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Two Texas-based short films that were in competition at Sundance 2014 are making their Texas debuts at the SXSW Film Festival: writer/director Todd Rohal's Rat Pack Rat and Dig, by Dallas-based filmmaker Toby Halbrooks.

Halbrooks is an integral member of the filmmakers at Sailor Bear, a Dallas-based production company that includes David Lowery, James Johnston, Shaun Gish and Richard Krause. Last year's Sailor Bear feature Ain't Them Bodies Saints received an award for cinematography at Sundance, and this year's festival featured Alex Ross Perry's Listen Up Philip, also produced by the Sailor Bear team.

Dig stars Austinite Jonny Mars and newcomer Mallory Mahoney, who plays a young girl intrigued by the large hole her father (Mars) is digging in their backyard.

I spoke with Halbrooks in Park City during Sundance about Dig as well as other Sailor Bear projects, including the short film Pioneer. Here's what he had to say.

You don't have to travel to Park City to enjoy great content from the 30th annual Sundance Film Festival. YouTube is offering quite a bit of content for film fans to view online via the Sundance Film Festival YouTube Channel.

As the presenting sponsor of the Sundance 2014 shorts program, YouTube is showcasing several of the official shorts in competition. Fifteen films were selected from this year's competitors, including two short films from Texas: Rat Pack Rat and Dig. The Austin-shot Rat Pack Rat is directed by Todd Rohal and produced by several Austinites including Zack Carlson, Clay Liford, and Ashland Viscosi. Dig is written and directed by Dfw-area producer Toby Halbrooks.

The YouTube Audience Award will be presented at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony on Saturday, January 25, to the short film in official competition that receives the most views on YouTube between January 16-24, 2014. And Slackerwood has both Texas...

Where would the internet be without fan-made films? Along with debatably trustworthy trivia-facts, identity theft scams, free pornography and seemingly endless film-critics (ahem), fan-made films are one of the World Wide Web’s oldest and most staple trademarks. Indeed, it’s a hobby / passion that has been revolutionised by the web, allowing fans to easily create and share their work to potentially millions Worldwide rather than just collecting dust on their VHS shelves and occasionally being revisited when unknowing friends were tricked into coming round for ‘film’ night.

So to celebrate this increasingly popular art I decided to create a list of my 10 personal favourite additions to the genre, in order no less. I had to trawl through hundreds and hundreds of (to be honest) teeth-gnashingly awful nominations to find these, so please enjoy and let me know if there’s something you think I’ve missed!

I give you...