January 17, 2003

Contact: Phil Benoit

802-443-5198

pbenoit@middlebury.edu

Posted: January 17, 2003

MIDDLEBURY,

VT - Ted Perry, Fletcher Professor of the Arts at Middlebury College,

served as one of 13 members of the motion pictures jury for the third

annual American Film Institute (AFI) awards program. The AFI selects the

year’s most outstanding achievements in film and television as well

as significant moments in the world of moving image for recognition.

The jurors,

whose names are kept confidential until their selections have been made,

convened at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Los Angeles in December of 2002 for

two days of deliberation. The winning films and television projects were

honored at a luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles on Jan.

16.

Perry said the

selection committee included people with a variety of film backgrounds.

“It was stimulating and exciting to sit in a room for a day with

people-a Newsweek critic, producers, directors, writers, etc.-who are

all passionate about movies, and arguing fervently among ourselves about

the virtues and defects of various films,” said Perry.

According to

the AFI, its awards program is the only form of national recognition that

honors the film and television creative ensemble as a whole, including

those in front of and behind the camera. The 10 films selected for 2002

AFI honors are “About a Boy,” “About Schmidt,” “Adaptation,”

“Antwone Fisher,” “Chicago,” “Frida,” “Gangs

of New York,” “The Hours,” “The Lord of The Rings:

The Two Towers,” and “The Quiet American.”

Perry teaches

courses in film and video at Middlebury College. He is the former director

of the department of film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City,

and he has taught film and video courses at the University of Iowa, State

University of New York at Purchase, and the American Film Institute’s

Center for Advanced Film and Television Study. He also taught at the University

of Texas at Austin, where he was director of graduate studies, and at

New York University, where he was chairman of the department of cinema

studies. A trustee emeritus of the American Film Institute, Perry has

also served as the visiting Henry Luce Professor of Film Studies at Harvard

University.

His writing

on film has resulted in several dozen articles and a number of books.

A frequent lecturer, he has spoken in the United States and abroad on

various aspects of film, and has also written and directed plays for the

stage and documentaries for television.