Beverly Hills, CA — Open dance auditions for the 82nd Academy Awards® telecast will be held on Friday, January 22, and Saturday, January 23, at CenterStaging in Burbank, California, telecast producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic announced today. Cast dancers will perform live during the Academy Awards show on Sunday, March 7, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®.
The auditions are open to professional-level male and female dancers in the contemporary and hip-hop styles who are between the ages of 18 and 30. Shankman, who began his career as a dancer and once performed on the Oscar show, will be choreographing the audition numbers with associate choreographers Anne Fletcher and Jamal Sims.
CenterStaging is located at 3407 Winona Avenue in Burbank. Interested dancers should note that parking is not available at CenterStaging. Individuals will need to find parking in the vicinity and pay any associated costs. Only qualified dancers will be admitted; there is no access for watching the auditions.

Following is the audition schedule:
Friday, January 22, 2010
Contemporary
9 a.m. – 11 a.m. – Union, Male
10 a.m. – noon – Union, Female
Noon – 2 p.m. – Non-union, Male
1 p.m. – 3 p.m. – Non-union, Female
3 p.m. – 6 p.m. – Trickers and Tumblers

Saturday, January 23, 2010
Hip Hop
9 a.m. – 11 a.m. – Union, Male
10 a.m. – noon – Union, Female
Noon – 2 p.m. – Non-union, Male
1 p.m. – 3 p.m. – Non-union, Female
3 p.m. – 6 p.m. – Callback

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be televised live by the ABC Television Network on Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 5 p.m. PT. It also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

ABOUT THE ACADEMY
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the world’s preeminent movie-related organization, with a membership of more than 6,000 of the most accomplished men and women working in cinema. In addition to the annual Academy Awards – in which the members vote to select the nominees and winners – the Academy presents a diverse year-round slate of public programs, exhibitions and events; provides financial support to a wide range of other movie-related organizations and endeavors; acts as a neutral advocate in the advancement of motion picture technology; and, through its Margaret Herrick Library and Academy Film Archive, collects, preserves, restores and provides access to movies and items related to their history. Through these and other activities the Academy serves students, historians, the entertainment industry and people everywhere who love movies.

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:

Zero Film Festival 2009 to host the Los Angeles premiere of MITSEIN, a film by Aparna Malladi featuring Smriti Mishra.

Decemeber 02, 2009

LOS ANGELES – On December 5th, Saturday 2009, Zero Film Festival [ZER09] will host the Los Angeles premiere of MITSEIN as part of it’s closing night line up. The film written and directed by Aparna Malladi is a surreal drama starring Smriti Mishra as a woman trying to redefine herself by seeking an imaginary artist.

MITSEIN will screen at the Downtown Independent Theater in downtown Los Angeles as part of it’s ‘Closing Night Film Marathon’. [See Schedule below for complete information].

The film has previously screened at the Urban Suburban Film Festival, Philadelphia, Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film festival, New York, the Eugene International Film Festival, Oregon where it received the trophy for best art feature and had it’s International premiere at the 11th Mumbai International Film Festival, India.  The film is also the official selection for the 2010 Beloit International Film Festival in, Wisconsin.  MITSEIN is being distributed worldwide by Continuum Pictures.

MITSEIN [Being with] is a word coined by German philosopher Martin Heidegger.  The film focuses on the primordial mitsein between men and women.  Principal actors include Amit Garg, Namrata Singh Gujral [Americanizing Shelley], Rupinder Nagra [Amal], Sanjay Lamba, Pia Shah [8x10 Tasveer] and Jesse Allen as the Artist.
For additional information visit www.mitsein.us

MITSEIN is Aparna Malladi’s feature film debut.  In 2001, she made a short titled NUPUR [ankle bracelets]. The film won awards at the USA Film Festival, Dallas, Rochester International Film Festival, New York and was a finalist at the Saguaro Film Festival, Arizona.  NUPUR [ankle bracelets] was the official selection at more than 25 international film festivals around the world and played on the AZN television channel as part of ‘Popcorn Zen’ a collection of award winning shorts.  Aparna is currently in Hyderabad preparing for her next feature, THE ANUSHREE EXPERIMENTS, a light comedy about a young woman trying to avoid marriage so she can party at Kovalam beach after graduation.

Smriti Mishra started her acting career when Ram Gopal Bajaj, director of India’s National School of Drama introduced her to Paris based filmmaker Vijay Singh who cast her in his debut feature ‘Jaya Ganga’.  Smriti’s next acted in the indie film ‘Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin’ directed by Sudhir Mishra, and Shyam Benegal’s ‘Sardari Begum’.  Her role as the young Sardari Begum in the film led to critical acclaim and awards.  Smriti also acted in ‘Train to Pakistan’, a film based on writer Khushwant Singh’s famous historical novel by the same name.  Recently Smriti worked on two international projects.  Apart from her lead role in ‘Mitsein’, which is set in San Francisco, she reunited with her ‘Jaya Ganga’ director Vijay Singh to act in the comedy ‘One Dollar Curry’ set in Paris.  Back in Mumbai, Smriti played a principal role in director Ruchi Narain’s ‘Kal:  Yesterday and Tomorrow’ and in Manish Tiwary’s ‘Dil Dosti Etc.’ in which she co-starred with Immad Shah.  Smriti also has the distinction of having worked in an IMAX movie titled ‘India: Kingdom of the Tiger’ based on the famous hunter and photographer Jim Corbett and is a brilliant classical Kathak dancer trained by famous teachers, Pundit Durga Lal and Birju Maharaj.

Namrata Singh Gujral is a Los Angeles based actor who is well known for her various television performances and most recently as the lead in the hit comedy ‘Americanizing Shelly’.

Rupinder Nagra is Genie-nominated International actor from Toronto, presently based in London.  He has worked on  ‘Bollywood Hollywood’ a film by Deepa Mehta [Director of the Oscar nominated ‘Water’] and most recently was the lead in ‘Amal’ which had it’s world premiere at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.

Schedule, Ticket and Reservation Information:

Zero Film Festival Presents – MITSEIN [USA, 2009, 35mm / Digi Beta, 60 minutes]
Downtown Independent Theater – Saturday, December 5th, 2009, 5:30pm
251 South Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
To purchase tickets online go to www.downtownindependent.com Tel: (213) 617 1033
For film festival information go to www.zerofilmfest.com Email: info@zerofilmfest.com
The film’s distributor, James Duval, co-founder of Continuum Pictures will be present at the screening for Q & A