Special program "Escaping Realities“  

Boundary-pushing Oscar-nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock explores the world of product placement, marketing and advertising in POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, a film that was fully financed through product placement from various brands, all of which are integrated transparently into the film. While using brands in film promotion is not new for Hollywood, it certainly is new territory for the documentary format. Spurlock exploits the phenomenon to new heights, with everything from branded pizza boxes and in-flight film promotions to branded-everything in-film. With humour and insight, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold unmasks the marketing process to bring audiences behind closed doors directly into the pitch meetings and marketing presentations which ultimately inform our everyday entertainment decisions. Sponsors were provided with brand category exclusivity. The brands that agreed to sponsor the film placed Spurlock front and centre in their brand campaigns and advertisements, both on and off-line. Partners have the unique right to promote themselves in association with Spurlock and the film as “The Greatest.” The agreements also stipulate that Spurlock maintains creative control of the film’s content and final edit.

Festivals

Sundance International Film Festival, USA, 2011
Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, Canada, 2011
Melbourne International Film Festival, Australia, 2011
Sydney International Film Festival, Australia, 2011

Morgan Spurlock

Morgan Spurlock is a New York based writer, director and producer. His first film, Super Size Me, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 and won him Best Directing honours. The film went on to win the inaugural Writers Guild of America best documentary screenplay award as well as garner an Academy Award nomination for best feature documentary. Since then he has directed, produced and distributed multiple film and TV projects. He was most recently nominated for a primetime Emmy Award as well as a Writer’s Guild Award for The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice!

Selected Filmography

Super Size Me (2004)
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? (2008)
The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice! (2010)