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THE MANNSFIELD 12 Wins Jury Prizes for "Best Director" and "Best Screenplay" at the American Black Film Festival

October 30, 2007

Los Angeles, CA. October 30, 2007 - THE MANNSFIELD 12 receives two of the highest honors by winning the Grand Jury "Best Director" and "Best Screenplay" Award from Film Life's 11th annual American Black Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA. Nominated for five out of a total of seven festival awards, THE MANNSFIELD 12 received nominations for the "Grand Jury Prize for Best Actor," "Grand Jury Prize for Best Picture," and "The Heineken Red Star Award."

The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) is a five-day retreat and international film market now held annually in Los Angeles, CA. Founded in 1997, the festival's mission is to strengthen the Black filmmaking community through resource sharing, education, artistic collaboration and career development. The ABFF was born out of the need to develop distribution opportunities for independent Black films and promote cultural diversity within the motion picture industry. HBO is the festival's founding and title sponsor.

The MANNSFIELD 12 is a gritty tale of courage, strength and the resiliency of the human spirit. Faced with incredible odds, 12 hardened inmates learn the true meaning of redemption...and the value of sacrifice. The movie stars Aaron D. Spears, Joe Torry, Tony Todd and Michael McCrary.

The production team for MANNSFIELD 12 includes Executive Producers Craig Ross Jr, Bene White, Aaron D. Spears, Estela Lopez-Sears, Michael Kimbrew and producers Cheryl L. Bedford, Asiatic Inc and Henna LLC. The film is directed and edited by Craig Ross, Jr. The director of photography is Carl Bartels. Music by Jan Pomerans, The story is by Craig Ross Jr., and screenplay written by Alton Glass.

The film will be available on DVD at Walmart in the first quarter of 2008. To learn more about Mannsfield 12 or Craig Ross, Jr. check out please check out www.themannsfield12.com or www.eternalconceptspr.com.

NEWS FACTS

• Film Life's 11th annual American Black Film Festival was held in Los Angeles, CA during October 25-29, 2007
• Craig Ross, Jr. & Alton Glass win the "Jury Prize for the "Best Screenplay Award"
• Craig Ross, Jr. received "Jury Prize for the Best Director Award" for the Mannsfield 12
• Mannsfield 12 stars newcomer Aaron D. Spears, and veteran actors Joe Torry and Tony Todd
• Mannsfield 12 will be released on video in March 2008
• Craig Ross, Jr's CAPPUCCINO won the "Best Film Feature" at the 1998 Black Filmmaker's Hall of Fame Awards, "Best Director" at the 1998 Independent Feature Project's Gordon Parks Award, and "The Melvin Van Peebles Maverick Award" at the 1999 Juneteenth film festival.
• Craig Ross, Jr's BLUE HILL AVE won the Audience Award for the Best American Film at the 2001 Acapulco Black Film Festival, The Best Director Award at the 2001 Urbanworld Film Festival, the Audience Award for best film at the 2001 Roxbury Film Festival, and "Best Film" as well as "Best Director" at the 2001 Jamerican Film Festival in Montego Bay Jamaica. BLUEHILL AVE was released theatrically by Artisan Entertainment in Sept of 2003.

LINKS

More about the Film Life at wwww.filmlife.com

More about the American Black Film Festival at wwww.abff.com

More about the movie at www.themannsfield12.com

More about Craig Ross, Jr's Career at IMDB.com

QUOTES

• "The Mannsfield 12 is an example of how things come together and come together perfectly as if ordained by God.  This project was a perfect one for me personally.  I had never done anything remotely similar.  The cast and crew weren't just amazing actors and artists, but amazing people.  The conditions weren't the most luxurious, yet we all enjoyed the work and each other.  All of us got along, ate well, slept when we could and built lifelong relationships.  Craig created an environment where we could be fearless in our portrayals in spite of some formidable obstacles that included being locked out of the location and other technical challenges.  I knew about those challenges or the producers never passed it down to us." -- Carl Gillard, Actor (Mannsfield 12)
• I have seen all of CRAIG's pictures. There is a certain visual style that eminates from all of them. As an actor, I was eager to be a part of at least one of his films. Speaking strictly from EGO, I like to look good when I work. I like to know that when the film hits, the director chooses the best available performances from the work given. In ALL of CRAIG's past films and MANNSFIELD is no exception, CRAIG captures the best available performances and everyone LOOKS INCREDIBLE. For an actor, this is a huge thing. This flick looks great. The actors look incredible. And the performances are pitch perfect. The sound (and music) is perfect as well......"
  -- Carl Gillard, Actor (Mannsfield 12)

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