Sundance Film Festival

Slamdance Announces 2006 Awards, Featuring Over $200,000 in Prizes

Best of Slamdance Screenings in Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and New York

Park City, Utah — The Slamdance Film Festival announced its winners tonight in over 20 categories, including winners in the Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker Competition and Screenplay and Teleplay Competitions at the Slamdance Sparky Award ceremonies at Suede in Park City. Over $200,000 in prizes were awarded. Following the Sparky award ceremony was a party featuring celebrity DJ‘s DJ Swamp (Beck‘s DJ); DJ C-Minus (Vanguard LA); and Tito Plenty (San Francisco).

“Over the years the Park City Slamdance screenings have become a place for the industry to discover new talent,” says Slamdance director Peter Baxter.

“Salt Lake City has become increasingly important from a public perspective.

The “Sparkies” were followed by a party featuring celebrity DJ’s

Award Winners will be shown in Salt Lake City in the Westminster College, Gore Auditorium (1840 South 1300 East). The winning films will be scheduled at one of the following times: 1 PM; 3:30 PM and 6 PM (MST). Further information will be posted at www.slamdance.com.

Screening today at Westminster College:

1pm Audience Winners:

Neo Ned w/ Hiro

3:30pm Documentary Jury Winners:

The Empire in Africa w/Under the Roller Coaster

6pm Narrative Jury Winner:

We Go Way Back

Additionally, there will be Best of Slamdance screenings in New York (Two Boots Pioneer Theatre); Los Angeles (American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., www.americancinematheque.com) on February 9 &

16 and other cities to be announced.

The winners are as follows:

Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature WE GO WAY BACK World Premiere - (2005, 80 min., USA) written/directed by Lynn Shelton.

Adolescence has left 23-year-old actress Kate robbed of her bearings and her boundaries. Can a surreal confrontation with her 13-year-old self redeem her? A sly and tender depiction of one young woman’s journey of self-rediscovery. Cinematographer: Ben Kasulke.

Winner to receive a Panavision Camera Rental Package valued at $60,0000

Special Jury Recognition

THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE

World Premiere - (2005, 96 min., USA) written/directed by Todd Rohal.

In the confusion following a massive power outage, an awkward demolition derby driver vanishes - leaving behind his friends, family and pregnant girlfriend to solve the mystery.

Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature EMPIRE IN AFRICA World Premiere - (2005, 87 min., USA) directed by Philippe Diaz.

The story of the unjust war the international community waged against civil war stricken Sierra Leone.

Winner to receive a Sony HD camera plus five hours of tape from Media Distributors in conjunction with Sony.

Special Jury Recognition for Best Documentary Feature FORGIVING DR. MENGELE (2005, 80 min., USA) directed by Bob Hercules & Cheri Pugh.

The story of Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Eva Mozes Kor whose controversial decision to forgive notorious Nazi Josef Mengele doctor who performed cruel genetic experiments on her and her sister, caused a firestorm of criticism.

Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short The Saviour (2005, 18 min., Australia) Directed Peter Templeman. This director won the same award at the 2005 Sparky Awards.

Special Jury Recognition for Narrative Short The Devil - U.S. Premiere - (2005, 39 min., Poland) directed by Tomasz Szafranski.

Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short Under The Roller Coaster (2005, 15 min., USA) Directed by Lila Place.

Special Jury Recognition for Documentary Short Grand Luncheonette (2005, 5 min., USA) Directed by Peter Sillen.

Grand Jury Prize for Best Animated Short Dragon - World Premiere - (2005, 7 min., USA) directed by Troy Morgan.

Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature THE SASQUATCH DUMPLING GANG World Premiere - (2005, 84 min., USA) written/directed by Tim Skousen.

Young, fantasy/sci-fi aficionado Gavin Gore and his friends stumble onto some huge footprints in the woods, while two of his dim-witted neighbors hatch a scheme to profit from the situation.

Sponsored by Sonic Magic: $25,000 credit on post-production services.

Special Jury Recognition for Best Film Screening Out of Competition NEO NED (2005, 97 min., USA) directed by Van Fischer. (Slamdance 1999 Alumni - BLINK OF AN EYE).

An Aryan Brother (Jeremy Renner, CLASS ACTION, LORDS OF DOGTOWN) falls in love with a black girl (Gabrielle Union, BRING IT ON, HONEYMOONERS) who claims the soul of Hitler is trapped inside her. Also with Sally Kirkland (THE STING), Cary Elwes (THE PRINCESS BRIDE), Steve Railsback (THE STUNTMAN)

Audience Sparky Award for Best Documentary Feature

ABDUCTION: THE MEGUMI YAKOTA STORY

World Premiere - (2006, 85 min., USA) directed by Chris Sheridan & Patty Kim, written by Patty Kim.

The haunting story of a 13 year-old Japanese girl kidnapped by North Korean spies.

Sponsored by Sonic Magic: $25,000 credit on post-production services.

The Spirit of Slamdance Award for Best Gallery Short Hiro - U.S. Premiere - (2005, 20 min., Canada) directed by Matthew Swanson.

Sparky Award for Global Anarchy

My Mom and Dad - Directed by Andrew Brotzman (USA) $1000 in RED Software

Kodak Vision Award for Best Cinematography WE GO WAY BACK World Premiere - (2005, 80 min., USA) written/directed by Lynn Shelton.

Adolescence has left 23-year-old actress Kate robbed of her bearings and her boundaries. Can a surreal confrontation with her 13-year-old self redeem her? A sly and tender depiction of one young woman’s journey of self-rediscovery.

Winner to receive $5,000 in Kodak Film.

All films winning the Grand Jury and Audience Awards will receive Gorilla by Jungle Software.

The 2005 Screenplay Competition Awards are as follows:

Best Short:

The Saint of Zuiderzee by Brian Higdon, Virginia Friedman & Steve Hess Skyline Screenwriting Award:

Hay’s Code by Andrew B. Smith

1st Place Screenplay:

Preeti Girl by Todd Holmes

$5,000 cash prize.

The 2005 Teleplay Awards are as follows:

2nd Runner-Up:

Joel Metzger “Hothouse Bruiser”

Runner-Up:

John Woodard “The Boys on June Street”

Grand Prize Winner:

Dani Shear “Ex”

Screenplay winners from previous years have garnered representation and have optioned their scripts. Both MARIA FULL OF GRACE (2001) and THE WOODSMAN

(2001) were Slamdance Screenplay Award Winners. This year‘s festival film NEO NED was based on the 1998 Slamdance Screenplay Award Winner. This is the second year for the Teleplay competition. The Grand Prize Winner will receive a blind script deal to develop an original pilot with Fox21. In April there will be readings of the Screenplays in Los Angeles at the Village in Hollywood. For more information contact:

screenplay@slamdance.com.

The Gamemakers Awards are as follows:

The following five entries distinguished themselves from the competition and brought home the top awards:

* Grand Jury Sparky Award - “Façade” by Procedural Arts

Prizes include:

o $2,500 in Public Relations Services from BeSeen Communications o $2,500 Score Composition from George Shaw o $3,000 Sound Design & Mixing from NL3 Audio o $1,000 Resin Software from Caucho Technologies o $495 Sorenson Squeeze Software o 1 GameSac from Lovesac

* Audience Award - “N” by Metanet Software

Prizes include:

o $2,500 in Public Relations Services from BeSeen Communications o $2,500 Score Composition from CYD Music o $1,395 GDC Pass o $1,000 Resin Software from Caucho Technologies o $195 Sorenson Squeeze Software

* Student Physics Award - “Rumble Box” by Insert Coin

Prizes include:

o $15,00 Full Scholarship to DigiPen Master‘s Program

* Student Art Award - “Cloud” by Cloud (USC Interactive Media)

Prizes include:

o $2,000 Shuttle Computer

o $1,000 Resin Software from Caucho Technologies o $495 Sorenson Squeeze Software o 1 GameSac from LoveSac

* PopCap Casual Games Award - “Odyssey” by Liquid Dragon Studios

Slamdance co-founder Dan Mirvish signed a deal with Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker Competition (GGC) winners Joe Bourrie and Patrick Hackett.

Bourrie and Hackett, whose game RUMBLE BOX won this year’s award for innovation in programming, will design a web-based java game for Mirvish’s real estate musical, OPEN HOUSE, which Wellspring Media recently released on DVD. Slamdance 2005 Jury Award winning game “Revolved” received a distribution deal from Gametrust.

For more information about the Games Competition please contact:

Carl Gersh

BeSeen Communications

Phone 856.857.0120

E-mail carl@beseennow.com

In other news, the 2006 competition feature FIND LOVE has been acquired by Maple Pictures for Canadian distribution.

Started in 1995 by a group of upstart filmmakers, Slamdance Film Festival is a year-round organization dedicated to emerging artists and their vision.

Slamdance has established a unique reputation for premiering independent films by first-time directors working with limited budgets. At the same time, the Festival has stayed true to its roots by being organized and programmed by active filmmakers. Slamdance films have been picked up for distribution, invited to festivals around the world, won Independent Spirit Awards, the Palme d’Or and an Academy Award, among many other accolades.

Slamdance Film Festival alumni include “Batman Begins” and “Memento”

director Christopher Nolan (festival award winner “Following”), the Emmy Award winning Russo Brothers (”Pieces”), and “Finding Neverland” and “Monster’s Ball” director Marc Forster (festival audience award winner “Loungers”). The 2005 Slamdance opening night film “Mad Hot Ballroom” was acquired by Paramount Classics.

Slamdance has successfully established year-round ventures including the Screenplay Competition, Best Of Screenings in the U.S., Festival events in China and Poland, the Anarchy Online Film competition, the Dirty Dozen DVD Series (currently in its 7th volume), and short film productions dubbed $99 Specials. In 2004, Slamdance launched a teleplay competition in conjunction with fox21, the Guerilla Gamemaker Competition, and the Slamdance Media Group, a company comprised of distribution, development and talent-management units.

The 2006 Slamdance Film Festival is presented by Kodak and fox21.

Festival sponsors include Directors Guild of America, Maryland Film Commission, Andrew Lauren Productions, All Seasons Resorts, Corazon Tequila, Dos Equis, Dr. Martens, PopCap Games, Southwest Airlines, Timbuk2 and X-Mission. Additional sponsors are listed on the Slamdance website at www.slamdance.com/sponsors/.

EVENTS PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE. GO TO WWW.SLAMDANCE.COM FOR UPDATED INFORMATION, PHOTOS AND TO LEARN ABOUT CELEBRITY ATTENDEES AT THE FESTIVAL.