Winning Filmmakers Donate Grand Prize to Haiti Relief

NEW YORK, NY (February 23, 2010)  – A team of aspiring filmmakers from Minneapolis were recently awarded “Best Film of the 2009 Film Racing Tour”, a competition that challenged filmmakers in 20 cities across North America to create short films in 24 hours.  The filmmakers received $2,500 cash as part of their grand prize, which they announced has been donated in full to the UN based CERF (Central Emergency Response Fund) for Haiti relief.

“The relief efforts in Haiti were more important to us than keeping the money” said Jack Paar, the editor and winning team member.  Other members of the winning team out of Minneapolis included Bridget McGrath (Producer), Joe Schneider (Producer), Lawrence Bricker (Associate Producer), and Vaughn Juares (Director/DP).  Their winning film, “Blowing Bubbles”, was a comedy about a circus clown that gets a second chance and was created for the Minneapolis leg of the 2009 Film Racing Tour.

The Film Racing Tour is a competition which challenges filmmakers of all levels of experience to write, shoot, edit, and score an original short film no longer than 4 minutes based on an assigned theme and surprise element.  The films are showcased in theaters across North America and the top films compete for thousands in cash and prizes.  The 2010 Tour will kick off in Boston and Minneapolis on March 26^th and will be visiting 20 cities across the US and Canada.

“This is a very generous act from a group of talented up and coming filmmakers,” said Film Racing competition director, Charlie Weisman.  “I think it shows what a special group this was, not a lot of people would give away 100% of their hard earned prizes.”

For more information on Film Racing, visit the official competition website at http://www.filmracing.com.  To watch “Blowing Bubbles”, the film that won the grand prize in the 2009 Film Racing Tour, go to http://www.filmracing.com/films/2009/minneapolis/045.htm.  For more information on the UN based Central Emergency Response Fund, visit http://ochaonline.un.org/cerf/.

About Film Racing

Film Racing (http://www.filmracing.com) is operated by NYC Midnight Movie Making Madness, LLC, an organization that has been holding unique film competitions since 2002.  Since launching the Film Racing Tour in 2007, NYC Midnight has awarded over $150,000 in cash and prizes to the winning filmmakers.  For more information on NYC Midnight, visit http://www.nycmidnight.com.

Contact:

Charlie Weisman

Competition Director

NYC Midnight, LLC

(212) 518-3346

charlie.weisman@nycmidnight.com 

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