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Coming to your phone: Mobile movies

By CNN's Jim Boulden

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BARCELONA, Spain (CNN) -- Hosting a technical conference like 3GSM in a beautiful city like Barcelona may seem odd. After all, few people will see much the city has to offer in the daylight.

Instead, the thousands of participants spend the four days of 3GSM indoors, striking deals or talking about the latest in mobile technology.

Then again, Barcelona may the best backdrop. Especially this year. 3GSM 2007 is all about pretty pictures, in the form of content downloaded to your device. Welcome to the world of the fourth screen.

Mobile manufacturers, network operators, software developers and content providers are scrambling to find the content you want pushed to your third generation or 3G device.

First there was the cinema screen, then there was television screen, then the Internet through a computer screen. The fourth screen is a lot smaller, but people here at Barcelona are convinced you want to access all the content from the other three screens on your mobile phone.

On the first day, the organizers of 3GSM brought Hollywood in to whet your appetite for the sort of content that could soon be available for phones and other handheld devices.

Six short films were unveiled in collaboration with the Sundance Institute. They were all shot exclusively for the fourth screen.

Robert Redford's Sundance asked several directors to create short films they thought people would want to watch on their mobile. And, just as importantly, want to share with the friends.

"We are fascinated by them," Sundance's John Cooper told CNN. "The quality of them and the entertainment value of them are much better than we actually thought [they would be]."

One of the films for this so-called "Global Short Film Project" is called "A Slip in Time" and was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Their current full-length feature film "Little Miss Sunshine" is up for an Academy Award.

They aren't sure how their short feature for the mobile screen will be received but they're looking forward to finding out how people will interact with it when all five films are released on the Sundance Web site.

"I like the idea that people will gather and say 'look at this, you've got to see this.' And they all come together to watch or they share with a friend," said Faris.

It's this idea of their work potentially spreading via billions of screens that excites the directors who have made the films. More are now expected.

Cooper said more Hollywood types are now interested. "I think they love the idea of the viral spreading of the story, which is fascinating. And the numbers [of potential viewers] are incredible."

So wireless access to the same content you can get from the cinema, the TV and the Internet is coming thick and fast this year.

And the top people here at Barcelona this week promise it will be a lot easier, cheaper and more exciting than what they have delivered via the phone so far.

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