Youku Boosts Chinese Film-Makers With New Indie Projects [UPDATED]

[Update, Nov. 11: Clarified the new program in the second paragraph, and added a more relevant indie movie]

Youku (NYSE: YOKU), China’s biggest video-sharing site, has just launched a new portal called Youku Presents, which showcases some of the country’s young, indie filmmakers.

Youku Presents gives practical support, promotion, and potential sponsorship to some young, Chinese digital movie-makers, and has grown out of the website’s earlier Youku Originals platform. But this new initiative is a sort of hybrid of indie-made and Youku-produced content.

The first Presents project kicks off today with a series from five young, local filmmakers called “Operation Thanksgiving” – a bit baffling, though, since that’s a North America-only holiday institution – but is more generally “aimed at encouraging young people to thank the people who have helped them in their lives.”

The company’s Originals series has been sponsored a number of major brands, such as the American automaker Chevrolet, Lenovo, and Philips – showing that special projects like these can actually be lucrative.

Youku’s senior VP, Frank Ming Wei, commented in a press release:

Youku has had the privilege of working with talented young directors to bring their work to the public – from ‘Hip-Hop Office Quartet’ to last year’s ‘Old Boys.’ We are delighted to preserve that tradition with Youku Presents, and we look forward to fostering new talent for years to come as we tap the creative potential of our users and the commercial potential of our platform.

Some of the digital artists participating in Youku’s new platform might well be hoping it’ll bring them some artistic and/or commercial success, such as getting featured in a film festival, or being picked up by a brand for use in a viral marketing campaign.

So far, there’s just one Presents short film released, which I’ve embedded here for you to watch. It’s 13-minutes long, has English subtitles, and is called Grandfather.