The DivX(R) Film Festival, an online video festival devoted to creativity, storytelling and improving digital media, has announced the winners on DivX Stage6(TM). The finalists are recognized for their high-quality submissions, impressions on key industry judges and engagement with an interactive online community.
Contest submissions were evaluated by DivX employees in conjunction with a panel of key industry judges. All entries were submitted in the high-quality DivX media format, containing an interactive menu and at least one other advanced feature -- chapter points, subtitles or alternate audio tracks. And the winners are...


Grand Prize (US $5000 and DivX Certified hardware and software)
"Kowalski's Dream" - Daniel Zdunczyk, Poland

First Prize (US $1000 and DivX Certified hardware and software)
"One" - Philip Day, United Kingdom

Second Prize (five winners, US $500 and DivX Certified hardware and
software)
"The Snow Witch" - Michelle Pettit-Mee and Kheri Batal, United
Kingdom
"Male Restroom Etiquette" - Philip Rice, USA
"The Final Stop" - Elad Bar-On, Israel
"Nines" - Adrian Fulle, USA
"Only" - Philip Rice, USA

Visit the DivX Film Festival channel on Stage6 (http://www.stage6.com/DivX-Film-Festival) for a complete list of winners.

"We are thrilled to see so much amazing content submitted to the DivX Film Festival, including a huge interest in the interactive content from the online community," said Darrius Thompson, Cofounder, Senior Vice President of Strategy and New Business at DivX, Inc. "The Stage6 platform connects the end-user to the filmmaker, eliminating the middle-man and creating a fusion of ideas to bring growth and inspiration to build a better digital media future."

"The advanced features of DivX gave the whole movie watching experience an extra dimension, allowing the viewer a tiny glimpse into our (the directors') minds," said Michelle Pettit-Mee and Kheri Batal, second prize winners for their film, "The Snow Witch." "It also allowed, with the use of subtitles, other viewers to follow the story and enjoy it in a way they wouldn't have (been able to) without them."

"The advanced features allowed me to do Spanish subtitles for my film and I've received numerous messages from Spanish speaking viewers who thanked me for providing them so they could understand what was going on," said Adrian Fulle, second prize winner and fiction genre winner for his film, "Nines." "Creating the extra features was really easy to do. That kind of tool is invaluable to an indie filmmaker like me...to be able to get my movie out there to a wider audience is simply awesome."

"I was really impressed with the quality and breadth of submissions from an international community. Whether live action, animated or mashups, DivX tools allowed creators, big on talent and vision, to develop studio-quality productions with little or no budget," said Rodney Satterwhite, Genius Products, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. "Aspiring filmmakers now have the tools and a serious forum where their stories can be witnessed by a worldwide audience. Big kudos to the folks at DivX for providing Stage6, a platform which delivers truly meaningful content."