Finding useful tools for downloading video from the web can be very confusing.

Check out Liz Gannes’ article on newteevee.com about the different options, their perks and their pitfalls.

Tuesday night, at the salubrious Baoli restaurant on the Croisette, Spike Lee made the day of several young filmmakers from around the world when he announced the winners of the first Babelgum Online Film Festival.

Shooting People has been supporting the Babelgum Online Film Festival since its launch at least year’s Venice Festival, and SP’s James Mullighan was at the ceremony. Alongside Joe Bateman (Rushes Short Film Festival) and Stefano Martina (Arcipelago, Italy), Mullighan was a juror for the Babelgum Short Film Award. The award (and a tidy cheque for EUR20,000) went to OFFICER DOWN by Richard Recco (Brooklyn, USA).

You can watch the film here.

If you’ve not done so, download the free Babelgum client, get familiar with it, and get ready to enter the 2009 Festival. Let us know what you think in the bulletins.

Tamsin, SP London