PRESS RELEASE

ILLUMINATE Film Festival Launches Film Student Scholarship Fund

Sedona, Arizona – December 1, 2015 – The ILLUMINATE Student Scholarship Fund awards future filmmakers scholarships to attend our 2016 Conscious Film Convergence, June 3-5, 2016, providing students with an opportunity to jump start their film career, learn aspects of conscious filmmaking, and create connections with accomplished film, media and industry professionals.

Over the month of December, ILLUMINATE aims to raise funds for 30 student scholarships in 30 days.

Our world is poised for a great shift. Filmmakers, now on the frontier of a global conscious movement, are speaking with their cameras, and ILLUMINATE provides these brilliant visionary filmmakers of our time a vehicle to enlighten our world.

The power of story is arguably the single-most affecting tool we have at our fingertips to shape the human experience. That is why ILLUMINATE invests in aspiring conscious filmmakers to unlock the story within them that will forever change the world.

"The Illuminate Film Festival Convergence is the perfect opportunity to fully indulge my interest in filmmaking. I would be surrounded by veterans of the industry, and could get the head start I need to pursue the passion I have for cinema," says Mia Almutawa, Red Rock High School, Sedona, AZ

The Conscious Film Convergence, the first gathering of significant industry executives in the conscious film genre, brings together like-minded film, media and brand professionals for dialogue, education, networking and creative visioning with the intention of elevating the world's collective mind, body, spirit and environmental consciousness through cinema. The event, now in its third year, is composed of Spotlight conversations, panel discussions, project mentoring and social receptions surrounded by the most compelling conscious cinema of the year.

In 2015, the Convergence featured over 44 veteran filmmakers, producers, distributors, writers and strategists as panelists and mentors, including:

  • Barnet Bain, producer of What Dreams May Come, The Celestine Prophecy and the upcoming narrative feature, Milton's Secret, based on Eckhart Tolle's book
  • Lisa Leeman, former President of the International Documentary Association and director of AWAKE: The Life of Yogananda
  • Malcolm Carter, director of The Connected Universe, which became the highest-funded documentary in Indiegogo history earlier this year
  • Peter Broderick, the nation's foremost independent film distribution strategist
  • Elizabeth Sheldon, Senior Vice President of New York-based film distributor Kino Lorber (Crazy Wisdom, Raw Faith, Monk With a Camera)
  • Richard Abramowitz, President of Abramorama Entertainment (Gasland, The Way, Racing Extinction, Planetary)
  • Richard Cohn, President of Beyond Words (The Secret, What the Bleep Do We Know!?)

Visit http://www.illuminatefilmfestival.com/donate before December 31st to receive a tax deduction receipt and help us make a film student's dream come true!

ILLUMINATE is the world's premier film festival for conscious cinema. Dedicated to spreading enlightened ideas and pushing humanity forward, ILLUMINATE is a landmark destination event and centerpiece for conscious content. Founded on the premise that the language of film is universal and a dynamic force in carrying messages to the masses, the Festival showcases the best of transformational media to uplift, inspire and transform.

# # #