PollyGrind announces distribution deals for winning films

July 3, 2011 - PRLog -- He's been promising the second year of his PollyGrind Film Festival in Las Vegas is going to be bigger and better than its first. Today with the announcement of festival prizes, filmmaker and promoter Chad Clinton Freeman (Killer Biker Chicks, Johnny Reaper, and Gingerdead Man 3-D: Saturday Night Cleaver) looks to be on his way to keeping that promise.

The international event, dubbed Las Vegas' premiere underground film festival, will not only be giving away close to $10,000 in software prizes from Sony Creative, Final Draft and Red Giant Software, but deluxe sub-distribution packages from Apprehensive Films, arthouse distribution contracts from venue host theatre7 and DVD distribution from Breaking Glass Pictures.

Both the top jury award winner and the top audience award winner will receive DVD contracts with Vicious Circle Films, a specialty label with Breaking Glass Pictures.

With a growing catalog of nearly 100 titles including Cropsey, Someone's Knocking at the Door, Ticked Off Trannies with Knives, and Easter Bunny Kill! Kill!, Breaking Glass Pictures is an East Coast based film distribution company that formed in 2009 and features an international sales division.

"I'm super excited about this partnership," said Freeman, who has been called the "new champion of unabashed B-movie sleaze" by ArrowInTheHead.com. "Like PollyGrind, Breaking Glass Pictures is about boldly going where others don't. The same can be said for theatre7 and a number of our other sponsors."

PollyGrind gave out more than 20 awards last year and will give out at least that this year, including Best Use of Nudity/Sexuality, Best Use of Violence/Gore, Best Use of Music, The Most Outrageous and The Most Creative.

Greg Lamberson’s Slime City Massacre won the top jury prize, otherwise known as Biggest Baddest Mother of the PollyGrind, in 2010, while Jen and Sylvia Soska’s Dead Hooker in a Trunk was voted favorite feature by the audience.

"More than half of the features we screened last year received DVD distribution and that list grows almost every day," Freeman said, noting the August 9 release of Alex Pucci's Frat House Massacre by Synapse Films as the most recent. "This year, PollyGrind will feature even more films and we're going to help expose all of these great indie works to an even bigger audience than we were able to last year."

The second and third place films, as ranked by the festival's jury, will receive deluxe sub-distribution packages from Apprehensive Films (Amputee with an Axe, Bad Girls Go To Hell, Hardware Wars, Last Stop on 13th Street).

"PollyGrind is going to end up being the key festival for indie cult filmmakers to land distribution deals," said Jonathan Morken of Apprehensive Films, the company with the slogan "We Produce & Distribute Films of Questionable Taste."

The packages from Apprehensive will help get the winner's films listed on Amazon.com and on more than 30 of the top video on demand providers including iTunes, Amazon VOD, Netflix and more. Additionally, the films will be eligible for Wal-Mart sales and will be submitted to the top 5,000 video retailers and wholesale distributors, including Best Buy, Blockbuster, Columbia House, Target, and many more.

"Aside from Breaking Glass Pictures and Apprehensive Films, Wild Eye Releasing has shown an interest in this year's PollyGrind," Freeman said. "The company, known for releasing controversial and groundbreaking films such as Night of the Living Dead Reanimated, Gothkill, Blitzkrieg: The Escape from Stalag 69, and Bill Zebub's Dolla Morte, has recently signed on as a sponsor."

The Apprehensive Films release Crippled Masters 2: Two Crippled Heroes kicks off a series of PollyGrind Presents events at theatre7 on July 8. The obscure kung-fu cult classic will double feature with Alberto Triana's Las Vegas made blaxploitation, martial arts, slap stick comedy Sweet Ninja Brown.

Located near the "Downtown Las Vegas" sign (1406 South 3rd Street, Las Vegas, NV 89104, in the arts district), theatre7 is an artlover's and indie film fan's paradise. Owned by filmmaker Derek Stonebarger and programmed by Freeman, theatre7 screens independent films, doubles as an art gallery and hosts live theatre performances.
Independent films currently with arthouse distribution contracts through theatre7 include I.M. Caravaggio, Thor at the Bus Stop, You People, and One Long Day.
After world premiering in April at theatre7, One Long Day was selected for the Action on Film International Film Festival in Los Angeles. In the theater's screening rotation since March, Thor at the Bus Stop recently landed a DVD distribution contract, while I.M. Caravaggio was invited to screen in New York City as part of the third annual NewFilmmakers Summer Fest.

PollyGrind is an annual underground film festival that considers any and all independently produced and non distributed movies that are slightly off kilter.

Taking place in October, the PollyGrind Film Festival's aim is to celebrate individuality, diversity, creativity and empowerment by showcasing the work of filmmakers with defiantly independent visions.

The festival consists of programming in the tradition of grindhouse theaters with double features, bookended by trailers and music videos. The event welcomes, but is not limited to horror, gore, sci-fi, fantasy, exploitation, sexploitation, arthouse, cult, experimental, dark, creepy and campy features. 

Submissions for the 2011 season are being accepted through PollyGrind.com until July 13. Sponsorship opportunities are also still available.

For links to all the PollyGrind sponsors, please visit http://grindhousefest2011.pollystaffle.com/sponsors.html.

In addition to their sponsorship, Breaking Glass Pictures is also offering a discount to the fans of PollyGrind. Visit http://www.shop.breakingglasspictures.com/ and enter promocode "pollygrind" at check out to receive not only free shipping, but $7 off every DVD.

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