The machinima-making computer game from Lionhead, The Movies, is infiltrating one of the major events in the cinema industry: Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival. According to the Hollywood Reporter (registration required), publishers Activision and US car manufacturer Chrysler are kicking off a contest on 20 January at Sundance to challenge any would-be movie makers to submit their Movies-created film for a hootenany of an award in a virtual ceremony.

Sound good? Hold tight for details. More soon.

This isn't the first time machinima has been featured at the premiere independent film festival; Paul Marino, author of 3-D game-based filmmaking: The Art of Machinima, presented there last year to great critical success.