U.S. Helps Russians Storm to Victory in First Annual PutItOn Picture Show

LOS ANGELES, Feb., 25 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- And so it was that despite 57 entries representing countries as diverse as China, Lithuania, Britain, Egypt, Romania, Ukraine, Palestine and the United States of America, Russian entrants stormed to victory in the short, feature film and acting categories of the first annual PutItOn Picture Show online film festival on Wednesday in Los Angeles.

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Billing itself as the world's first true online film festival by global artists and aimed at a global audience, parent website PutItOn.com (http://www.putiton.com/ ) announced less than a month ago the appointment of esteemed writer, director, producer, social advocate and star of such classic films as The Goonies and the Lord Of The Rings trilogy Sean Astin to head the jury for the film festival.

Mr Astin praised director Alexandr Kargaltsev for his winning short film, The Cell, describing it as an "artistically aggressive short film" and praising it for its "ambition, its scope, its production design, the caliber of the dramatic performances and the choreography."

Alexey Skachkov's film Guest took home the prize for Best Feature with Max Fraser, Chief Operating Officer of PutItOn.com calling it "a compelling examination of existentialism set in a modern context" and highlighting Skachkov's "use of nature versus urban decay as a metaphor for the ills of modern society."

Andrey Zagidullin's film The Red Box meanwhile took home the coveted Best Achievement in Acting prize in what proved to be a tremendously successful day for Russian filmmakers.

Jean Sherlock, representing the New York Film Academy on the jury, spoke of his pleasure at being involved in the process. "The New York Film Academy is pleased to congratulate the winners of the PutItOn Picture Show. The New York Film Academy and PutItOn share the vision of bringing talented filmmakers together through this innovative online venue. Through the introduction of the PutItOn online film festival the world has become our theatre."

Winners in all three categories will receive free scholarships to the New York Film Academy plus a $5000 USD cash prize, while the runner-up in the Short film category will also receive a free pro-sumer level video camera as a prize. There is no runner-up in the feature film category.

For interviews or questions, please contact PutItOn (http://www.putiton.com/ ) COO Max Fraser by e-mail at mkfraser@putiton.com.