Contact: Anne Kneuer
732-221-6076 or anne@gsff.org
For Immediate Release:
A GALAXY OF STARS TO ATTEND GARDEN STATE FILM FESTIVAL
Eric Roberts and Armand Assante to Headline Event
Atlantic City, NJ, February 16, 2015 – The Garden State Film Festival will host a number of
award-winning performers and other special guests at its 13th Anniversary event, March 1922, 2015 in Atlantic City. A number of noted performers will receive awards and attend
events in Resorts Hotel Casino, the Claridge Hotel, Dante Hall. They will join festival goers
at a number of events and take place in various programs throughout the festival starting with
the Kick-Off Cocktail Party at Resorts Ballroom on Friday, March 20 at 7:00 p.m.
Receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award is New York native Armand Assante. Following
his first screen role in the cult film The Lords of Flatbush, Assante appeared on several soap
operas before his breakthrough role in Private Benjamin. Playing characters as diverse as
Mike Hammer to John Gotti to Odysseus, Assante remains in strong demand with dozens of
recent credits in both film and television including Joe’s War, screening on Saturday at 8:00
p.m. at Resorts.
Assante is joined on screen in Joe’s War with Festival MVP, Ed Asner, a GSFF honorary
board member and former Lifetime Achievement recipient (2012). He is the subject of a new
documentary, My Friend Ed, about his acting and activism screening at 3:00 p.m.at Resorts.
Asner began his acting career on stage in Chicago then New York. Television soon came
calling, and he started garnering attention as a gifted character actor appearing in seemingly
every major series and special for two decades. Best known for his Emmy Award-winning
role as Lou Grant, he is one of the few television actors to portray the same leading character
in both a comedy and a drama, and the only to win an Emmy for both. As prolific and
talented as ever, Asner remains an in-demand actor in both film and television.
Independent Spirt Award recipient is actor and artists James Wilder. Wilder is winning rave
reviews for his starring role in Two Brads and a Smoking Gun (upcoming theatrical release
title, 3 Holes and a Smoking Gun) screening Saturday at 5:45 p.m. at Resorts Screening
Room. Wilder made a splash on the small screen in a number of popular series, including
Equal Justice, Melrose Place and Models Inc., but it was his scorching depiction of a serial
killer in Murder One that thrust him into the limelight. A true Renaissance man, when not
acting Wilder designs and builds eclectic homes throughout California, sculpts and creates
jewelry and apparel.
Quinn Shephard is this year’s Rising Star Award recipient awarded annually to an up-andcoming actor/actress with New Jersey roots. Born in Central New Jersey, Shephard began her
career at the age of three with a Goldfish commercial, and a year later spent two months living
in the Czech Republic while filming the war drama Harrison's Flowers, playing the daughter
of David Strathairn and Andie MacDowell. An accomplished writer and producer as well as
performer, she attends the festival as a cast member of Windsor playing a Texas cheerleader.
Starring veteran character actor Barry Corbin, Windsor screens at 2:45 p.m. Sunday in Resorts
Superstar Theater.
Other honorees include Mark Giannantonio, CEO of Resorts who serves as 2015 Honorary
Chair; and Deborah Franks, EVP of Frank Theatres, who receives the Impact Award for
Business and Arts Alliance. The Boarder Vision Award, annually bestowed upon an
organization using filmmaking dedicated to the greater good, will be presented to the Sara &
Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
They have produced three short films intending to educate future generations about the
Holocaust. The Awards Dinner takes place Sunday evening at the Claridge Hotel and tickets
are $125.00 and open to the public.
In addition to the honorees, a number of prominent performers will attend the festival as
special guests. Actors Jeffrey Johns, Chance Kelly, Ronnie Marmo, Adam Mucci, Artie
Pasquale, Shawn Ryan, and Joe Sernio will participate in activities like Q&As, panels, and the
live script reading featuring Ed Asner, Eric Roberts and James Wilder at 12:00 p.m. on
Saturday at Resorts Ballroom. Other special guests include stuntwoman Dina L. Margolin,
and newswoman Dara Brown.
-more-
Individual screening tickets are $12.00. Weekend passes provide access to most events and
are available for $45.00. They can be purchased online at www.gsff.org and at the festival
box offices located on site. An Atlantic City Jitney will be available to ferry guests between
locations.
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About the Garden State Film Festival:
The Garden State Film Festival was envisioned by 25-year film industry veteran Diane Raver and the late
Hollywood actor Robert Pastorelli in 2002 and launched the following year. Since 2003, thousands of films have
made their public premiers, hundreds of thousands of people from around the world have attended; and the total
infusion of cash to local businesses since inception exceeds $5 million. Until 2013, it was held in Asbury Park, in
and around the Convention Center complex. In 2014, it will move to Atlantic City as a major component of DO
AC, the marketing campaign to promote arts and culture the city spearheaded by the Casino Reinvestment
Development Authority. The GSFF is a 501-c-3 non-profit organization.
About the Sponsors of the 13th Annual Garden State Film Festival: