The Time for Peace Film & Music Awards, founded by Marion and Robert Einbeck in New York in 1994, will be celebrating their 17th anniversary this year. Each year, Time for Peace promotes and celebrates film and music creations that are selected on the basis of high artistic quality and humanist criteria. The latter include values such as tolerance, respect for differences, solidarity, concern for one another, greater understanding between human beings, freedom of expression, among others.
In 2010, the Einbecks launched a ceremony dedicated exclusively to European film and music under the patronage of Mr. José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission and of Mr. Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the European Council.
In order to provide the European ceremony with the greatest opportunities for expansion, all efforts were directed exclusively at this European celebration, thereby placing the American ceremony on “standby” for a period of two years.
Before organizing the two ceremonies in the same year – one in the United States and the other in Europe – , thereby creating a bridge between the two continents consisting of cinematographic, musical, and humanist culture, a second single ceremony will thus take place in Europe in 2011.
The works, which are nominated by professionals of the film and music industries and by the founding members of Time for Peace, are screened for the European Ceremony by a jury committee consisting of ambassadors to the Council of Europe, who vote to elect the winners.
For the United States ceremony the jury committee is composed of ambassadors to the United Nations.
Until now, the Time for Peace Film & Music Awards Ceremony and Dinner Concert have been introduced by personalities such as President of the United States Bill Clinton, Secretaries General to the United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan, Mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani, Directors of UNESCO Federico Mayor and Koïchiro Matsuura, and Presidents of the European Commission Romano Prodi and José Manuel Barroso.
The categories intended to receive awards in 2011 are: Best Motion Picture, Best Directing, Best First Film, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Screenwriter, Best Music, Best Musical Group and Music Lifetime Achievement.
Since 1994 Time for Peace Film & Music Awards have been given among others to: Charles Aznavour for Colore ma Vie; Bernard Bellefroid for The Boat Race (La Régate); Roberto Benigni for Life is Beautiful (La Vita e Bella); Brenda Blethyn as Elizabeth in London River; Terry Callier for Time Peace: John Carney for Once; Céline Dion and Phil Galdston for Fly; Anthony Fabian for Skin; Florian Gallenberger for John Rabe; Tony Gatlif for Korkoro (Liberté); Mark Herman for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas; Scott Hicks for Shine; The Hjaltalin for The Trees don’t like the Smoke: Jewel for Pieces of You and A Night Without Amor; Naomi Kawase for The Mourning Forest (Mogari No Mori); Sotigui Kouyate as Ousmane in London River; Caroline Link for Beyond Silence (Jenseits der Stille); Philippe Muyl for Magic; Michael Radford for Il Postino; Alexander Sokurov for Alexandra; Steven Spielberg for Schindler’s List; Steven Spielberg for Amistad; Sounds of Blackness for Time for Healing; Sting for If on a Winter’s Night; Jan Sverák for Kolya; Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell Freedom Writers; Charles Trenet for his musical career; Galina Vishnevskaya as Alexandra in Alexandra; Robin Williams as Sean McGuire in Good Will Hunting; Michael Winterbottom for A Mighty Heart; Stevie Wonder for Conversation Peace; Edward Zwick for Blood Diamond…
Like all great international prizes for cinema, beginning with the Academy Awards that annually expand their Media Literary Programs, the Time for Peace Film & Music Awards are working toward developing a database of high quality artistic films that convey humanist values or have an ethical content, to be used as a pedagogical tool for the world’s adolescents.