IRON MAIDEN: 'Flight 666' Wins Major Award At SXSW Film Festival

"Iron Maiden: Flight 666" — the feature-length documentary film which follows the IRON MAIDEN bandmembers on the first leg of their "Somewhere Back In Time World Tour" in February and March of 2008 — has won the coveted "24 Beats Per Second" award for best music documentary at the annual South By Southwest music and media festival in Austin, Texas.

Say directors Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen of Banger Productions: "We are of course very pleased. The audience was electric in Texas. We made this film to be enjoyed by all rock fans, not just MAIDEN's incredible fans, and on the big screen and with the 2K HD projection and 5.1 Surround Sound in the historic Paramount theatre it really felt we had taken the whole audience on the tour. After spending over a year editing down almost 500 hours of footage it's was really gratifying to get this kind of recognition."

Manager Rod Smallwood adds: "All the band are delighted for Scot and Sam and the Banger team. This is a tremendous recognition of the fantastic job they have done making us look interesting for almost two hours! And the live footage included is as good as anything ever on MAIDEN, if not better. They have made a film not just for our many fans but also for anyone with an interest in rock and real world touring. And, of course, aircraft!!"

For "Iron Maiden: Flight 666", IRON MAIDEN was accompanied everywhere by award-winning documentary makers Banger Productions from Toronto in Canada, who have received international critical acclaim for their previous movies "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" and recently "Global Metal". Producer/presenter Sam Dunn and his team bring an intimate, behind-the-scenes view of this remarkable journey, with a close look at the logistics involved and following Team Maiden in the cockpit, on the plane and on and offstage, getting to the heart of this global adventure of a band that has very rarely even let cameras backstage before.

Shot in high definition and with superb 5.1 surround sound, mixed by the band's producer Kevin "Caveman" Shirley, "Flight 666" brings to the screen all the drama, excitement and hysteria that followed the band around the world every time Ed Force One (the band's plane) touched down in a new country. The film documents the intensity of the punishing show schedules, the struggle with the time zones, the pressures of ensuring that every performance matched the energy of the many thousands of ecstatic and expectant fans from many cultural backgrounds, unusual angles from the spectacular shows... and, of course, the fun had on the way!

A special international "Iron Maiden Day" is being planned for April 21 with simultaneous showings of "Iron Maiden: Flight 666" in selected digital cinemas around the world.

Read a review of the film from the Toronto Star.