WELTBILD INSEL – German media firm Weltbild.de will announce its first film competition on September 15 as part of a grand opening party for its new island in Second Life.

The firm has built a lavish island, created by island-builders Bokowsky & Laymann , featuring a cinema, music lounge and library; displaying samples of DVDs, CDs and books sold on the company's Web site. These locations are designed to allow visitors to sample the products the company sells before buying them, in a similar manner to the 'demo' products offered by many of Second Life's fashion retailers.

On the opposite side of the courtyard at the center of the island is an auditorium where posters in English and German announce the forthcoming film competition. Residents are invited to submit scripts for a short film with a L$500,000 first prize. The firm is also running a casting competition in which they are looking to find the best actors to take part in a production of the winning script.

The winning script, which must be no longer than seven minutes in length, will be filmed in “original locations in Second Life”. The company has left the genre to the writer(s) and will accept entries in both English and German but all entries must be a "U certificate"; i.e. suitable for minors. The winning entry will be selected by a panel of judges and more details will be made available at the launch party.

Weltbild, known in Germany as Verlagsgruppe Weltbild Gmbh, competes with Amazon.de as one of Germany's largest media and mail-order companies. The firm employs about 4,500 and according to Hoover's, recorded $972 million USD in sales last year. recorded revenues in 2006 of $1.9 billion USD. According to the Weltbild Web site, the firm publishes mass market and discount books.

A spokesperson for Weltbild was not available for comment.