Tiscali Press Release - Tiscali TV Adds Sky Basic Channels to its Offering

25th September 2007

World's first live online film festival launches on 26th September 2007

Tiscali, the broadband, telephone and media company and Raindance today announce the launch of the world's first digital film festival, turning the cutting edge Raindance Film Festival into a globally accessible broadband experience.

Six feature films screened at the London festival will also be available exclusively on Tiscali.co.uk the same night for free from 9pm. The Online Festival runs from 26 September to 7 October and also features an exclusive non festival premier of Carambola and five nights of short films programmes.

The six feature films include Shona Charlton's moving Flames in the Looking Glass, low budget British feature The Inheritance, Will Jewell's Fatboy Slim documentary South Coast and what is bound to be a popular indie film The GoodTimesKid. The online festival programme is completed by 15 exclusive short films from the Raindance Festival. The exclusive Tiscali Raindance site will also feature highlights of the previous night's festival, trailers for upcoming films, interviews, and exclusive competitions for portal visitors to win a piece of the action.

Exclusive Online Only Premiere

Tiscali's online film festival will also feature an exclusive premiere of Kurt Hollander's Carambola starring Diego Luna. The film, not for release until next year, tells the story of a series of urban characters whose lives become intertwined in a story of pool hustling located in a Mexico City billiards hall.

Alex Hole, Online Media Director at Tiscali says: "Tiscali has worked with Raindance for the last three years and they totally embrace the power of the internet which is refreshing. Rather than seeing online as a threat to creativity Raindance shares our view that the internet is a fantastic vehicle for independent film. This project follows our strategy of providing users with unique high quality content, and reinforces our strength to date in the film arena"

Elliot Grove Founder of Raindance says: "Tiscali has continually challenged us to take independent film further online - it is great this year to bring a major part of the festival programme online with 7 feature films and 15 shorts."

Tiscali has pioneered exclusive online film events. In 2005 Raindance award winning feature EMR was the first to have a simultaneous live and online premier. In 2006 Tiscali was part of the first 'all format' release for The Road to Guantanamo, the Film Four Michael Winterbottom documentary which aired on Channel 4, immediately online at Tiscali, in cinema and on DVD.

Visit the Raindance digital festival at www.tiscali.co.uk/raindancefestival