BET Networks and Urbanworld Announce Multi-Year Strategic Partnership to Present the 'Urbanworld Film Festival' Presented by BET Networks
Venture Joins Together the Leading Media and Entertainment Company for
African Americans with the Premier Platform for the Urban Film Community
Film Submissions Due by Saturday, May 31
NEW YORK, May 19 -- BET Networks today announced a
three-year strategic partnership to present the Urbanworld Film Festival.
The unique partnership, bolstered by BET's position as the leading media
and entertainment provider for African Americans and consumers of Black
culture, will further establish the festival, now in its 12th year, as one
of the world's largest competitive film festivals designed to redefine and
enhance the roles of multicultural constituents in contemporary cinema.
This year's festival will be held in Manhattan from Wednesday, September 10
through Sunday, September 14.
The Urbanworld Film Festival will feature studio premieres, independent
film screenings, panels, screenplay readings, talent spotlights, and an
awards brunch honoring the festival's winners. As a result of the new
collaboration, this year's festival will be a larger and more exciting
experience with a host of new elements featured.
"We're thrilled to join efforts with Urbanworld and sponsor this
incredibly important event," said Janet Rolle, Executive Vice President and
Chief Marketing Officer, BET Networks. "BET Networks is committed to
delivering to our audience content that explores a broad range of the Black
experience, so it's extremely exciting and significant for us to expand our
efforts and support filmmakers of color through this new partnership."
"As the leading entertainment destination for African Americans and
consumers of Black culture, BET Networks has made it our mission to
identify the best and most compelling ways for our audience to engage with
our brand," said Alvin Bowles, Senior Vice President, Integrated Marketing,
BET Networks. "By teaming up with Urbanworld, we're looking forward to
combining the power of our brand with the foremost film festival for our
community."
"We are very excited to have BET join the festival as the Presenting
Sponsor. This alliance will usher in a new era for films by and about
people of color," said Stacy Spikes, founder of Urbanworld. "Our
partnership will galvanize Urbanworld's vision to deliver these universal
stories to the widest audience possible, via Theatrical, TV, Online and
Mobile distribution platforms."
During its tenure, the festival has screened more than 700 urban-themed
independent films and has been a launching pad for a host of major breakout
films such as Collateral, Hustle and Flow, Hero, Soul Food, Rush Hour 2,
and Barbershop, and has also attracted the industry's hottest stars,
including Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx, to name a couple. Urbanworld is the
premier event showcasing films by and about people of color.
As part of the alliance, BET will serve as the exclusive global
telecast/video partner, providing pre- and post-event exposure on the
network and at BET.com in support of the festival. In addition, BET will
work in partnership with Urbanworld to expand their offerings throughout
the year and into new media outlets, aggressively cross-promoting the
festival to consumer and trade constituents.
The Urbanworld Film Festival is currently accepting submissions for the
2008 festival. Submission information is available at http://www.urbanworld.org or
http://www.withoutabox.com, with competitive categories that include narrative
feature, narrative short, documentary feature, documentary short, and
screenplay. The submission deadline is Saturday, May 31.
About BET Networks
BET Networks, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is the
nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public
affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The
primary BET channel reaches more than 87 million households according to
Nielsen Media Research, and can be seen in the U.S., Canada and the
Caribbean. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a
diverse group of business extensions: BET.com, a leading internet
destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; BET Digital
Networks - BET J, BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for
cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Event Productions, a full-scale
event management and production company; BET Home Entertainment, a
collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs
and video-on-demand; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video
content for wireless devices; and BET International, an extension of BET
network programming for global distribution.
About Urbanworld
Urbanworld was launched in August 1997 by founder Stacy Spikes, a
former executive at Miramax and October Films. Over the past eleven years,
Urbanworld has presented over 700 features, shorts and documentaries, with
estimated attendance reaching 15,000+. Now in its twelfth year, the
Urbanworld Film Festival is one of the largest internationally competitive
festivals of its kind. The Urbanworld Film Festival is an initiative
delivered by the Urbanworld Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated
to redefining the role of multicultural constituents in contemporary cinema
by implementing programs and events that support the development and
success of the urban filmmaking community. Spikes serves as chairman
emeritus. Gabrielle Glore serves as executive producer. For more
information, please visit http://www.urbanworld.org.
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