Sounds a little melodramatic, but here’s an opportunity to make a short film that could have real impact. The FilmLife Project is asking young people to make short films about organ donation, that will in turn hopefully encourage people to speak to their loved ones and find out their wishes on the topic. A festival night in February, in conjunction with DonateLife Week 2012, will screen selected films and the winner receives a video camera and access to an editing suite.

With the end of year encouraging all list makers out of the woodwork, Screen Australia has joined in by reposting their link to the ten highest grossing Aussie documentaries of all time. Four of the spots, including the top two, are taken out by IMAX docos, with considerably higher box office takings. It’s interesting, though, if the IMAX docs out-gross the regular cinema ones, to ask why there isn’t an IMAX doco on the list produced since 2003. Have they stopped making Aussie docs for IMAX, or have our tastes changed? The more recent films to make the list include Bra Boys and Love the Beast, both films that have much broader audience appeal than your regular garden variety documentary.

This time last year I was wading through the endless top ten lists created by various documentary writers, envying their prolific viewing habits and inwardly shouting at them or congratulating them for their terrible/impeccable taste. Now, with over a year of doco blogging behind me, it’s time to stake my own claim to a best documentaries list. I think it was a great year for docos; I was surprised by form and moved by stories, each time learning a little more about the world outside - and sometimes inside - the edges of my own existence.

Australians’ voracious appetite for documentaries will continue to be catered for with Screen Australia’s recent announcement of investment in a number of documentary programs. The Signature Documentary Program distributes $1 million across five new projects, including one from Matthew Bate, director of Shut Up Little Man! $2.6 million is being injected into eight projects in the National and General Documentary Programs, including one set up that sounds fascinating: Liberal powerbroker Nick Minchin and Australian Youth Climate Coalition founder Anna Rose journey together as they attempt to change each other’s minds on climate change - I can’t wait to see that one!

Submissions are now open for the second annual Vimeo Festival + Awards. Flipping the usual film festival rule on its head, Vimeo will only accept videos that have premiered online - a physical film festival premiere screening renders you ineligible. There are some new categories this year, including Action Sports, Fashion and Lyrical - the latter to capture those personal stories that don’t quite fit the other categories.

There are those who sniff at developments in mobile phone movie making as a passing fad for young’uns, but in townships in South Africa, the mobile is leapfrogging the computer as the media platform of choice. In locations where most don’t have television, and certainly don’t have computers, everyone has a mobile - and most are internet-enabled. People who have never used a mouse or keyboard are accessing content through their phones, and Bozza is an organisation aiming to to make that content local.

Merapi Stories is an interactive documentary about the volcano that erupted in Java in late 2010. Made as a graduate project for UTS by Josephine Lie, it consists of a collection of navigable stories from individuals who were affected by the eruption.

The northern hemisphere inches a tiny bit closer with the news that Power to the Pixel has just loaded the presentations from their October Cross Media Forum online. Check out the website to listen to Lance Weiler talking about building storyworlds, Christopher Sandberg talking about creating experiences for people, and Jeff Gomez talking about accessing your audience, among others.