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PROJECT TWENTY1 – NOT JUST A FILM FESTIVAL |
| NEWSLETTER – September 14th, 2008 |
Welcome to all our new participants, entrants into the Film-A-Thon, and new friends! It’s been an exciting summer, and as we enter the fall, The Project Twenty1 Film Festival is approaching fast. Tickets are now available for the Festival, October 4th and 5th, 2008. All festival screenings, as well as the Awards Ceremony, will take place at the newly-renovated 400-seat International House Theater, located at 3701 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia. For access to the industry parties and Sunday night’s Awards Ceremony, as well as ALL the screenings, be sure to get yourself a Day Pass or Festival Pass and make a weekend out of it! For a list of films that are screening, check out the Events Page.
This year’s Festival will include both The Philadelphia Film-A-Thon and the 21-Day Filmmaking Competition. This year, hundreds of films were submitted to the Film-A-Thon, and 30 films were created as part of the 21-Day Filmmaking Competition, and the best submissions to the Film-A-Thon, along with ALL of the Competition films that were completed for Project Twenty1, will be screened at the festival, and compete for Awards and Prizes.
21-Day Filmmaking Competition Films
The 21-Day Competition this year was bigger and better than ever, and we are thrilled to be presenting the World Premiere of 30 excellent short films, running the gamut from horror to comedy to experimental, all in three fantastic screenings on October 5th!Starting on July 19th, 35 Teams of filmmakers from as far away as Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the UK, began making short films up to 10-minutes long, all with the same guidelines, and all in some way including this year’s Secret Element, “Light.” 30 of those Teams completed their films and animations, and 24 of those brought their films in by the Deadline. All 30 of the submitted films will screen on Sunday, October 30th, forming the Closing Night Screenings of the Project Twenty1 Film Festival.
Check out the Competition films, trailers, and more information on our filmmakers on the newly-revamped 21-Day Competition Page on our website to see screen shots, synopses, posters, trailers, and more information on the Teams themselves. And remember, there is also an Audience Award, which will be calculated based on the ballots from the film festival, so come on out, support our filmmakers and vote for your favorites. You might help get a talented Team of filmmakers some additional exposure this year!
The Philadelphia Film-A-Thon
It’s been a long road, but thanks to the work of our tireless, diligent screeners, we finally narrowed it down. It was not easy, as there were so many qualified films and we wish we could have screened more of them. But here we are, and we feel we have an excellent lineup this year! To see the list of films screening at this year’s Philadelphia Film-A-Thon segment of our Project Twenty1 Film Festival, check out our Schedule of Events. The Winner of “Best Feature” from the Film-A-Thon will be announced at the Awards Ceremony just prior to the Closing Night Party. The Prize? An offer to be the lead feature on the Compilation DVD being released by Polychrome Pictures through Warner Bros. Worldwide Home Video! Which film will it be? The field of contenders has already been greatly reduced to the films you see on our website, so come see them all October 4th and 5th, and stay for the thrilling results, to be announced Sunday night at 9:30pm.After the Awards Ceremony, come hang out with all our filmmakers, judges, hosts, staff, along with dozens of producers, actors, musicians, and artists of all types at Marbar, located at 40th and Walnut Streets! Bring your business cards, DVDs, scripts, demo CDs, and any other materials you have tom promote yourselves, because it’s going to be one of your best chances all year to meet influential people and get the ball rolling on your next project. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find that perfect star you’ve been seeking, or that producer who wants to help fund your next project!
Project Twenty1 Partners with Slamdance Film Festival!
As many of you know, we are one of the only film festivals in the world to continue promoting our Competition films after they have screened at our festival. So, while our filmmakers were making their 21-Day films, we’ve been expanding our partnership with other festivals across the country to get our filmmakers as much exposure as possible. Our newest partner: The Slamdance Film Festival! We will be submitting, on our filmmakers’ behalf, the best films created for our Competition for consideration in their January ’09 festival. Note that this is no guarantee of screening! But, when any of the films are chosen to screen by Slamdance or any other Festival Partner, we will be alerting the filmmakers in question. We are so committed to this idea that we have created a Festival Liaison position within Project Twenty1, and our staff will be starting work this week expanding our network worldwide.
Beyond Slamdance, Project Twenty1 has partnered with a half-dozen other festivals so far, with dozens of others in talks, to get these films as much exposure in as many markets as possible. Who knows? Maybe one of them is a perfect fit for Slamdance, or The Austin Underground Film Festival, or Hollyshorts. As filmmakers ourselves, we know how complicated and frustrating the festival submissions process can often be, so we’re taking some of the frustration off our filmmakers’ shoulders. After all, our Teams made their films for us, the least we can do is get them in front of as many eyeballs as possible. In 2006, some of our Competition films screened at The Big Bang Film Festival, Iris Film Festival, and Bucks County Film Festival, and a couple of them even won Awards elsewhere. If you are a 2008 Competition Team, and are planning to submit your film to other festivals after ours, check out our Festival Partners page to see the places your film may have already gone.
If you run a festival yourself, and are interested in partnering with us, please email our Festival Liaison at liaison@projecttwenty1.com.
More information and updates on our festival coming soon. But for now, you have less than 21 days to gear up… Project Twenty1 2008 is coming, so go check out our lineup of films, and reserve your tickets now for what is sure to be an awesome weekend!
Your friends, as always,
Stephanie Yuhas, Executive Producer
Matt Conant, Festival Director
Project Twenty1
Not Just A Film Festival
www.ProjectTwenty1.com
