SAN DIEGO, the United States, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The 8th International Mobile Film Festival (IMFF) was held in the southern Californian city of San Diego over the weekend, drawing huge audience.

In tune with their catchy slogan "The red carpet is in your pocket," the annual festival is intended to inspire people of all ages, helping them to live up to their potentials and realize their dreams to become filmmakers by using only cellphone video camera, the festival organizers told Xinhua on Monday.

"Our mission is to create a bridge between filmmakers using their smartphones to create films and the traditional film industry," the festival's founder, Susan Botello of S. Botello Productions said. "We seek to empower the storyteller inside everyone, of any age."

The annual festival shows only films shot by mobile phones.

Said Narelle Nash, an Australian attendee of the festival, said: "Simply the best! Festival Director Susan goes above and beyond to make filmmakers feel special and valued. Highly recommend this film festival, which included screenings, workshops, lectures and a red carpet award ceremony."

Two feature films being screened this year are "Mad House" by Ross Perkins, a filmmaker from Australia, and "Consensus Reality" by Steven Peterson, a Los Angeles resident.

"Mad House" tells the story of a successful businessman, Dale Mortimer, who has his happy home with his wife and daughter. His life was destroyed by three junkies who stole his smartphone and used his personal information against him to invade and hold his family hostage.

In "Consensus Reality," a schizophrenic architect must embrace his madness in order to uncover the dark secrets of New York City to prevent an ancient Gnostic god from escaping its subterranean prison.

According to the film festival's rule so far, every year a jury selects no more than three feature films for competition and screening.

The standard length of feature films for the festival is 40 to 90 minutes and the short mobile film competition remains at 1 to 5 minutes.

Initiated in 2012, the IMFF has been listed as a Gold Member Film Festival on FilmFreeway.com and an IMDb qualifying film festival.

Festival organizers also co-host a summer camp for teens on mobile filmmaking with Carlsbad High School Film Academy, California.