WorldFest Houston closes new prime sponsor

AMC THEATERS SPONSORS THE 37TH WORLDFEST-HOUSTON!

AMC THEATERS IS THE NEW PRIME THEATER SPONSOR OF THE 37th ANNUAL WORLDFEST-HOUSTON, APRIL 16-25, 2004.

The 37th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival welcomes its newest major sponsor, the AMC Theater Corporation for the upcoming April 16-25, 2004 event. All screenings will be held at the newly remodeled AMC Meyer Park 16 Theaters. WorldFest will screen just 50-60 feature film premieres, and 104 new short films from 33 countries with a total and absolute emphasis on the American and International Independent feature films and a continuing annual spotlight on award-winning short films and documentary films.

WorldFest Artistic and Program Director, Kathleen Haney, stated, „We are now finalizing our film selection of independent films from all over the world. We expect to complete our program selection in ten days. In consideration of both our festival audiences and the independent filmmakers, we feel that a solid high-quality program of no more than 60 features is optimum in a ten-day festival with twelve screening slots (on three theater screens) per day.“ Haney continued, „We are looking for ‘A good story, well told’ as our time-tested approach to film selection. We have special sidebars of Foreign, Children’s and Family Film and Award-winning Documentary Sections. All of our films are totally Indie productions and almost every feature and short film is represented by their filmmakers, who attend to personally introduce their films and have a Q&A session after the screening.

WorldFest continues its annual Short Film Showcase, a special review of 104 new short, documentary, student and experimental films...from the festival that gave first top honors to Spielberg, Lucas, The Coen Brothers, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, John Lee Hancock, Oliver Stone, Ang Lee, & David Lynch, and many others! No other festival has such a „discovery“ track record. WorldFest has emerged as the oldest film festival management in the world with the same director, continuously for 37 consecutive years. A few other festivals are older, but they have had as many as ten different directors.

The complete WorldFest-Houston screening schedule with titles and times, plus special mini-synopsis of each film will be on the website by March 19th. The Official Media Sponsor of the 37th Annual WorldFest-Houston, The Houston Chronicle, will print a detailed and complete screening schedule with reviews and mini-synopsis for each feature and short film. In addition, there will be complete coverage of the nine professional production seminars and all attending filmmakers will personally introduce their films to the audience. They will hold a Q&A session after each film and will meet the public at the WorldFest-Houston Festival Club at the WorldFest-Houston HQ hotel.

Last year, the 36th WorldFest's 2003 top honors - The Remi Grand Awards went to the following productions:

Best Feature Film, Nynke (Holland) directed by Pieter Verhoeff;
Best Film & Video Production, Documentary Death of a Warrior Barna-Alper Productions (Canada);
Best Television & Cable Production, Alone at Sea CineNova Productions (Canada); Best Short Subject Father and Daughter, Michael Dudock de Wit (Holland) (also winner of the HP Crystal Vision Award, $2,500 in cash and a HP iPAQ Pocket Computer);
Best Music Video, Flogging Molly: What's Left of The Flag, Steve Marino, Voodoo Design & Special Effects (NYC-USA);
Best Commercial Museum of the Mountain Man Steve Marino, Voodoo Design & Special Effects, (NYC-USA);
Best Student Production Time for Change, Daniel DeJesus, Florida State University (USA);
Best Experimental Untitled: 003 Embryo Mike Goedecke, (USA);
Best Unproduced Screenplay, Wizard of Genoa Gary L. Miner;
The HP Crystal Vision Award for Feature Films, Artworks," Jim Amatulli (USA) ($2,500 cash award and a HP iPAQ Pocket Computer.); In addition to Grand Awards, WorldFest presented a special Grant-in-Aid Award: the Eastman Kodak Cinematography Award, $2,500 in 35mm or 16mm film stock to the short film The Legend of Razorback, Michael Greenspan, Los Angeles, California.

WorldFest traces its actual beginnings to August 1961, when it began screening foreign & art films as Cinema Arts, an international film society. It became a competitive international film festival seven years later, in April 1968, and has been in continuous operation since. It is one of the original three film festivals in North America, with San Francisco and New York as the first two events. Now there are more than 600 USA film festivals of various levels and quality, most being just non-competitive screening events!

The 37th Annual WorldFest also has international competition in TV production, TV commercials, unproduced Screenplays & Teleplays, Experimental, Student, Documentary, Business & Industry, New Media, Radio, Print and Music Videos. WorldFest is one of the largest film & video competitions in the world, with more than 4,300 category entries received in 2003. There are almost 200 sub-categories for competition, allowing each film to compete in its own genre against other entries of the same kind.

WorldFest offers more than $25,000 in cash grants and film & equipment awards, including the $2500 Eastman Kodak Student Award and the HP Crystal Vision Award. For more complete information on the 37th Annual 2004 WorldFest-Houston and the film selection list and schedule, send your name and address to:

"FORGET SUNDANCE! …WorldFest is one of the best conceived festival productions on the planet!“ ~ Craig Outhier, film critic, Phoenix press; Tempe Times.