MOFILM, the world’s biggest global mobile short film festival, has partnered with Vizimo to help enthusiasts discover, and watch, their favourite short films during the MOFILM 2009 Festival.  The festival takes place in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress this week.

Personalised TV guidance company Vizimo has created a mobile service for MOFILM which not only limits the amount of time and bandwidth spent streaming films that don’t appeal, but also enables the unexpected discovery of the ‘right’ content that the viewer might not, otherwise, have found themselves.  It enables anyone to search for a film based on keywords in its synopsis and, subsequently, to discover other films from the collection that are similar - whether by genre, director or other characteristic.

Phone users may use the service simply by pointing their phone’s browser to http://mofilm.vizimo.com. 

Ralph Cochrane, chief operations officer for MOFILM, said: “We’ve attracted a remarkable number of entries for the MOFILM 2009 competition from around the globe. Vizimo has made it possible for all MOFILM fans to watch their favourite films on their mobile phones by genre, and to discover exciting new content easily. We want as many as possible of these films to be seen and enjoyed, and this sort of ‘discovery’ is an elegant, natural way of doing it.”

Simon Steward, Vizimo’s CEO, said: “Vizimo employs a very sophisticated model to ensure it can recommend appropriate content when someone clicks on ‘show me more like this’.  Our existing applications for TV content are already popular, but it really comes into its own when the entire collection of content is new, like this; it is unrealistic and less enjoyable to try to discover interesting content simply by watching films sequentially.”

Vizimo powers personalised TV by providing a rich, personalised ‘window’ onto the increasingly complex world of video entertainment. Working across mobile, web and compatible set-top boxes, users are given an easy-to-navigate view of the massive universe of available content - both broadcast and on-demand – and are guided towards items of interest to them.

Vizimo uses existing user behaviour for scheduled TV to stimulate take-up of new, non-broadcast services.  In trials, users have used Vizimo to discover new content of interest, to remotely set a home recorder, to set reminders and to discuss what they are watching with friends.