Holding onto dreams of future Oscar glory, 50 students from Inner-City Filmmakers (ICF), a training and film industry job development program, carried the 50 Oscar statuettes of the 79th Academy Awards down the red carpet to the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center on Saturday, February 24, 2007.

Beverly Hills, CA — Holding onto dreams of future Oscar® glory, 50 students from Inner-City Filmmakers (ICF), a training and film industry job development program, carried the 50 Oscar statuettes of the 79th Academy Awards® down the red carpet to the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center® on Saturday, February 24, at 10 a.m. Leading the parade was Anacleto Medina of R.S. Owens & Company in Chicago, the awards specialty company that has been pouring and handcrafting the statuettes since 1983. Medina has been helping to craft the Oscars® that entire time.

The Oscar statuettes were overnighted backstage, under close watch, and will be presented to the winners at the Awards ceremony on Sunday, February 25.

From their display cases at “Meet the Oscars: An Exhibition of 50 Golden Statuettes,” where the statuettes resided since February 9 for public viewing, they were transported to the red carpet, where they were placed in the excited hands of the ICF students – the industry’s future animators, cinematographers, costume designers, directors, editors, sound editors, screenwriters and visual effects specialists – each of whom then carried one statuette down the red carpet.

Academy President Sid Ganis, front, far right, with 50 students from Inner-City Filmmakers (ICF) at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.

Established by filmmakers Fred Heinrich and Stephania Lipner following the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles, ICF reaches out to socially and economically underprivileged youth by creating awareness about and providing access to the professional world of filmmaking. This year’s nominee for Best Animated Feature Film, Gil Kenan of “Monster House,” was a beneficiary of the program.

The organization provides free year-round professional and business training, mentors and paid work opportunities to young adults (age 17 to 22) who aspire to build careers in the entertainment industry. ICF has successfully matched graduates with more than 500 behind-the-scenes industry job opportunities. For more information on ICF, visit www.innercityfilmmakers.com.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2006 will be presented on Sunday, February 25, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.

The Oscars® will be televised live by the ABC Television Network at 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST), beginning with a half-hour red carpet arrivals segment, “The Road to the Oscars.”