SILVERDOCS 2007

Silver Spring, Maryland, May 3, 2007—SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival announced the filmmakers, industry professionals, musicians and actors who will compose the jury for the fifth annual Festival which takes place June 12-17, 2007 at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center.  The juries will select winning films in competition in three categories:  Sterling Award Feature ($25,000 cash and in-kind, including $5,000 in film product from Kodak); Sterling Award Short ($5,000); and Music Documentary Award presented by Pump Audio ($2,500).

SILVERDOCS also announced three new awards that will be presented annually at the Festival.  The Cinematic Vision Award presented by Discovery HD Theater will be given to a feature and a short film that exhibit excellence and innovation in visual storytelling ($2,500 each).  The WITNESS Award in honor of Joey Lozano will be awarded to a theatrical documentary about human rights violations or social justice issues ($5,000).  The SILVERDOCS/American Film Market award will be presented to a film of exceptional promise in the marketplace and will include passes to the American Film Market (October 31 to November 7, 2007), airfare, five nights hotel and pre-arranged meetings with potential partners ($5,000).  SILVERDOCS and ACE/Animal Content in Entertainment present a $10,000 development grant, initiated in 2006. The new awards bring the combined cash and in-kind prizes at SILVERDOCS to $55,000.  Award winners will be announced at the SILVERDOCS Award presentation on Saturday June 16, 2007.

“In our fifth year, we are proud to extend our commitment to independent filmmakers with new awards which further recognize documentary films for their artistry and their impact, plus provide much-needed resources and an exciting opportunity in the commercial marketplace,” said Patricia Finneran, Festival Director.  “New partners such as WITNESS, Pump Audio and the AFM extend our core commitment to supporting documentarians, and we are pleased to have them join Discovery, Kodak and ACE as SILVERDOCS supporters.”

SILVERDOCS will screen 100 films selected from 1,735 entries.  Ten feature length films will compete for the Sterling Award.  The Festival also presents a Sterling Award for Best Short, in recognition of this increasingly acclaimed art form.  Shorts programmed in SILVERDOCS have gone on to be nominated for an Academy Award each year of the Festival.  THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT, directed by Ruby Yang, which had its world premiere at SILVERDOCS 2006, received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. Music Documentaries are also recognized annually.

“This year we have not only received a substantial increase in the number of film submissions, but an extraordinary number of stellar works, making this the most competitive festival program in our history,” said Sky Sitney, Director of Programming.  “SILVERDOCS is honored to have such accomplished and diverse juries, which include filmmakers, producers, distributors and programmers to recognize the films with the most distinction in this exceptional line up.”

Jurors for all sections are listed below.  For more information go to www.SILVERDOCS.com.

STERLING AWARD FEATURE JURY

Liesl Copland is head of acquisitions of Red Envelope Entertainment, the newly created original content division of Netflix.  Previously, she worked with Cinetic Media specializing in project sales, ancillary markets and the development of alternative distribution models that offered independent film properties access to a wider audience.  She has also worked as a producer and creative executive with companies including IFP Market and Tribeca Film Festival.

Matt Dentler is the Producer of the South by Southwest Film Conference & Festival in Austin, TX, overseeing programming and coordination of the film festival and panels.  He is also a curator for American Distributor Film Movement and the Canadian distributor Films We Like.

Ross Kauffman is the 2005 Academy Award winning director of BORN INTO BROTHELS, a feature documentary about the children of Calcutta’s prostitutes, which premiered at SILVERDOCS that year.  Kauffman is currently working on WAR PHOTOGRAPHERS, a 13 part series following five war photographers around the globe.

STERLING AWARD SHORT JURY

Yance Ford is Series Producer P.O.V. American Documentary, responsible for coordinating all aspects of the series submission process and annual editorial committee meeting.  She represents POV at conferences, festival and markets and is a programming consultant for film festivals nationwide.

Amir Labaki is a filmmaker, founder and director of the It's All True International Documentary Film Festival and one of the leading Brazilian film critics and curators. He is the author of 11 books on history and cinema, among them Solanas on Solanas, The Urgent Cinema of Santiago Alvarez and The Films from Brazil.

Liz Ogilvie is head of programming for Docurama Films, an independent digital distribution company dedicated exclusively to releasing cutting-edge, critically acclaimed documentary films into the home entertainment market place.  Previously she managed programming at DocuClub and served at Managing Editor at FILMMAKER magazine.

MUSIC DOCUMENTARY JURY

Rosanna Arquette is an actress and filmmaker best known for her early film roles in DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN (1985), co-starring Madonna, and AFTER HOURS (1985) directed by Martin Scorsese.  Other notable appearances include BABY, IT’S YOU (1983), PULP FICTION (1994) and CRASH (1996).  She directed the documentaries SEARCHING FOR DEBRA WINGER (2002) and ALL WE ARE SAYING (2005) where musicians speak about the current state of the music business and balancing their art and personal lives.

Joe Berlinger is the acclaimed filmmaker of BROTHER’S KEEPER, PARADISE LOST, REVELATIONS: PARADISE LOST 2 and METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER (made in collaboration with Bruce Sinofsky). Berlinger also directed GRAY MATTER and serves as the co-executive producer of the Sundance Channel's ICONOCLASTS series, for which he also directs numerous episodes. He has won two Emmys, a Peabody, an Independent Spirit Award and accolades from the DGA, the Sundance Film Festival and others.

About SILVERDOCS

SILVERDOCS is an international film festival celebrating the creative vision of independent filmmakers and the power of documentary to expand our world-view and enhance our understanding of the world around us.  SILVERDOCS presents six days of programming from over 40 countries, plus special screenings and the concurrent four-day International Documentary Conference.  Now in its fifth year, SILVERDOCS has become the most talked about documentary festival in the United States. In 2007, SILVERDOCS announced that it will become the first carbon-neutral documentary festival in North America.

Leading filmmakers such as Nick Broomfield, Werner Herzog, Jim Jarmusch, Alan King, Barbara Kopple, Al Maysles, Stanley Nelson, Martin Scorsese and Penelope Spheeris have shared their work and their perspectives with Festival and Conference participants.

SILVERDOCS provides business and creative connections between filmmakers, broadcasters, distributors and funders from both established and emerging media markets at the International Documentary Conference which includes over 60 panels and workshops and is attended by over 650 filmmakers and guests from around the world.  Former Vice President Al Gore delivered the keynote address at the 2006 Conference, and speakers from every major documentary media outlet regularly participate.

The Festival is presented through a unique alliance between AFI, a national institute providing leadership in screen education and the recognition and celebration of excellence in the art of film, television and digital media and Discovery Communications, the number one non-fiction media company in the world with operations in 170 countries and territories reaching nearly 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers.

The Festival—which will take place June 12 – 17, 2007—serves as a launch pad for independent documentaries and affords international filmmakers access to US audiences.

SILVERDOCS takes place at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, a year-round cinema complex presenting first-run art house film, calendared screening series and themed festivals.  The 49,000 square-foot art deco complex houses three theaters—one historic, two new state-of-the-art stadium-style theaters—and a café; it is located in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, just across the street from Discovery World Headquarters.   For more information, go to www.SILVERDOCS.com.

About the American Film Institute

AFI is a national institute providing leadership in screen education and the recognition and celebration of excellence in the art of film, television and digital media.  AFI trains the next generation of filmmakers at its world-renowned Conservatory, maintains America's film heritage through the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and explores new digital technologies in entertainment and education through the AFI Digital Content Lab and K-12 Screen Education Center. As the largest nonprofit exhibitor in the US, AFI ON SCREEN encompasses the annual AFI FEST presented by Audi: AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival—as well as year-round programming at ArcLight Hollywood and the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, including SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival.  AFI AWARDS, the annual almanac for the 21st century, honors the most outstanding motion pictures and television programs of the year, while AFI's 100 Years . . . series has ignited extraordinary public interest in classic American movies. And, during the past 34 years, AFI’s Life Achievement Award has become the highest honor for a career in film. Additional information about AFI is available at AFI.com.

About Discovery Communications

Discovery Communications, Inc. is the number-one nonfiction media company reaching more than 1.5 billion people in over 170 countries. Through TV and digital media, Discovery's 100-plus worldwide networks include Discovery Channel, TLC, Travel Channel, Animal Planet and Discovery Health.  DCI is owned by Discovery Holding Co. (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB), Cox Communications Inc., Advance/Newhouse Communications and John S. Hendricks, Discovery’s founder and chairman. For more information please visit www.discovery.com.