The award will be presented at the Festival's closing ceremony on July 29, 1999. Mr. Valenti announced that the MPA Producer's Award will be granted to a producer from Russia and the CIS that has shown promising artistic and filmmaking talent, as well as an ability to captivate the audience. This award illustrates the MPA's belief that the cultivation of a nation's creative talent is essential to strengthening each country's domestic film industry. Private production has only been possible in Central and Eastern Europe since the political and economic changes that took place in the early 90's.
Talented producers are the engines behind great films and a great film industry.
Their creative contribution to films, and indeed, to the ongoing vitality of a country's film industry, is often unknown and unrecognized.