2005 Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award Goes to Florida State Film Student

LAS VEGAS, March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Matthew Pope, a native of Atlanta, GA and currently a film student at Florida State University's School of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts (also known as The Film School), has been selected as the winner of the 2005 Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award for his short film "The Line Starts Here."

Pope will receive the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award at ShoWest in Las Vegas at the Final Night Banquet and Awards Ceremony on March 17, 2005. As the winner, Pope will receive $10,000 and his short film will be seen on more than 21,000 movie screens in the fall in theaters that pour Coca-Cola.

"This is an exciting opportunity for me. You can work for years in this industry without ever having one of your films show on a theater screen, much less on more than 21,000 of them," said Pope.

For the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award competition, entrants created short films based on the concept of "the movie-going experience." Ten finalists were selected Fall 2004, with each receiving a $7,500 grant to produce their film within 10 weeks.

"The Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award gives film students the chance to bring their classroom experience to the world of professional filmmaking," said Kathleen Ciaramello, vice president, Entertainment Partners and Strategic Alliances, The Coca-Cola Company. "By recognizing their achievements, we're helping aspiring filmmakers make their celluloid dreams real and share their work with influential decision-makers in the entertainment industry."

Inspired by the long lines of fans for the re-release of the "Star Wars" movies, Pope's film, titled "The Line Starts Here," centers around a man who plans to "camp out" to be the first person in line for a new, highly-anticipated movie. He erects a tent on the sidewalk outside the theater, but due to a malfunctioning zipper, he is trapped inside the tent and even though he is first in line, he is unable to purchase tickets. Fortunately, a kind-hearted theater employee who notices his troubles, purchases tickets for him and they attend the movie together.

The panel chose Pope's film from nearly 200 concepts submitted by students representing twelve film schools in the U.S., including those from Columbia University, Northwestern University, University of Southern California, University of California in Los Angeles, New York University, Florida State University, North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Texas at Austin, California State University at Long Beach, University of Denver, Chapman University and Brigham Young University.

Pope is a native of Atlanta, GA, where he began making a series of weekly short films with his friends for high school groups. He graduated magna cum laude from Furman University in 1999 before founding Summerset Productions, an independent production company. Pope is currently attending Florida State University's School of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts.

For the first time in the history of the competition, an online component, http://www.ccrfa.com/, was added to aid both program participants as well as judges. The site was used to provide information to participants, collect entries, and to obtain votes, both from the Red Ribbon Panel as well as program participants. This year marked the first time program participants were invited to vote on the finalists' spots. Their votes were averaged and that average counted as one vote on the Red Ribbon Panel.

In addition, in the spirit of celebrating independent filmmakers, Project Greenlight and The Coca-Cola Company have announced that they will continue to co-promote their filmmaker programs -- Project Greenlight's amateur filmmaking competition and the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award contest. The two organizations kicked off the partnership at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival where Project Greenlight hosted the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker Award program finalists at digital filmmaking and screenwriting workshops and the Project Greenlight winner announcement event. The organizations will continue to support each other through cross-promotional activities. In addition, Project Greenlight executive producers Matt Damon, Chris Moore and Ben Affleck continue to be members of the Red Ribbon judging panel for the Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker's Award.

Celebrating its 31st year, ShoWest is the world's largest motion picture theater industry convention. The 2005 edition of ShoWest will be held from March 14th - 17th at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas, and at this time it is expected that more than 5,000 members of the industry will be on hand. Each year, ShoWest attracts delegates from more than 45 countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Asia/Pacific region. ShoWest was founded by the National Association of Theatre Owners of California and Nevada, and the 2001 show was the first managed by Sunshine Group Worldwide, a division of VNU Expositions Film Group.

The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage company. Along with Coca-Cola, recognized as the world's best-known brand, the Company markets four of the world's top five soft drink brands, including Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite, and a wide range of other beverages, including diet and light soft drinks, waters, juices and juice drinks, teas, coffees and sports drinks. Through the world's largest distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages at a rate exceeding 1 billion servings each day.