Online Audience Picks Short and Animation Winners to be Screened Live at DGA

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--February. 18, 2000-Yahoo! Internet Life ("YIL"), a Ziff-Davis publication, has unveiled the film slate for its First Annual Online Film Festival (www.onlinefilmfestival.com), to be held at the Director's Guild of America headquarters in Los Angeles on March 22-23. The slate, which includes six features (three world premieres) and two dozen shorts, showcases a number of works either financed or distributed by key members of both the online and offline communities exhibiting in the expo portion of the Festival at Sunset Strip hotels, The Chateau Marmont and The Standard. "The film lineup -- with the animation films, live-action shorts and the features -- showcases the best filming techniques, the newest in video-film technology, production, distribution, and the way the Internet has opened an exciting future to film, both in traditional distribution channels and online," said Yahoo! Internet Life's festival director, Jesse Jacobs. "Our filmmakers range from well-known, Oscar(R) nominated auteurs to newcomers exploiting the new resources available to them to break into the industry." On the feature side, Festival programming director Heather Kellogg has -- from hundreds of submissions -- assembled an eclectic range of films. According to YIL's publisher Andrew Kramer, they "illustrate ways in which filmmakers can use the Internet -- on one level or another, to bring their films to life and to a worldwide audience: whether as subject matter, aesthetic inspiration, or a tool to help produce, promote, or distribute their films."

The six features are:

TIME CODE, by Mike Figgis (Sony Screen Gems) -- Opening Night Film World Premiere. Flush from its success at Sundance in acquiring GIRLFIGHT, Screen Gems and co-sponsors sputnik7.com and RES: The Magazine of Digital Filmmaking present Mike Figgis' latest film. The Web was used to create a dialogue with TIME CODE's audience during the production. More importantly, however, it has combined the immediacy of the online revolution -- Webcams, real-time, multiple screens -- and adapted it to the big screen, forging a unique relationship with the viewer.

THE SADNESS OF SEX, by Rupert Wainwright (Skyvision Partners) -- Comprised of fifteen vignettes, this feature is perfect for the short-attention span nation that has turned to the Web for a fix of entertainment. The filmmakers have chosen to stream the 10 most riveting pieces through the IFILM site. The first episode makes its online premiere on Valentine's Day; the entire film will be shown for the first time at the YIL Film Festival.

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS, by Mark Tapio Kines (Greenstem Productions, Inc.) -- Mark Tapio Kines showed the world the ways a young filmmaker with limited resources can utilize the Internet to land well-known actors, secure financing, and promote a film. By reaching out to people all over the world through the Web, Kines was able to raise $150,000 online to finish his film -- an extraordinary achievement for a first-time director with no connections.

THE DEFINITE MAYBE, by Sam Sokolow and Rollins Lobl (A SokoLobl Film) -- The making of this film is a classic American success story with an online twist. Two young filmmakers without a distributor go to the Web to sell their work on their own site and through Amazon.com, thereby cutting out the middleman, and they hit it big! Their success should be an inspiration for filmmakers everywhere.

HOME PAGE, by Doug Block (A Copacetic Pictures production in association with HBO and ZDF-Arte) -- The Internet is the subject matter of this film, but more significantly, Doug Block has used his Web site to create an interactive relationship with the film. It is arguable whether you have really seen HOME PAGE unless you have seen both the film and the Web site. In this sense, HOME PAGE is the ultimate symbol of how the Internet is changing cinema as we know it.

FROM THERE TO HERE, by Charles Herman Wurmfeld -- The buzz for musician John Oszajca is about to reach fever pitch with the Interscope Records April 4th release of his album "From There to Here." The documentary of the same name follows Oszajca's road to success and will be screened full-length for the first time at the festival. The documentary will be streamed online in a series of short episodes and vignettes.

In the shorts and animation category, the festival received over 500 submissions from the best production houses, film schools, studios, Web sites, on- and offline distributors, and talented individuals around the world. From these submissions, programmer Kellogg and Yahoo! Internet Life Online Film Festival chose the funniest, saddest, sweetest, strangest, grossest, scariest, and best-made shorts and animation around. Some have already had a successful launch on the Internet through a number of cutting-edge companies; many will get their debut at the Festival. The finalists in the shorts and animation categories are available for viewing on Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO). Through Yahoo! Movies (http://movies.yahoo.com/onlinefilmfestival), film fans worldwide can vote for the top six films in the live-action and animated categories. These twelve films will then be shown live at the Director's Guild of America during the two-day festival and be awarded with prizes, distribution deals through Amazon.com, screening offers, and much more.

Animated Shorts

Live-Action Shorts

Web Premieres, a special forum, will feature the newest efforts and cutting edge technology by some of the Web's most innovative companies and individuals: AtomFilms, Crushed Planet, Honkworm, and Steven Bratter's "Seven and a Match" shot on HDTV. This special presentation will include recently Oscar nominated animation short "Humdrum" by Peter Peake (Aardman Animations) and Oscar nominated live action short "Killing Joe" by Mehdi Norowzian and Steve Wax, both of which are promoted and distributed by AtomFilms.

The Festival will also feature two days of exhibitions of leading online entertainment companies, seminars and panel discussions, and will conclude with an awards program and closing night gala. Companies involved in the expo event include: Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN); AtomFilms; BigStar.com (Nasdaq:BGST); Crushed Planet Entertainment; IFilm; IMDb.com; Hitplay Media; Mandalay; Reel.com; Shockwave; SightSound.com and many others to make this one of the most important events for the future of film and the Internet.

The festival is generously sponsored by BeautyJungle.com, OnStream, BigStar.com, Yack.com, Honkworm, The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Filmmaker Magazine, Sundance Channel, Yahoo! Movies, Food.com, and Skyy Vodka.

Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine is a monthly publication with a rate base of 900,000. It is published by Ziff-Davis Inc., a leading media and marketing company focused on computing and Internet-related technologies, with principal platforms in print publishing, trade shows and conferences, online content, television and education. Ziff-Davis provides global technology companies with marketing strategies for reaching key decision-makers. Ziff-Davis has two series of common stock, one which is intended to track the performance of its Internet business, ZDNet (NYSE:ZDZ), and one which is intended to track the performance of the ZD Group (NYSE:ZD), which includes print publishing, trade shows and conferences, online learning, education and television businesses, and a retained interest in ZDNet. Ziff-Davis Inc. recently announced an agreement to sell Ziff-Davis Publishing to Willis Stein & Partners. It also announced agreements to sell ZD Education and its interest in ZDTV. These transactions are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2000.

For more information, visit www.onlinefilmfestival.com.