Backseat wins Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at Austin Film Festival

"Coming of Age Late" Story Charms Attendees

(PRWEB) November 13, 2005 -- Austin Film Festival announced Backseat as the winner of the Narrative Feature Audience Award. The film follows two late twenties/early thirties friends who flee New York City on a three-day road trip to Montreal to escape their problems and meet the great Donald Sutherland. Between running drugs and meeting a man who only communicates through instant messaging, they run head-on into the always lingering problem of real life.

"We are thrilled," said Josh Alexander, screenwriter and lead actor in Backseat. "To have the film embraced so enthusiastically by audiences at our first festival. It's a wonderful feeling."

Josh Alexander and Henry Hardaway, Vice President of a mergers and acquisitions firm in New York, founded New York-based Group Effort Films in 2002. They pulled together a group of talented people to create their first film, Backseat. Bruce Van Dusen, leading commercial and Sundance winning director, signed on to direct the film. Josh Alexander and Rob Bogue, A.C. Mallet on CBS's "Guding Light," star as the two old friends on an adventure to escape reality. Aubrey Dollar, star on FOX's "Point Pleasant," and Will Janowitz , Meadow Soprano's fiancée on HBO's "Sopranos," also appear in Backseat.

“The team behind Backseat came together to create a truly original comedy,” said Kelly Williams of the Austin Film Festival. “It was no surprise to me that audiences reacted so well to it.”

With a top cast and crew, the soundtrack also features such greats as Pretty Girls Make Graves, Archer Prewitt, Kevin Tihista, The Rogers Sisters and Death Above 1979.

Currently on the film festival circuit, Backseat screens next at the Starz Denver International Film Festival on Friday, November 18 at 9:30 pm and Saturday November 19 at 3:30 p.m., both at the Starz FilmCenter. For more information please see: http://www.denverfilm.org/Events.cfm

Backseat

A coming of age late story about prolonged adolescence, Backseat follows two Generation Xers as they flee New York City on a three day road trip to Montreal to escape their problems. The result: they run head-on into real life.

Group Effort Films

Founded in 2002 by Henry Hardaway and Josh Alexander, Group effort Films is a New York based production company with an emphasis on fostering an environment where the collaborative nature of filmmaking can thrive. By bringing together industry veterans and talented newcomers, Group Effort Films, hopes to make movies that both entertain and provide insight into the world. Backseat is their first film.

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