Project Durian (named "Sintel") was the Blender Institute’s third movie. The movie started production in September 2009 and was premiered at the Netherlands Film Festival at the end of September 2010. With a much larger team and bigger budget, the targets were very ambitious, resulting in a 15 minute short film that has found much acclaim on the web; story telling and editing were top priorities for the team.

Development targets mainly focused on getting the Blender 2.5x series more stable and usable, improving the sculpting tools, efficient detail rendering and global illumination.  - Excerpt from blender.org

Sintel was the first project that convinced Kent Trammell of Blender's legitimacy as a professional-quality 3D production software. It also landed on Tim Von Rueden's radar when it was shown in class while he was in college studying 3D animation - yeah, 3D animation. Join Kent, Tim, and Lampel as they dive into the film!