PROLIFIC FILMMAKER ROGER CORMAN TO ASSUME ROLE OF KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT AFCI CINEPOSIUM 09

PROLIFIC FILMMAKER ROGER CORMAN TO ASSUME ROLE OF KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT AFCI CINEPOSIUM 09

IN A ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEW, THE “KING OF B-MOVIES” WILL SHARE HIS THOUGHTS ON NEW MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON FILMMAKING

UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIF., OCTOBER 15, 2009—Independent filmmaker Roger Corman, perhaps best known as the “King of B-Movies” and ranking as one of Hollywood’s greatest success stories, will headline the 34th annual Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) Cineposium 09 in Universal City as keynote speaker.

Having produced and directed more than 600 curious films such as “The Little Shop of Horrors,” “Android,” and “Screwballs” since the 1950s, Corman’s influence on American cinema is largely due to his indisputable reputation for creative, profit-turning, and trend-setting movies. He will kick off two days of conference seminars with “One-on-One with Roger”on Monday, November 2 at 9 a.m. Retired film commissioner Robin Holabird will interview Corman, a long-standing industry survivor, about how new media is revolutionizing moviemaking and distribution. AFCI members and non-members are invited to register online and attend.

“We are honored to spend the morning with the innovative Roger Corman and listen as he shares his opinions on the swelling influence of new media and a new economy on our industry,” says Joan Miller, Cineposium Conference Chair and Film Commissioner of the Vancouver Island North Film Commission.

Corman is infamous not only for measly budgets, assembly-line production, and gimmicky flicks featuring extra-terrestrial and underworld characters, but the godfather of independent moviemaking also has fostered some of the biggest names in show business including Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Charles Bronson, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Ron Howard.

Born in Detroit in 1926, Corman graduated from Beverly Hills High School and went on to receive a bachelor's degree in engineering from Stanford University. He showed up on the doorstep of 20th Century Fox and by 1949 was a story analyst. In 1953, he sold his first screenplay and with the $18,000 proceeds, made his first film as an independent producer “The Monster from the Ocean Floor.”

What followed was a string of box office hits and international acclaim. When the French Film Institute honored Corman with a retrospective in 1964, he became the youngest producer/director ever to receive such an accolade.

As American International Pictures' primary director, Corman's success built the company into a major force in Hollywood before founding his own production and distribution company, New World Pictures. New World's first year in operation astonished the industry with all eleven pictures banking substantial profits. The company soon became the independent leader in presenting high-quality foreign and Academy Award-winning films to the American public.

The day after Corman sold New World, he announced the formation of Concorde-New Horizons enabling him to produce more movies with larger budgets.  In 1990, Corman chronicled his filmmaking success with the autobiography "How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime."

The AFCI is proud to announce Cineposium 09 Platinum Sponsor Entertainment Partners; Gold Sponsors Shoot Magazine and Variety; Silver Sponsor Cast & Crew Entertainment Services LLC; and Partner Sponsors American Humane Film & Television Unit, NBC Universal, West Virginia Film Office, P3 Update Magazine, reelscout, and LA411.

The AFCI is the global professional organization whose members are film commissioners that assist film, television and video production throughout the world.  It is a non-profit educational association whose network of members serves as city, county, state, regional, provincial or national film commissioners for their respective governmental jurisdictions. AFCI Cineposium 09 will draw AFCI members from more than 20 countries for issue-oriented industry discussions and workshops. 

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For more information, please contact:

AFCI Executive Office:                                                         

  Mr. Kevin Clark, Communications Manager 

  AFCI                                                                          

  Email:  kevin@afci.org                                               

  Office:  1-307-637-4422