SnagFilms has acquired the exclusive digital rights to six acclaimed documentaries, it will be announced today at the Paid Content Entertainment conference by Rick Allen, SnagFilms CEO. Among the six films, City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story, has been selected. City Lax along with the five other films will make their digital debuts via its transactional partners, including Comcast Xfinity, FiOS, DIRECTV, iTunes, Amazon and VUDU.
"SnagFilms is pleased to bring these festival favorites and award winners to digital audiences in the comfort of their homes," said Rick Allen, SnagFilms CEO. "These are six amazing true stories, incredibly well told. We look forward to bringing them to film fans worldwide, first on a transactional basis and ultimately on snagfilms.com and via our online network, mobile apps and connected TV devices."
These announcements follow SnagFilms' recent acquisition of two 2011 award-winners: South By Southwest Grand Jury winner Dragonslayer, opening theatrically in New York tomorrow and Los Angeles next week to outstanding early reviews (including as the indieWire Pick of the Week), and Splinters, another multi-festival award winner which was selected for the IDFA film festival later this month.
City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story won both the Best Documentary Award and the Audience Award at the 2010 Sonoma International Film Festival, and selections to the SilverDocs, Vail and Santa Barbara Festivals and has been acquired by ESPN for telecast. One of the film's stars is a poet, another a musician. Several have fathers who have been killed. They are all from Denver's inner-city. They are all 12-years-old. And they have all found a hint of salvation from their violent neighborhood in a most unlikely sport: lacrosse. From the moment these kids discover what a lacrosse stick is, to the heart-stopping finale at the state championships, this film, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and produced by Tor Myhren, takes the audience on an unforgettable journey. http://citylaxthemovie.com/
"I'm fired up to be working with SnagFilms," said Jake Steinfeld, City Lax's Executive Producer. "Like our movie's young stars, filmmakers prove that passion and dreams can beat the longest odds -- if they've got the right folks on their team. With Snag, we have what it takes to win over new audiences in new ways."
About SnagFilms
SnagFilms features free, sponsor-supported, on demand viewing of more than 2,700 award-winning, fiction and non-fiction titles from some of the greatest names in film. SnagFilms' curated film collection is viewed on its own site and a digital network of more than 110,000 affiliated sites and webpages worldwide, including partners such as AOL/Huffington Post, Comcast's XfinityTV.com, Hulu, the Starbucks Digital Network, IMDb, hundreds of non-profits, news and special interest sites and blogs -- and via its applications for the iPad and connected TV platforms Roku and Boxee, and launching soon on Android-based smartphones and Android and Blackberry PlayBook tablets, and connected TVs from Sony, Samsung and Vizio. SnagFilms' titles have been featured on more than 3.5 billion pageviews across its network.
SnagFilms also offers selected titles via pay video on demand with Comcast and FiOS, as well as on iTunes, Hulu Plus, Amazon, YouTube Movies, and will soon be launching on DIRECTV and digital streaming providers VUDU, Samsung Media Hub and Xbox Live. SnagFilms was recently named one of the fastest growing technology companies in Washington, DC area. Gizmodo has named SnagFilms as a "Best iPad App," and OVGuide has twice named SnagFilms a Top Site. The SnagFilms family also includes indieWIRE, for more than 15 years the web's top source of news, reviews and information about independent film.