Video Contests, Film Festivals, and Awards

(Beverly Hills, CA)--The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate the centennial of the establishment of the first permanent film studio in Los Angeles with �Movies! Moguls! Monkeys! and Murder!,� a screening event showcasing early motion pictures filmed in Los Angeles between 1909 and 1914, on Wednesday, May 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. The event also kicks off a three-month exhibition illuminating the pioneering companies, filmmakers and locations that quickly made filmmaking in Los Angeles such a boom industry.

�Movies! Moguls! Monkeys! and Murder!� will feature archival prints representing the earliest surviving glimpses of Los Angeles as a filming location. The accompanying exhibition, includes rare photographs, original correspondence, vintage camera equipment and other artifacts, is highlighted by materials relating to the first film studio murder as well as the Selig menagerie, a forerunner of the Los Angeles Zoo.

After shooting some location footage at a Los Angeles-area beach to insert into an otherwise stagebound �Monte Cristo� (1908), producer William Selig and director Francis Boggs realized the city�s filmmaking potential and opened the first permanent film studio in the suburb of Edendale in 1909. Their pioneering works, along with those of several other companies that moved westward shortly thereafter, culminated in the 1914 releases of Cecil B. DeMille�s �The Squaw Man� and Selig�s �The Spoilers,� early feature-length productions that launched the �Hollywood� legend.

Tickets to �Movies! Moguls! Monkeys! and Murder!� on May 20 are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with a valid ID. Tickets are available for purchase by mail, at the Academy box office (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.), or online at www.oscars.org. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. All seating is unreserved.

The exhibition is free and open to the public through August 30. Exhibition hours are Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. and whenever Academy public programs are hosted at the Linwood Dunn Theater. The Academy will be closed for the Memorial and Independence Day holiday weekends, May 23 through 25 and July 3 through 5, respectively.

The Linwood Dunn Theater is located at 1313 Vine Street in Hollywood. For more information call (310) 247-3600 or visit www.oscars.org.

For more information, contact
Teni Melidonian
(310) 247-3090
tmelidonian[at]oscars[dot]org