For Immediate Release
February 1, 2001

Ten Aspiring Filmmakers Advance in Project Greenlight

Ten Filmmakers to Produce Short Scenes of their Screenplay for Review by Producers Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Harvey Weinstein and Chris Moore—Three Will Advance as Final Candidates to Become Writer-Director of Miramax's Project Greenlight Film

Los Angeles, CA – February 1, 2001 -- Project Greenlight, a first-of-its-kind venture from Miramax Films & TV, HBO and LivePlanet, today announced that it has selected the top ten screenplays in the Project Greenlight contest—from entries submitted by more than 10,000 people. Project Greenlight is an entertainment experience that uses traditional media, new media and real world activities to give the audience a chance to participate in and gain an inside view into the filmmaking process.

The top ten screenplays come from aspiring amateur filmmakers from across the United States. They are: Rick Grubbs of Fullerton, CA; Rob Pearlstein of New York, NY; the team of Bruce Wersen and Ken Ekle of Burlington, WA; the team of Evan Katz and Barron Ebenstein of Los Angeles, CA; Christopher Schlerf of Bloomfield, NJ; Brendan Murphy of Atlanta, GA; Pete Jones of Los Angeles, CA; Matt Burch of Fredericksburg, VA; Katie Fetting of Oak Park, IL; and David Jamieson of Rancho Cucamonga, CA.

Project Greenlight, the largest active screenwriting community in the world, invited amateur screenwriters to submit original screenplays electronically to the Project Greenlight contest at www.projectgreenlight.com. Miramax Films has committed to providing the winning contestant or team's screenplay with a minimum $1 million production budget, and to hire them to direct the film, which will be executive produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris Moore. Miramax has also guaranteed distribution of the film in theatres, currently slated for early 2002. At the same time, Miramax Television will chronicle the making of the movie in a 13-episode documentary series that gives the audience an insider's look at the movie-making process, slated to air on HBO in early 2002.

"We are excited to have narrowed down the field of Project Greenlight participants to ten finalists," said Billy Campbell, President of Miramax Television. "The contest has been an incredible success in that each of the thirty screenplays we read was exceptionally well written. Sadly, only ten contestants will advance today and only one will go on to win. But many of the Top Thirty contestants will go on to have success in Hollywood due to the exposure they have received through Project Greenlight and the exceptionally high quality of their work."

The top ten screenplays were chosen in several stages of the Project Greenlight contest. More than 7,000 screenplays which were originally submitted to the Project Greenlight contest qualified for entry (the submission period for eligible amateur screenwriters age 18 or older ran from September 25, 2000 through November 4, 2000). These screenplays were then reviewed by members of the Project Greenlight community, with the highest rated submissions narrowing the contestant pool to the top 250 screenplays. Each individual contestant or team in the top 250 then submitted a three-minute filmmaker's video that allowed the executive producers to "meet" the filmmakers and more easily evaluate which contestants possessed the leadership, vision, talent and creativity that is necessary to excel as the director of the Project Greenlight film. The executive producers of the Miramax film (Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Chris Moore), and Miramax executives evaluated the filmmakers' videos to determine the top 30 potential filmmakers. This same group then read the top 30 screenplays to trim the field to the top ten finalists.

On February 1, 2001, each of the top ten finalists was sent an Independent Filmmaker's prize package to assist them in producing a short, three-minute scene from their screenplay. The Independent Filmmaker's prize package, valued at more than $8,000 (USMSRP), was furnished by Avid Technology, Inc. and includes: Avid Xpress® DV 1.5 software for digital video editing, DVD delivery, and web streaming, with 12-months of Avid Xpress DV telephone support; a Dell Precision Workstation 220; and a Sony TRV 20 DV camera. The Independent Filmmaker's prize package from Avid includes many of the capabilities found in Avid's high-end products that are being used by professionals to edit 95 percent of primetime television and 80 percent of feature films produced around the world.

"We want to see what the Project Greenlight top ten can do as filmmakers, so we are giving them some excellent tools and an assignment," said Chris Moore, CEO of LivePlanet. "These are the contestants who wrote the best scripts and gave us the best presentation of their abilities to be strong filmmakers. Their choice of a scene to shoot from their script, and their ability to get the most out of that scene using their skills and the professional quality Avid equipment will tell us a lot about the final version of their film that each one might direct."

After creating their scenes in which contestants can use their new Avid Xpress® DV 1.5 software, the top ten finalists will be brought to Los Angeles in the last week of February to participate in an event where their scenes will be presented to the press and members of the entertainment community. The Project Greenlight film's executive producers and Miramax executives will evaluate these scenes to determine the top three finalists, who will then have personal interviews with the producers of the Miramax Film. The winning screenplay and writer/director will be selected and announced to the public on or about March 1, 2001.

The list of the top ten screenplays and their authors is posted on the Project Greenlight website (www.projectgreenlight.com) and is printed below. For more details and official rules about the Project Greenlight contest, visit www.projectgreenlight.com.

About Project Greenlight
Project Greenlight, a joint venture between Miramax Films and TV and LivePlanet, combines traditional media (film and television) new media (the internet) and the real world activities (screenwriting and film oriented events). The online community (www.projectgreenlight.com) is the world's largest screenwriting community, and holds a screenplay contest where the winning writer gets to make their film with a guaranteed $1 million budget and distribution in theaters by Miramax Films. Miramax Television produces a television series for HBO that documents the entire process, from the contest, through production, to the film's release. All of this is designed to create an entertainment experience for everyone who likes movies and the creative process—it shows the audience more than they have ever seen, allows them to be more involved than ever before, and provides highly entertaining content for them to enjoy.

About Miramax
Miramax TV is a division of Miramax Films that was founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 1979. The company has released some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful independent feature films of the past decade including "The Cider House Rules," "Shakespeare in Love," "Life Is Beautiful (La Vita È Bella)," "Good Will Hunting," "Pulp Fiction," "The English Patient," and "The Crying Game."

About LivePlanet
LivePlanet creates entertainment experiences that break down the barriers between traditional media, new media, and the physical world. LivePlanet calls these new entertainment experiences "integrated media." Integrated media gives the audience a richer, more enjoyable entertainment experience that allows them to become deeply involved and to have access to content where, when and how they want. Integrated media also provides a closer connection between marketers and their audience. LivePlanet was founded by Ben Affleck, Sean Bailey, Matt Damon and Chris Moore in early 2000. More information about LivePlanet can be found at www.liveplanet.com.

About Avid Technology, Inc.
Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) delivers the solutions that Make, Manage and Move Media™. Like no other media company today, Avid's end-to-end solutions span the continuum of media creation, management and distribution. Avid is recognized as the digital standard for professionals who Make the world's media -- from video, audio and film to animation, special effects and streaming media. To Manage today's increasingly rich collection of dynamic media, Avid provides powerful servers, networks and media tools to help customers search files, share media and collaborate on new productions, both locally and globally. Avid's solutions also empower users to easily Move media, whether on air, over cable or satellite or through the Internet. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Tewksbury, MA. More information about the company is available at www.avid.com.

Avid and Avid Xpress are registered trademarks and Make, Manage and Move Media is a trademark of Avid Technology, Inc.