Slamdance 2010 Announces Festival Awards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2010 AWARD WINNERS

Park City, Utah – January 28, 2010 – Slamdance today announced its 2010 Award Winners. The 2010 Slamdance Film Festival, which concluded tonight with an Awards Ceremony at Red Banjo Pizza on Main Street, received a record number of over 5,000 submissions from every continent and programmed 91 films this year. 2010 marked the 16th anniversary of the Slamdance Film Festival, one of the few remaining film festivals whose sole mission is to support truly independent works from first-time filmmakers staying true to its mission of “by filmmakers, for filmmakers.”

There are three competitive divisions at Slamdance: Grand Jury, Audience Awards and Special Sponsored Awards provided by Kodak and Dos Equis. Selections from the Grand Jury and Audience Award winning films will be screened in several domestic venues throughout the year, including the IFC Center in New York City.

As always the Feature competitions are limited to first-time filmmakers working with production budgets of $1 million or less.

This year Slamdance expanded its community outside of Park City during the festival with the revolutionary Filmmaker Summit and new VOD/EST distribution agreement with Microsoft. The Filmmaker Summit brought together some of the best in the film industry streaming live from all over the world via Skype including delegates Peter Baxter, Paul Rachman, Jamie King, Brian Newman and Lance Weiler in Park City, Khavn de la Cruz in the Phillippines, Timo Vuorensola in Finland, and Christy Dena in Australia, to discuss new opportunities afforded to filmmakers by the democratization of new tools and technology. Audiences from around the world were invited to participate in the Summit by tuning into www.slamdance.com/summit and continue the conversation through Twitter with designated hashtags. Columbia University and University of Southern California were amongst several colleges that held live auditorium events of the Summit.

Yesterday, Slamdance’s new distribution partnership with Microsoft went live on both Zune and Xbox LIVE platforms with four films screened at the festival in Park City: Documentary Features “American Jihadist” and “Mind of the Demon: The Larry Linkogle Story,” and Narrative Features “The Scenesters” and “The Wild Hunt.” The films are available for a seven day period for movie fans to rent though their computers or on Xbox LIVE until February 2, 2010.

“Slamdance 16 celebrated, as always, the best in independent film and emerging talent,” noted Peter Baxter, Co-Founder and President of Slamdance. “Congratulations to all of our winners and especially to all of our filmmakers who have come together this week to strengthen our community. This year’s festival also marked a first for Slamdance’s ambition of significantly widening its audience outside of Park City. The online Summit shared exhibition ideas and solutions with thousands of filmmakers around the world and our film program partnership with Microsoft has the potential of reaching millions of viewers.”

The winners of the 16th Annual Slamdance Film Festival and their prize packages are as follows:

GRAND JURY AWARDS

Grand Jury Sparky Award for Best Narrative Film
Winner: SNOW AND ASHES, directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud
Special Jury Mention: ONE HUNDRED MORNINGS, directed by Conor Horgan
Winner also receives three 8-hour work days from POP Sound in Los Angeles for Audio Post Production Services; Panasonic AG-HPX170 Camera; Sony Software Package

Grand Jury Sparky Award for Best Documentary Film
Winner: AMERICAN JIHADIST, directed by Mark Claywell
Winner also receives Sony Software Package

Grand Jury Sparky Award for Best Animated Short
Winner: SEED, directed by Ben Richardson and Daniel Bird
Winner also receives Sony Software Package

Grand Jury Sparky Award for Best Narrative Short
Winner: PRVI DAN MIRA (First Day of Peace), Mirko Rucnov
Special Jury Mention for a short documentary film: BOUT THAT BOUT, directed by Nico Sabenorio
Winner also receives Sony Software Package

AUDIENCE AWARDS

Audience Sparky Award for Best Narrative Film
Winner: THE WILD HUNT, directed by Alexandre Franchi
Winner also receives $5000 in Post Production Services from Post Factory, New York; $3500 in Legal Services from Pierce Law Group; Sony Software Package

Audience Sparky Award for Best Documentary Film
Winner: MIND OF THE DEMON: THE LARRY LINKOGLE STORY, directed by Adam Barker
Winner also receives $5000 in Post Production Services from Post Factory, New York; $3500 in Legal Services from Pierce Law Group; Sony Software Package

Audience Sparky Award for Best Anarchy Online Film
Winner: SUGAR STICK, directed by Laura Way
Winner also receives Sony Software Package

Spirit of Slamdance Sparky Short Film Award
Winner: MOSQUITO, directed by Jeremy Engle
Awarded by the Class of 2010 filmmakers to the film teams that best exhibit passion and talent, commitment to the independent community, and enthusiastically embrace all Slamdance has to offer.
Winner also receives Sony Software Package

SPONSORED AWARDS

Kodak Vision Award for Best Cinematography
Winner: GENERAL ORDERS NO. 9, directed by Robert Persons
Winner also receives 10,000 feet of Kodak film for the filmmaker to make their next feature

Dos Equis Most Interesting Film Award (and best Mumblecore film to NOT play SXSW)
Winner: THE SCENESTERS (including NOTHING BUT EVERYTHING), directed by Wallace Cotten

Slamdance also presented the 1ST Annual Script Accessible Screenplay Award sponsored by Lonely Seal Releasing to ALL THE WRONG REASONS written by Gia Milani. The Script Accessible Award is part of Slamdance’s year-round Writing Competition that received over 2,500 submissions in 2009.

Slamdance 2010 Awards are sponsored by Dos Equis, Kodak, Lonely Seal Releasing, Panasonic, Pierce Law Group, POP Sound and Sony Creative Packages.

About Slamdance

As a year-round organization, Slamdance serves as a showcase for the discovery of new and emerging talent and is dedicated to the nurturing and development of new independent artists and their cinematic vision. For the 2010 Festival, Slamdance received a record number of over 5,000 submissions. Slamdance Film Festival, presented again by Kodak, will run concurrently with the Sundance Film Festival, January 21-28, 2010 in Park City, Utah. Slamdance lives by its mantra: "By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers." No other festival is fully programmed by filmmakers. Slamdance counts among its alumni many notable writers and directors who first gained notice at the festival, including Christopher Nolan, Marc Forster and Jared Hess. Oren Peli’s “Paranormal Activity” originally acquired from Slamdance has since grossed over $100 million at the Box Office and become Paramount’s most profitable film ever. New filmmakers and writers today realize Slamdance is a great place to launch their careers. For more information, log onto www.slamdance.com and follow Slamdance on Twitter and Facebook.

Slamdance's Official Beer sponsored by Dos Equis and Official Energy Drink sponsored by Monster.

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Contact:

Megan MacLeod
megan@slamdance.com
310.597.2380