Fresh from its run at Sundance 2005 and before it heads to Europe this summer, the made-in-Maryland narrative feature, SWIMMERS (starring Cherry Jones, Sarah Paulson, Shawn Hatosy, Michael Mosley, Tara Gallagher, and Robert Knott), written and directed by Doug Sadler, has been selected to close the Maryland Film Festival 2005. The film will screen at 7:30, followed by the Maryland Film Festival’s traditional Closing Night barbecue.

“SWIMMERS is so much about the area and has received so much support here that to be chosen as the closing night film at one of the finest new and growing festivals in the country - the Maryland Film Festival - is quite an honor. To share the film with local audiences with so many members of the cast and crew present is a dream come true. It should be a memorable night,” Doug Sadler said.

SWIMMERS tells the tale of a waterman's family on Maryland's Eastern Shore as each member of the family tries to handle the strains of the slow demise of their way of life, brought into sharp relief by a financial crisis.

"This beautiful film- scripted, shot and acted with extraordinary skill- explores characters most movies sadly overlook; ordinary people, doing the best they can in tough circumstances," said Festival Director Jed Dietz.

In a review of the film at Sundance, The Hollywood Reporter film critic said of SWIMMERS, “audiences looking for a deeply-felt, human-scale story should be given the chance to enjoy this one in theaters…Beautiful work all around…makes you feel like you've been taken someplace new.”

In explaining the choice as the Closing Night presentation, Dietz said: ”It was thrilling to see Sundance audiences respond so enthusiastically to Doug’s work, and we couldn’t be more excited to be bringing it home as the centerpiece of our Closing Night celebration.”

Chosen in early script form for the prestigious Sundance Screenwriters Lab in January 2002, SWIMMERS was then invited for further development to the Filmmakers Lab, where Sadler worked on scenes with such movie notables as Maggie Gyllenhaal, Alfonso Cuaron, and Robert Redford, to name a few.

SWIMMERS went on to win the Maryland Filmmakers Fellowship, a unique program that supports a project a year coming out of the Sundance Labs. A project is selected from a number of scripts read by a group of people in the Baltimore region who have no career ties to the film industry. Started in 1998, the Maryland Filmmakers Fellowship has provided pre-production dollars for eight projects, and four films have been completed and distributed.

Shot in Maryland in 2003, SWIMMERS had a work-in-progress screening under MFF auspices in Baltimore in June 2004. “Between the support of Jed Dietz and the Maryland Producer’s Club and the Sundance Institute, I’ve had the rare and unique opportunity to explore ideas with actors and audiences from start to finish.”

Tickets for the event are $25 and may be purchased in advance with a credit card beginning Friday, April 15th online at missiontix.com or by calling (410)752-8083. Tickets may also be purchased at the festival box office beginning Friday, May 6th.