Nominees Selected for the 32nd Annual Key Art Awards Competition

LOS ANGELES-- The horse race to the winner's circle has started forthe finalists of the 32nd Annual Key Art Awards, the only internationalcompetition in which working professionals honor their peers fordesigning and creating the motion picture advertising materials thatdirectly influence a film's financial success. The Awards were createdand are sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter.

Finalists will vie for the top prize in 24 categories of posters,trailers, TV spots and standees, as well as print, outdoor, Internetand home entertainment advertising, plus Best Poster of the Year andBest Trailer of the Year. Winners will be recognized during a lively,entertainment-packed show on Friday, June 20 at the newly renovatedL.A. Scottish Rite theater on Wilshire Boulevard.

The Key Art Awards show is the cornerstone event in the movieadvertising community, annually attracting more than 1,200 executivesand creative professionals from all the major studios and ad agencies.The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. are Supporting Sponsors ofthis year's program.

"We are proud to host the Key Art Awards, a program we created over30 years ago to recognize the movie advertising community and itstremendous achievements," said Robert J. Dowling, editor-in-chief andpublisher of The Hollywood Reporter. "This year the Awards include theaddition of four new categories devoted to home entertainment, areflection of the growing importance of the DVD/sell throughmarket."

"Motion picture advertising is a main driving force in movieattendance and an influential force in pop culture as well --everything from trailers, theatrical posters and TV commercial spotsfor movies to ads on the sides of buses and buildings. The Key ArtAwards are an opportunity for us to recognize our peers for theiroutstanding creative contributions," said Bob Israel, Awards showproducer and partner of entertainment advertising agency The AspectGroup.

"This year's show promises to be the most exciting yet, held in abeautiful new theater," Israel continued, "with major celebritypresenters and hilarious film parodies of our work created by sixdifferent ad agencies."

THE NOMINEES
By releasing studio, Sony Pictures (including Columbia TriStar) leadsthe pack in Key Art nominations with 21. Sony also sweeps theAction-Adventure TV Spot category, nabbing all five finalistslots--four for Spider-Man spots and one for ResidentEvil. The Walt Disney Co. (including Buena Vista and Touchstone)comes in second with 18 nominations and Universal Studios follows closebehind with 13 nominations. Taking positions No. 4 through 6 are NewLine Cinema (12), DreamWorks SKG (11) and 20th Century Fox (10).

"It is a tremendous honor to receive this kind of recognition fromyour peers. These nominations are a testament to the quality andcreativity of the collaboration between [Columbia Marketing Group'ssenior exec. VP of creative advertising] Josh Goldstine's extraordinarycreative team and their vendors," said Geoffrey Ammer, president ofworldwide marketing, Columbia Tri-Star Motion Picture Group.

On the agency/vendor side, BLT & Associates places first intotal nominations with 13, with a particularly strong showing in theDrama Poster category where it picked up four out of five nominations.The Ant Farm brings home nine nominations and The Aspect Group and TheCimarron Group tie for third place with six noms each and MatsunoDesign Group takes fourth with four.

"We have an extraordinarily talented and hardworking staff, as wellas very gracious and trusting clients," said Rick Lynch, a partner ofBLT & Associates. "It's flattering to get all these nominationsknowing how many great pieces are out there."

The movie landing the most nominations is Sony's Spider-Man,which takes a long lead ahead of the pack with 12. Following in secondplace is Universal's 8 Mile with six nominations. Disney'sLilo & Stitch and New Line Cinema's Austin Powers inGoldmember tie for the third spot with five nominations each andNew Line's Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers takes fourth withfour nods.

"The Sony team did such a spectacular job on all aspects of themarketing for Spider-Man--from the posters through to thebrilliant audio-visual materials. They have been so justly honored with12 Key Art Awards nominations," said Laura Ziskin, Spider-Manproducer.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE KEY ART AWARDS
In 1972 The Hollywood Reporter founded the Key Art Awards to recognizethe artists whose work directly influenced a film's box office success.In 1989 the Key Art Advisory Board was instituted to reflect theexpertise of industry professionals.

Today's key art creators and trailer makers have the benefit ofdigital technology, multi-million dollar star power and large marketingbudgets. But for the creators of Key Art, the challenges remain thesame: to creatively and resourcefully interpret the spirit of the movieand to successfully connect with its target audience while, at the sametime, working in tandem with the film's producer, director and studioexecutives.

For more information on the 32nd Annual Key Art Awards, visit www.hollywoodreporter.com/keyartsor call 323-525-2132. The Hollywood Reporter is published byNetherlands-based VNU, the world's largest organization ofentertainment-related publications and services.