For immediate release:
31 October 2003…NEWS…NEWS…NEWS…NEWS!

For more info:
Contact ~ Kathleen Haney, Program Director (713) 965-9955

37th WORLDFEST-HOUSTON SETS FEST DATES, CALLS FOR ENTRIES!

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

The 37th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival continues its totally dedicated Independent Film screening format for the upcoming April 16-25, 2004 unspooling. WorldFest will screen just 50-60 feature film premieres, 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. The EARLY BIRD (discount) Deadline for entries is Nov. 15th 2003; the main Entry Deadline is Dec. 15th 2003, with a FINAL Deadline of Jan. 15th 2004 (late fee). Entry forms & complete entry information is on our website (www.worldfest.org) - Entries officially open August 1st, 2003 for competition in the 37th Annual WorldFest.

WorldFest Artistic and Program Director, Kathleen Haney, stated, “We are continuing our focus on a quality selection of individual films to maintain a smaller, yet effective program rather than an overly large and unwieldy slate of 150-300 films. 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 Sections. All of our films are totally Indie productions, and each film is well represented by their filmmakers, who attend to introduce their films!” All 35mm & DVD films are screened at the NOVA Meyerland Theater, host of the 2004 WorldFest, the Indie Film Festival for the New Millennium. (For complete winner info from 2003, go to www.worldfest.org)

WorldFest will continue with its annual Short Film Showcase, a special review of 100 new short and student films...from the festival that gave first honors to Spielberg, Lucas, The Coen Brothers, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, Oliver Stone, Ang Lee, and David Lynch, among 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 36th Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival concluded with a solid upturn in box office. Several bona-fide hit movies, a Gala Awards Banquet with top honors presented to up-and-coming attending filmmakers from over 37 countries from round the globe, Indie Panels and a exciting Houston Yacht Club Sailing Regatta & Texas BBQ were highlights of the 36th Annual WorldFest-Houston this year! Attendance at the 10-day fest was near 25,000, up considerably from 2002 box office figures. The Opening Night World Premiere of "One Last Dance" directed by Lisa Niemi and starring Patrick Swayze sold out and the overflowing, sold-out Awards Dinner at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Houston, on Saturday night (April 12) hosted a record number of international filmmakers, despite the war and the effects of the economic downturn.

WorldFest's 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, FSU (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 offers international competition in TV production, TV commercials, unproduced Screenplays & Teleplays, Experimental, Student, Documentary, Business & Industry, New Media, Radio, Print and Music Videos. WorldFest is the largest film & video competition in the world, with more than 4,300 category entries received in 2002. There are almost 200 sub-categories for competition, allowing each film to compete in its own genre.

WorldFest offers more than $25,000 in cash grants and film & equipment awards, including the $2500 Eastman Kodak Student Award.

For more information on the 37th Annual 2004 WorldFest-Houston, plus the free four-color 26x36 poster designed by the creative team at Bates Southwest, with the entry & information kit on back of the poster, send your name and address to:

Entry Team WorldFest - 2004
37th Annual WorldFest-Houston
PO Box 56566, Houston, Texas 77256-6566 USA
Or call: 1-713-965-9955 or fax: 1-713-965-9960
Or simply email us at: entry@worldfest.org

The complete Entry Kit with Entry Forms is on our website: www.worldfest.org

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