What is The Big Screen?
It's an online film festival. Filmmakers from the South send their films to BBC Southampton and we show them on our website.This is the third year of the festival.

If you would like to enter a film for this year's festival you can find information here

What does the festival hope to achieve?
Students, amateur filmmakers and aspiring new professionals are producing great work all the time, but very few people see it. The festival provides a platform for short films which otherwise might not get screened - and what bigger screen is there than the world wide web?

The films are streamed to your computer in real time. That means you can watch straight away - there's no waiting for a lengthy download.

Broadband users will benefit from better video quality. Have a look at this film as an example of the quality you can expect on your PC.

Who's involved?
The festival is hosted by BBC Southampton. Harbour Lights cinema and City Eye are both festival partners. This year's films will be judged by the film critic, Mark Kermode.

What's the prize?
Mark Kermode will pick the films to be shown at a special screening event at Harbour Lights cinema in Southampton. Winners will also receive a certificate.

My film has violent scenes, features naked actors and is 3 hours long. Will you show it?
No, we won't. Ten minutes is the maximum length we can show in full, but that doesn't mean you can't take part with a longer film. We are happy to show clips or shortened versions of films - so long as you do all the editing.

We won't show films which include language or behaviour which we consider inappropriate for the website. In such cases we may choose a suitable clip if there is one, but occasionally we won't show a film at all.

If you think your film would have trouble getting a PG rating then there's your answer.

Dear BBCi Southampton...
Your ideas and suggestions are welcome. Whether you're working alone or involved with a film-making group, educational facility, film club or any other film-related organisation we'd like to hear from you.

Drop us an e-mail to let us know what you're doing, or if you have any suggestions for the festival.