MOFILM is delighted to announce that Jon Landau, producer of the two top-grossing movies of all time, Titanic and Avatar, has taken on the role of Chairman of MOFILM’s advisory board.

Landau will also head the jury who will decide the overall winner at the MOFILM award ceremony at the TriBeCa Film Festival in April. A call for entries has been issued for Cadillac, Chevrolet, AT&T, Pepsi and a mysterious secret brand, whose identify will be revealed at a later date. An overall winner will be decided and announced on that night and will take home the prestigious ‘Moby’ statuette. Landau will also be working on a number of projects with MOFILM filmmakers, including the production of a short video for Chevrolet Europe with Henry Schofield, the overall winner of MOFILM Barcelona 2010.

Landau commented, “I’ve never failed to be impressed with the creativity and the quality of work that MOFILM filmmakers produce. It’s exciting to be involved with a company that supports aspiring filmmakers, giving them the opportunity to produce work for big brands and be well rewarded for it.” He continued, “I’m greatly looking forward to spending time with the winners during their trip to TriBeCa.”

Jeffrey Merrihue, MOFILM CEO, said: “Jon has been a long-time supporter of MOFILM and what we are trying to achieve. He attended two of our award ceremonies in 2010 and our filmmakers really appreciated the time and industry insights that he gave them.”

Jon talks to MOFILM chairman Jeffrey Merrihue

It was a great night for our winners in Barcelona last night, not least because they got to meet Avatar producer Jon Landau.

After speaking to them all personally over a glass of wine in the Opium Cinema, Jon took to the stage and fielded questions about his career, particularly the early stages when, like our filmmakers, he was looking for support and recognition.

He told them: “Take advantage of the chance to meet other filmmakers. When I started out I was a gofer making almost no money. I would work in the finance department but read everything I could on file. The people you meet in that circle will lead you to the next thing. When I was working on one of my first movies the director left and we were waiting for the studio to find a replacement. While we were waiting we finished the movie. So just go out there and do it.”

Jon also talked about a little known movie of his called Avatar. The audience at the Opium Cinema were treated to some exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of the CGI rendition of Pandora. Jon said: “Jim (Cameron) had the idea for Avatar in 1995 but we just didn’t have the technology then. But really, it was about the story. The technology allowed us to do away with prosthetics so we could really show the emotions of the characters. This is what it’s about – not the CGI but the story. The technology just helps us tell that story.”

We’ll be posting more about the ceremony and about Jon in the next couple of days. Come back to see photos from the event and hear news about upcoming MOFILM competitions. Next time, it could be you.

So the Barcelona Ad Competition and Pepsi Short Film Video Competition winners have been announced and flown out to Barcelona for the big awards ceremony.

Tonight, all ten of them will be treated to an evening at the Opium Cinema in the company of Avatar producer Jon Landau, where they´ll see their films on the big screen for the first time. Two of them – one from the Barcelona Ad Competition and one from the Pepsi Short Film Video Competition – will be crowned Grand Prize Winners, which will give them the chance to make an ad and a short film with Jon Landau himself.

What´s not to like about that? Good luck to all our winners and have a great night.