Sky’s on-demand service NOW TV is holding the world’s first ever Vine-based film awards – NOW TV Moviefest – and they are using a subheader that Thumbelina would be proud of – the World’s Smallest Film Festival.

If you don’t know what a Vine is, you’re lagging behind the world. But here’s the lowdown. Vine is a twitter application that lets you record multi-shot videos up to six seconds (144 frames) long on your iPhone and post them to Twitter and Facebook.

So a Vine is a kind of restrictive but fast, quick, super-short looping video format for social media – that afterall moves fast so the videos have got to be fast. And small. And sharable so they can spread – like Vines! The moving-picture-and-sound version of Instagram if you will.

We saw a Vine strand at the Tribeca film festival this spring so the format is clearly catching on. Tribeca challenged people to come up with Vines with a beginning, a middle and an end and had a colossal number of entries with some really witty, eye-catching winners.

All this make Vine a format that’s great for all you independent filmmakers out there with nothing but a good idea as it really levels the playing field.

The NOW TV Moviefest awards, developed by London’s Holler, will be the first awards that cater exclusively for Vines and will give people across the UK a chance to have their short films seen by thousands and judged by a panel of industry professionals.

If all that has caught your interest, and it has certainly caught ours, the NOW TV festival launched on May 31st and entries can be submitted now. Vine moviemakers can enter by simply tagging their films with the hashtag #NOWTVMovieFest followed by the hashtag of the film’s genre – categories include Best Documentary (#factual), Best Comedy (#comedy), Best Action (#action), Best Horror (#horror), and Best Special Effects/Animation/Score (#special effects).

So if you’re already a Vine aficionado get uploading and if not, download the app and give it a go. You can also take a look at the entries, and Tweet your Vine nominations using the hashtag #NOWTVMovieFest along with the category hashtag. The festival website will show the current nominations and allow people to vote for the People’s Choice award.

An esteemed panel of judges will select the best entries and, after the submission process closes on June 21st, a shortlist of films will be announced, followed by the winners. The Grand Prize winner will receive a coveted place on the Raindance Director Diploma course, and each category winner will receive a Canon 600D DSLR camera.

James Kirkham, Holler founding partner, said: “This reflects one of the strands of NOW TV – movies. It shows the creative community and our own community’s ability to break ground quickly using Vine, delivering swiftly in social channels and capitalising on creative opportunity.”

Vine puts the tools in the hands of the audience, giving you six seconds to capture the attention of the judges. With strong imagery and storyline is that not quite long enough? We’re going to have a go and find out.