10TH ANNUAL ANGELUS AWARDS STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL TO HONOR VETERAN DIRECTOR AND FORMER DGA PRESIDENT JACK SHEA WITH SPIRIT OF ANGELUS AWARD

October 19, 2005

8 Winners Selected from 27 Finalists, With Record 720 Entries from 23 Countries

HOLLYWOOD – The Angelus Awards Student Film Festival, now in its tenth year, will present veteran television director and former Directors Guild of America President Jack Shea with the Spirit of Angelus Award during its awards and screening ceremony to be hosted by Matt Gallant (Animal Planet) at 5:30 p.m., Oct. 22 at the DGA.

The Angelus Awards also announced that 8 winners have been selected out of 27 finalists from a record 720 submissions, representing 23 countries, including the U.S. and such diverse nations as Malaysia, Israel, New Zealand, China, Panama and Denmark.

Festival juries comprised of industry professionals, including producer Stephen McEveety (“The Passion of the Christ,” “Braveheart”) and producer Doug Urbanski (“The Contender”), convened in September to select the winners from the finalists.

Winners and finalists will receive more than $30,000 in cash prizes and industry-related gifts at the Oct. 22 event, where the seven winning films will be screened in three categories: Animation, Documentary and Live-action films. Free tickets to the awards and screening ceremony are available by e-mailing ticket requests to info@angelus.org or calling 1-800-874-0999.

The most coveted award among Angelus entries is the $10,000 Patrick Peyton Excellence in Filmmaking Award, believed to be one of the highest among student film festivals. It is sponsored by Family Theater Productions, Hollywood, which created the Angelus Awards.

Other awards include the $5,000 Priddy Bros. Triumph Award for the film that best reflects a redemptive theme; $2,500 Fujifilm Audience Impact Award; the $2,500 Mole-Richardson Production Design; $1,500 Act One Screenplay prize for excellence in the craft of writing; the $3,000 Outstanding Documentary Award, sponsored by Maryknoll Productions; and the $2,000 Outstanding Animation Award, sponsored by the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals. New this year is the $1,000 Director’s Choice Award., which honors a film selected for special recognition by the Angelus Awards staff.

The Angelus Awards Student Film Festival honors and showcases college-level student films that explore the complexity of the human condition with creativity, compassion and respect.

In 2002, the Spirit of Angelus Award was created to honor an individual or production company in the entertainment industry. The recipient’s body of work must be of surpassing quality and must complement a faith lived with integrity and generosity. Previous Spirit of Angelus Award recipients include industry legends Gregory Peck and Ricardo Montalbán.

Well-known for his prolific directing career, including such varied and ground-breaking series as The Jeffersons, /Good Times/, In The Beginning and The Golden Girls, the Emmy-nominated Shea has also directed such award-winning hit shows as Full House, /Designing Women/, Growing Pains, /The Waltons/, Sanford & Son, and Hawaii Five-O.  He served as president of the Directors Guild of America for five years from 1997-2002, overseeing a professional guild of 12,500 directors of motion pictures and television, with all major film studios and TV networks represented.
Shea and his wife Patt, a screenwriter, who have five children, have been prolific in their philanthropy and activism as well, having co-founded Catholics in Media Associates (CIMA) and having been involved with the Nuclear Policy Research Institute and the Catholic Worker Movement. Shea, who served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, later worked as an assistant director on The Bob Hope Show and as a director of Hope’s overseas tours.
Shea also has been a supporter of the Angelus Awards since its inception in 1996, having served as a member of the festival jury and the Honorary Committee as well as announcing and presenting the winners.

MovieMaker magazine cited The Angelus Awards as the “best student film festival bet” for student moviemakers in its January 2005 issue and placed it first in its profiles on “the best and most interesting student film festivals that America has to offer” in its Summer 2005 and educational issue.

The Angelus winners “alumni” list is impressive, including Patricia Cardoso, a student Academy Award winner and Audience Award recipient at the 2002 Sundance for “Real Women Have Curves,” and director of “Nappily Ever After,” starring Halle Berry; Barbara Schock, a 2000 Academy Award winner for Best Live Action – Short; Tony Bui, 1996, Oscar nominee and Grand Jury Prize winner at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival for “Three Seasons,” and co-producer of “Green Dragon;” Sabrina Dhawan, screenwriter of the acclaimed “Monsoon Wedding,” and Sejon Park, whose winning 2004 Angelus Award animated film “Birthday Boy” was a 2005 Academy Award nominee.

The 2005 Angelus Awards Honorary Committee of acclaimed film stars and directors include Tony Danza, Dame Judy Dench, Edward Herrmann, Anjelica Huston, Matthew Marsden, Geoffrey Rush, John Travolta, John Turturro and Joan Van Ark.

Angelus Awards creator Family Theater Productions, a Catholic media outlet, for 58 years has produced more than 900 dramatic and documentary TV and radio programs to entertain, inspire and educate families.

More information is available from the Angelus Awards website at www.angelus.org or by calling (323) 874-6633 or (800) 874-0999.