Home Video Entertainment Events Launches Inaugural ""DVD Festival"" At July 2000 VSDA Convention & Expo

State-Of-The-Art ""DVD Festival"" Supersession To Be Hosted By ""Entertainment Tonight"" Film Critic Leonard Maltin

22-May-00

The 2000 VSDA Convention & Expo will host the first-ever DVD Festival at its upcoming show, July 8-10, 2000, at the Venetian Hotel/Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas. Highlighting the festival will be a DVD Supersession on Sunday, July 9 at 9-11am, followed by announcement of The DVD Awards on Monday, July 10 at 11:30am. Additionally, the dynamic DVD format will be showcased in one central ""DVD Festival"" area on the exhibit floor for all three days of the convention. The announcement was made by Home Video Entertainment Events (HVEE) Chairman and VSDA President Bo Andersen, and HVEE executive Bruce Apar, of Advanstar Communications. In addition to all the major Hollywood studios, which are jointly sponsoring the entire convention, ""DVD Festival"" exhibitors and sponsors include DVD International, Pioneer Entertainment, Image Entertainment, E-Real Biz, Deluxe Video Services, and magazines-on-disk BroadcastDVD and DVD Preview with Leonard Maltin. The first annual DVD Awards will recognize studios and independent DVD producers for excellence in content and production techniques unique to the DVD format. Categories include ""Best Audio Commentary,"" ""Best Original Supplements,"" ""Best Widescreen Transfer"" and ""Best Use of Menu Graphics,"" to name just a few. Titles released on DVD's in the U.S. market from March 1997 through December 31, 1999 will be eligible. There is a per-title entry fee of $150, and each DVD label can submit no more than one title per award category. The DVD Awards will be determined by a ""DVD Festival"" blue-ribbon jury of recognized experts in entertainment media, including Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, Daily Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, DVD Review, Video Business, Video Store, Billboard and Widescreen Review. The Coalition for Quality Children's Media, which administers a jury of parents and children for its KidsFirst! evaluation program, will select the children's DVD winner. Companies interested in entering the competition can get entry forms by contacting Sue Procko, Public Relations at 323 653 5153. The ""DVD Festival"" SuperSession will be hosted by film critic and ardent fan Leonard Maltin, and will feature panels focusing on various aspects of the format. The first panel will highlight state-of-the-art DVD technology, such as Sony's PlayStationÆ2 and Toshiba's NUONô DVD-Video player, with the second panel spotlighting consumer trends driving the DVD marketplace. An hour with leading Hollywood filmmakers will round out the third panel. ""DVD has provided a tremendous boost to the home entertainment industry,"" commented VSDA's Bo Andersen. ""We're pleased to honor and further support this burgeoning technology. It offers our retailers a new source of revenue and allows them to offer their consumers an even greater entertainment experience."" ""We all know how long and costly it will be before broadband is a household fixture for the average Internet family,"" noted Advanstar's Bruce Apar. ""This event will spread the word that original, interactive, rich video content is already available to the mass market, in the highly affordable form of DVD. The format also performs smoothly in tandem with the Internet. DVD is movies, music, games and much more groundbreaking digital entertainment to come."" Established in 1981, the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) is a not-for-profit international trade association for the $17 billion home entertainment industry. VSDA represents over 3,000 companies throughout the United States, Canada, and 22 other countries. Membership comprises the full spectrum of video retailers (both independents and large chains), as well as the home video divisions of all major and independent motion picture studios, video game and multimedia producers, and other related businesses that constitute and support the home video entertainment industry. The VSDA Convention & Expo is organized through Home Video Entertainment Events (HVEE), a joint venture between the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) and Advanstar Communications to own and produce conferences, tradeshows and other industry events in support of the home entertainment industry.