Daily Postcards from Cannes Film Festival on EPSON Web site; on the road with PhotoPC digital camera.

CANNES, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 1996--EPSON is bringing the 49th Cannes Film Festival, May 9 to 20, to its Web site with "Postcards From Cannes -- On the Road With the PhotoPC Digital Camera," a daily photo update from one of the most photographed events in the world.

EPSON will highlight the power and ease of use of its new digital camera through the scenario of a typical U.S. consumer, Candy Spencer, who is taking her new EPSON PhotoPC to the glamorous French Riviera. Beginning May 10, Web browsers can click into the EPSON site at http://www.epson.com each day to see digital photography in action.

An EPSON Sneak Preview page starts May 1 to spotlight photos taken at past Cannes Film Festivals, featuring celebrities like Sharon Stone, Hugh Grant, Pamela Anderson Lee, Michael Douglas, Meg Ryan and others.

The festival is seen through the eyes of the roving amateur photographer, who takes pictures of the glamorous sights around town and plugs the digital camera into a laptop computer each night in her hotel room. She then e-mails a "postcard" of her favorite snapshot of the day back home to friends and family without buying film or waiting for film processing.

The promotion highlights the PhotoPC in action on the EPSON Web page. Users can see how easy it is to snap a photo with the digital camera and upload the picture into a computer. The photo is then sent 5,000 miles via the Internet from the south of France to EPSON's headquarters in Torrance, Calif. Within the hour, the newest "Postcard from Cannes" will be up and running on EPSON's Web site for access by millions of Web surfers throughout the world.

Cannes is the king of film festivals, attracting thousands of players from all areas of the movie industry, including major stars, producers, distributors, journalists and publicists. After the Oscars, the Palme d'Or is the most prestigious award in film. Thousands of photographers, journalists and video news crews from every hemisphere make the Cannes Film Festival second only to the Olympics in terms of media attendance.

PhotoPC Postcard Gallery on the EPSON Web Site

Candy will use EPSON's PhotoPC digital camera to get the perfect shot of the local sights:

-- Film stars in the latest designer fashions walking up the

red-carpeted steps into the magnificent Palais du Festival. -- Sun worshippers catching rays along the Mediterranean -- Crowds of festival goers on the palm-lined Boulevard de la

Croisette -- The rich and famous along the Rue d'Antibes, the Rodeo Drive of

the Riviera -- Deal makers and celebs at elegant sidewalk cafes and luxury

hotels -- Beautiful bay of Cannes, which temporarily becomes a parking lot

to some of the most luxurious yachts in the world during the

Festival -- Colorful, gaudy billboards hawking films along the Croisette -- Paparazzi with long lenses, like seals sunning on the sea rocks

adjacent to the Hotel du Cap d'Antibes -- Pretty, perky starlets posing provocatively on the beach -- Distinguished winner of the Palme D'Or at the May 20 awards

ceremony

The 22 contestants for this year's award include films from veteran directors Robert Altman ("Kansas City"), Bernardo Bertolucci ("Stealing Beauty"), Stephen Frears ("The Van") and Mike Leigh ("Secrets and Lies"). Old timers face tough competition from fresh faces like Guinea Bissau's Flora Gomes ("Po Di Sangui") and Italy's Domenico Calopresti ("La Seconda Volta"). U.S. director Francis Ford Coppola will head the Cannes competition jury.

What will EPSON's amateur photographer on assignment do to get that perfect picture? Browsers can set their bookmark to http://www.epson.com/press/events/ to check "Postcards from Cannes" every day and find out what's happening at the most prestigious film festival in the world.

For more information on EPSON and its products, call 800/BUY-EPSON (800/289-3776) or visit the company's Web site at http://www.epson.com.

EPSON offers an extensive array of image capture, image output and portable storage products. For the OEM market, a variety of component and electronic devices are available.

Founded in 1975, Epson America is an affiliate of Seiko Epson Corp., a global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality technology products that meet customer demands for increased functionality, compactness, systems integration and energy efficiency. Epson America Inc. has headquarters in Torrance, Calif.

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CONTACT: EPSON

Alex Nathanson, 310/782-4105

Nancy Napurski, 310/782-4380