One-Hour Special Premieres January 22 at 10PM ET
New York, NY, January 17, 2006 – AMC, basic cable's premiere destination dedicated to movies and movie culture, announced today that Acura, Expedia, and T.G.I. Friday's ® Restaurants have signed on to sponsor Hollywood Celebrates Al Pacino: An American Cinematheque Tribute on AMC. The one-hour special, airing Sunday, January 22 at 10PM ET, pays homage to the distinguished career of Oscar® Winner Al Pacino. Prior to the special at 8PM ET, the network will air Pacino's 2002 film Insomnia starring Oscar® Winners Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.
As part of the sponsorship agreement, Acura, Expedia, and T.G.I. Friday's ® Restaurants will receive 30 second customized vignettes, for the week leading up to the premiere, featuring celebrity friends, co-stars and directors offering memorable inside stories and well wishes to Pacino. Sponsors also will receive on-air presence through tagged tune-ins, commercial spots and billboards. Acura, currently in its 4th year as an American Cinematheque sponsor, also received on-site presence at the October 21st Los Angeles event, with their Celestial Silver 2006 Acura RL parked curbside.
"On the heels of its most successful ratings summer in the network's history, AMC continues to maintain our loyal core audience while offering our sponsors the wide consumer appeal they desire." said Arlene Manos, President, Rainbow National Network Advertising Sales. "The network's exclusive ongoing partnership with American Cinematheque also allows us to offer our sponsors special non-traditional branding opportunities."
Al Pacino, an eight-time Academy Award® nominee and recipient of the Oscar® for Best Actor in SCENT OF A WOMAN, has created many memorable characters during his career. Throughout the one-hour special, celebrity friends and colleagues including Charlize Theron, Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep, Keanu Reeves, Andy Garcia, Marisa Tomei, James Caan, and host Jeremy Piven, will share humorous personal stories about Pacino as they take viewers on a one-hour journey through his phenomenal career. Pacino was the unanimous choice of the American Cinematheque Board of Directors selection committee, which since 1986 has honored an exceptional artist (actor, director or writer) in the entertainment industry on an annual basis.
AMC has aired previous American Cinematheque tributes honoring Steve Martin (2004), Nicole Kidman (2003) and Denzel Washington (2002). The American Cinematheque is a non-profit, viewer-supported organization dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the Moving Picture in all its forms.
AMC's commitment to celebrate movie culture while connecting TV viewers with informed and entertaining programming has raised the network to new heights in ratings and delivery. Its new investment in stronger film titles, programming stunts and specials and original programming has had a tremendous impact on both the 04/05 season and year of 2005, providing AMC with its best season and year ever in the history of the network. The 04/05 season ranked as the network's strongest ever in Primetime HH ratings, Household, and A18-49 & A25-54 deliveries.
**Source: Nielsen Media Research, 04/05 season (9/27/04-9/25/05). 2005 (12/27/05-12/25/05) Primetime: M-Su 8-11p; Since beginning of Nielsen measurement 4/97.
About AMC
AMC, a division of Rainbow Media's Entertainment Services, which also includes WE: Women's Entertainment and IFC Companies, is a 24-hour, movie-based network, dedicated to the American movie fan. The network, which reaches over 87,000,000 homes, offers a comprehensive library of popular movies and a critically-acclaimed slate of original programming that is a diverse, movie-based mix of original series, documentaries and specials. AMC has garnered many of the industry's highest honors, including 14 Emmy awards. AMC is "TV for movie people."