In a quite unusual move, IMDB, Earth’s biggest database of movies and TV shows, announced today it will acquire Without A Box, a media company that connect independent movie-makers with audiences.

Inspired by David Straus’ and Joe Neulight’s frustrations with trying to navigate through the cumbersome film festival submission process while graduate students at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, they created Withoutabox to democratize the movie business with a suite of online tools designed to empower filmmakers and other content creators to self-distribute and monetize their films.

Withoutabox.com offers to the independent filmmakers a fully integrated service for submitting films to festivals worldwide and promoting these films directly to fans everywhere. For film festival organizers, Withoutabox provides tools to manage and promote film festivals online.

“For eight years, Withoutabox has enabled filmmakers and festivals to reach the widest audience possible,” said David Straus, CEO, Withoutabox. “Now, they will be able to connect directly with the 50 million film lovers who visit IMDb each month.”

IMDB, which is an Amazon’s subsidiary, said it plans to operate Without A Box as a stand-alone operation based in the Los Angeles area.

Last year, Microsoft and Amazon have decided to work together to help indie filmmakers bring their creations to the HD era, by facilitating the distribution of HD DVD movies through Amazon’s innovative manufacturing-on-demand technology of CustomFlix.

The “1,000 HD DVD Indies Project” will provide free authoring and setup services for up to 1,000 selected indie titles.