We think this will eventually happen, though it's likely to take a while. The technical obstacles have been well-documented: screens are too small, streaming is too slow, downloads take too long. High-speed connections will ameliorate most if not all of these technical ills, but what about the artistic challenges facing Internet filmmakers? Can really compelling movies be produced for the computer screen? How? By whom?

Until it is technically feasible to stream full-length films over the Web, we think the primary innovation and impact will come from animation. The very nature of animating lends itself to this new digital medium, as does the brevity typical of the form. And animations are already very popular on the Web, right up there with clips from current theatrical releases.

Seattle-based AtomFilms, the best and most varied of the sites under review here, offers a wide range of animated shorts, in many different genres. Some of these—the work of "Joe Cartoon," for instance—are adolescent and vulgar (and also very popular). Others are superb little works of art: Canhead (7:35), by writer-director-animator Tim Hittle of Pixar Studios, is beautifully rendered and emotionally evocative. Canhead is not currently available for free viewing over the Web, but AtomFilms offers new shorts each week. The site's animations are usually at least interesting, and frequently better than that. Try A Letter from the Western Front (9:00), assembled in Photoshop and featuring an original symphonic sound track.

The best thing about inetfilm.com ("Internet Film Community") is its delivery vehicle—the site uses QuickTime to stream its films and animations, and we think the quality is slightly better than the RealPlayer G2 streaming offered by other sites. The current offering is Jose Acosta's lurid but predictable Cardinal Sin, a four-minute black-and-white film. inetfilm.com has ties to the Vancouver Film School and sometimes shows film students' work, but the site is far behind AtomFilms in the number of its original offerings. (Editor's Note: Atom has since merged with the animation-oriented, Macromedia-backed Shockwave.com, and inetfilm.com has disappeared.)

Film.com is undoubtedly the best-known of the sites mentioned here, but it's in an entirely different mode—this is basically a promotional vehicle for current studio efforts. Based in Seattle (the Pacific Northwest seems to be fertile ground for movie sites), Film.com is affiliated with RealNetworks and offers a fairly varied menu of clips from current films. The site is popular because people are using it to preview movies they might want to see—there are very few complete or independent works here. (Editor's Note: Film.com has been completely absorbed into the massive RealNetworks site.)

AtomFilms, unlike Film.com, has genuine potential. The evolution of Web movies lies not in Hollywood trailers, but in increments of creativity and enabling technology. Someone somewhere is undoubtedly laboring over a brilliantly wrought animation that will find its audience online. New editing tools and increasingly faster delivery methods will continue to attract new filmmakers, and a few of these will produce striking work. The Web will eventually come into its own as a cinematic medium.

(Reviewed November 4, 1999)