Adriana Falcao, a native of Brazil, is currently in Park City, Utah for the Sundance film festival, part of her prize as the winner of YouTube's Project: Direct contest. Ms. Falcao is having all of her expenses paid by one of the sponsors of the contest, Hewlett-Packard, and she will also be meeting with executives from Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Back in Brazil, Ms. Falcao is already well involved with the film industry; she has worked on films such as Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias, O (The Year My Parents Went on Vacation), which was submitted for Academy Award consideration in 2007.
Until Falcao's daughter, Clarise, who played the young girl in the winning short, brought word of the contest to her attention, she had never considered doing films specifically for the Web, but it now appears she is hooked on the idea. The fact that the winning film, Lacos (Ties) took approximately $500 and three days to produce surely contributes to such projects' allure.