Savannah Film Festival Honors Suzanne de Passe with Lifetime Achievement Award

The Savannah Film Festival, hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design, presented a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Entertainment to entertainment entrepreneur Suzanne de Passe Nov. 1.

R&B singer Kenny Lattimore serenaded de Passe from the award stage, singing the hits "And I Love Her" and "Come Down in Time" from his new album, "Timeless." Fellow entertainment moguls Michael Mauldin, chief executive officer of the Artistic Control Group, president of Mauldin Brand Agency and chairman of SCREAM Star Entertainment, and Judy Mauldin, executive director of the nonprofit educational initiative Hip Hop 4 Humanity, were on hand for the ceremony.

"I've had the most wonderful, delicious career," said de Passe. "It's been hard, ridiculous, taxing, invigorating, depressing and a heady mix. I don't feel like my Lifetime Achievement Award is a measure of what I've done, but an encouragement and blessing to go on."

De Passe, who serves as chief executive officer of de Passe Entertainment Group, began her career at Motown Records as creative assistant to company founder Berry Gordy. She subsequently rose to the position of president of Motown Productions and later formed Gordy/de Passe Productions before establishing her own company in 1992.

"Suzanne's eye for talent is uncanny, with something prophetic and genius about it," said SCAD President Paula S. Wallace in presenting de Passe with the award. "Who else would go to a friend's apartment to listen to -- and then sign -- a band with a tiny little frontman who was barely nine-years old? But thanks to Suzanne, the world was about to meet the Jackson 5 and a little kid named Michael who would change music forever."

De Passe is the recipient of many professional awards including two Emmy Awards, six NAACP Image Awards, three Peabody Awards and a Golden Globe. She received an Academy Award nomination for co-writing "Lady Sings the Blues." De Passe has been the subject of two Harvard Business School case studies, and has held the Time Warner Endowed Chair as visiting professor to the John H. Johnson School of Communications at Howard University.

The weeklong Savannah Film Festival, Oct. 25-Nov. 1, also honored Variety vice president and editor-in-chief Peter Bart, actor Malcolm McDowell, and songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman with Lifetime Achievement Awards.

The 2008 Savannah Film Festival competition film awards also were announced during Saturday's event. They include:

Best Documentary: "Who Does She Think She Is?"

Director: Pamela Boll

Producers: Pamela Boll, Kerthy Fix

Best Comedic Short: "Goldfish"

Director/writer: Joe Wein

Producer: Jana Memel

Best Narrative Feature: "War Eagle, Arkansas"

Director: Robert Milazzo

Writer: Graham Gordy

Producers: Luke Grimes, Dan McCabe, Brian Dennehy, Mare Winningham, Mary Kay Place

Best Director: Erica Dunton, "The 27 Club"

Diane Passage Jury Award for Outstanding Contribution to Filmmaking: Luke Grimes and Dan McCabe, "War Eagle, Arkansas"

Best SCAD Student Competition Award: "The Execution of Solomon Harris"

Directors: Wyatt Garfield, Ed Yonaitis

Writer: Ed Yonaitis

Producer: Jett Steiger

Savannah Film Commission Award: "Scaredy Cats"

Director/writer: Bossi Baker

Producers: Amanda Bayard, Bossi Baker

Student Competition, Runner Up: "Song of David"

Director: Oded Turgeman

Writers: Danny Klein, Oded Turgeman

Producers: Nicolas Emiliani, Roby Freireich

Best Animated Student Short: "Window Pains"

Director/writer: Paul Allen Tillery

Best Dramatic Short: "A Day's Work"

Director: Edward Feldman

Writers: Edward Feldman, Thomas Logoreci

Producer: Aleksander Manic

Standing Ovation Award: "The Wrecking Crew"

Director/producer: Denny Tedesco

Panavision Professional and Educational Cinematography Award: SCAD Professor Michael Hofstein

Panavision's Tracy Langan Student Cinematography Award: Wyatt Garfield, "The Execution of Solomon Harris"

HBO Films Student Competition Award 2008: "In the Name of the Son"

Director/writer: Harun Mehmedinovic

Producers: Edin Saracevic, Vikram Singh

HBO Films Producer Award 2008: Cass Warner, "The Brothers Warner"

The Savannah Film Festival is sponsored by the City of Savannah, Memorial Health, The Talking Phone Book and the Savannah Morning News.

For more information, visit scad.edu/filmfest.

For media inquiries and image requests, contact 912.713.4275 or 912.525.5225.

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Named one of "America's Best Colleges" and one of "America's Best Graduate Schools" by U.S. News and World Report, and one of the nation's "Most Interesting Schools" by Kaplan-Newsweek, SCAD is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution that offers a choice of degree programs in 42 different majors, plus 52 minors. SCAD confers Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Architecture, Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Fine Arts and Master of Urban Design degrees. Students can take classes at campuses in Savannah and Atlanta, Ga., in Lacoste, France, and online through SCAD-eLearning.

For more information about the university, visit http://www.scad.edu.