Editor

A&E Network has selected the Palm Beach International Film Festival to be the first to participate in their new “A&E IndieFilms Spotlight” campaign. As part of this campaign, select films from PBIFF will be featured in short segments throughout the festival on the network and on their website, with one film being chosen to be televised nationally on A&E. The program is part of A&E IndieFilms’ on-going efforts to highlight and support independent filmmaking. The Palm Beach International Film Festival is the first of four festivals that will benefit from this promotion.

A&E IndieFilms has been proud to partner on the production and distribution of some of the top independent feature documentaries including Murderball, Jesus Camp, My Kid Could Paint That, Rock School, Bearing Witness and American Teen. As part of this initiative, A&E is forging partnerships with sponsors to highlight the work of other festival features and to drive interest to major film festivals such as Palm Beach.

“This is such a wonderful opportunity for the festival and especially for the filmmakers who will benefit from the vast A&E audience,” said PBIFF Director Randi Emerman. “We’re thrilled to have been selected to participate in this program and look forward to along and rewarding relationship with A&E!”

“We are excited about being able to bring the work of the filmmakers featured at Palm Beach to a wider audience,” said Molly Thompson, Director of Programming, A&E IndieFilms. “The A&E IndieFilms Spotlight Campaign is a natural extension of A&E IndieFilms’ mission to seek and support the best and brightest in independent film production.”

A&E IndieFilms is the feature documentary production arm of A&E Networks. A&E IndieFilms acquires, commissions and provides finishing funds for feature documentaries. The strand has been aggressively forming innovative partnerships with theatrical distributors including Paramount Vantage on Nanette Burstein's recent Sundance hit American Teen; ThinkFilm on Murderball, Magnolia Pictures on Jesus Camp, Newmarket Films on Rock School , and Sony Pictures Classics on My Kid Could Paint That.

The Palm Beach International Film Festival (PBIFF), which takes place April 10-17, 2008, is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization supporting film programs in local schools. Founded in 1996, PBIFF has emerged as a major cultural venue for the community as well as a productive fundraiser for film and TV Education. Each year it introduces filmmakers worldwide to the area’s unique resources, while celebrating the history and future of the film industry with seven days of world premieres, special events, seminars, feature films, short films and documentaries. For more information, please call (561) 362-0003 or visit the festival web site at www.pbifilmfest.org.