Slamdance's motto is "By Filmmakers, For Filmmakers" aptly describes the
programming team, which is largely comprised of alumni filmmakers. The
Slamdance Film Festival serves as a showcase for the discovery of emerging
film talent. Slamdance's mission is to support and nurture innovative
artists. The organization's goals for the future are to strengthen its
year-round organization and evolve the Slamdance brand into new ventures
that will support emerging filmmakers. Special screenings have showcased
work by Steven Soderbergh, Alexandre Rockwell, Mark Levin and other more
established entertainment industry talents.

With a renowned film festival at its heart, Slamdance has expanded to include domestic and international On The Road events (Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., Cologne, Beijing, Wroclaw-Poland), a thriving screenplay competition, a very active website at slamdance.com, the Anarchy online short film competition, a $99 Special short film production wing and a newly formed Boot Camp education program.

"The Slamdance 2004 Film Festival has invited 19 feature films
to compete at our tenth annual festival," Peter Baxter, Slamdance
President/Co-Founder, announced today. Eleven of the Competition Features
screening this year are fictional narratives and eight are documentaries. In
addition to the 19 feature length films, 13 of which are premieres,
Slamdance will also screen 21 short films in competition. Special
Screenings, films screening out of competition and festival events will be
announced at a later date.

The festival, once again headquartered at the Treasure Mountain Inn (255
Main Street) will take place January 17-24, 2004, in Park City, Utah -
coinciding with the Sundance Film Festival. In addition to the popular
Brewvies screenings, Slamdance will expand further in Salt Lake City with
programming at the new Madstone Theater Location (Trolley Square, 552 South
602 East, Salt Lake City, madstonetheaters.com). Screenings at Madstone will
focus on competition docs.

"Slamdance Number 10 will celebrate, as always, our original mission of
showcasing emerging filmmaking talent. If you want to see true independent
film Slamdance is the place to be," said Peter Baxter, Slamdance
President/Co-Founder. "This year is the Festival's biggest line-up and is
mostly made up of newcomers. Since it's inception in 1995, the Festival's
goal has been to continue to reach out to new filmmakers and to exhibit
fresh, raw and largely unknown talent at its best, in the spirit of
filmmaking without apologies."

Speaking about this year's submissions, Nubia Flores, Slamdance's Director
of Programming said, "We've continued to see a dramatic increase in the
number of films made through the various digital formats. The novelty of
shooting with inexpensive digital video has worn off and we're seeing
filmmakers focus more on story and character development. Digital
filmmaking has transcended the 90s Dogme aesthetic and filmmakers are
refocusing on old-school values like storytelling and character development.
It's getting back to the message and not the medium."

The Slamdance feature competition section is limited specifically to
first-time filmmakers working with limited budgets who have not yet found
U.S. distribution. Many of the films in the non-competitive section are also
directed by first-time filmmakers.

Speaking about the programming process, Flores says, "It's still a uniquely
consensus-based programming process, and the broadening of our reputation
hasn't changed the spirit of how our films are selected." Slamdance does not
make any early invitations or selections for its feature competition. Over
50 programmers were involved in the selection process. The festival welcome
films in any subject matter, length, format (including digital and video),
finished or not."

Bruno Chatelin