Ithaca College's Annual Cell Phone Film Fest (CellFlix) is Back.

Ithaca, NY—Ithaca College, the home of the original student cell-phone film competition has opened entries to high school and college students in the U.S. for the second annual CellFlix Festival. The contest challenges the growing number of wanna-be filmmakers with camera phones to create a 30-second film shot on a cell phone. Students will fire up their imaginations, and flirt with fantasy to create a story for mobile delivery.

The 2006 competition, the first of its kind in the world, drew attention from 300 media sources around the globe. Since that time, the idea of smaller has become bigger—much bigger, with cell phone film festivals and competitions springing up around the world, most recently in China’s Shanxi Province and even as part of the Toronto Film Festival.

The 2007 CellFlix competition offers two $5,000 prizes. Judges consisting of Ithaca College alumni in media professions will blind judge the entries and determine the winner of one $5,000 Judges Prize; the second $5,000 prize (sponsored by Texas Instruments) will go to the “Fan Favorite” CellFlix. Fans can view all the entries on the CellFlix web page http://www.cellflixfestival.org/ and vote on-line. Given the anticipated number of entries fans can expect a whole lot of shooting going on, which means a whole lot of watching before voting.

Analysts at the Gartner Group note that sales of camera phones have almost tripled since 2004 reaching 460 million in 2006, an increase of 43% over 2005.

“Last year we were delighted that 178 students figured out how to shoot a cell-phone film; this time around, we expect thousands of fledgling directors from around the U.S. to pick up their camera phones and get creative,” said creator of the CellFlix Festival Dianne Lynch, dean of the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College.

Only the imagination can limit the students’ stories—they can be humor, drama, musical, adventure, or as last years’ winner discovered, love stories are always fair game. To view last years’ top ten go to www.cellflixfestival.org/screeningroom.html.

“CellFlix was the first student film festival in the world for movies shot on cell phones. A year ago, that was revolutionary. Today, it’s just how things work,” said Lynch.

This year Texas Instruments has joined Ithaca College, sponsoring the “Fan Favorite” prize. “Texas Instruments leads the market in developing technology for mobile phone innovation. The CellFlix competition will encourage new and innovative use of that technology,” said Avner Goren, worldwide director, Cellular Systems Solutions Marketing for Texas Instruments.

Entry deadline is April 1, 2007. Winners of the 2007 CellFlix will be announced May 1, 2007. For entry rules go to http://www.cellflixfestival.org/.

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Contact: Anne MacdonaldOffice: 607-274-1945amacdonald@ithaca.eduReference: 56