BigStar Entertainment Provides Online Distribution Channel for Independent Feature Films; Slamdance Film Festival Endorses First Hub For Independent Film Makers
January 12, 2000 07:19 AM
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 12, 2000--BigStar Entertainment Inc. BGST which operates www.bigstar.com, a leading Shop-a-Tainment(TM) filmed entertainment destination site, today announced the launch of an online showcase for independent film makers at www.digitalfirstlook.com. The site provides a worldwide online distribution channel for feature films made by independent filmmakers as well as featuring proprietary content and news about independent movies.
Bigstar.com will showcase clips and trailers from a selection of the films in competition at the Slamdance Film Festival with the prospect of widespread online digital distribution for these films. Slamdance came into being in 1995 to showcase independent films made by first-time directors without distribution deals. The films receiving the highest interest will have the opportunity to be distributed through BigStar Broadband's online digital distribution network, either as a download or recorded to a permanent storage medium.
David Friedensohn, CEO of BigStar Entertainment, said: "We have built an incredibly large and dedicated film buying audience at bigstar.com. We currently have over 1.5 million subscribers in our popular and growing filmed entertainment distribution network and are happy to market independent films to those who are dedicated independent film fans. The way movies are distributed is changing and BigStar is leading the way."
"The combination of high impact cutting edge independent films with the latest in online film distribution is sure to rock the film world," said Peter Baxter, the Founder of the Slamdance Film Festival. "We are happy to provide our filmmakers with a vast and low-cost distribution outlet for their films."
This initiative from BigStar follows the launch of its streaming media product known as BigStar Broadband Theater(TM) which enables visitors to BigStar to access and view in real time thousands of commercial movie trailers and positions BigStar to take advantage of the forthcoming "video-on-demand" revolution.
About the Slamdance Film Festival
The Slamdance Film Festival runs January 22-29, 2000 at Park City, Utah's Treasure Mountain Inn, coinciding with the Sundance Film Festival.
Since its inception in 1995, Slamdance has come to be recognized as "The ultra independent film festival" (Sam Rubin, "Good Morning America") and Variety's Len Klady made the comparison to Cannes by referring to Slamdance as "the unofficial Directors Fortnight to Sundance." The festival has also attracted the support of such critics as Roger Ebert. Maintaining its grassroots style into its sixth year, Slamdance is a festival by filmmakers, for filmmakers, and is dedicated to promoting new talent.
About BigStar Entertainment
BigStar Entertainment Inc. BGST operates bigstar.com , a leading Shop-A-Tainment(TM) destination site, based on internal analysis of traffic, sales and other metrics. Bigstar.com is exclusively dedicated to filmed entertainment products and sells more than 40,000 titles of videos and digital video discs (DVDs).
BigStar has forged strategic alliances with companies including Value Vision VVTV , StarMedia STRM , AOL Moviefone AOL , Shop-at-AOL, Earthlink ELNK , Yahoo! Chat YHOO , fortunecity.com and Flirt.com among others.
This news release may contain statements of a forward-looking nature relating to the future events or the future financial results of BigStar Entertainment. Investors are cautioned that such statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. In evaluating such statements, investors should specifically consider the various factors which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those indicated from such forward-looking statements, including the matters set forth in BigStar Entertainment's reports and documents filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: RLM PR, New York Linda Stephen, 212 741 5106 x 17 linda@yeahwhatever.com
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