MANHATTAN SHORT today announced The Feature Film Project, a new program that will discover and launch one feature film each year, with the help of over one hundred cinemas and the interactive opinions of movie goers across the United States.

On March 21 2013 the winning feature film selected from a global call for entries will screen in over one hundred cinemas across the USA.  Audiences at each venue will receive a voting card at each cinema and be asked, ‘Should this film return to this cinema for a week’s theatrical release in six weeks?” If the majority of the audiences vote “yes”, then that film will receive a theatrical release in that cinema six weeks later.  The Feature Film Project is presented by the organizers of the MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival, one of the largest short film festivals in the world taking place in over 300 cinemas across six continents during one week each year.

‘The films I remember best are the films I saw in the cinema’ said MANHATTAN SHORT founding director Nicholas Mason. ‘I grew up in Sydney Australia.  I remember going to this little indie-cinema and catching films such ‘Sex Lies & Video Tape” and “Blood Simple”. The reason those films came to Australia was because they did well at a film festival in the USA. Those films then made it into the indie-cinemas across the USA where they resonated with an audience and eventually made it to Australia, where they had an impact on people like me.  These films had no major stars or million dollar marketing campaigns, it was the cinemas and the cinema-going public across the USA that elevated them to success.  A trend has started in which films appear at major film festivals across this country and are then encouraged to go straight to Video-on-Demand.  The thought of a theatrical release is not even entertained. The Feature Film Project is about getting indie films back into a cinema and letting the public decide what happens to them after that”.

“MANHATTAN SHORT’s ability to put together a quality, short film festival is the reason why we’re excited about working with them on this new Feature Film Project. It’s exciting to see independent film get a break like this.” said Dawn Riordan of the Normal Theatre in Illinois. 

The Feature Film Project is open to feature films of all genres and Documentaries.  Filmmakers have until December 31 2012 to submit their films if they wish to be part of the Feature Film Project.  For more information and entry forms visit the Feature Film Project’s website at www.TheFeatureFilmProject.com  

Contact: Info@TheFeatureFilmProject.com