Canon U.S.A., Inc. announced today the first photography-inspired film festival in history, aligning with five artists/creators who will direct short films under the tutelage of Ron Howard.

The five are Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria, Biz Stone, Georgina Chapman and James Murphy, and they've all signed on for year two of Canon’s “Long Live Imagination” campaign and the next endeavor, “Project Imaginat10n,” where consumer photographs will inspire Hollywood films.

In 2011, Ron Howard and Canon U.S.A. invited photographers of all levels to submit their most imaginative photographs based on eight elements of storytelling for an unprecedented user-generated contest, “Project Imagin8ion.” Nearly 100,000 photos later, eight photos were selected and influenced an award-winning short film, when you find me, directed by Bryce Dallas Howard.

The films directed by Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria, Biz Stone, Georgina Chapman and James Murphy will be produced on the Cinema EOS System.

A new exploration of the creative exercise, “Project Imaginat10n,” kicks off today at imagination.usa.canon.com, where consumers will have the chance to submit photos to be narrowed down by Canon, Ron Howard and community voting.

The “10” in “Imaginat10n,” represents ten storytelling elements and ten films that will ultimately be produced, five of which will be directed by our creative icons to be showcased at a special Canon “Project Imaginat10n” Film Festival in 2013.

The other five film directors will be announced at a later date.

“It has been a pleasure to partner with Canon on this experiment and I’m thrilled to work with this talented group of new directors – Eva, Jamie, Biz, Georgina and James – to help them on this creative journey,” said Ron Howard in a press statement.

This won't be Jamie Foxx's first time behind the camera by the way; his IMDBPro page lists a 2011 TV movie called Night Tales, which I don't think ever aired.