Full-length film shot with smartphone

Los Angeles:  An independent US filmmaker has made what is believed to be the first feature-length movie shot with a smartphone, to be released on December 16, with two-time Oscar-nominated 81-year-old actress Gena Rowlands in the starring role.

Olive, about "a little girl who transforms the lives of three people without speaking one word," was filmed using only a Nokia N8 cellphone, with a high-resolution camera adapted with a 35mm lens. "Technology is moving so quickly and cellphones are really going to be the thing that does everything eventually," the 37-year-old director Hooman Khalili said. "They already do so much, and in January 2010 I came up with this idea and I saw there was nothing out there that existed."

The first five minutes of Olive, viewable at www.olivethemovie.com, have already created a buzz in Hollywood gearing up for its annual Oscar awards in February.

"This is groundbreaking technology. You know someone is gonna be first, and there's something special about being first. And yeah, our lens might be big and clunky, but this is how first generations of new technology are," Khalili said.

The movie cost less than $500,000 (Dh1.83 million) — a fraction of a typical Hollywood budget.