June 20, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  John Pavlik - (310) 247-3000

Beverly Hills, CA - The Shrine Auditorium and Exposition Center near downtown Los Angeles will be the venue for the 73rd Annual Academy Awards^® Presentation, Robert Rehme, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, announced today.

It will be the tenth, and possibly the last, time the Oscar telecast will originate from the Moroccan-motif Shrine. Expectations are that the 74th Oscar Presentations will be held in the new theater at Hollywood & Highland^®, now under construction in Hollywood.

The ceremonies honoring achievements in motion picture production during the year 2000 will be held on Sunday, March 25, 2001. The 73rd Annual Academy Awards Presentation will be broadcast live from the Shrine Auditorium by the ABC Television Network, beginning at 5:30 p.m. (PST), preceded at 5 p.m. by a network pre-show.

The first time the event was held at the Shrine Auditorium was in 1947, when 19th Academy Awards Show Producer Mervyn LeRoy staged the presentation there. The Awards were presented at the Shrine again in 1948, but 40 years passed before the Academy came back to the Shrine in 1988. The show has since originated from the Shrine in 1989, 1991, 1995, 1997, 1998 and 2000.