YouTube is continuing to put money behind its community of video makers, and today it's announcing five new partnerships including one to begin making feature films this year. The feature films will be made in partnership with AwesomenessTV, which was purchased two years ago by DreamWorks Animation. Together, they intend to release "several" feature-length movies during the next two years, with the first targeted for this fall. The films will be "driven by YouTube stars" and developed by AwesomenessTV CEO Brian Robbins.

The films will premiere on YouTube before heading elsewhere

It's unclear exactly what the final results will look like, but it sounds like YouTube is playing to its strengths, going for personality-based films around established video stars. And given that several films are being made within two years, it sounds like they'll each be made with very quick productions. YouTube will premiere the films worldwide, after which they may be made available on other platforms. This is clearly a distribution play by YouTube, too. It says that it believes this will establish "what we believe will become a new distribution paradigm for years to come." Major movie studios may not agree with that, but perhaps YouTube is only concerned with distributing more independent content.