CELEBRITIES HIGHLIGHT CINE’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY – FREEDOM DANCE, HUNGARIAN FILMMAKERS HONORED
 

Washington’s freshly opened Newseum was the setting for CINE’s festive Golden Anniversary Gala.  Hungarian American filmmaker Emery (Imre) Toth was among CINE’s past honorees and long-time supporters present at the ceremony. Steven Fischer’s semi-animated documentary on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Freedom Dance, was awarded the CINE Master’s Award.
 

The event began with an elegant reception at sunset on the Newseum’s 7th floor terrace overlooking the U.S. Capitol and Pennsylvania Avenue, with catering by Wolfgang Puck.  The Awards Ceremony followed in the state-of-the-art Walter and Leonor Annenberg Theatre. CINE’s Trailblazer Award honoree, PBS journalist Gwen Ifill, and attended the reception and ceremony.  Hosted by NBC correspondent Bob Dotson, the ceremony included video tributes from past CINE Golden Eagle winners, including Ken Burns, Stanley Nelson and Steven Spielberg, and featured CINE’s presentation of its Masters Series Awards to filmmakers in 5 divisions.
 

CINE founder Tom Hope and a friend of CINE since 1958, Emery Toth, with the Capitol as the background

Actor, producer and Latino icon Edward James Olmos was presented the CINE Lifetime Achievement Award. In his speech, Olmos reminisced about the beginnings of CINE when Tom Hope, Emery Toth, he and others joined forces to build up an organization for creating opportunities for young filmmakers. Olmos, a leader in the American Hispanic community, said at the reception that some of his ancestors are likely to have originated from Hungary because his last name is a Hungarian name and a meaningful word in Hungarian ("he who works with lead").
 

Steven Fischer, Emery Toth, Edward James Olmos and Tom Hope

Freedom Dance, a semi-animated documentary on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution by Steven Fischer and Craig Herron, was awarded the CINE Master’s Award in the Independent Division. Freedom Dance documents four months in the lives of the late artist Edward Hilbert and his wife, Judy, four months as refugees defiantly leaving Communist Hungary during the violent 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Along the way, Mr. Hilbert kept a journal in cartoon form detailing a trip defined by adventure. The movie attempts to re-tell the Hilberts' eventful escape by inter-cutting original character-driven animation with recorded interviews and photographs. In his acceptance speech, Steven Fischer thanked the support of filmmaker and 1956 revolutionary Emery (Imre) Tóth, of the Embassy of Hungary in Washington DC, and of the American Hungarian Federation.
For more information: http://www.freedomdancethemovie.com/
 

Edward James Olmos (right) with Zoltán Fehér, the Embassy's Press Attaché

Winners of the Award of Excellence (student category) received a monetary grant from the Chubb Group of Insurers, and in-kind services from Chubb and from Kodak.   Masters Series winners in the Independent Category were awarded substantial post-production grants in conjunction with the Henninger Media Services Award for Independent Filmmaking.  The 250 guests included CINE’s founding sponsor Tom Hope, Paula Kerger, President of PBS, Congresswoman Hilda Solis and Stanley Nelson, whose film “Jonestown”, won the Masters Series Award for Professional Broadcast Nonfiction, and other members of the film and television community.
 

CINE’s Trailblazer Award honoree, PBS journalist Gwen Ifill (Newshour)

"It’s an honor to be part of this 50th anniversary celebration," said CINE President Donald Thoms. "Supporting student and emerging filmmakers as well as the pros is what we do best.  We are also immensely grateful to our sponsors and other supporters."

Béla Gedeon, the Embassy's Cultural Attaché, and Mónika Varga

The Embassy of Hungary in Washington DC would like to congratulate CINE on its 50^th anniversary as well as Steven Fischer and Craig Herron on Freedom Dance’s special jury prize. During the five decades, many Hungarian and Hungarian-American filmmakers have been recognized by CINE. We are proud that one of the outstanding personalities of the Hungarian American community, Emery Toth, was among the honorees and supporters of this prestigious organization. We wish another 50 years of success to CINE!
 

Steven Fischer accepting CINE Master’s Award

For more information on CINE, see www.cine.org