New Utah Studio Offers $1 Million to Turn a Short Film Into a Feature

A new Provo, Utah production company will hand one emerging filmmaker $1,000,000 to expand a genre short into a full feature. InTension Industries, founded by four Hollywood dealmakers, launched the competition, called "The Million-Dollar $hortcut," this week.

Per the company's press release, the competition "invites emerging filmmakers to submit genre shorts: thriller, horror, suspense and everything in between. InTension will produce and release the winner's feature film for a budget of $1,000,000." Runners-up receive personalized feedback from the company's creative development team and take part in a development session with its industry veterans. That is a rare seven-figure commitment for a first-time feature director in the independent sector.

Who is behind InTension Industries?

The four founders bring mainstream studio and indie credentials:

• Bringham Taylor, producer at InTension, formerly produced at Disney and worked on "The Jungle Book" and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.
• Ian Puente has held business development and strategy roles at Samuel Goldwyn Films, Sony Pictures and EPIX.
• Dave Hunter is a film producer and co-creator of "Nitro Circus."
• Tom Goddall has produced Disney titles including "Christopher Robin" and "Lady and the Tramp," alongside independent films.

Taylor set out the company's creative thesis with a reference to 1978. "John Carpenter taught us in 1978 that there's no stronger expression of what film can do, nor fun you can have at the cinema, than a stripped-down exercise in tension and existential dread that pins you to your seat for 90 minutes — that's the high we are chasing with our projects," he said in a statement. Carpenter's "Halloween," released that year, remains the template for low-budget suspense filmmaking.

How does the public vote work?

The competition builds audience participation into its selection process. Film fans can vote for their favorite entries during the first two rounds, per the press release. InTension will then review the top-voted films alongside a hand-picked jury of established filmmakers before choosing the winner.

Hunter framed the voting mechanic as part of a distribution strategy. "The future of distribution is community. Audiences want more than something to watch; they want to connect," he said in a statement. "This competition is about building a community around great storytelling."

What has the company produced so far?

InTension recently premiered its first film, "Whiskey Throttle," at FilmQuest in Provo. Its next development project is the sci-fi thriller "Sentinel," starring Steve Zahn. The competition entry point signals the company's intent to feed its slate from undiscovered genre talent rather than established names.

Interested filmmakers can submit now at intensioniflms.com. The launch trailer for "The Million-Dollar $hortcut" is available online.