FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
44th Annual WorldFest-Houston Intl Film Festival |
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Press Release |
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WorldFest-Houston Intl Film Festival Wraps as Great
Success!
Festival Attendance was up more than 15%! There
were 21 World Premieres!
Houston, Texas -
Apr 23, 2010
WorldFest-Houston, the third longest-running
International Film Festival in North America, and
oldest Indie Film Festival in the World, celebrated
the conclusion of its 10-day run of films, fun and
fanfare in its 44th annual independent film showcase
with an increase in overall audience attendance of
15 percent over 2010 attendance, despite the
economic turndown.
Kicking off WorldFest's Opening Night festivities on
Friday, April 8, was the Texas premiere of Chad
Waterhouse and Ankush Kholi's poignant road film
EXODUS FALL (Jesse James, Rosanna Arquette) with
producer, Michael Baumgarten and both directors on
hand to present their film. WorldFest also this year
celebrated its Sixth annual Panorama Italia in
collaboration with Albert di Mauro, Director of the
Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles, CA. (IIC),
featuring Laura Luchetti's FEBBRE DA FIENO and three
other independently produced Italian films.
Closing weekend festivities April 16 & April 17
included a Grand Awards Gala on Saturday night that
culminated with a Sunday morning VIP NASA & Space
Center Houston whirlwind tour and WorldFest Consular
Regatta and Barbeque hosted by Port of Houston
Authority and The Houston Yacht Club. The "Longhorn
Cowgirls" from Hempstead, Texas accompanied by two
huge Longhorn steers and welcomed the hundreds of
visiting international filmmakers at The Houston
Yacht Club.
To wrap up, WorldFest offered a tiered closing bill
of Panorama Entertainment's ANOTHER HARVEST MOON
directed by Greg Swartz, an encore screening of
Shawn Welling's PROJECT AETHER a three time winner
at the Awards Gala & an encore screening of Egemen
Erturk's THE RINGING BALL just in from Istanbul.
WorldFest, founded as Cinema Arts, an International
Film Society in August 1961, became the third
competitive international film festival in North
America, following San Francisco and New York.
WorldFest evolved into a competitive International
Film Festival in April 1968 and has a long list of
"discovered" film greats such as Steven Spielberg,
George Lucas, David Lynch, Ridley Scott, Oliver
Stone, Atom Egoyan, Randall Kleiser, Ang Lee, Robert
Rodriguez, the Coen Brothers, John Lee Hancock and
many others from their beginning efforts for film
submissions early in their careers. Multi
award-winning producer/director, Hunter Todd,
founded this film festival to honor all categories
of film and video production continuing his long
dedication of "Discovery," spotlighting emerging
Independent filmmakers as "the Spielbergs & Ang Lees
of tomorrow."
WorldFest's mission is to recognize and honor
outstanding creative excellence in film & video,
validate brilliant abilities and promote future
filmmaking in Texas as well as enhance cultural
tourism for Houston and environs. The 10-day
festival ran to a smashing finish with several
sold-out full houses, one of which was the Shawn
Welling's third film PROJECT AETHER, a Sci-fi which
was shot in Houston, 21 World Premieres, 56 Indie
feature productions, 111 award winning shorts. Over
550 USA and International filmmakers attended this
year, despite the economic downturn impacting
various countries and the earthquake and tsunami in
Japan.
All film premieres screened at the Flagship AMC
Studio 30 Theatres, a seventh year WorldFest-Houston
Cinema partner. Other major VIP Partner/Sponsors
include Boxer Property, The Houston Arts Alliance (HAA),
Wagner Media, Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, The Marriott
Hotels, The City of Houston, The State of Texas, The
NEA, Budget Rent a Car, NASA/Space Center Houston,
The Wellness Center, The Houston Yacht Club, The
Port of Houston Authority (Regatta VIP Sponsors) &
the Becker Vineyards, a renowned Texas vineyard.
WorldFest's Remi Awards Gala on Saturday, April 16th
was held in The HQ Westchase Marriott Hotel, VIP
partner & official host hotel for the 44th WorldFest.
Festivities began with a cocktail reception hosted
by The Houston Film Commission. James McMurray,
member of the 5-time World Champion Bagpipe Band of
Houston's St. Thomas Episcopal School opened the
Awards Gala by piping in festival founder, Hunter
Todd followed by the enthusiastic filmmakers amidst
a bevy of Pastorini Bosby Talent award presenters.
Dance entertainment was presented by Nelly Fraga's
Ambassador Mexican Folkloric Dancers, a Scottish
Highland dance set by St. Thomas award winning
Scottish dancers & a grand finale by Shawn Welling's
Planet Funk Academy's lead dancers who performed a
high-energy dance mix created specially for the
gala. Every WorldFest event is always open to the
public.
On April 14, 15, and 16th, WorldFest conducted
Six Film Industry Master Class Seminars concluding
with the Indie Forum of WorldFest feature film
Directors. Laura Pennino, CEO of Pennino and
Partners kicked-off the Master Classes with the
"Publicity for Indies" seminar followed by "The
Write Stuff" with Nick Nicholson, President of the
Houston Film Critics Society. Alan Mendelsohn flew
in from Canada for his ever popular "Docs on a Dime"
followed by Panorama Entertainment's Stuart Strutin
who presented "Distribution for Indies" - a
must-attend for every Indie filmmaker. The highlight
of this year's WorldFest Seminars was a Master Class
presented by Randal Kleiser - Director of the
classic musical, GREASE, which he presented later
that day in its new Sing-Along Version. The Indie
Directors Forum rounded out the 2011 WorldFest
seminar line-up.
All film premieres screened at the Flagship AMC
Studio 30 Theatres, a seventh year WorldFest-Houston
Cinema partner. Other major VIP Partner/Sponsors
include Boxer Property, The Huffington Foundation,
Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, The Marriott Hotels, The
City of Houston, The Houston Film Commission, The
Texas Film Commission, The Houston Arts Alliance,
Budget Rent a Car, Wagner Media, NASA/Space Center
Houston, The Wellness Center, The Houston Yacht Club
and Spec's & wonderful Becker Vineyard Wines!
The WorldFest's Remi Awards Gala on Saturday, April
16, was held in the beautiful Marriott Westchase
Hotel, which was the new VIP partner and official
host hotel for the 44th annual WorldFest.
Festivities began with a cocktail reception hosted
by The Houston Film Commission. Members of the
five-time World Champion Bagpipe Band of Houston's
St. Thomas Episcopal School launched the awards
segment by piping in festival founder, Hunter Todd
followed by a bevy of Pastorini Bosby Talent award
presenters.
WorldFest 2011 Grand REMI Awards are:
· WorldFest 2011 Grand REMI Awards are: · BEST
THEATRICAL FEATURE ~ PINPRICK
(Switzerland) Director Daniel Young also winning the
Best Foreign film and Best editing to Agi Mogor &
Jann Ludin. · BEST FILM & VIDEO ~ BLAU JEANS,
Meaghan Kimball, MVK FILMS, New York, NY · BEST TV &
CABLE PRODUCTION ~ CHILDREN OF BLANKENESE,
Ulrike Dotzer, NORDDEUTSCHER RUNDFUNK, Arte Dept.
Hamburg, GERMANY · BEST NEW MEDIA ~ ZOMETA
Mechanism of Action, Kathryn Givan, SHAW
SCIENCE PARTNERS, Atlanta, Georgia, USA · BEST
EXPERIMENTAL FILM & VIDEO ~ CANOE,
Shelagh Carter, DARKLING PICTURES Winnipeg, CANADA ·
BEST TELEVISION COMMERCIAL ~ LEGENDARY BIRU,
DENTSU CANADA INC. Toronto, ONTARIO, CANADA · BEST
SHORT SUBJECT ~ LASTRAIN, Melanie
Romat, LOLITA PELICULITAS, Madrid, SPAIN · BEST
STUDENT FILM ~ BREAD & KISSES
Katherine Fitzgerald, CALLIOPE PICTURES, Toronto,
CANADA · BEST MUSIC VIDEO ~KIMBRA - 'SETTLE
DOWN' Edward Goldner, MAMMAL FILMS,Vic.
AUSTRALIA · BEST SCRIPT ~ SHADOWS ON THE NILE
written by Etienne Verhaegen, CINEMA DIRECT
Theoule-Sur-Mer, FRANCE
The Houston Film Critics Society with the
coordination of its president, Nick Nicholson
presented two Critics Choice Awards selected from
the World premieres submitted into competition
LIBERIA 77 directed by Canadian Jeff
Topham for the Best Documentary and PROJECT
AETHER directed by Shawn Welling for Best
Feature. Two new Critic's Choice Awards this year
were Best Actors, Joy Willard from PROJECT
AETHER and to Tyler Hoechlin from OPEN
GATE. The Russian-American Publication
sponsored the Best Foreign film award which went to
PINPRICK. The Best Houston Production
Remi Award went to PLAYING HOUSE
directed by Tom Vaughan. The Best Texas Production
Award went to THE WALL: A WORLD DIVIDED,
KUHT, HOUSTON PBS. The recipient of the WorldFest
Career Achievement Award was Randal Kleiser,
director of many wonderful films such as
GREASE, FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR, THE BLUE LAGOON,
BOY IN A BUBBLE, HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS
among many others. Randal won his very first award
at WorldFest back in 1973, for his short film
PEEGE! -
All other award results from this year's WorldFest
competition and photos from the Awards Gala are now
posted on our website at
www.worldfest.org - There were more than 4,200
category entries in all film and video competitions,
and only between 12-15% of submitted entries placed
for WorldFest Remi awards. During the 10-day
festival, over 450 filmmakers from more than 33
nations around the world were in attendance to
personally accept their various awards from this
year's WorldFest's competition of thousands of
submitted category entries. Dates for WorldFest-Houston
#44th April 13 - 22nd, 2012. Please check our
website at -
www.worldfest.org - for the full winners' list
or call
713-965-9955 for more information.
"Call for Entries" for next year's event will be
mailed out in late August. Entries officially open
August 15th, 2011. Main deadline is December 15,
2011. Download official entry forms from our website
starting Aug. 1st, 2011. WorldFest-Houston,
PO Box 56566, Houston, Texas 77256-6566
713-965-9955
www.worldfest.org
info@worldfest.org
Learn more about the 44th WorldFest-Houston...
WorldFest Chairman & Founding Director Hunter Todd
presents the 2011 Remi Career Achievement Award to
Randal Kleiser, who won his very first award with
WorldFest in 1973 for PEEGE - the top
grossing Indie Short Film in history!
The 45th Annual WorldFest - April 13 - 22, 2012
All other award results from this year's
WorldFest competition are posted at
www.worldfest.org. WorldFest received more than
4,200 entries in 12 major categories of all film and
video competitions. Between 12 and 15 percent of all
entries received a WorldFest Remi Award.
During the 10-day festival, over 550 filmmakers from
more than 32 nations were in Houston to personally
accept awards from this year's WorldFest's
competition. Dates for the 45th WorldFest-Houston
are set for April 13-22, 2012. Please check
www.worldfest.org for the full winners' list or
call 713- 965-9955 for more information.
The "Call for Entries" for next year's event will be
mailed out in late August. Entries officially open
Aug. 15, 2011. The main deadline is Dec. 15, 2011.
Entry forms can be downloaded from
www.worldfest.org starting Aug. 1.
WorldFest-Houston, PO Box 56566, Houston, Texas
77256-6566
713-965-9955
www.worldfest.org
mail@worldfest.org
WorldFest-Houston Intl Film Festival
Kathleen Haney
Program & Artistic Director
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WorldFest is proudly sponsored by
AMC Theaters,
the Houston Arts Alliance,
Boxer Property,
Eastman Kodak,
The City of Houston,
The Houston Film Commission,
The HQ Marriott Westchase Hotel at 2900 Briarpark,
Space Center Houston,
Texas Longhorns,
Wagner Media,
TLS Graphics,
NASA,
The Houston Yacht Club and
The Houston Film Society. WorldFest is a non-
profit 501- (c)- (3) organization founded in 1961.
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WOWZERONI-REMI - I mean RINI!
Thank you so much for sharing this, Hunter!
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