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 screenings and awards ceremony, Oct. 22 at 5:30 p.m., at the DGA in Hollywood.
The Angelus Awards also announced that eight 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.
The $10,000 Patrick Peyton Excellence in Filmmaking Award will be presented to Julie Meerschwam, Columbia University, for "Celamy." It is sponsored by Family Theater Productions, Hollywood, which created the Angelus Awards.
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 screenwriter wife Patt have five children, and are members of St. Monica Church, Santa Monica. They 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.
More information is available from the Angelus Awards website at www.angelus.org, or by calling (323) 874-6633 or (800) 874-0999. |