the 12 brands are giving their users a voice and letting them tell the brands how they feel about them."

Mofilm creates tailor-made content for Web sites and wireless carriers worldwide. It's aim is to serve as a platform for showcasing short films and giving visibility to aspiring filmmakers.

"The goal was to create a new platform to showcase short films and aspiring filmmakers and to use the medium of the 21st century -- mobile," Mr. Merrihue said.

The Cannes Lions 2009 Advertising Festival will take place in the south of France June 21-27.

The Mofilm U12 competition gives creatives all over the world the chance to develop branded communication via video for some of the world's leading brands in a competition designed to showcase global talent at the "Oscars of the Advertising World."

The competition allows everyday individuals an opportunity to let their voices be heard and gives them the chance to obtain visibility in front of top brands and an estimated 10 million video, Internet and mobile viewers worldwide.

Mofilm and the brands are offering more than $120,000 in prizes and a chance to be on set of Spike Lee's next production.

Spike Lee will help the 12 brands choose the final winner for the Mofilm "You to the Power of 12-U12" competition.

Each brand will post a brief on the Mofilm Web site, which will explain all guidelines to enter and allow entrants to compete for awards and prizes.

Briefs are not limited to ideas linking directly to the brands themselves, but may also ask entrants to submit videos on additional topics that might include video demonstrations of a unique Web site experience.

To further create a buzz, Mofilm has teamed up with film industry professionals to offer creative advice to entrants via Mofilm's Twitter page at designated dates and times throughout the duration of the competition to help assist in the creation of video submissions.

The U12 competition is a demonstration of rarely seen collaboration from many of the world's biggest brands.

Collectively they are offering aspiring talent from around the world unprecedented access, visibility and opportunity into the sometimes-closed world of mega-brand marketing.

The brands are promoting the competition with ads on their Web sites, through their internal channels, as well as traditional and social networking channels.

"The Mofilm?You to the Power of 12-U12' competition was created as a mechanism to see ?how high is up?' as it relates to user generated content," Mr. Merrihue said. "The Cannes contest was created as the stage to test the global creative community and showcasing it on the biggest stage in advertising, Cannes.

"The program is positioned around the power of 12 -- 12 brands, dozens of publicity touch points, 12,000 marketing leaders, $120,000 in prizes and the winning video being exposed to 12 million viewers worldwide," he said.

This initiative was conceived during a gathering of chief marketing officers who comprise the Marketing 50 and enabled through Accenture and the Marketing 50's C-suite relationships.

Accenture is supplying its video service platform that includes sharing and uploading technology to support film submissions through Origin Digital, a video applications service provider.

Also instrumental in enabling the program is Hill & Knowlton, who are providing PR and the associated Web 2.0 toolkit.

Additionally, Mofilm gave away 40 Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Cameras to encourage early entry submission to the competition.

Cameras were awarded weekly over the course of two months to the best early entries received before May 20 for each brand.

Early camera winners were still eligible to qualify for all final prizes.

The U12 competition is open to everyone. The last entries will be accepted on June 8, at 8:00 a.m. GMT. Brand winners will be announced on June 15.

The top three finalists will be announced on June 25 and the grand prize winner will take the main stage at Cannes on June 26, after they will have provided the ultimate in "consumer feedback."

This event follows on from the Mofilm short film festival recently hosted by Kevin Spacey at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in February, which saw filmmakers from more than 100 countries compete to showcase their work and win prizes including a new Chevrolet Cruze.

"The 12 brands involved have sent communications to their brand teams, marketing teams, advertising agencies and any relevant suppliers, partners and media companies to join in on getting the word out, particularly through their social networking channels such as Twitter and Facebook," Mr. Merrihue said.

Additionally, the MOFILMugc Twitter channel reports on the latest news. Each week a film or mobile expert provides followers with filmmaking tips via the Twitter feed.

On June 2, a representative from Campus MovieFest, the largest student film festival and a premier outlet for the next-generation of filmmakers, tweeted about how to make short movies in a limited amount of time and on small budgets.

"Also instrumental in enabling the program is Hill & Knowlton, who are providing PR and associated Web 2.0 toolkits," Mr. Merrihue said.

"The H&K team took the lead on involving advertising and marketing schools around the U.S. to increase awareness among students and alumni," he said.