Wow! 2004 was an amazingly successful year for our little festival! We were blown away by the support of our film-loving community and our generous sponsors, like the Anchorage Daily News and Walsh Sheppard Flynn. Most importantly, we were blown away by the quality of the films we received this year. Thanks to each and every one who attended, sponsored, or volunteered to make the 2004 festival come together to be better than ever.

The 2004 festival was our 4th annual go at it...Way back at the turn of this last century, our intrepid founder Tony Sheppard threw a little site on the web asking filmmakers to submit their films to a brand new festival on the world canvas. The global response was phenomenal. Our premiere year in 2001 saw over 300 entries pour in unsolicited. We screened over 100 films in 10 days with about 1,500 attendees. Since that auspicious beginning we have received nearly twice as many films annually and have watched our attendance double.

Fast forward to the present and we had over 160 films to present this year! Our feature length film and documentary categories were chock-a-block full of surprises and screen gems. Bear Tooth Theatre & Brewpub rejoined the fold along with two new venues for 2004, the Regal Fireweed and Regal Dimond Cinemas.

Once again we kicked festivities off at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts with an Opening Night Gala on December 3rd on the Discovery Theatre Stage, followed by a sneak preview of the fest. Plus, our stalwart founding screens at the Alaska Experience and Earthquake Theatres provided a home for the wealth of documentaries we received.

The Snow Goose Brewpub Theatre hosted the awards ceremony know as The Oosikars where we presented a Golden Oosik to the festival's finest filmmakers. And once again we headed down to Bernie's Bungalow Lounge in the middle of the week for some of our more exotic fare at the Martini Matinee.

Thanks again, Anchorage, for another great year!