(old press releases)

FINALLY THE 1999 FINALISTS ANNOUNCED!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 26, 1999

TAOS LAND & FILM ANNOUNCES SCREENPLAY CONTEST FINALISTS

10 AUTHORS LEFT TO COMPETE FOR 5 ACRE AWARD

Taos Land & Film Company has selected ten finalist screenplays from the over 350 entries submitted to it's 1999 Screenplay Contest, one of which will be chosen as the winner of 5 acres of land atop the Cerro Montoso filmmakers colony in Taos, New Mexico.

This year's finalists will be judged by David Neiderman, (Development, Fox Searchlight); Philip Kruener, (Director of Development, KingWorld Productions); Richard Foos, (Executive Producer, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"; "Why Do Fools Fall In Love"); Tim Rhys, (Editor, MovieMaker Magazine) and Chris Eyre, (Director, "Smoke Signals"). The winner will not only receive five acres of land, but will also be optioned by Taos Land & Film Company for future production. The winner will be announced on or before August 31, 1999.

The 1999 screenplay finalists are:

CARMEN BASILIO! BASILIO! by Lou Buttino; CLUBS by John Hanna; FINDING DAVID by Christine G. Boone; GOD DON'T LIKE UGLY by Jiovanni Iacoviello; LIMBS by Danika D. Dinsmore; MOJADOS by Grant McCaw; THE NEVADA ROOM by Matt North; THE PASSAGE by Michael Raymond; RAW TALENT by Buzz Nutley; RUTHLESS by Tim Sexton

Taos Land & Film Company also sponsors the Taos Talking Picture Festival's Annual Land Grant Award given to the director of the most innovative feature film entered in the festival. This year's winner was LA CIUDAD, directed by David Riker. 1998's winner was SMOKE SIGNALS director Chris Eyre.

(old news releases) FIRST ROUND OF REVIEWS STILL IN PROGRESS

We're still reviewing the first round of 350 screenplays entered this year. It's taking us a lot longer this year because of several factors:

1) We have eliminated "readers" this year and we are reviewing all the screenplays with just two principals in our company. While this takes longer, we feel each entry gets a more accurate read.

2) The principal owners of the Company have just had their second child, (Ruby Grace Jackson, b.1/16/99)

And, she seems to be more of a "high maintenance baby" than our first born, Duke (who is seen here helping us feed Ruby while we're reading scripts)...

And,

3) We're finally moving our home and offices to Taos, New Mexico on June 1st, 1999 and that's taking up a lot of our time...Our old Los Angeles telephone number will be disappearing, so you can contact us in Taos @ 1-800-287-9477.

So, we apologize for the delay in announcing the 1999 Finalists, but we hope to be contacting all of the entrants by the end of June either through email or snailmail to announce the Finalists. Our judges are reviewing some screenplays right now and we hope to announce the winner of this year's contest by early August 1999.

YET ANOTHER PROGRESS REPORT: We had hoped to be through with the first round of coverage before the Taos Talking Pictures Festival this coming week (April 15-18th). But, we're not. The good news is, we're not rushing through the coverage just to meet an arbitrary deadline. We are utilizing fewer reviewers this year to assure the highest quality read from our end. Hence it takes longer. We also have had to take some time to cover the films entered in the Taos Talking Pictures Festival which are up for our Land Grant Award (given to the most innovative feature film director entered in the festival). As a result of all of this, we won't be announcing the Finalists until early May 1999. Please leave us your email address if you'd like the most immediate response when we do announce the Finalists and then the Winner. Thanks for your patience...JJ

March 31, 1999

CONTEST PROGRESS REPORT: We're in the middle of reviewing the apx. 350 entries to the screenplay contest this year. Per usual, this only being our second year doing this, it's pretty overwhelming doing the initial coverage of this much material. And, we're behind schedule, again. But, we're hoping to announce the Finalists for this years contest before April 15th. Everyone that entered will be contacted directly either via US mail or E-mail. It would help us if you clicked on our EMAIL US below and sent us a message saying you wanted to be notified via email. This way, we'll make sure you get in our database for future announcements concerning the contest and we'll kill a few less trees via the US Mail.

We will also be posting the finalists on this site as well as on our telephone system when we make the announcements.

We'll probably extend our decision for the actual winner of this year's contest until apx. July 1, 1999 because we have a busier group of Finalists judges and we can only crack the whip so hard on them with our time demands. So, whether you entered this year or not, leave us an email so we can communicate more effectively in the future. Also, if you get on our email list, we're considering sending out sporadic news letters and articles regarding the writing trends we're observing in this process of reviewing so many scripts in a short time. I.E. we hope to share what we're learning with you the writers.

--Jeff Jackson