Earn your 3 minutes of fame in our 3MM digital filmmaking contest

The Three Minute Masterpiece (3MM) digital-film contest is back. And while the movies may be small, the payoff is big. The best reader-submitted short films (as selected by our panel of judges) will see their entries shown at the Seattle International Film Festival in May.

Here's how it works: Use your digital-video camera to make a film on any subject you like, as long as it's suitable for a family-newspaper audience. (No sex, violence or bad language, please.) It must be 3 minutes or less.

Here's how you enter: Make your movie. Upload it at www.seattletimes.com/3mm, and we'll add it to our YouTube playlist.

Very important: If you use music, you must have permission.

Special category: Filmmakers under 18 are eligible for the J. Michael Rima award for young directors.

That's it. When you upload your video, make sure you include your name, phone number, age (if under 18) and movie title. If you are selected as one of our finalists, we'll contact you about providing a higher-resolution version of your film.

Winners will be shown on The Seattle Times Web site and at the Seattle International Film Festival. The grand-prize winner will get two full-series passes to this year's film festival. The J. Michael Award will be a special prize presented by the Rima family. Entries must be e-mailed to us by 11:59 p.m. April 20. Action!

Seattle Times staff