follow-up from Tribeca

Well, it was a great night, if a little rainy, in New York last week.

check out the gallery for images of the event-- http://www.gscalzigallery.blogspot.com

We didn't win, but I was so proud to be at Tribeca Cinemas with James Seale, and the people he surrounds himself with, to give support to his work, and this short.

More details below.

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Amazon.com, American Express and the Tribeca Film Festival Announce Winner in Short-Film Competition;

Amazon.com Customers Determined the Grand Prize Winner; Founding Partner American Express Provides $50,000 Grand Prize

NEW YORK--June 29, 2005--Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN), American Express and Tribeca Film Festival founders Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff, today announced that Jon Lindgren is the grand-prize winning filmmaker of the Amazon Theater/Tribeca Film Festival Short-Film Competition for Rachel's Challenge.Lindgren will receive $50,000 to fund his next film project, to be awarded from American Express. Amazon.com and American Express are committed to enabling aspiring and working filmmakers to continue to develop and refine their craft and identify new opportunities and outlets to show their work.The five finalists and their families gathered at the Tribeca Cinemas in New York City tonight for the film presentation and award ceremony.

Film industry executives and celebrities including Tom Wolfe, Damon Dash, Jeffrey Wright, Anthony Mackie, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, John Sykes, Susie Essman, Anna Deveare Smith, John Sloss, Jay Roach and Nick Callaway were among the guests celebrating the winning film.

Jane Rosenthal, co-founder, Tribeca Productions and Film Festival along with Kathy Savitt, Amazon.com vice president of Strategic Communications, Content and Initiatives commended each filmmaker for their creativity, commitment to filmmaking and for participating in the competition. John Hayes, chief marketing officer, American Express, presented the award.

Lindgren created Rachel's Challenge, a seven minute short-film chronicling a behind-the-scenes battle of good vs. evil surrounding the Columbine High School shootings.Originally from Warren, Pennsylvania, he is married with two children and currently living in Midland, Texas. He is a small-business owner of an advertising agency and a video production company where he produces videos that serve as endowment campaigns for non-profit groups and moral educational products for schools. Lindgren found inspiration for his short film, Rachel's Challenge, in the opportunity to tell a real-life story demonstrating heroism, self-sacrifice, and endurance through hardship and unusual circumstances.

More than 1,000 films and over 2 million minutes of film footage were initially submitted to The Tribeca Screening Room (www.amazon.com/screeningroom) for the Amazon Theater/Tribeca Film Festival Short-Film Competition, where millions of Amazon.com customers took part in a search for the next great short-film maker by viewing and rating randomly-selected films from April 18th through May 20th. At the end of May, the five finalist films with the highest ratings were featured on the Amazon.com welcome page over a period of four weeks.

Again, Amazon.com customers rated the five finalists to determine the overall winner of the Amazon Theater/Tribeca Film Festival Short-Film Competition.Throughout the competition, celebrity jurors including Gwyneth Paltrow, Donald Sutherland, David Duchovny, Ice Cube, Marc Anthony, Stanley Tucci, John Hamburg and Taylor Hackford, in addition to customers, were able to write and post their own reviews and commentary about the films, as well as read reviews from other customers and celebrities.

Other finalist films included:

Fragile, by David Cumbo:A brilliantly animated psychological journey of a young child coping with the death of his older sibling.

Post Traumatic, by James Seale:An homage to the classic conspiracy thrillers of the 70's, a soldier returns home from the war in Iraq to find himself being followed by shadowy CIA types.

Street Therapy, by Jason Rice:Gritty and personal, a homeless man offers his fellow NYC residents an outlet for their frustrations ... for a small fee of course.

Misfortune Cookie, by Jack Paccione, Jr.:A suspenseful and thought-provoking tale of an arrogant man who receives an unwelcome message in his fortune cookie.

Macromedia Flash is the exclusive video format for the Amazon Theater/Tribeca Film Festival Short-Film Competition.About Tribeca Film FestivalThe Tribeca Film Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking capital. Tribeca Cinemas, located at 54 Varick Street, was acquired by the Festival founders in 2003 and serves as a year-round venue for the Festival and its related activities.The 2005 Festival, presented by American Express, took place from April 19th to May 1st in various locations throughout lower Manhattan. The 2005 Festival featured special events, outdoor concerts and screenings, a street fair, and panel discussions with noted filmmakers.

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