‘Christian Movie Madness’ kicks off in March, vote online
ChristianCinema.com is hosting the First Annual CHRISTIAN MOVIE MADNESS TOURNAMENT. The first of its kind in history, audiences can vote for their favorite films in a bracket-style tournament competition. Based on basketball’s March Madness tournament, ChristianCinema.com aims to bolster the Christian movie industry by creating an industry-wide buzz about audience-favorite films. Voting is open now!
Since 1999, ChristianCinema.com has made deliberate efforts to connect filmmakers with the fans that love and buy their movies. “We thought a social-media-driven competition would engage viewers, letting them show support for their favorite films as well as learn about new films they have not yet seen,” says Bobby Downes, President and co-founder of ChristianCinema.com.
The contest will be promoted on ChristianCinema.com’s website, Facebook page, and via Twitter, but it will have its own site, www.ChristianMovieMadness.com, which is dedicated to promoting the tournament’s movies. Filmmakers, production companies, and distribution companies will be provided with a Facebook meme at each stage of the contest to encourage fan participation and friend shares in support of the film. Memes will link to that film’s voting page, so that their fans can make an immediate impact on the results and advance the film to the next round.
The tournament will have an industry-wide reach, across multiple genres. For the first few rounds of voting, movies will be divided into “conferences” based on theme: Faith and Theology, Bible Stories and Epics, Love and Romance, Comedy, Sports, Action/Adventure, Hot Social Topics, and True Stories. Fans can vote in a single head-to-head or continue clicking through to vote for multiple titles.
“We understand that audiences have not seen every movie in the competition,” says Jared Geesey, Senior Vice President of ChristianCinema.com, “so we are providing links to trailers and story synopses on each voting page, as well as the option to buy the DVD or watch eligible films immediately with Digital on Demand. At the very least, audiences will be exposed to more movies, meeting our goal to bolster the entire Christian film industry.”
“With our uniquely designed website, we have made voting as simple as possible for fans. We want voters to have fun with the competition and share it,” says Geesey. Christian Cinema.com is also sweetening the pot for voters by offering an immediate discount on the purchase of any film in the Christian Movie Madness tournament. Voters can also be notified each week of the winners by email so that they can continue to vote and share as films make their way up the tournament bracket.
Tournament dates will be as follows:
Round 1 – Now through March 12
Round 2 – March 19
Sweet 16 – March 24
Elite 8 – March 28
Final 4 – March 31
Championship – April 2
