Year book of motion pictures (1951)

and maintain, or improve, our present vv:iges :ind working conditions. The Film Advisory Council was created early in 1950. Offices were established in New ^■ork for the purpose of offering to producers of industrial, educational, religious and lelevision films the cooperation of the Guild in their various activities. The program was broad and ambitious, emphasizing the type of collaboration that should be an overall policy of the motion picture industry. Howe\er, as more and more producers transferred to the West Coast the Guild closed the New York office at the end of 1950. Screen Directors, Inc., is a subsidiary of SDGA and, as a tax-paying corporation, was established to supervise Screen Directors' Playhouse which is a weekly broadcast over the NBC network. In the fall of 1950 the half-hour program was extended to a full liour and it was continued into March, 1951 sponsored by RCA. Ford, Anacin and Chesterfield. The proceeds of this organization, after taxes, go to the Benevolent Foundation of the Guild. Screen Directors' ®uild Educational and Benevolent Foundation is a non-profit, eleemosynary corporation devoted to charitable enterprises and is supported by individual contributions from Guild members, as well as the radio program. Its primary purpose is to give help where it is needed, particularly to those who do not come within the purview of the Motion Picture Relief Fund. In addition to other activities, last year the Foundation deigned and erected a sarcophagus over the resting place of the late David Wark Griffith in his home state of Kentucky. Quarterly and Annual Awards Lst year John Huston received the first quarterly award for his direction of "The Asphalt Jungle" and was followed by Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard." Joe Mankiewicz received the 1949-1950 annual award for "A Letter to Three Wives." The quarterly awards have a date line from May 1 to April 30, therefore the last two quarters have not been voted on and the annual award will not be decided until May of this year. The Assistant Directors' Awards followed the same pattern with Jack Greenwood receiving recognition for "The Asphalt Jungle" and Charles Coleman for "Sunset Boulevard." For last year Sam Nelson received the Annual Award for his work on "All The King's Men." Guild Membership does not fluctuate much, except in times of national emergency. At the beginning of 1950, the senior roster contained 286 names. At the end of the year it had reached 300, for a gain of 14. The assistant directors made a gain of three, from 291 to 294; when we add TV directors and assistants the total membership is expanded to 653. It is quite possible that, as in the last war, many of the younger men will be called to the colors and some of the older men, now in the reserves, will again don khaki. This applies particularly to those who are skilled in electronics as well as the many who previously served with combat units of the Signal Corps. THE NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW HE NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW OF MOTION PICTURES is a non-profit, independent organization of public-spirited citizens drawn from all walks of life to represent the interests of the motion picture public. The work of the National Board of Review is to promote the development of the motion picture as art, as entertainment, as education, and as a factor in social progress. The Board believes that the public shares with the industry the responsibility for the production and distribution of good pictures. Therefore it reviews films and disseminates information about them before and after their release. The National Board of Review believes physical condition of the places in which that the motion picture is one of the free they were shown, closed all the theaters. The institutions of the .\merican people, and that People's Institute, an impartial organization any attempt to censor it is un-American in which had made a study of the subject, or principle and fact. This belief is based on ganized, with the cooperation of the pro experience, for the Board came into existence clucers, the National Board of Censorship to as the result of an early attempt to censor pass upon all film product and to advise on the motion picture. In 1908 the Mayor of the revision or withdrawal of any film. .\ew York, at the instigation of individuals After seven years the Board came to the and groups concerned over the possible conclusion that censorship, even of this deleterious influence of the movies and the liberal kind, was self-defeating and repugnant 857