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ChristianCinema.com will Host Christian Movie Madness -- The First Annual Online Christian Movie Tournament, Connecting Fans and Filmmakers

Contact: Melinda Ledman, 214-616-0320

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, March 3, 2015 /Christian Newswire/ -- 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. ChristianCinema.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

For more information about the tournament, visit Christian Movie Madness or ChristianCinema.com.

To obtain artwork for the tournament or the Facebook meme for a specific film's head-to-head competition, contact Erik Knudsen at Erik@ChristianCinema.com.

Tournament Films and Conferences:

Faith and Theology
God's Not Dead vs. A Matter of Faith
Patterns of Evidence vs. The Principle
Heaven is For Real vs. Hell & Mr. Fudge
Indescribable vs. God of Wonders

Bible Stories and Epics
Ten Commandments vs. Exodus: Gods and Kings
Confessions of a Prodigal Son vs. A Long Way Off
The Passion of Christ vs. Son of God
Amazing Love: The Story of Hosea vs. Seasons of Gray

Love and Romance
When Calls the Heart vs. Love Comes Softly
The War Within vs. The Song
Christian Mingle: The Movie vs. Old Fashioned
The Redemption of Henry Myers vs. Love Covers All

Comedy
Rogue Saints vs. What If…
Mom's Night Out vs. Finding Normal
Michael Jr.: "Laughing on Purpose" vs. Chonda Pierce: "Girl Talk"
Believe Me vs. Blue Like Jazz

Sports
Facing the Giants vs. When the Game Stands Tall
The Mighty Macs vs. Hoovey
Soul Surfer vs. Hard Flip
Homerun vs. Hero

Hot Social Topics
Reconciliation vs. Sing Over Me
October Baby vs. Meant to Be
Not Today vs. Trade of Innocents
The Pledge vs. Kirk Cameron: "Monumental"

Action/Adventure
Chronicles of Narnia vs. Lord of the Rings
Revelation Road 3: The Black Rider vs. Six: The Mark Unleashed
Left Behind (Nicholas Cage) vs. Left Behind (Kirk Cameron)
The Remaining vs. Rumors of Wars

True Stories
Alone Yet Not Alone vs. End of the Spear
Duck Commander: Before the Dynasty vs. As Dreamers Do: The Amazing Life of Walt Disney
UnDivided vs. Little Hope was Arson
The Blind Side vs. 23 Blast

About ChristianCinema.com:
Founded in 1999, when video stores rarely carried faith films, Bobby Downes co-founded ChristianCinema.com to connect independent Christian filmmakers to their audiences. The site is now the world's largest selection of faith-affirming and family-approved films on the Internet, hosting over 4,000 movie titles in its database. What began with the sale of just one movie grew to include a DVD rental subscription program as well as digital video streaming on demand. Consumers could finally have a reliable source for faith-based films that are pre-screened to ensure a Biblical worldview.

To further the goal of connecting filmmakers and audiences, ChristianCinema.com also added movie reviews, news articles, a daily and weekly radio program featuring interviews with filmmakers, and a weekly newsletter that serves a variety of industry leaders. Bobby Downes and Senior Vice President Jared Geesey spent a decade and a half developing relationships with filmmakers, retailers, and distributors, whom they now serve with up-to-date movie news, an industry release calendar, a barometer for gauging each week's most popular movies, and the promotion of films to 250,000 unique monthly visitors and 85,000 weekly email recipients.