Joy Fletcher, vice president of events and programming for GMA, announced "The Passion of The Christ" and the Christian music community's role in its success will be featured in a newly announced seminar for the upcoming GMA Week 2004 convention April 24-28, 2004 in Nashville, Tenn.

Featuring executives from Fuzebox Media Group, one of the film's marketing firms, An Inside Look at the Marketing of "The Passion of The Christ" seminar will be part of the convention's Industry track. President Denny Dansereau and Publicist Lori Wahlers will provide seminar attendees a behind-the-scenes look at the grassroots marketing efforts devised and employed to promote the film.

"We think this is an exciting opportunity for our industry to learn from a huge success story. With a small marketing budget by Hollywood standards, Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ" has wildly exceeded anyone's expectations at the box office. Fuzebox is one of the key contributors to their success, and it will be enlightening to hear more about how they crafted their marketing campaign and what role Christian music played," said Fletcher.

Fuzebox's efforts for "The Passion of The Christ" involved Christian artists, the Christian Booksellers' Association, the NFL, digital media and new technologies, the world of extreme sports, and the college and high school markets. The marketing team from Fuzebox Media Group will also address the future of film and faith and ways to maintain the connection between the motion-picture industry and the Christian music industry.

The industry track seminar is just one of several GMA Week seminars that will focus on gospel music's growing penetration into mainstream culture. Two other seminars are The Impact of MercyMe's Success in Multiple Formats, featuring a discussion on the radio success of MercyMe's "I Can Only Imagine" and Film/TV Supervisors Placement Seminar, featuring a discussion on how gospel music is most effectively pitched to television and film.

"The Passion of The Christ" marketing seminar will be held on Monday, April 26 at 3:30 p.m. Attendance will be limited to registrants of the GMA Week convention. The deadline to pre-register for GMA Week is April 12. Information on registration can be found at www.gospelmusic.org.