Oscar ballots mailed

Feb 25, 2003 by Ian Evans

Final ballots for the 75th Academy Awards were mailed on February 25 to voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences during a special ceremony marking the first day of issue of the U.S. Postal Service’s new American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes postage stamps. Academy President Frank Pierson and U.S. Postmaster General John E. Potter presided over the event at the Academy’s headquarters in Beverly Hills.

Listed on the ballots are the nominees in 19 Oscar® categories. Separate ballots for five additional award categories (foreign language film, short and feature length documentaries and animated and live action short films) will be distributed after verification of mandatory member attendance at screenings.

Completed ballots must be returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers by 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 18. Any ballot received after this deadline is ineligible. The auditing firm then tabulates the votes and the winners’ names are placed in sealed envelopes to be opened on Oscar Night, Sunday, March 23.

The American Filmmaking postage stamps were developed to honor the artists and craftspeople who work behind the scenes to create movie magic. Areas represented with a stamp include art direction, cinematography, costume design, directing, film editing, makeup, music, screenwriting, sound and special effects. Producing is represented on the frame of the 10-stamp pane.

Academy voting members who work in a craft represented by a stamp will receive a ballot affixed with that stamp. Directors such as Steven Spielberg, Penny Marshall and Ang Lee, for example, will receive ballots in envelopes with a stamp honoring directing.

Attending the event with Pierson and Postmaster General Potter were Gena Rowlands, Academy Award®-nominated actress and widow of John Cassavetes, who appears on the Directing stamp; Sara Karloff, whose father Boris Karloff appears as Frankenstein’s Monster on the Makeup stamp; Ernest Borgnine, Academy Award-winning actor and former member of the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee and Leonard Maltin, film critic, author and historian. Greg Garrison and Rick Rosas, partners with PricewaterhouseCoopers, also were present to supervise the mailing.

Prior to and following the ceremony, the public had the opportunity to purchase the new stamps and obtain the first day of issue cancellation.

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