Contact: Victoria Joyce (804) 361-1259 1998 Virginia Film Festival Gala Opening Party & Screening: A Fiftieth Anniversary Tribute to the Actors Studio with Arthur Penn, Rip Torn, and Roger Ebert Charlottesville, Virginia: - One of the most exciting events in the eleven-year history of the Virginia Film Festival will take place on opening night of the '98 Festival, October 29. Arthur Penn, director of such classics as Bonnie and Clyde and Little Big Man and currently the President of the Actors Studio, will be joined by Studio alumnus Rip Torn, one of America's most accomplished actors, for a special 50th anniversary tribute to the Studio. The Actors Studio is the legendary school, formerly headed by Lee Strasberg, where actors such as Marlon Brando, James Dean, Paul Newman developed a rebellious, improvisatory approach to performance, based on the Stanislavski Method, that revolutionized film acting. Penn and Torn will attend the TNT and DirecTV-sponsored Opening Night Gala at the Bayly Art Museum at 5:00pm on October 29. Tickets are $40, and the event will feature live music by the Charlottesville Swing Orchestra. The Gala will be followed by the opening night screening at Culbreth Theatre of Penn's 1959 film Mickey One and a discussion on "The Actors Studio and Film Acting," moderated by Roger Ebert, featuring Penn and Torn, sponsored by Bravo and Adelphia. Throughout the Festival weekend, Penn and Torn will present their finest work in films. Rip Torn is one of the most acclaimed actors of stage, screen, and television. Often cast as a volatile Southern good ol' boy, his most complex rendition of the role appears in the neglected '70s film, Payday, in which he plays a country-and-western star on the skids. The Festival is pleased to revive this neglected film classic for a special screening on October 30. Torn will also present The Cincinnati Kid (1965), in which he starred as a wealthy gambler backing Steve McQueen, a highlight of his early career alongside roles in Sweet Bird of Youth, Tropic of Cancer, and You're a Big Boy Now. Torn's recent successes include a triumphant return to Broadway last year in Horton Foote's The Young Man from Atlanta and his multiple Emmy and CableACE awards for his long-running performance as Artie, Larry's producer in The Larry Sanders Show. Torn is also the first cousin of Albemarle County resident and Film Festival board member Sissy Spacek. Arthur Penn is one of the most respected directors in American film and the Broadway stage. His stage and screen productions of The Miracle Worker earned him both a Tony Award and an Academy Award nomination as Best Director. Penn's 1965 film Mickey One (1965), starring Warren Beatty and screening as the Festival's opening night event, employed an adventurous use of jazz music and jazzy editing rhythms that established Penn as a cinematic innovator. Penn's interest in exploring American society through its outcasts was manifested in such classics as Bonnie and Clyde and Little Big Man, as well as the finest film yet made on the '60s hippie counterculture, Alice's Restaurant, which will screen at the Festival on November 1. For fifty years, the Actors Studio has been the heart and soul of the "method" style of acting. The Method, developed from the work of Konstantin Stanislavski of Russia, and taught for so long by the legendary Lee Strasberg, was made famous by Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, and many others. The impact of the work, the teachings, and the graduates of the Studio is enormous. The standards of the Actors Studio have been so exacting that Jack Nicholson gained entry only after his fifth audition. During their visit, Arthur Penn and Rip Torn, both of whom received training at the Actors Studio, will work with acting students in the Department of Drama, the sponsoring department of the Film Festival. For further information on the Virginia Film Society or the Virginia Film Festival call 1-800-UVA-FEST or (804) 982-5277, or visit our website at http://www.virginia.edu/~vafilm/.

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