Media Companies Align for Fourth-Annual FYI

NEW YORK, February 5: A
consortium of media companies, including MTV and MySpace, and cause partners
such as the United Nations, have joined together for the fourth-annual Film
Your Issue (FYI) global Internet-based short-film competition, open to young
adults aged 14 to 24.

USA Today, the United Nations, the Associated Press, the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the NAACP, the Humane Society of the
United States, MTV, MySpace, the American Film Institute and a roster of
American leaders, led by Walter Cronkite and Tom Brokaw, are among the
consortium.

FYI is a global
Internet-based competition, which invites more than 25 million high school and
college students in the U.S. alone to create and upload two-minute short films
about topics affecting their generation. Beginning February 15, films can be
uploaded using online platforms such as MTV, YouTube and AFI Screen Nation, as
well as promoted on MySpace TV, after registering at filmyourissue.com. Select
entries will be highlighted on MySpace TV and distributed by the Associated
Press to its 1,800 Online Video Network media outlets. The submission deadline
is April 14.

Winners will be selected
by a VIP jury, public online voters and participating cause organizations, with
prizes to 11 winning films to include internships at USA Today, the United Nations, P.O.V. and the Humane Society
and a $5,000 college scholarship from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
and Strong American Schools and a filmmaker VIP pass and presentation at
SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival. Winning films or
excerpts will also be broadcast on Starz, with a selection presented at the
annual NAACP Conference, as well as several other credits and showings.

Participants on this
year’s VIP jury include Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, MySpace founder Tom
Anderson, MTV president Christina Norman, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, NBC anchor
Brian Williams, HBO host Bill Maher, USA Today publisher Craig Moon and The Weinstein Company
co-founder Harvey Weinstein, among many others.

“The Internet has become
one of the most potent platforms of social change, social activism and raising
consciousness—and with the rapidly evolving technology which puts
filmmaking capabilities into the hands of young people, this competition brings
those elements—the Internet, social activism and user-generated
content—together dynamically," said HeathCliff Rothman, the founder
and president of FYI. "We are excited as we begin the fourth round that
this unprecedented consortium of organizations has joined with us to encourage
the next generation of leaders, and provide a global platform for pressing
social issues.”

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski