CANNES -- An innovative American filmmaker has copped top prize in the fifth annual Online Short Film Competition, which is run by the National Film Board of Canada in conjunction with the Cannes Film Festival.

Joaquin Baldwin's Sebastian's Voodoo beat nine other finalists, including two from Canada. About 8,000 people around the world voted over nine days on the 10 films, which had been selected from 1,400 entries.

Sebastian's Voodoo is the story of a voodoo doll that screws up the courage to keep his pals from being pinned to death. NFB chairman Tom Perlmutter, also Canada's government film commissioner, awarded the prize to Baldwin in a ceremony in Cannes yesterday.

The winning film is an animation drama and can still be seen online until June 21. It plays in English at nfb.ca/cannes or youtube.com/nfb. It plays in French at onf.ca/cannes or youtube.com/onf. The NFB awarded Baldwin a semi-professional HD MINI-DV camera and a computer with post-production software.

The other finalists were: Jordan Canning's Countdown (Canada), Spiros Jocovides' Dr. Mori's Teleshopping (Greece), Teemu Nikki's Legacy (Finland), Luke Randall's Reach (Australia), David O'Neill's Tenner (Great Britain), Diamond Dogs' The Black Hole (Great Britain), Rodrigo Gudino's The Facts in the Case of Mister Hollow (Canada), Tom Daley's The Rules of the Game (U.S.A.) and Robin Willis' Walter Ate a Peanut (U.S).