Netflix, Brolin announce indie film competition
Nonprofit Film Independent to help produce winning entry
By Danny King -- Video Business, 1/8/2009
JAN. 8 | LOS ANGELES—Netflix, actor Josh Brolin and Los Angeles-based nonprofit Film Independent (FIND) today announced a film competition that this summer will award $350,000 in cash and film services to an aspiring filmmaker.
Actor Josh Brolin (l.), Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos and Film Independent executive director Dawn Hudson announce the Netflix FIND Your Voice film competition at the W Hotel in Los Angeles.
The largest U.S. movie-rental service via mail, Netflix will contribute $150,000 to the "Netflix FIND Your Voice Competition," while companies such as Eastman Kodak, Deluxe Entertainment Service and Panavision will contribute the rest in products and services, the companies and actor announced in a press conference at the W Hotel here today. Netflix will distribute the winning film on both DVD and in video-streaming form.
Brolin, nominated this year for Best Supporting Actor by the Screen Actors Guild Awards for his role in Milk, will be honorary chair and a panel judge.
"I love storytelling," said Brolin, who added that he was encouraged by director Robert Rodriguez to make his own short film last year and considers Milk director Gus Van Sant an independent filmmaker. "What they're doing is a wonderful opportunity for these people."
Film Independent, which produces the Independent Spirit Awards and Los Angeles Film Festival, screens more than 250 independent film events annually and has helped shepherd more than 50 feature films over the last 13 years, said Dawn Hudson, the group's executive director.
Although Netflix will distribute the winning entry, the project doesn't mark the company's return to full-scale independent film distribution, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said. Netflix, which started its Red Envelope unit in 2006 and distributed about 125 films on DVD, shut down the division last year to focus more on its DVD and video-streaming distribution.
"We think it's a natural extension of our mission," said Sarandos. With technological advances in filmmaking, "getting movies made seems like it's easier, but getting movies seen is more difficult."
