BIG BEAR LAKE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
ACCEPTING FILM & SCREENPLAY COMPETITION ENTRIES 

(Big Bear Lake, CA – November 10, 2007) The ninth annual Big Bear Lake International Film Festival is open for film and screenplay competition entries. This year's festival will be held the weekend of September 11-14, 2008. The festival showcases a wide range of filmmaking and highlights independent feature-length films, student films, High School student films, short films, documentaries, family films, animation films, films made by Big Bear locals and a screenwriting competition. Also back this year will be the second annual Big Bear Lake Film Festival Pitchfest.  Juried and audience film awards will be presented along with the screenwriting competition awards.

“Last year’s festival was a huge success and the best one yet and we are excited about going into our ninth year as we continue to grow as a film festival," say festival organizers.

In addition to a successful screenwriting competition, the festival hosts screenwriting and filmmaker panel discussions and seminars with many of the film industry jurors in attendance. These jurors help make the festival valuable to new filmmakers, screenwriters, film distributors, agents, managers, producers and film fans in Big Bear Lake. One of our past competition winners, Iris Yamashita’s “Tokyo Pop”, was nominated this year for an Academy Award for Screenwriting for the film, “Letters From Iwo Jima.” Yamashita was discovered by one of the BBLIFF jurors who submitted her competition screenplay to Paul Haggis who gave it to Clint Eastwood.

Last year the festival awarded A.C. Lyles with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Producing; Five-time Academy Award nominated Cinematographer, Allen Daviau (E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial”, “Empire of the Sun,” “The Deer Hunter”) for Cinematography and local filmmaker, Ron Seymour with the Community Appreciation Award.
To be eligible for the film competition, a film entry must have been completed in 2006, 2007, or 2008. All film entries must be submitted on DVD by the early deadline January 30 (early entry fee $35), or regular deadline May 1 (entry fee $40) or late deadline May 30 (entry fee $45).  All screenwriting entries must be feature films. The screenwriting competition early entry fee and deadline is $30 by January 30, regular entry fee is $35 by March 1 and late entry fee $40 by April 1. The Big Bear and mountain resorts "locals" entry fee is $30. The festival utilizes withoutabox.com for entry submissions with a discount for filmmakers who use their service.

For entry forms, submission guidelines, tickets, becoming a film screener, festival volunteer or festival sponsor visit www.bigbearlakefilmfestival.com, e-mail: bigbearfilmfest@aol.com or call
(909) 866-3433 for more information. The Big Bear Lake International Film Festival is a non-profit organization.