Xfire announced today the finalists for the World of Warcraft Summer Movie Contest. Prizes worth US$ 23,000 will be granted to winners.

Mike Cassidy, Xfire CEO declared that he is surprised with the quality of this year's movie submissions and that is why selecting 20 finalists for 4 categories has been extremely difficult.

Having available over 5 million users, the organizers asked amateur film makers from Canada, Europe and of course United States to enter their submissions.

Persons who wanted to enter the competition were required to provide a URL to the movie or they could send it by email. The closing date for the submissions was September 15. For the movie to be eligible for the contest, it was required to contain clear visual graphic identification or audio mentions of Blizzard Entertainment and Xfire. Maybe the two companies ran out of advertising funds and decided to get a little help from WoW players.

20 finalists in 4 categories have been selected, but the final announcement regarding the winner will be made on October 26. Gamers will be required to vote their favorite films until October 23. The categories featured in the competition are Short Film section, Comedy, Music Video/Dance section and Drama/Action section.