Award-winning indie feature The Wheeler Boys to be available as free download during festival premiere

Netflix and Film Independent are celebrating the premiere of The Wheeler Boys, a film written and directed by first-timer Philip G. Flores, winner of the “Netflix FIND Your Voice” competition. The Wheeler Boys will debut on Friday, June 25th, when the general public can watch it instantly and for free at Netflix, just as it premieres at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival.

Netflix members and non-members can stream The Wheeler Boys for 48 hours starting at 8:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, June 25th, until Sunday, June 27th. Netflix members with unlimited plans will also be able to instantly watch The Wheeler Boys on their TVs via a range of consumer electronics devices capable of streaming Netflix content.

As the winner of the “Netflix FIND Your Voice” competition, Flores received a prize package valued at more than $350,000 to produce the project. The award included a $150,000 cash production grant funded by Netflix, a camera package donated by Panavision, Kodak Color Negative Film courtesy of Kodak, dailies and release prints donated by Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, as well as a digital intermediate package provided by EFILM. After winning the contest, the script was developed in Film Independent’s Screenwriters Lab under the tutelage of Meg LeFauve and then went through Film Independent’s Producers Lab, under the tutelage of Naomi Despres.

The Wheeler Boys tells the story of Ted, a high school freshman who reluctantly engages in a contest based on the sexual conquest of female classmates. Things go horribly awry when Ted’s first love becomes another tally on the contest’s growing scoreboard. The film stars Alex Frost, Lorenzo James Henrie, Portia Doubleday, Haley Ramm, Alex Russell and Billy Campbell.

After the initial announcement in January 2009, the “Netflix FIND Your Voice” competition received more than 2,000 applications and scripts from aspiring filmmakers. Film Independent identified 10 semifinalists, who were each asked to submit a two-to-three-minute video short related to the project they were proposing. The applicants had to be first-time filmmakers who had not yet created and publicly screened a full-length, narrative feature film of more than 70 minutes. Through a public voting process on the competition’s web site, the six films with the highest number of votes were selected to go to the final round. A winner was selected by a panel of accomplished filmmakers and industry veterans, including Josh Brolin, John Sayles, Dustin Lance Black, Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks and Stephanie Allain.

Beginning 8:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, June 25th, you can get The Wheeler Boys entire film download stream at at netflix.com/findyourvoice.