Presented by Art of the Movies Co., Limited Edition Classics Reprinted With Original Lithography Process To Benefit AFI

LOS ANGELES, CA, OCTOBER 24, 2000 - AFI's 100 Years... 100 American Movie Poster Classics collection will be unveiled at a press breakfast, Thursday, November 2, 9:00 a.m., at the Louis B. Mayer Library on the AFI campus, 2021 N. Western Avenue in Los Angeles.

Twenty-two of the completed posters, from monster classic THE MUMMY to the racy THE SIN OF NORA MORAN to heartthrob THE SHEIK will be displayed. Images from the full collection will be displayed November 29 at the Ré Gallerie, Paris Las Vegas, in tandem with CineVegas, the Los Vegas Film Festival. The collection will also be exhibited online in early November at AFI's Web site and at www.artofthemovies.com.

The American Film Institute, with Art of the Movies atelier, a staff of artisans and its original great old presses (there are only five remaining in existence), will begin offering limited edition, recreated lithographs. A portion of the sales will benefit AFI, and its embossed logo will be discreetly imprinted within the border of the lithograph.

"Because AFI is so committed to film preservation and the fact that these lithographs of Hollywood's Golden Age are, indeed, an endangered species, we are pleased to co-sponsor this collectors' series," states Jean Picker Firstenberg, AFI's Director and CEO.

Before 1939, leading movie studios developed art departments, staffed with artists whose mission was to capture the essence of each movie on a single sheet of paper. The poster's job was to not only advertise and promote the film, but also to intrigue the imagination, glamorize the stars and pitch the Hollywood dream. Each poster - done in the original, pure-color direct lithography - was a work of art. Some well-known artists, such as Al Hirschfeld, Norman Rockwell and Thomas Hart Benton, were commissioned to create a specific poster image. With the development of offset printing and high speed, mass production, these original posters disappeared from the public scene, some saved only by a collector's savvy and the purse of an aristocrat.

"This collection preserves a vital part of America's movie history and culture, while making the joy of collecting these works of art accessible to millions of art lovers and movie fans throughout the world," adds Carolyn Solomon, president of Art of the Movies.

Using the original lithography process - whereby plates are hand drawn and each color is imprinted separately - it will take approximately five years to complete the series. Each poster is from a limited, numbered edition and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

AFI is the preeminent organization dedicated to advancing and preserving the art of film, television and other forms of the moving image. AFI trains the next generation of filmmakers, coordinates nationwide film preservation efforts and explores new technologies in moviemaking.

AFI also presents the best of film through AFI's Los Angeles International Film Festival, the AFI National Theater at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and the annual AFI Life Achievement Award, the highest honor given for a career in film.