Heartland Film Festival Seeks Truly Moving Pictures for 12th Annual Festival

Indianapolis, IN –-Heartland Film Festival has officiallyopened its Call for Entries for the 12th annual Festival, October 16 to24, 2003 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Festival is now accepting filmsubmissions–Truly Moving Pictures–of independently producedfeature length and short films for the 2003 competition. Entry fees forfilms are $20 for shorts, $55 for features, and a reduced fee of $10for student projects. The deadline for entries is June 16, 2003.Applications and complete entry guidelines can be found at www.heartlandfilmfestival.org.

Students and filmmakers from around the world are invited to submitfeature length and short films in Dramatic, Documentary, and Animationcategories. All films are judged on the achievement of excellence infilmmaking and promotion of Heartland’s mission. A selectioncommittee of distinguished Crystal Heart Award recipients from the filmcommunity will select the Crystal Heart and Jimmy Stewart MemorialCrystal Heart (for student films) Award-winners. Heartland will awardover $100,000 to the visionaries of the selected winning films with$50,000 going to the grand prize winner for best dramatic feature.

"Our vision is to share the power of truly moving experiences withaudiences around the world," stated Jeff Sparks, President of HeartlandFilm Festival. "We are once again seeking films that exemplifyachievement of excellence in filmmaking and promotion of the Heartlandmission."

According to Greg Paul, former President of Castle RockEntertainment and Trustee of the Stewart Foundation, Heartland FilmFestival is a place to see filmmaking at its best. "I wish allHollywood filmmakers and executives could attend the Heartland FilmFestival. It represents filmmaking at its purest level–greatstories told with passion and intelligence and shorn of the baserconsiderations often prevalent in Hollywood," said Paul.

According to Jack Hafer, To End All Wars producer andrecipient of the 2002 grand prize, Heartland provides a necessaryopportunity to showcase life-affirming films. "I appreciate that thisHeartland award is a recognition that stories such as this mustcontinue to be told in film so that such stories on the screen will beplayed out over and over in our lives." said Hafer.

Last year, a record 340 films were submitted with 18 films beingscreened during the Festival. More than 10,000 moviegoers enjoyed thegreat lineup of films, seminars, parties and other events. Highlightsfrom the 2002 Festival included more than $100,000 in cash prizesawarded to winning films. Several films went on to play at otherinternational film festivals and receive awards. Most recently, AliceElliott’s film The Collector of Bedford Street a 2002Crystal Heart Award-winner, received an Oscar nomination for bestdocumentary short. Jimmy Stewart Memorial Crystal Heart Award-winners,Shadowplay and Little Red Plane, accepted first placeawards from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences FoundationCollege Television Awards.

Wira Winata, producer of Little Red Plane, 2002 Jimmy StewartMemorial Crystal Heart Award-winner, believes Heartland offers a uniqueforum to meet other filmmakers and receive feedback. "Heartland is oneof the very few festivals where I have actually met fellow filmmakers.This opportunity to share ideas, thoughts and suggestions wasinvaluable to me. The friends I made at Heartland are even moreimportant to me as a young filmmaker trying to get voice out," statedWinata.

In addition to its Festival winners, Heartland honored fivetheatrically-released films in 2002 with its prestigious Award ofExcellence including The Rookie, Little Secrets,Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, Tuck Everlasting, and TheEmperor’s Club.

Heartland Film Festival, a not-for-profit organization, wasestablished in 1991 to recognize and honor filmmakers whose workexplores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respectfor the positive values of life. Each October, the Festival screensTruly Moving Pictures from around the world, ranging from dramas todocumentaries to animation. The Festival awards over $100,000 in cashprizes and Crystal Heart Awards to the Festival's top entries,including a $50,000 grand prize for best dramatic feature. The JimmyStewart Memorial Crystal Heart Award-winners for the best student filmsand the Crystal Heart Award-winners share the remaining $50,000. TheCrystal Heart Award cash prizes are given in honor of Max Simon by hisparents, Melvin and Bren Simon, through the Max Simon CharitableFoundation. In its first 11 years, Heartland has awarded over $1.1million to support filmmakers in their quest to create Truly MovingPictures. Heartland Film Festival is one of the few festivals in theworld that awards cash prizes to filmmakers. For more information logon to www.heartlandfilmfestival.org.