From the Traverse City Film Festival Offices:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Beth Milligan
(231) 342-0611
press@traversecityfilmfestival.org
www.traversecityfilmfest.org

Christine Lahti to Receive Michigan Filmmaker Award at TC Film Festival

Oscar-Winning Director and Actress to Receive Award During Festival's Opening Ceremony; Festival Board, Former Michigan Governor Among Presenters

July 26, 2007 -- Traverse City - Oscar-winning director and actress Christine Lahti, Oscar award winning director and Best Supporting Actress nominee, will be presented with the 2007 Michigan Filmmaker Award at the third annual Traverse City Film Festival.

The festival's board of directors, including Michael Moore, Doug Stanton, John Robert Williams, Larry Charles and Terry George, along with former Michigan Governor William Milliken and Director of the Michigan Film Office Janet Lockwood, will bestow the award at the festival's opening ceremony on Tuesday, July 31. The ceremony will take place in front of the State Theatre at 3 p.m., followed by a ticketed V.I.P. reception at Federico Design Jewelers, catered by Grandview Catering.

"Christine was a natural choice for our second Michigan Filmmaker Award," said festival founder and Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore. "Her body of work and numerous awards proves she's one of the most talented people working in show business, both in front of and behind the camera. We are honored to have her join us at the festival."

Born in Birmingham, Michigan, and raised in Suburban Detroit, Lahti won an Oscar in 1995 for directing the Best Live Action Short Film, "Lieberman in Love," in which she also starred. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "Swing Shift," and has starred in many films including "Miss Firecracker," "Running on Empty," "Housekeeping," and the Emmy-award winning "The Executioner's Song."

She is best known for her role as ambitious surgeon Dr. Kathryn Austin on "Chicago Hope," for which she won both Emmy and Golden Globe Awards in 1998. Lahti has also starred in such hit shows as "Chicago Hope" and "Jack & Bobby."

The opening ceremony will officially kick off the festival, which runs July 31-Aug. 5. For a complete schedule of events and films, visit www.traversecityfilmfest.org.

For tickets to the reception and other festival events, call the festival box office at 231-922-0234 or visit the Main Box Office and Festival Store in Radio Center, 300 East Front Street in downtown Traverse City, 12 noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Sunday. The Opening Ceremony is free to the public. Reception tickets are $50.

About the Traverse City Film Festival:
The Traverse City Film Festival is a charitable, educational, nonprofit organization committed to showing Just Great Movies and helping to save one of America's few indigenous art forms - the cinema. Founded by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore and co-founders local photographer John Robert Williams and New York Times best-selling author Doug Stanton, with filmmakers Larry Charles and Terry George rounding out the Board of Directors, the festival brings films and filmmakers from around the world to northern Michigan, creating a level of excitement one local paper said "was the best thing to happen here since the Ice Age left us Lake Michigan."