2007 A.C. Lyles
Robin Saban, Founder and President of the International Student Film Festival Hollywood is pleased to announce A.C. Lyles as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented at the 5th annual International Student Film Festival Hollywood Awards (ISFFH) Ceremony on Sunday, November 18, 2007 at Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn in the NoHo Arts District.
A.C. Lyles is a living legend, he is a legend at Paramount Studios, living what he loves to do. Lyles knew by the time he was 9 years old that he wanted to be a Hollywood producer when he started working at the Florida Theater, part of the Paramount-Publix chain in Jacksonville, Florida. At the age of 18, Lyles made it to Hollywood and began working as an office boy for Paramount’s founder, Adolf Zukor. Today, at the age of 89, Lyles has worked at Paramount longer than anyone, still going to the office regularly with no intention of stopping.
Lyles quickly worked his way into the publicity department working on more than seventy features over the next 12 years. In 1956, Lyles formed his own production unit at Paramount and during the 60’s produced scores of westerns that became a staple for Paramount, starring the likes of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.
In 1983, his friend Ronald Reagan commissioned Lyles to the President’s Advisory Council. During the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, he also functioned as a Hollywood liaison, getting celebrities to entertain at the White House and other presidential functions.
In honor of his long association and his outstanding contribution to the motion picture industry, Lyles received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1988 in front of the El Capitan Theater. At the same time, Paramount named a building on the lot after him. Over his lifetime Lyles has received a plethora of awards, it is truly an honor for the ISFFH to present him one more. For a man who only wanted to make movies, Lyles is enjoying an amazing career!
After years of work in film and theater and passionate about the opportunity to offer student filmmakers well-deserved recognition for their talents, entertainment industry veteran, Robin Saban founded the Festival focused solely on students in September of 2003. The ISFFH has been established and designed to welcome students of all ethnic and academic backgrounds. Most participants are undergraduate or graduate film students from educational organizations throughout the world. High school and Junior High School students compete in their own categories. This year, the ISFFH opened a category for Elementary students to participate in the festival.
Hollywood is the capital city of the entertainment world. The ISFFH offers student filmmakers from all over the world a unique opportunity to gain the recognition of film industry leaders. It is a forum for student filmmakers to showcase their independent films in Hollywood. This event at the epicenter of the film industry puts these students face to face with working Directors, Producers, and other industry professionals throughout the event, giving them the invaluable opportunity to promote themselves and their films.
During the last four years, the ISFFH has brought student filmmakers and their families from the following countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Colombia, United Kingdom, Turkey, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Sweden, India, Iceland, Hungary, Russia, Georgia, Belarus, Italy, Argentina, Finland, and from states throughout the USA. We have screened approximately 600 student films and the Festival has helped to place more than 20 graduate film students into production and post-production job positions.