Athens, Ga. – Actor Arlene Dahl, Academy Award winning composer Marvin Hamlisch, Academy Award winning editor Anne V. Coates, film restorer Robert Harris and industry veteran Angela Allen will be among the special guests at Robert Osborne’s Classic Film Festival, April 10-13, at the Classic Center in Athens.
Osborne, the host of Turner Classic Movies and columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, is thrilled with the lineup.
“Our guests this year include two Academy Award winners as well as other amazing industry veterans,” said Osborne. “We are honored to welcome them all to Athens.”
Dahl’s career includes film, television and business. She appeared in a variety of films in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s and spanned the decades in television. She had a starring role in Journey to the Center of the Earth, which will be shown at the festival as the free matinee on Friday, April 11.
Hamlisch is an award-winning composer, winning three Oscars, three Emmys, one Grammy, one Tony and a Pulitzer Prize. Hamlisch made movie history in 1974 when he became the first individual ever to win three Academy Awards in one night in all three music categories. One was for the song, The Way We Were, another was for the score to The Way We Were and one was for the adaptation of Scott Joplin’s ragtime music for The Sting.
Coates is one of the world’s greatest film editors. Her credits span six decades and include Lawrence of Arabia, Becket, In the Line of Fire, Out of Sight, The Elephant Man, Erin Brockovich, Murder on the Orient Express, and the Golden Compass.
Harris has designed the film restoration of numerous film classics, including My Fair Lady, Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus, Vertigo, and Rear Window, among others.
Allen is one of Britain’s film industry treasures, having worked on hundreds of films for the past half century. As the youngest script supervisor working in England, she was chosen by Sam Spiegel to work for John Huston on The African Queen. Angela also doubled for Katherine Hepburn in the film. She then worked on 13 more of Huston’s films including Moby Dick, The Misfits, The Man Who Would Be King, and Night of the Iguana, among many others. More recently, she worked with John Frankenheimer and has been involved with Franco Zeffirelli on his films and stage work.
Guests will appear on stage after screenings for a candid discussion with host Osborne and members of the audience. Those guests present on morning of April 11 will appear on a panel discussion about classic films with Osborne. Open to the public, the panel discussion will take place at 10:30 a.m. at the Classic Center Theater.
The movie lineup for the festival includes Young Frankenstein, Notorious, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The African Queen, Lawrence of Arabia, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Way We Were and The King and I.
“We are still in the process of lining up guests for this year’s festival,” said Nate Kohn, festival director and associate professor of telecommunications in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. “So look for further announcements of additional festival guests in the near future.”
For the three-and-a half day festival, the 2,000-seat Classic Center theatre will be transformed into a world-class movie palace with the installation of a motion picture screen and state-of-the-art 35mm projection and sound systems.
“It’s an exciting adventure to see these films the way they were meant to be seen,” said Osborne. “The big screen gives a different dimension and vitality to these extraordinary films.”
Osborne said that he also plans to include original trailers, Academy Award nominated short subjects, and cartoons so that festival-goers can have the complete movie experience.
All films, with the exception of the April 11 matinee showing of Journey to the Center of the Earth, will require a paid ticket for admission. The matinee will be free and open to the public, but requires tickets that can be picked up at the Classic Center box office.
Festival tickets can be purchased separately or as a package at the Classic Center box office, online at www.classiccenter.com, or by calling 800/918-6393. Ticket prices are $10 per individual film or $60 for a pass to all films and panel discussions. Students and UGA Alumni Association members can purchase individual film tickets for $8 or a pass to all films and the panel discussion for $45 with valid identification.
Robert Osborne’s Classic Film Festival is an annual nonprofit event of UGA’s Grady College. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu/osbornefest. The guest list is always subject to change.
Established in 1915, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers seven undergraduate majors including advertising, broadcast news, magazines, newspapers, public relations, publication management and telecommunication arts. The college offers two graduate degrees and is home to the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, visit www.grady.uga.edu.
