Final Ballots Mailed for 75th Academy Awards
Event Included First Day of Issue Ceremony for American Filmmaking Postage Stamps
Beverly Hills, CA - Final ballots for the 75th Academy Awards were mailed today (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(R) 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.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2002 will be presented on Sunday, March 23, 2003, at the Kodak Theatre at
Hollywood & Highland and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST. A half-hour arrival segment
will precede the presentation ceremony at 5 p.m.
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