Amazon.com and the Tribeca Film Festival Debut Tribeca Screening Room for Short-Film Competition—more than 1,000 Films Submitted

Millions of Amazon.com Customers Can Rate Films Alongside Celebrity Reviewers including Gwyneth Paltrow, David Duchovny, Ice Cube and Donald Sutherland


Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), the Tribeca Film Festival and its founding partner American Express today announced the debut of the Tribeca Screening Room (www.amazon.com/screeningroom) for the Amazon Theater/Tribeca Film Festival Short-Film Competition, where millions of Amazon.com customers will have the opportunity to rate as many short films as they would like using the Amazon.com star rating system. Customers will also be invited to read comments about selected films by celebrity reviewers including:

Gwyneth Paltrow, David Duchovny, Ice Cube, Donald Sutherland, Taylor Hackford, John Hamburg , Stanley Tucci

“Now it's time for Amazon.com customers to select our five finalists in our search for the next great filmmaker,” said Kathy Savitt, Amazon.com’s vice president of Strategic Communications, Content and Initiatives. “This is the only film competition of its kind in which millions of film lovers can decide the winner.”

“The Tribeca Film Festival is about bringing film to the widest possible audience, and this competition will greatly expand the reach of the Festival and bring short film to new audiences as well as involve Amazon.com customers in the process of judging films,” said Jennifer Maguire Isham, president of the Tribeca Film Festival.

When customers visit the Tribeca Screening Room at Amazon.com, they will take part in a search for the next great short-film maker by viewing and rating randomly-selected films. The last day to rate the films in the Tribeca Screening Room is May 20. At the end of May, the five films with the highest ratings will be featured on the Amazon.com welcome page over a period of four weeks. Again, Amazon.com customers will rate the five finalists to determine the overall winner of the Amazon Theater/Tribeca Film Festival Short-Film Competition.

Each time a customer rates a film, he or she is automatically entered to win a trip to New York City to attend the exclusive premiere of the five finalist films at Tribeca Cinemas. Ten first-prize winners will receive a copy of the Martin Scorsese Collection DVD box-set, collector’s edition, and a 2005 Tribeca Film Festival poster signed by Tribeca Film Festival jurors. In early July, the grand-prize winning filmmaker will be announced, and will receive a grant of $50,000 for their next film in the form of an American Express prepaid card.

The Amazon Theater/Tribeca Film Festival Short-Film Competition was designed by Amazon.com for filmmakers and film lovers, and is an important part of the company’s continued dedication to being a destination for exclusive content and products. From the Tribeca Screening Room, customers can visit The Tribeca Collection, an online boutique highlighting products and content selected by Tribeca Film Festival founders, organizers and jurors. Additionally, celebrity reviewers will have dedicated boutiques in which their work and content is featured.