Chrysler, Hypnotic & Universal Pictures Announce 2003 Million Dollar Film Festival.

The Chrysler brand, in partnership with Hypnotic and Universal Pictures, announced the second annual Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival (CMDFF). The 2003 edition of this year-long program offers emerging filmmakers the opportunity to win a $1,000,000 feature film production deal courtesy of the Chrysler brand, Hypnotic and Universal Pictures and marks one of the automotive industry’s strongest commitments to filmed entertainment.

“The Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival has proven to be a fun, exciting and effective form of branded entertainment for us,” said Bonita Coleman Stewart, Director, Chrysler Marketing Communications, DaimlerChrysler. “The 2002 competition heightened awareness of our vehicles and helped deliver our Chrysler brand messages to a young, creative audience. We look forward to further extending the Chrysler brand into filmed entertainment with Hypnotic and Universal in 2003.”

The 2002 CMDFF winning filmmaker, Jeff Wadlow, led a group of filmmakers who created a wide range of branded entertainment that featured Chrysler vehicles including the PT Cruiser and Crossfire. “As filmmakers, it was gratifying to work with young talent while achieving the objectives that Chrysler set for this program,” said Dave Bartis, Hypnotic Co-Founder and CEO. “We look forward to continuing our relationship with Chrysler and producing the most engaging entertainment for consumers to learn about Chrysler vehicles. Chrysler deserves praise for marrying their brand with innovation, creativity and the art of filmmaking.”

The 2003 Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival will be accepting qualified short film submissions at www.chrysler.com now through December 2002. From these submissions, 25 filmmakers will be selected to travel next year to Park City, Utah at the same time as the Sundance Film Festival. There, the 25 quarterfinalists will present their qualified short films and participate in a branded entertainment workshop to kick-off the development of a Chrysler-branded short film script.

From this phase, 10 filmmakers will be selected to travel to New York City, where they will have 10 days to cast, shoot, edit and premiere their five-minute Chrysler-branded short films. The final round of the filmmaking competition requires the five finalists, while living in Los Angeles and being mentored by entertainment industry executives, to develop a $1,000,000 feature film package. This package includes the production of a movie scene, poster and other promotional materials relating to their project. The feature film competition concludes at the same time as the Toronto Film Festival in 2003, where the finalists will pitch their projects and the winner will be announced.