MEDIA CONTACT: Kristine M. McGrath
561-297-1168, kmcgrath@fau.edu

Madelaine Forthmann Boyer Study Center for the Arts
Hosts Benefit for FAU's DeSantis Center for Motion Picture Industry Studies

Benefit to Honor Tom Pollack and Dr. Tino Balio

BOCA RATON, FL (October 20, 2005) - The Madelaine Forthmann Boyer Study Center for the Arts is organizing "Backstage Boca," a benefit for Florida Atlantic University's DeSantis Center for Motion Picture Industry Studies, located within FAU's College of Business. The benefit, co-sponsored by Muvico Theaters, focuses on bringing recognition and funding for film education, will take place at the Muvico Palace 20 theater in Boca Raton on Thursday, November 10 beginning at 5:30 p.m.

This event, originally established in 2003, will feature the awarding of the Louis B. Mayer Motion Picture Business Leader of the Year Award to Tom Pollock, founder of The Montecito Picture Company and former vice chairman of MCA and former chairman of its motion picture group, Universal Pictures. The award was established by the DeSantis Center in 1998 to annually recognize a motion picture executive or entrepreneur who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and management abilities and sets a standard of excellence for the industry.

Pollock has been responsible for bringing numerous creative talents to the studio including Ivan Reitman, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, George Miller, Jon Avnet, Martin Brest, Rob Cohen, Phil Alden Robinson, Jim Sheridan, James Cameron and Larry Gordon. He has played a key role in the creation of United Cinemas International, a joint venture with Paramount Pictures, which has become the largest exhibitor outside North America, with nearly 700 multiplex screens. Pollock also formed Gramercy Pictures with Polygram in 1992. During his tenure as vice chairman, he forged MCA's alliance with Dreamworks SKG and the interactive arcade venture Gameworks among Sega, Dreamworks and MCA.

Additionally, the benefit will include the awarding of the Carol and Bruce Mallen Prize for Published Scholarly Contributions to Motion Picture Industry Studies, originally established in 1999, to Dr. Tino Balio, Emeritus Professor of Film in the Communication Arts Department and executive director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arts Institute. He joined the University of Wisconsin faculty in 1966. Balio is the author of numerous books and articles on the American film industry, including a two-volume history of the United Artists Corporation and a book titled "Grand Design: Hollywood as a Modern Business Enterprise, 1930-1939." From 1966 to 1983, Balio served as director of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, an archive jointly sponsored by the University of Wisconsin and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Within two years of his appointment, he deftly negotiated the acquisition of the United Artists and Warner Brothers collections, catapulting the Center to a position of global importance, as no university had ever acquired such a comprehensive film-related collection that included thousands of films, photographs and financial records reflecting decades of filmmaking.

In addition to awards, the evening's events will also include a screening of Aurora Borealis, a new film from director James Burke starring Joshua Jackson, Donald Sutherland, Juliette Lewis and Louis Fletcher. In the film, Duncan Shorter (Jackson) takes a job as a handyman at a senior residence to be close to his grandfather (Sutherland), whose faculties are failing quickly. When his grandfather dies, Duncan realizes he'll take with him the last shadow of Duncan's father, whose unresolved death years earlier still haunts him. However, things become more complicated when Duncan begins a relationship with his grandfather's home nurse, Kate (Lewis). With the burning light of Kate on one side and the dying flame of his grandfather on the other, Duncan confronts his own darkness and takes his first steps into a brighter tomorrow.

Director James Burke was executive producer of Thirteen Conversations about One Thing and Levity, both of which were released through Sony Pictures Classics. He was also part of the producer team on the Tony-award winning Broadway production of Long Day's Journey into Night which starred Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Dennehy, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Aurora Borealis made its world premiere at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival.

Tickets for the event are now available. Platinum level tickets for the reception, dinner and premier-level film are $125.

Regular tickets for the reception, dinner and premier-level film are $75. Tickets for the film only are $10. Contact Rita Crowell at 561-297-3631 for further information.

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