Editor

PHOENIX FILM FESTIVAL PARTNERS WITH HARKINS FOR LARGEST FILM FEST DEBUT

Phoenix Film Festival will showcase their opening and closing film ceremonies at this year’s Festival in Arizona’s largest movie screen, the Harkins Cine Capri. Harkins Theatres, leader in Phoenix independent film releases, is now the exclusive venue for the 2004 Phoenix Film Festival (PFF) and a proud supporter of the Phoenix Film Foundation!

Festival executive director Chris LaMonth says, “The chance to partner with a locally-owned chain like Harkins, combined with the support they’ve offered at their newest facility couldn’t be passed up.” Harkins is providing the festival with six theatres for screenings, and the state’s biggest auditorium and screen, the 600-seat Cini Capri, for opening and closing ceremonies. “Plus the free parking is great and the location is easily accessible from all over the Valley,” added LaMont.
Not only will Harkins Scottsdale 101 Theater provide 6 screens and the Cine Capri as the new home of the 4 year-old event, Harkins will also show one film a month through 2004, benefiting the Phoenix Film Foundation.

“The Phoenix Film Festival is growing and moving forward as a premiere staple in the Phoenix annual event calendar,” says Film Festival President, Chris LaMont. “With Harkins as a venue there is no limit to the success in store for independent films.” Last year’s event brought in over 7,000 attendees, nearly double the attendance from 2002.

The Festival takes place April 1-4. Numerous special events will be held at the 101 Scottsdale center during the event weekend including a filmmaker’s breakfast sponsored by Borders Books and Music, receptions, filmmaking seminars, a golf tournament as well as bands and singers performing in the courtyard in front of the Harkins complex.

The Phoenix Film Festival showcases both feature-length films made for under $1 million and shorts done for under $50,000 in such categories including Narrative, Animation, College, High School and Foreign Films with a competition for Low Budget Film Productions.

We are looking for the next “Pulp Fiction” or “Bend It Like Beckham,” said Program Director Greg Hall, “Films that are made outside the Hollywood system, for lower budgets than most blockbusters, with true independent vision and creativity.”

The Festival will honor top writers of un-produced and un-optioned film scripts. PFF and the Arizona Screenwriters Association sponsored the 2004 Screenplay Search, whose winners will be invited to and honored at the Festival. There are winners in two categories, Best Screenplay and Best Arizona Screenplay. The top ten scriptwriters will have their names publicized on the Festival Program and Website.