Internet Movie Firm Shifts Focus to L.A.

Signaling Hollywood’s expanding importance on the Internet, online movie company Ifilm.com said Monday that it is moving its headquarters from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and that it has received $35 million in funding from Sony Pictures, Paul Allen and other high-profile investors.

The announcement comes at a time when the online delivery of short films and animations is becoming a competitive hotbed on the Net, with a half-dozen companies--including a growing number of Hollywood heavyweights--jockeying for position.

Ifilm, launched last year, was one of the first sites to enter the space, and aspires to be both a leading online entertainment site for consumers as well as a provider of Web-based services for Hollywood professionals.

The company’s top executives--including Chief Executive Skip Paul, who held top positions at MCA and Sega GameWorks--have already relocated to Los Angeles. But executives said that they plan to boost their presence here from 10 employees to as many as 70 over the next year.

The Southern California buildup will be financed by a group including Microsoft Corp. billionaire Allen, through his Vulcan Ventures firm, as well as Sony, Kodak Corp., Liberty Digital and Shamrock Capital Advisors, the investment vehicle for Roy Disney.

Ifilm faces a number of rivals, including Seattle-based Atomfilms.com, Los Angeles-based Digital Entertainment Network, and soon, Pop.com, a Web site created by DreamWorks SKG and Imagine Entertainment. Allen is also a major investor in Pop.

All these sites are riding the digital filmmaking wave, which has spawned a new generation of filmmakers using inexpensive equipment to produce short works designed to be shown over the Net. Most are viewed using streaming video software that displays the works in a credit card-sized window on a computer screen.

“Nobody delivering video content over the Net is really appealing to a mass audience yet,” said Jeremy Schwartz, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. “But some of these niche markets are potentially quite profitable, and [these sites] are places studios can go and troll for talent.”

Ifilm’s strategy differs from most other sites in that it doesn’t pay to produce or acquire the rights to the films it airs. Rather, it has collected hundreds of works submitted by young filmmakers around the globe hoping to be discovered.

Several months ago, the company created a companion site, IfilmPro, which can be accessed only by Hollywood professionals who submit proof of their film industry credentials. The company is also compiling directories of writers, cinematographers and other professionals, with biographies and contact information.

“We’re using our dollars to build a community,” Paul said. “People are [coming to] us to get their movies exposure and build their futures.”

The most popular films from the main Ifilm site are screened for IfilmPro members, an arrangement that has already paid off for at least one young filmmaker.

David Garrett, 30, got what he says is a six-figure development deal with Fox Television after his dark comedy piece “Sunday’s Game”--about a group of geriatric women playing Russian roulette--was shown on the IfilmPro site.

“We got phone calls from 25 production companies within 48 hours of it being aired,” Garrett said. “I think the Net will allow filmmakers to go directly to buyers, all the way up to heads of studios.”

* SUNDANCE FESTIVAL: The “dot-com” phenomenon has hit the Utah film event in a big way. F1