MEDIA CONTACT: Linda Holtz
561-297-0159, lholtz@fau.edu

Benefit for FAU's DeSantis Center Held at
Muvico Palace in Boca Raton

BOCA RATON, FL (January 26, 2006) - Backstage in Boca 2005 was recently held at the Muvico Palace 20 multiplex movie theater to benefit Florida Atlantic University's Carl DeSantis Business and Economics Center for the Study and Development of the Motion Picture and Entertainment Industry in the College of Business. Coinciding with the DeSantis Center's seventh Business and Economics Scholars Workshop Summit in Motion Picture Industries, Backstage in Boca was co-sponsored by Muvico Theaters and organized by the Madelaine Forthmann Boyer Study Center for the Arts. The event included a reception, dinner and screening of "Aurora Borealis," a new film that received Best Film honors at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

A special awards ceremony, an important part of the evening, gave FAU faculty and administrators an opportunity to formally recognize two prominent figures in the film industry. Receiving the eighth annual Louis B. Mayer Motion Picture Business Leader of the Year Award was Tom Pollock, founder of The Montecito Picture Company, former chairman of MCA/Universal's motion picture group and former executive vice president of MCA Inc. While at MCA, Pollock was associated with such movies as the "Back to the Future" trilogy, "Field of Dreams," "Cape Fear," "Scent of a Woman," "Jurassic Park" and "Schindler's List." This award is presented to a motion picture executive or entrepreneur each year by the DeSantis Center.

Tino Balio was the evening's other honoree. As the recipient of the seventh annual Carol and Bruce Mallen Prize for Published Scholarly Contributions to Motion Picture Industry Studies, Balio, emeritus professor of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and executive director of the UW Arts Institute since 1997, was honored for his career as a researcher, academician and author. He has written numerous books and articles on the subject of the American film industry and is credited with creating one of the country's most comprehensive film-related archives. In 2001, Balio was selected as an inaugural Academy Film Scholar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Joining the honorees at the event were FAU benefactors Richard and Barbara Schmidt, DeSantis Center Director Bruce Mallen, Madelaine Forthmann Boyer Study Center Founder John Boyer and Muvico Theaters Director of Marketing Jim Lee.

Backstage in Boca seeks to provide recognition and funding for film business education. The DeSantis Center was established in 1997 to serve as an incubator for ideas, a forum for discussion and a center of scholarly activity in the field of film industry economics.

-FAU-

Florida Atlantic University opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the university serves 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students on seven campuses strategically located along 150 miles of Florida's southeastern coastline. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching university, with a world-class faculty, FAU hosts eight colleges - the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, and the Colleges of Business, Education, Engineering & Computer Science, and Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs.