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Distributed April 6, 2005
Contact Mary Jo Curtis


News
April 15-17, 2005
Brown To Host 2005 Ivy Film Festival and Student Film Competition

Brown University will host the 2005 Ivy Film Festival, featuring entries from student filmmakers throughout the United States and Europe, April 15-17, 2005. Writer/director John Hamburg – maker of such popular films as Meet the Parents and its recent sequel, Meet the Fockers – will give the festival’s keynote address Saturday, April 17, at 7 p.m. in the Salomon Center. The public is welcome.


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The best original work of student filmmakers from throughout the United States and Europe will be featured when Brown University presents the 2005 Ivy Film Festival Friday through Sunday, April 15-17, 2005.

For the fourth year, Brown will welcome both amateur filmmakers and film industry professionals to campus for three days of screenings, competition, panel discussions and mentoring sessions. Writer/director John Hamburg (Meet the Parents, Zoolander, Meet the Fockers, Safe Men and Along Came Polly) will be the keynote speaker for the festival; he will talk about his work Saturday, April 16, at 7 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, located on The College Green.

Several public discussion sessions with professional filmmakers are scheduled Saturday and Sunday. Luke Greenfield, Matt Siegal and Juan Castro, founders of the recently established Wide Awake Incorporated, will offer advice in a question and answer session at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Modern Culture and Media Department, 135 Thayer St. Currently developing six feature films at three different movie studios (20th Century Fox, New Regency and Columbia Pictures), the trio will also meet in one-on-one mentoring sessions with the festival’s featured student filmmakers.

On Saturday at 3 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching on The College Green, audiences will have a chance to learn about the business side of the industry in a production workshop featuring Damon Dash, Co-CEO of Roc-a-Fella and producer of Paid in Full; Paramount Vice-President Rob Friedman; Carl Bressler of Montana Artists; and Meredith Lavitt of Sundance. A panel discussion, titled “From Dorm Room to Hollywood,” will be offered Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in the Salomon Center with alumni Tracy Brimm (producer, Far From Heaven), Richard Yelland, Lynn True and Mark Downie. On Sunday at 11:30 a.m., cinematographer Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Blow and Bamboozled) will lead an intensive workshop for fledgling filmmakers (location to be announced).

Student film entry screening sessions are scheduled for Friday, April 15, from 9 to 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 16, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., 2 to 3 p.m. and 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., all in the upper level of the Salomon Center. Winning films will be screened again Sunday, April 17, from 1 to 2 p.m. in the Salomon Center, following an 11 a.m. awards ceremony and brunch in the Lincoln Field tent.

Screenings are also scheduled for two award-winning films from THINKFilm, both due for theatrical release this summer, including a showing of The Aristocrats Friday, April 15, at midnight. Directors Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Shapiro present their Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary Murderball Saturday, April 16, at 9 p.m. (Locations for these screenings will be announced.) In addition, the festival has partnered with Brown’s American Sign Language Club to present Watching Language: Film as a Venue for Visual Culture Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Salomon Center.

The Ivy Film Festival

The Ivy Film Festival was founded in 2001 to encourage undergraduate filmmakers by providing a venue for their work and opportunities for them to learn from one another, as well as from talented professionals. The festival offers recognition for student filmmakers, whose work is judged by celebrity panels that include directors, producers, writers and agents. The Sunday awards ceremony honors winning student filmmakers, along with one young artist who will be presented with the Ivy Searchlight Award; another industry artist will be presented with the Ivy Choice Award for demonstrating daring and innovation in his/her craft.

Past Ivy Film Festival speakers and participants have included Oliver Stone, Tim Robbins, Julia Stiles, Adrien Brody, Wes Craven, Dylan Kidd and Harvey Pekar, among others from all aspects of film production.

All sessions are open to the public; seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Passes for the general public are $5 for each screening or $20 for a full festival package. Admission is free for students with an I.D. Tickets can be reserved in advance by e-mailing attendance@ivyfilmfestival.com. For more information and an updated detailed schedule, visit www.ivyfilmfestival.com.

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