Third Annual X Dance
The third annual X-Dance 2003 Action Sports Film and Video Game Festival, presented by DC Shoes, showcased over twenty-five of this year's top action sports films and video games. Screenings occurred from January 18th-21st in Park City, Utah, concurrent with the Sundance Film Festival. Filmmakers received awards for "Best Film", "Best Cinematography", "Best Stunt" and more. The festival closed out the four days of fun with a mind-blowing closing party/awards ceremony hosted by legendary skier Glen Plake.
FULL LIST OF WINNERS
BEST FILM Presented By: ESPN's Sal Masekela & Ken Block, President of DC SHOES
WINNER - NASTY'S WORLD Dog On A Bike Films
Nominees: Nasty's World, Dog On A Bike Films Strapped, Blue Field Entertainment Drive, Build World Wide The Prophecy, Teton Gravity Research The Great Outdoors, Troy Adamitis/No Fear
BEST ACTION SPORTS VIDEO GAME Presented By: Lisa Hudson & Gaylene Nagel
WINNER - TONY HAWK'S PRO SKATER IV Activision
Nominees: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4-ACTIVISION Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer-ACTIVISION Amped-XBOX Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX-ACTIVISION
BEST STUNT FILM Presented By: Pauly Shore
WINNER - CRUSTY DEMONS OF DIRT: THE EIGHTH DIMENSION Fleshwound Films
Nominees: Crusty Demons Of Dirt: The Eighth Element, Fleshwound Films Slednecks 5, Peak Productions Freewheel Burn-Disorder III, Freeride/Matchstick Productions Valhalla, Teton Gravity Research
BEST STUNT/FEAT OF THE YEAR Presented by: Jeremy McGrath & Troy Lee
WINNER - SETH MORRISON
Nominees: Mark Metzger's back to back, back flip - CHAPTER TWO Seth Morrison's Dinner Roll off an 80' cliff - SKI MOVIE 3: THE FRONT LINE Laird Hamilton's & Derek Doerner's big wave surfing - STRAPPED Matt Wilson's 110' kayak descent at Mesa Falls - VALHALLA
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN AN ACTION SPORTS FILM Presented by: Corey Nastazio & Seth Morrison
WINNER - IMMERSION Matchstick Productions
Nominees: Immersion, Matchstick Productions The Great Outdoors, Troy Adamitis/No Fear Unparalleled 3 - Soul Slide, Unparalleled Productions The Prophecy, Teton Gravity Research
BEST EDITING IN AN ACTION SPORTS FILM Presented by: Mike Basich & Tina Basich
WINNER - THE GREAT OUTDOORS Troy Adamitis/No Fear
Nominees: The Great Outdoors, Troy Adamitis/No Fear Expendable 3, Adam Barker/Fox Racing These Colors Taste Like Music, Sonny Miller/Hans Hillyer Ski Movie III - The Front Line, Matchstick Productions
BEST STORY IN AN ACTION SPORTS FILM Presented By: Mat Hoffman
WINNER - DRIVE Build World Wide
Nominees: Chapter II, Troy Adamitis/No Fear Drive, Build World Wide Nasty's World, Dog On A Bike Films A Day In The Dirt - The Movie, Troy Lee/Kenny Alexander
BEST MUSIC IN AN ACTION SPORTS FILM Presented By: Andy Hetzel & J2
WINNER - STRAPPED Blue Field Entertainment Nominees: Notice To Appear, Standard Films Strapped, Blue Field Entertainment These Colors Taste Like Music, Sonny Miller/Hans Hillyer The Prophecy, Teton Gravity Research
BEST MUSIC IN AN ACTION SPORTS VIDEO GAME Presented By: Mike Carter, Ehren "Danger" McGhehey, & Nate Bozung
WINNER - KELLY SLATER'S PRO SURFER Activision
Nominees: Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer-Activision Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX-Activision Evolution Snowboarder-Konami Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4-Activision Evolution Skateboarder-Konami
Serving up a decidedly different flavor of indie films than the other festivals at Sundance, X-Dance delivered a welcome alternative to the often-preposterous pretense of the Hollywood scene. As emcee Glen Plake reminded the crowd, ""Unlike Hollywood, our stars are real (people)."
The capacity-crowd that attended the opening party on January 18th set the tone for the rest of the festival. Rivers of Red Bull, a hi-octane game collage by VJ Vello Virkhaus, and an eclectic music mix by DJs Josh Marcy, Akiko, Ezra G, and Thomas Molloy (Mouthful Music, Chicago) pumped up the crowd. This year, more and more athletes and fans from across the globe traveled to X-Dance, which is well on its way to becoming a premier annual event for filmmakers and athletes. Where music videos and commercials in years past might have been the breeding ground for cinematic talent, the action sports world stands as a major, untapped source, on both sides of the camera.
This year's winner for Best Action Sports Film was Steve Olpin's NASTY'S WORLD, a Dog on a Bike film starring BMX superstar Corey Nastazio. Nastazio and the filmmakers accepted the evening's top honors from ESPN Commentator Sal Masekela and Ken Block, President of DC SHOES. Nastazio jumps off the screen as a natural star with raw, unbridled energy, and the intriguing chaos of Corey's day-to-day life is well-served by director Steve Olpin's keen eye for detail. X-Dance awarded the filmmaker for his success in blending expert storytelling with hardcore action.
As in 2002, the interactive component was a huge hit this year at X-Dance, and the Best Action Sports Video Game Award went to Activision's TONY HAWK PRO SKATER IV. With its deep game-play, solid frame rate, ample customizing and extensive unlocks, Pro Skater IV is a super-fun game that should be in everyone's library.
Pauly Shore presented Best Stunt Film to Fleshwound Films' CRUSTY DEMONS OF DIRT: THE EIGHTH DIMENSION, directed and produced by Dana Nicholson. The latest installment in the legendary Crusty series, THE EIGHTH DIMENSION quite simply serves to reclaim Crusty's pre-eminence in action sports stunt films. It's just plain nuts.
The Closing Party/Awards Ceremony was hosted by the man, the myth, the mohawked legend, extreme skier Glen Plake, who embodies the radical spirit of the festival. World-renowned video performance artist Vello Virkhaus (aka VJV2) transformed the enormous room at Harry O's into a mesmerizing, wall-to-wall montage of action sports film projections from the festival, which ignited over 15 screens and dozens of hanging circular disks, creating jaw dropping, hypnotic eye candy.
As the doors opened, DJ Akiko welcomed everyone with a lush set of deep house music, which rolled into a demonstration of Microsoft's Windows Media 9 Series technology featuring Disney's ULTIMATE-X and Dana Brown's STEP INTO LIQUID. Next, Tamra Davis' multi-sport 35MM feature KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN premiered to an eager crowd who cheered on their action sports heroes like Mat Hoffman, Seth Morrison, Sunny Garcia, Mike & Tina Basich, Mark Frank Montoya, Andy & Jeremy Irons, and Eric Kosten who starred in the feature film.
DJ Ezra G then kicked in a slamming set of up-to-the-minute beats accompanied by the unbelievable breakdance collective, the Circus Extreme, which boasts of several Cirque du Soleil performers. After the hilariously irreverent awards ceremony where top filmmakers are honored for their groundbreaking work, Kinky, a five-piece band from Monterrey, Mexico, blew the crowd away with a soaring set of psycho-electric funk. DJ Rap kept up the pace, spinning hard breaks, and DJs Akiko and Ezra G came back for encore sets, topping off the evening with festive selections of funky hard house and techno. 1200 people danced until they dropped, in a Red Bull-infused frenzy.
During the festival, X-Dance hosted panels on the state of action sports films and video games featuring DC Shoes President Ken Block, KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN director Tamra Davis, Powder magazine editor Steve Metcalf, athlete manager Circe Wallace-Hetzel, music supervisor Andrew Mitchell, EA Lifestyle Marketing Manager Gaylene Nagel, filmmaker/athlete Jake Oelman, and athletes Seth Morrison, Andy Hetzel and Mike & Tina Basich.
X-Dance was also thrilled to host kids from the Burton Chill Program for an afternoon of screenings and a chance to meet some of their action sport heroes. Chill is an international intervention program for underprivileged and at-risk inner-city kids. Chill provides these kids with everything they need for a six-week learn-to-snowboard experience: lift tickets, instruction, transportation, and head-to-toe gear. Chill was founded by Burton Snowboards in 1995 as a way to "give back" and is now located in nine North American cities and will serve over 1500 kids this winter alone.
X-Dance, the ultimate celebration of actions sports culture, film music and video games, has broken ground and is paving the way for the future of this explosive genre. Keep an eye out for future X-Dance events in 2003, including a "Best of" Tour in college city across the US. Other one-off festivals across the country and abroad, along with an Action Sports Filmmaker Institute are also in the works, which are certain to blow your mind.
X-Dance would like to graciously thank their sponsors:
DC SHOES Artisan Home Entertainment, Ben Sherman, Primedia Action Sports Group, Buona Vita Restaurant, Billabong, Circus Extreme, Dolby Laboratories, Fiji Water, Fox Racing, Harry O's, Honda Element, Nixon Watches, RLX, Sample Digital, Smith Sport Optics & Trinidad Entertainment
FOR MORE INFO PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE WWW.X-DANCE.COM