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Florida Film Festival Goes Downtown Orlando Plaza Cinema Café Serves as Screening Venue

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FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL
GOES DOWNTOWN ORLANDO
Plaza Cinema Café Serves as Screening Venue

ORLANDO, FL. (Feb. 25, 2010) – The 19th annual Florida Film Festival announced it will expand its film screenings to downtown Orlando, including presentations at the Plaza Cinema Café and Lake Eola Park as well as other signature downtown venues serving as Festival party locales. The Festival will take place April 9 through April 18, 2010.

In addition to Enzian and the Regal Winter Park Village 20, the Festival will hold film presentations at the Plaza Cinema Café, the premier movie theater complex in downtown Orlando. Seven films over three days – Wednesday, April 14 through Friday, April 16 – will be showcased, and these include the Festival’s most exciting spotlight selections as well as a midnight presentation.

The full schedule will be announced at the Official Sneak Preview Party on March 10 at Enzian.

“We are very pleased to bring the Florida Film Festival to downtown Orlando’s state-of-the-art Plaza Cinema Café,” said Henry Maldonado, President of Enzian and the Florida Film Festival. “We will give the downtown experience a full taste of our Festival. From major films, to parties, to a free movie picnic by the lake – the Florida Film Festival is a perfect fit to the City Beautiful. Much appreciated is the assistance of the Orlando Film Festival, the Downtown Development Board (DDB), the Orange County Regional History Center, the Plaza Cinema Café and most of all, our primary sponsor, Full Sail University.”

Additional Florida Film Festival events taking place in downtown Orlando include a free outdoor screening of the two-time Academy Awarding winning film, COCOON, as part of the newly launched Movie Night Downtown series. Attendees are invited to bring blankets and a picnic dinner while enjoying the 25th anniversary showcase of this sci-fi classic. This event is presented in partnership with the Orlando Film Festival, initiating a unique relationship between the area’s two major film festivals.

In addition to the films, the Florida Film Festival will present three festival parties in downtown Orlando.

Filmmaker Welcome Party
Sponsored by Full Sail University
Ember
Wednesday, April 14
Participating filmmakers meet and greet other film lovers.

Downtown Festival Parties…

V.I.P. Reception
Sponsored by the Metro Orlando Film & Entertainment Commission, a Division of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, and Women in Film & Television- Florida
Orange County Regional History Center
Thursday, April 15
Guests enjoy movie-related artifacts at the Center’s exhibition, “Out of this World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television.”

Industry Party
Urban Flats
Friday, April 16
Visiting guests, industry attendees, and filmmakers kick-off the final weekend of the Festival.

The Florida Film Festival is a core program of ENZIAN, a nonprofit organization which exists to entertain, educate, inspire, and connect the community through film. 2010 marks the 19th year of the Festival and ENZIAN’S 25th anniversary. Combined, ENZIAN and the Florida Film Festival have served more than 1.5 million guests, premiered thousands of films and hosted hundreds of celebrities including Academy Award winners Paul Newman, Oliver Stone, Christopher Walken and Jon Voight.

Full Sail University (http://www.fullsail.edu) has been recognized as an award-winning institution with over 34,000 alumni, and has served as an educational leader for those pursuing careers in the entertainment media industry. Graduate credits include work on OSCAR®, Emmy® and GRAMMY®-winning projects, best-selling video games, and the #1 grossing U.S. concert tours. Full Sail currently offers 29 degree programs and proudly welcomes over 8,400 students from 50 states and 57 countries. Full Sail was most recently named “Best Company” in the 2009 Orlando Business Journal’s Reader’s Choice Awards.