Museum of Tolerance International Film Festival Honors Clint Eastwood for Body of Work and 'Iron Cross' With Remembrance Award
By Calibra Pictures, PRNEMonday, November 15, 2010
LOS ANGELES, November 16, 2010 - British writer-director Joshua Newton's thriller "Iron Cross" was honored
Sunday night in Los Angeles with one of two awards given by the Museum of
Tolerance International Film Festival.
(Photo: photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101116/LA02280) (Photo: www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20101116/LA02280)
At a gala awards reception at the Museum with California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean and Founder of the Museum and the
Simon Wiesenthal Center, Joshua Newton and Kevin Farr were honored with the
Festival's special Remembrance Award for "Iron Cross" and Clint Eastwood was
honored for his body of work "encouraging tolerance, justice and human
rights."
Written and directed by Joshua Newton, who also produced it with Kevin
Farr for Calibra Pictures, the Holocaust theme film stars Roy Scheider in his
last performance and Alexander Newton as the young version of Scheider's
character.
When he first saw "Iron Cross" earlier this year, Rabbi Hier called it
"the most important film since 'Schindler's List.'"
In accepting the film's Remembrance Award Sunday night, Joshua Newton
observed, "We remember not only the millions who died as a result of
intolerance, we also remember the great late actor Roy Scheider. And I
remember my late father, Bruno Newton, a Holocaust survivor whose life
inspired the story in 'Iron Cross.'"
"We are gratified," Kevin Farr added, "that you've recognized 'Iron
Cross' with this Remembrance Award because the film's message is that we can
never forget the Holocaust."
"Iron Cross" will be screened Th., Nov. 18 as the Closing Night film at
the Festival and will be released worldwide next spring.
The MOTIFF awards came on the heels of "Iron Cross's" success in late
September at the Boston Film Festival where Joshua Newton received the
Festival's Visionary Filmmaker Award and his 18-year old son Alexander Newton
was voted Best Young Actor.
In "Iron Cross" Scheider plays Joseph, a retired New York police officer
and Holocaust survivor who travels to Nuremberg after his wife's death to
reconcile with his son. Their reunion is quickly overshadowed by Joseph's
insistence that living in the upstairs apartment under a false name is the
now aging SS Commander who murdered Joseph's entire family during World War
II. Haunted by that memory for most of his life, Joseph now draws his
reluctant son into a plan to exact justice and vengeance.
The international films screened by MOTIFF from Nov. 13-18 all focus on
human rights issues past and present. Along with classic films advancing the
Museum's mission of building tolerance, the Festival offers moviegoers six
days of education, understanding and culture.
The Museum of Tolerance, which is the educational arm of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center, was founded in 1993 and hosts about 300,000 visitors
annually. It challenges visitors to confront bigotry and racism and to
understand the Holocaust in historic and contemporary contexts. Following the
Museum's success in Los Angeles, the Wiesenthal Center opened its Museum of
Tolerance New York in midtown Manhattan.
Annie Murphy of Calibra Pictures, +1-310-601-7162, publicity at calibrapictures.com
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