The WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, or the WorldFest-Houston International Film & Video Festival, is an annual film festival held each April in Houston Texas. The festival is dedicated to recognizing excellence in various types of independent films and filmmaking. The festival presents around 55-60 new Indie feature films and 100 new Indie Short films during the ten-day film festival each April.
This year, The Martial Arts Kid took first place in the Family/Children category winning the Platinum Remi Award. In competition with some 500 featured films, this was truly a worthy win.
The film was produced by Cheryl Wheeler-Sanders and James Wilson and co-produced and directed by Michael Baumgarten with martial arts greats, Cynthia Rothrock and Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson co-headlining the film. Also starring in the film were Jansen Jansen Panettiere as the kid, and Kathryn Newton as his love interest.
The film also stars many well know martial artists who help get across the strong anti-bullying message and contribute to the excellent fight scenes throughout the film. Some of the martial artists in the film include Dr. Robert Goldman, who was also one of the Executive Producers of the film, Matthew Ziff, TJ Storm, R. Marcos Taylor, Carl Van Meter, Jeff Smith, Glenn Wilson, Eric Kovaleski, Billy Smith, Craig Heimbichner, Jody Nolan, Christine Bannon-Rodrigues, Max Ortiz Jr. Ewart Chin, Inga Van Ardenn, Crystal Santos, Danny Zaino, Nassim Faras Lahrizi, Jesse-Jane McParland and many others.
Attending the WorldFest-Houston event were Lead Actor Don “The Dragon” Wilson (Star), Cheryl Wheeler-Sanders (Producer), James Wilson (Producer) and Michael Baumgarten (Co-Producer and Director), Jennifer R. Fraser (Co-Executive Producer), Richard and Cheryl Westerman (Supporters), Jody Nolan (Actor).
Congratulations to the producers, director and the cast and crew. Job well done!!!
