Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival Awards Million Dollar Production Deal with Hypnotic and Universal Studios to Filmmaker Jeff Wadlow
TORONTO--Sept. 16, 2002--The 2002 Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival celebrated its finale during the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival, naming Jeff Wadlow the winner of a $1,000,000 feature film production deal courtesy of the Chrysler brand, Hypnotic and Universal Studios. This program is one of America's premier filmmaking competitions, rewarding young filmmakers for their vision while uniting the Chrysler brand with the global media arenas of film, music and design.
"The Chrysler brand is proud to support emerging artists and filmmakers," said Bonita Coleman, Director, Chrysler Marketing Communications, DaimlerChrysler. "The Chrysler brand culture is centered around innovation, excitement and vitality; the same characteristics displayed by all of the finalists throughout the competition. The Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival provides a fun and exciting platform for heightening awareness of our vehicles. The 2002 program was a huge success and we look forward to continuing our achievements in 2003."
The Feature Film Pitch in Toronto kicked off in style on September 12th, with an exclusive party co-sponsored by Maxim Magazine. Art installations featured each filmmaker's qualifying and Extreme Film, as well as the movie poster, production photos and logline of their feature film project. Hundreds of industry execs and A-list celebrities, including, Stephen Dorff, Eddie Griffin, Bai Ling, Adam Sandler and Stephen Baldwin, mingled with the five finalists and celebrated the conclusion of this year-long filmmaking competition. The festivities continued on September 13th when the Chrysler brand, Hypnotic and Universal Studios hosted "The Pitch and Awards Ceremony." During this event, the finalists premiered their scenes and presented their projects to a standing-room only audience. Also on display, was the 2004 Chrysler Crossfire, one of the vehicles used by the filmmakers in Cannes in the production of their Extreme Films.
Jeff Wadlow's winning feature film project, "Living the Lie," a modern day retelling of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," asks the question "when does a lie become the truth?" This film was a labor of love and inspiration for Wadlow. Born in Charlottesville, Virginia and a graduate of USC School of Cinema-Television, the energetic twenty-six-year old drew on his creativity, guile and stamina to win the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival. "I am honored to have won this award and the one million dollar production deal," stated filmmaker Jeff Wadlow. "I'm grateful to Chrysler, Hypnotic and Universal Studios for giving me the chance of a lifetime. This is truly a dream come true for me and my production partner Beau Bauman; seeing my vision come alive and gain the support of top companies in Hollywood. I'd also like to salute the other finalists; hopefully we'll all be making films for a long time."
The four other finalists and their feature film packages were: Patrick Daughters (New York, NY) -- "Bountiful Utah"; Matthew Ehlers (Rochester, NY) -- "Vows & Rites"; Geoffrey Haley (North Hollywood, CA) -- "The Emerald Room"; and Seth Wiley (Los Angeles, CA) -- "Rx."
"We're very proud of Jeff Wadlow as well as the other four finalists, all of whom have bright futures in Hollywood," said Doug Liman, Hypnotic Co-Founder and director of "The Bourne Identity." "It is very gratifying to expose and guide the next generation of film directors and as proud members of the arts community, we are pleased to partner with Chrysler on this unique program. Mentoring filmmakers is a key objective for Hypnotic and this program allows us to do this in a challenging and rewarding manner."
The five finalist filmmakers were judged on their qualifying short film, their Chrysler-branded Extreme Film which was produced in Cannes, and their Feature Film project, which included, a working draft of their script, storyboards for a scene and the production of the scene which they selected, and a theatrical poster for their film.
The judges for the Feature Film competition were: Tim O'Hair, VP Production at Universal Pictures; Matt Wall, Senior Vice President of Production at Focus Features; Freeman Thomas, Director, DaimlerChrysler Advanced Design Studio -- Pacifica; and Doug Liman, Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman of Hypnotic and director of "The Bourne Identity," "Go!" and "Swingers."
About Hypnotic
Hypnotic is an entertainment production and distribution company that leverages its relationships with emerging filmmakers and leading brands to acquire, develop, produce, market and distribute independent film and television properties. The company has developed relationships with thousands of emerging filmmakers and manages one of the world's largest libraries of short films and animations, which it distributes to domestic and international television, movie theaters, airlines, pay-per-view, video-on-demand and broadband channels. The company's major investor's include Vivendi Universal, Knowledge Universe, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Windsor Media and Entertainment Media Ventures. Hypnotic maintains offices in New York and Los Angeles and is a division of Enigma Media, Inc. Hypnotic's website is www.hypnotic.com.
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For more information on the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival, visit www.chrysler.com.