The 12th Urbanworld Film Festival Announces 2008 Winners

The 12th Urbanworld Film Festival Announces 2008 Winners

Winners Celebrated at Festival's Closing Awards Brunch on September 14

Festival Sponsors Include BET, HBO, Time Warner Cable, Grey Goose, WNBC, Black Enterprise, ESSENCE, VIBE, Power 105.1, the Directors Guild of America, AMC Theatres, Fox Searchlight Pictures and the Weinstein Company

NEW YORK, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The 12th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival, presented by BET Networks, today announced the winners for feature, documentary, short film, screenplay and audience award categories. The five-day festival was held September 10-14 in New York City; wrapping up on September 14 with a closing awards brunch to congratulate the competition's winners. Urbanworld, which screened 85 films this year, is the largest internationally competitive festival dedicated to the exhibition of independent cinema by and about people of color.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070716/BETNETWORKSLOGO )

The 12th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival winners are:

Best Narrative Feature Film
The Heart Specialist
Directed By Dennis Cooper, Produced By David Getachew Smith
Awarded $10,000 cash prize by Urbanworld Foundation, Inc.

Honorable Mention: Up With Me
Directed By Greg Takoudes, Produced By Christopher Roberts & Greg Takoudes

Best Documentary Feature Film
La Americana
Directed & Produced By Nicholas Bruckman
Awarded $10,000 cash prize by Urbanworld Foundation, Inc.

Best Documentary Short Film
El Play
Directed & Produced By Pablo Medina
Awarded $5,000 cash prize by Urbanworld Foundation, Inc.

Honorable Mention: Fresh Off The Boat
Directed By Mark Andersson & Katrina Lucas, Produced By Kristian Moliere

Best Narrative Short Film
A Day's Work
Directed by Rajeev Dassani, Produced By Charles Uy
Awarded $5,000 cash prize by Urbanworld Foundation, Inc.

Best Screenplay
Meadowlandz
Written By Moon Molson
Awarded $5,000 cash prize by HBO

Best Director
Leon Lozano for Something Is Killing Tate
Special Feature Category Award Presented By Time Warner Cable

Audience Award Winner
This Is Not A Test
Directed & Produced By Christopher Angel
Awarded $10,000 cash prize by Urbanworld Foundation, Inc.

"On behalf of the Urbanworld Film Festival and our Presenting Sponsor BET Networks, I proudly congratulate the exceptional winners of the Festival's 12th annual competition," said Stacy Spikes, founder of Urbanworld. "As Urbanworld consistently recognizes and celebrates excellence in films by and about people of color, we are honored to present such a diverse slate of filmmakers and content, both represented in the overall festival and in the 2008 roster of winners.

Highlights of the 12th annual Urbanworld Film Festival included a special closing night screening of The Secret Life Of Bees, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and starring Queen Latifah (the Festival's Honorary Chair), Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo, and Dakota Fanning, which tells a touching story about the need for love, family and redemption. The film follows 14-year-old Lily Owens (Dakota Fanning) and her life on a honey farm with her caretaker Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson) and the intelligent and independent honey-making Boatwright sisters (Latifah, Keys, & Okonedo).

Bolstered by a new three-year partnership with BET networks, Urbanworld is re-defining the competitive film festival landscape with its important and critical approach to exposing the voices of multicultural filmmakers.

ABOUT THE 2008 URBANWORLD FILM FESTIVAL:

Beginning this year, BET Networks has signed on for a three-year strategic partnership to present the Urbanworld Film Festival. The unique partnership, strengthened by BET's position as the leading media and entertainment provider for African Americans and consumers of Black culture, will further establish the festival as one of the world's largest competitive film festivals designed to redefine and enhance the roles of multicultural constituents in contemporary cinema.

ABOUT BET NETWORKS:

BET Networks, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA)(NYSE:VIA.B), is the nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 87 million households according to Nielsen Media Research, and can be seen in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions: BET.com, a leading internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; BET Digital Networks - BET J, BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Event Productions, a full-scale event management and production company; BET Home Entertainment, a collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and video-on-demand; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, an extension of BET network programming for global distribution.

ABOUT URBANWORLD FILM FESTIVAL:

Urbanworld launched in August 1997 and was founded by former executive at Miramax Stacy Spikes. Over the past eleven years, Urbanworld has presented approximately 700 features, shorts and documentaries, with estimated attendance reaching 15,000+. Now in its twelfth year, the Urbanworld Film Festival is the largest internationally competitive festival of its kind. Urbanworld re-defines the competitive film festival landscape with its fresh and necessary approach to spreading the voices of a multicultural world. The Urbanworld Film Festival is an initiative produced by the Urbanworld Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to implementing programs and events that support the development and success of the urban filmmaking community. Stacy Spikes serves as chairman emeritus. Gabrielle Glore serves as executive producer.

http://www.urbanworld.org/

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070716/BETNETWORKSLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: BET Networks

CONTACT: Nancy Hirsch, +1-212-967-3805, nancy@nhirschgroup.com, or
Taworia Davis, +1-917-923-7858, taworia@probablypr.com, or Lon Bouldin,
+1-917-370-1002, lon@venturespr.com, all for Urbanworld; or Bernadette Simpao
for BET Networks, +1-212-205-3154, bernadette.simpao@bet.net

Web site: http://www.bet.com/
http://www.urbanworld.org/

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