KSTC.TV, Channel 45 in Minneapolis/St. Paul announced Thursday that its newest original show, FilmFinds will begin airing on October 6, 2003. FilmFinds is a primetime program, airing on Monday nights from 8-10pm, which will broadcast high-quality, groundbreaking American independent films that have never been seen by a network television audience before. KSTC.TV, Channel 45 reaches more than 1.2 million homes.

Hosted by Todd Hansen, who helped curate the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival for six years before moving to Minnesota to oversee the Central Standard Film Festival, FilmFinds will expose films to viewers that were critical and audience favorites on the festival circuit but were passed over for distribution by the existing systems.

Submissions for the show, which will begin to air in syndication throughout the Midwest in 2004, are now being accepted if they meet the following criteria determined by the show's producer (only feature-length narrative films will be considered):

• The film's content must be appropriate for television
• The film must have played in at least two juried film festivals
• The film cannot have had a wide release
• The film's music and image rights must be cleared for broadcast
• Any broadcast contracts (i.e. Sundance Channel or Independent Film Channel) must have expired
• The film must NOT have had a network television broadcast.

Any film that meets these criteria, regardless of when it was made, will be considered. Chosen films will receive an initial payment for two airings within a one-year time frame and additional payments for syndication.

The Minnesota Film & TV Board and Independent Feature Project/Minneapolis St. Paul created FilmFinds. The MFTVB has actively built and promoted Minnesota's indigenous film community throughout its twenty-year history.

KSTC.TV, Channel 45, the Twin Cities newest independent television broadcast station, debuted in September, 2000. Owned and operated by Hubbard Broadcasting, KSTC.TV, Channel 45 joined KSTP-TV, Channel 5 as Minnesota's first "duopoly": two stations owned by the same broadcasting company in a designated market area.

The only fully independent free over-the-air UHF television station, KSTC.TV, Channel 45 offers unique local and syndicated programming as well as local sports. KSTC.TV's DMA ranking is #14.