From Sundance to Cannes to New York to Los Angeles, issue-based filmmaking and digital user-generated content is sweeping the media world. Internet users are democratizing the media landscape, revolutionizing the way films are made, all the while confronting the most important issues that face today's youth. The 4th Annual "Film Your Issue" (or FYI) Film Festival is the premiere film festival for this youth-movement of politics and filmmaking. And this year, the FYI Festival has selected the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel & Spa as its official hotel.

"The FYI Film Festival is an outstanding outlet for today's young passionate socially-conscious filmmakers," says Bruce Gorelick, General Manager at the Renaissance Hollywood luxury hotel. "It's an exciting, new kind of world when vibrant voices like these can just grab a camera, post their film online, and show the world what they care about and why. We're all excited about what we're going to see."

Open to citizens of the world between the ages 14 and 24, the FYI Film Festival is a forum for the youth of the world to speak their mind and show off their creativity, all within a short two-minute online film. With over 500 entries this year, the festival's judges will select 35 semi-finalists, and those semi-finalists will be judged by a VIP Jury and by the public online at Think.MTV.com and MySpace Impact. More information on FYI can be found online at the festival's website: http://filmyourissue.com.

This month, the FYI Film Festival comes to Hollywood, and winners from across the U.S. will be hosted at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel & Spa. To help celebrate FYI, the hotel's official blog will be hosting news from the festival as well as thoughts from hotel cast members on their favorite shorts. Readers are encouraged to post their own thoughts of the festival's shorts as well. The blog can be found at http://blog.renaissancehollywood.com.

"In the same spirit of this digital film festival, we want to encourage people to interact and express their thoughts on these important issues online, and they can do it on our hotel blog," explains Gorelick, who regularly posts on the blog. "That's what our blog is all about: reaching out to the digital generation to hear what's on their minds, which of course is the whole point of FYI, too."