Hollywood, CA – Walt Disney Pictures presentation of the Pixar
Animation Studios film, “Finding Nemo,” MGM's “Legally Blonde
2,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS News With Dan Rather, Animal
Planet’s “Cell Dogs,” KCET-TV’s Life & Times, Los Angeles
Times Magazine and Marvel Comic’s “X-Men Unlimited” are among
the 21 eclectic recipients of the Eighteenth Annual Genesis
Awards, presented by The Hollywood Office of The Humane Society
of The United States (HSUS), celebrating 50 years of protecting
animals. The Genesis Awards will be presented on Saturday,
March 20, 2004 at a gala ceremony in the International Ballroom
of The Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, CA. The show will be
taped and edited for a two-hour Television Special airing on
Animal Planet on April 25th.
Honoring the news and entertainment media for a rich and
varied range of works from 2003, which offered both
groundbreaking coverage of emerging animal issues, as well as
fresh perspectives on continuing injustices, the Eighteenth
Annual Genesis Awards will once again demonstrate that “Cruelty
Can’t Stand The Spotlight!”
“I’m delighted that on the occasion of HSUS’50th
Anniversary, the Genesis Awards will celebrate a vintage year
for positive animal messages in the media," says Gretchen
Wyler, vice president of The HSUS Hollywood Office. “Hugely
successful movies like "Legally Blonde 2" and the Academy Award
nominated "Finding Nemo" - with a combined domestic box office
of $430 million - are a testament to the fact that a new
consciousness of animal-protection is emerging and is striking
a chord with mainstream audiences.”
Designed to encourage the next generation of journalists and
filmmakers, the Eighteenth Annual Genesis Awards has instituted
its first National Student Award. And in response to the
diversity and influence of today’s niche media, Marvel Comics
X-Men Unlimited gets a much-deserved nod for a message that
says no to animal cruelty.
"While acknowledging the latest in break-through media
coverage, we are proud to have British actress and animal
campaigner Virginia McKenna as our Guest of Honor," adds Wyler.
"Virginia's classic sixties movie "Born Free" was ahead of it
time in advocating respect for wild animals and their right to
live freely."
Among this year's celebrity presenters and attendees are:
Billy Baldwin, David Boreanaz, James Cromwell, Miguel Ferrer,
Jorja Fox, Daryl Hannah, Bill Maher, Wendy Malick, Chynna
Phillips-Baldwin, Melissa Rivers, Doris Roberts, Alicia
Silverstone, Amy Smart and David Sutcliffe.
Winners are selected from material released in 2003. Entries
are submitted by members of the news and entertainment industry
or by "people's choice," with finalists voted upon by the
17-member Genesis Awards Committee.
Gretchen Wyler and Robert Halmi, Sr. are the executive
producers and Paul Flattery is the producer of the Television
Special. Corporate Underwriting is provided by Delta Air Lines,
and sponsors include MBNA America Bank, N.A and MassMutual
Financial Group.
A complete list of winners of the Eighteenth Annual Genesis
Awards follows:
Feature Film: "Legally Blonde 2" (MGM)
For boldly placing an animal advocacy message at the heart of a
mainstream Hollywood movie, with the unstoppable Elle Woods
taking on animal testing and Capitol Hill, proving that animal
issues can make it big at the box office!
Feature Film Animated: "Finding Nemo" (A Walt Disney
Pictures presentation of a Pixar Animation Studios film)
For going where few animated features have gone before
– to the depths of the sea to portray fish as feeling creatures
who deserve to swim in the freedom of the vast oceans, and not
the confines of a 4'x4' fish tank!
Comedy Series: "Everybody Loves Raymond"
(CBS)
For a brilliantly conceived script brimming with irony about
the double standards shown toward the fate of an injured little
bird, compared to the prevailing notion that a turkey is
nothing more than a Thanksgiving feast.
National News Feature: CBS News With Dan Rather –
"Food Fight"
For illustrating the ultimate power of the consumer in driving
the trend toward improving the conditions of animals raised for
'fast food,' and for showing the humane community that its
efforts to reach a caring public have not been in vain.
Cable Documentary: "Hunting in America" (National
Geographic Channel)
For a compelling and balanced look at hunting from the growing
number of women joining the country’s 13 million licensed sport
hunters to those vigorously campaigning against the killing of
defenseless animals, leaving the overall impression that there
is nothing ‘sporting’ about hunting.
Cable Documentary Series: National Geographic
Ultimate Explorer (MSNBC)
For venturing into dangerous locations to investigate critical
global animal issues, including poaching in Cambodia; the
illegal ‘Shahtoosh’ wool trade, threatening a rare Tibetan
antelope, and saving gorillas whose only hope for survival is
to become habituated to humans.
PBS Documentary: National Geographic Special: "In
Search Of The Jaguar"
For providing a rare window into the threatened world of the
South American Jaguar, and illustrating how one man’s quest to
save the species is driven by his life altering affinity for
animals and the struggle against terminal illness.
Reality Programming: "Cell Dogs" (Animal Planet)
For an inspiring series focusing on an extraordinary
prison program, teaming unwanted shelter dogs with death row
inmates whose task of rehabilitating their new canine friends
gives new meaning to the lives of these hardened criminals and
puts the dogs back on track for adoption.
Children's Programming – Series: "Braceface" (ABC
Family)
For an ongoing commitment to educating and entertaining young
audiences about a range of important animal issues through the
compassionate voice of Sharon, whose feisty approach to
injustice is a lesson to us all!
Children's Programming – Television Movie: "Bike
Squad" (Showtime)
For raising the bar in presenting serious animal cruelty issues
to children with an engaging story about the pervasive, yet
rarely acknowledged crime of stealing and selling dogs to
laboratories for research.
Local News Series: (Shared) KIRO-TV (Seattle) –
"Downer Cows"
For a trailblazing series of reports sounding the alarm about
the cruelty of dragging ‘downer cows’ – injured cattle who
cannot walk – to slaughter for human consumption, in the days
before ‘mad cow’ disease hit the headlines, forcing the USDA to
finally ban it.
Local News Series: (Shared) KGO-TV (Bay Area) –
"Foie Gras Fight"
For a groundbreaking expose of the California foie gras
industry, featuring footage of the barbaric practice of
force-feeding geese and ducks until their livers swell to three
times their normal size to create a culinary delicacy that,
thanks to this shocking report, is likely to be taken off the
menu!
Local News Feature: KARE TV (Minnesota) "Dolittle
Delusion"
For a damning portrait of an exotic cat breeder, whose tiger
facility has been likened to a concentration camp, calling
attention to the dangerous trend of keeping big cats as pets, a
demand that led to the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, aimed at
restricting this escalating trade.
Local PBS Series: Life & Times "Paw Project"
KCET (Los Angeles)
For an unprecedented report on the appalling effects of
domestic and wild cat de-clawing and the tireless campaign by
Dr. Jennifer Conrad of Paw Project to spread the word,
resulting in West Hollywood’s decision to ban the cruel and
unnecessary procedure.
Brigitte Bardot International: Biker Jens: A Life On
The Edge (Denmark/Norway)
For debunking the world of bullfighting in a reality series in
which a dare-devil tough guy discovers first-hand that this
blood sport and so-called ‘art form’ is a despicably cruel and
unfair contest, weighted against the bull and in favor of the
‘brave’ matador.
Doris Day Music Award – Classic: "Born Free" Music
by John Barry, lyrics by Don Black. Title song from the 1966
Movie, "Born Free."
For a joyous marriage of music and lyric that is both timeless
and timely in its celebration of animals who deserve to live
freely in the wild.
Newspaper Magazine Feature: Los Angeles Times
Magazine "Plenty to Squawk About" by Mira Tweti
For an alarming and in-depth examination of the exotic bird
trade and the plight of these rare and magnificent birds who
are plucked from the tropical skies, bought by an ill informed
public and condemned to live incarcerated as caged pets.
Series of Newspaper Articles: The Charlotte Observer
– 3-part series “Death At The Pound” by Scott Dodd and Michelle
Couch
For a hard-hitting 3-part series, galvanizing city officials
and the public into seeking ways to reduce the staggering and
above-average number of dogs and cats ending up at its local
shelter, destined for euthanasia.
Artistic Achievement: X-Men Unlimited – “Can They
Suffer?” by Chuck Austen, Marvel Comics
For expanding the signature X-Men message of empathy toward
living beings from this planet and beyond to include the most
abused species of all – animals, whose suffering the heroic and
popular X-Men will not tolerate!
Cartoon: Bizarro by Dan Piraro
For creating over two dozen cartoons that dare to touch upon
the most controversial of animal issues with an incisive wit
that cuts to the quick.
Student Award: "Remembering Bob" by Maria Brenner,
University of Southern California
For a poignant and deceptively simple short film that says a
great deal about our conditioned, yet conflicted attitude to
animals used for food, suggesting that a child’s inclination to
view them as pets is an instinct worth carrying into
adulthood.
The HSUS is the nation's largest animal protection
organization with over seven million members and constituents.
The HSUS Hollywood Office is devoted to raising public
awareness of animal issues through the major media. The HSUS is
a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in
companion animals, wildlife, animals in research and farm
animals and sustainable agriculture. For 50 years, The HSUS has
protected all animals through legislation, litigation,
investigation, education, advocacy and field work. The
non-profit organization is based in Washington, DC and has 10
regional offices across the country. For more information,
visit The HSUS’ Web site www.hsus.org or
www.GenesisAwards.org.
