Hollywood Stands Up To Cancer

Each year cancer kills more than a half million people in America alone. Through the new initiative Stand Up to Cancer, Hollywood industry giants are aiming to bring awareness to this fact and further aid in the fight against the disease. The organization’s first effort is a film challenge that will accept short films (less than three minutes) focusing on the subject of cancer, its effects and/or the battle against it.

“Stand Up To Cancer is an initiative of the entertainment industry and entertainment industry executives, so a film challenge was uniquely appropriate, since our whole ethos is about using creative expression and the media to galvanize the public to take action,” says Laura Ziskin, producer of such hits as Pretty Woman and Spider-Man as well as one of the organization’s Executive Leadershp Committee members. “Together with my colleagues Lauren Shuler Donner (producer, the X-Men movies), Sherry Lansing (former CEO of Paramount), Greg Mottola (director, Superbad), Julie Taymor (director, Across The Universe) and Robert Greenwald (producer-director, Outfoxed), I am looking forward to judging the entrants and seeing the creative results.”

Challenge entries can be in the form of animation, live action narrative or documentary and will be judged based on aspects of emotional impact, artistry and technical merits. The top three movies will premiere on Stand Up To Cancer’s Website.

All entries must be received by August 1, 2008. For more information visit www.standup2cancer.org/filmchallenge.