Editor

CineFestReturns With 8 Days of Cinematic Magic

After Year Hiatus,Festival Brings U.S. Premieres and Sundance Favorites to Philadelphia

-Thursday, April 7,2011 - Thursday, April 14, 2011-

Philadelphia, PA - March 3, 2011 - Oscar season is over, but ThePhiladelphia Cinema Alliance is bubbling over with silver screen excitementwith the return of CineFest, running this year from Thursday, April 7 toThursday, April 14.

Boasting over 60 feature films - including U.S. and Worldpremieres, and featuring the very best of Sundance, SXSW and the Cannes FilmFestival - CineFest will feature festival goer's favorites: Danger After Dark,World Focus, American Indies, The Documentary Tradition and of course, thespotlight on Philadelphia's Finest - Festival of Independents.  Thisyear's venues will include the Ritz East One and Two, the Painted Bride and thelegendary Trocadero.

CineFesthighlights include: Incendies, the French-Canadian foreign-languageOscar nominee from director Denis Villeneuve; Two Gates of Sleep, aCannes entry about two guys' metaphysical slog through Mississippi; Bhopali,an industrial-disaster documentary that won both the documentary prize and theaudience award at Slamdance; Steve James' The Interrupters, about aChicago group trying to stanch the violence in its city's streets; The TrollHunter, a Norwegian horror thriller; and  Square Grouper, aSouth-by-Southwest selection about pot smugglers in 1970s Miami.

Closing outthe 8-day festival is the Philadelphia premiere of "Super Size Me"director Morgan Spurlock's new film, "POM Wonderful Presents The GreatestMovie Ever Sold", which won great reviews at Sundance.  Spurlock will beon hand for the screening of the documentary to speak in-depth about productplacement in the media.

"We're takingthis festival back to its grass roots," says CineFest Artistic Director JoshGoldbloom. "It's our love for film, our love for this city, and our eagernessto share the passion for cinema, that's been fueling us all. We're buildingthis into a landmark festival, through teamwork and celebration. I'm incrediblyhonored to be able to present this year's CineFest. "

In additionto great programming, this year's CineFest ventures beyond the confines oftypical screening venues and heads outdoors.

On Saturday,April 9, in front of The Ritz Five, the festival will celebrate all day andevening with the first ever free CineFest Street Fair, complete with filmmakerinterviews, musicians, special guest MC's, comedians, food, vendors, and more.The next day, Sunday, April 10, festival goers will head to The Piazza atSchmidt's for an all day martial arts mini-fest, celebrating the greatestaction star you've probably never heard of, Tony Jaa! Screening all 3 of hisONG BAK films, and featuring martial arts demonstrations all day, CineFest willbe turning the entire Piazza into a giant marketplace.

At the helmof CineFest is Goldbloom, hailing from the Philadelphia Underground FilmFestival. TLA Entertainment Group President and CineFest creator Ray Murrayprograms the world-cinema slate, with Managing Director Steven Saturn,Development Director Thom Cardwell and film booker Jennifer Arndt-Johnsrounding out the team. TLA partners Claire Brown Kohler, and Eric Moore serveas production directors.

For moreinformation on CineFest, visit www.phillycinema.org or call 267-765-9800; and follow the festival on Twitter:@CinefestPhilly and Facebook: www.facebook.com/phillycinefest

###

The PhiladelphiaCinema Alliance is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 to producePhiladelphia's two existing world-class film festivals (CineFest and QFest) aswell as to present year-round international film programming throughout thecity. But the festivals themselves are the ones with a history.

PhiladelphiaCineFest: In 1992, International House and its president Ellen Davisproduced the inaugural Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema (PFWC), with LindaBlackaby as Artistic Director. TLA Entertainment took over management of PFWCin 2001 and in 2003 renamed it the Philadelphia Film Festival. For severalyears the festival was produced by the Philadelphia Film Society (PFS). Late in2008, there was a break-up resulting in the creation of the Philadelphia CinemaAlliance which produced and programmed the 2009 Philadelphia FilmFestival/CineFest. Going forward, The Alliance presents the Festival (nowsimply named Philadelphia CineFest) annually in April as well as PhiladelphiaQFest, the long-running GLBT film festival, in July.