November 1, 2007

Contact:
Ewa Domeredzka
Director
Polish Film Festival in America
773-486-9611/12

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2007 GOLDEN CIUPAGA AWARD FOR MILOS STEHLIK

Award Ceremony at the Gala Opening of the Polish Film Festival in America, Saturday, November 3, 2007 at 7:30 pm.

Milos Stehlik will receive the 2007 Golden Ciupaga Award of the Polish Film Festival in America for his contribution to a promotion of Polish cinema in the United States. The award presentation will take place at the Gala Opening of the 19th PFFA in the Copernicus Center (5216 W. Lawrence Ave., Chicago) on Saturday, November 3, 2007 at 7:30 pm. The Gala Night includes a reception attended by Polish film celebrities at the Society for Arts (1112 N. Milwaukee Ave.) at 5:00 pm. The presentation will be followed by the introduction of the PFFA Official Guests and screenings of THE ARK by Grzegorz Jonkajtys and HANIA by Janusz Kaminski.

Milos Stehlik is co-founder and director of the Chicago-based Facets Multimedia, a leading national media arts center. Since 1975, he's been responsible for Facet's public programs which include screenings of foreign and independent films and video on a daily basis, the Chicago International Children's Film Festival and associated educational programs, as well as Facets Video, a pioneering catalogue of 65,000 foreign, independent, classic American, silent, experimental, fine arts and children videos.

He taught film aesthetics and distribution at Columbia College/Chicago, and lectured at Wayne State University, DePaul University, the University of Illinois/Chicago Circle and others.

He has served on many boards including Community Film Workshop, Chicago Latino Cinema, Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation and the Advisory Committee of the Chicago Humanities Festival.

He has written on film and video distribution for publications including "The Next Step: Distribution Strategies," and is the co-author of "The Human Rights Film Guide." He has served on the juries on numerous international film festivals and on more than a dozen panels of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Telluride Film Festival.

In 1997, he was awarded the Telluride Film Festival’s Silver Medallion for creating "a virtual Cinematheque" on video; in 1998, was awarded the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government. This year, he received the Czech Republic's Jan Masaryk medal from the Minister of Foreign Affairs for his contribution to Czech culture.

Since 1988, he is a regular commentator on film for Chicago Public Radio and has reported for National Public Radio from a numerous international festivals. He is a recipient of the Associated Press Broadcaster’s Best Radio Commentary award.

A very special place in work of Milos Stehlik has been given to the Polish cinema. He hosted a number of Polish films and their authors in his Facets cinema, including Agnieszka Holland and Feliks Falk. In 1999, his Facets hosted the Andrzej Wajda extensive retrospective organized by the Society for Arts as a part of the Oscar campaign. For years, he's been producing many Polish titles on video and dvd in a collaboration with Polish distributors. Thanks to his efforts, these films find their place in libraries and university collections as well as are accessible to movie buffs nationwide thru his Facets Cinematheque. He has been instrumental in discovering a talent of Polish filmmakers, i.e. showing as one of the first in the States a whole "Decalogue" by Krzysztof Kieslowski.
Milos keeps a friendly eye on the present Polish film production, also assisting in placing the films in programs of international film festivals in the U.S. His undisputable though humble endeavors in promoting Polish cinema have greatly contributed to its overall presence on the North American market.