Viewster Online Film Festival will offer total prize money of $100,000.

German actor Udo Kier is to head the jury of the third Viewster Online Film Fest (#VOFF) (Sept 11-25), which will showcase genre shorts, features, web series and teasers

European video-on-demand service Viewster is offering total prize money of $100,000 to the winning producers, announced at the closing night gala of the Raindance Film Festival on Oct 5.

A total of 500 films have been accepted from 60 countries worldwide, including the US, UK, France, Brazil, Australia, India and Canada.

Viewster’s online audience will vote on the films, generating a shortlist that will be considered by a jury headed by Kier. The German actor is known for roles in films such as Blade, Iron Sky, Melancholia and more recently Nymphomaniac.

Other jurors include US independent film producer Ted Hope (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Finnish director Timo Vuorensola (Iron Sky) and German actress Nora Tschirner (Keinorhansen).

Kier said: “I’m sure I will love the Viewster Online Film Festival. I’m looking forward to see and judge up-and-coming creature creators from all over the world which will be mostly films that will be hard to see anywhere else than on this Viewster Film Fest. And give some of them the chance to get a huge exposure through the online festival.”

#VOFF2: ‘Relationship Status: It’s Complicated, attracted around 500,000 online visitors. The top prize was awarded to Ali Zare Ghanatnowi of Iran, for his animated short film, Dad’s Fragile Doll.

Video fans can join the Viewster community to watch, comment, share and vote for their favourite entries now and help identify the finalists for the jury session straight from Viewster’s platform. Finalists will be announced on viewster.com.