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Winners of 42nd Student Academy Awards Receive Medal Awards

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last night honored 15 student winners from colleges and universities around the world at the 42nd Student Academy Awards ceremony, held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards were announced and presented by actors Michelle Rodriguez and Jason Mitchell, Oscar®-winning director John Lasseter, and the Oscar-winning team behind the animated feature “Big Hero 6,” Roy Conli, Don Hall and Chris Williams. The 2015 Student Academy Award winners are: Alternative Gold: “Chiaroscuro,” Daniel Drummond, Chapman University, California Silver: “Zoe,” ChiHyun Lee, The School of Visual Arts, New York Animation Gold: “Soar,” Alyce Tzue, Academy of Art University, San Francisco Silver: “An Object at Rest,” Seth Boyden, California Institute of the Arts Bronze: “Taking the Plunge,” Nicholas Manfredi and Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, The School of Visual Arts Documentary Gold: “Looking at the Stars,” Alexandre Peralta, University of Southern California Silver: “I Married My Family’s Killer,” Emily Kassie, Brown University Bronze: “Boxeadora,” Meg Smaker, Stanford University Narrative Gold: “Day One,” Henry Hughes, American Film Institute, California Silver: “This Way Up,” Jeremy Cloe, American Film Institute Bronze: “Stealth,” Bennett Lasseter, American Film Institute Foreign Film Gold: “Fidelity,” Ilker Çatak, Hamburg Media School, Germany Silver: “The Last Will,” Dustin Loose, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany Bronze: “Everything Will Be Okay” Patrick Vollrath, Filmakademie Wien, Austria The Student Academy Awards were established in 1972 to provide a platform for emerging global talent by creating opportunities within the industry to showcase their work. Past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 47 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight awards. They include Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Spike Lee, Trey Parker and Robert Zemeckis. Image: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented its 42nd Annual Student Academy Awards® on Thursday, September 17, in Beverly Hills. Gold Medal winners (left to right): Alternative film winner Daniel Drummond, Documentary film winner Alexandre Peralta, Animated film winner Alyce Tzue, Narrative film winner Henry Hughes and Foreign film winner Ilker Catak. credit: Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S.
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Director Masato Harada to be the focus of JAPAN NOW at 2015 Tokyo International Film Festival

Masato Harada will be the first Director in Focus of 2015 Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF)’s new section JAPAN NOW. Masato Harada is the award-winning director of such works as “Bounce Ko Gals,” “Climber’s High,” “Chronicle of My Mother” and “The Emperor in August.” Created to showcase outstanding Japanese films from recent and upcoming months, JAPAN NOW will display the diversity of Japanese film, and unique facets of Japanese culture, as well as providing a multifaceted look inside Japan today. The section will also highlight outstanding work by other directors, with subtitled screenings of films to boost their recognition overseas. Masato Harada was chosen as the initial Director in Focus due to his success over a 30-year career, creating a range of compelling films that are both social criticisms and world-class entertainments. He has received international attention, but JAPAN NOW will present the first mini-retrospective of his work, with English-subtitled screenings of “Kamikaze Taxi” (1994), “Climber’s High”(2008), “Chronicle of My Mother” (2011), “Kakekomi” (2015) and “The Emperor in August” (2015). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMxeYUWjAgU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10CY5odEygo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk9cOWlhV2c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0uE7cCqyKw
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Director Stephen Frears to be Honored with the 2015 Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award

Director Stephen Frears will be honored with the 2015 Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming 26th Stockholm International Film Festival taking place November 11 to 22, 2015. During the premiere of his latest film The Program, Frears will visit the 2015 Stockholm International Film Festival to receive the Bronze Horse. The festival notes that, “British director Stephen Frears never shies away from taking on people’s dark and tragic sides, doing so with warmth, passion and a sense of humor.” “This year’s receiver of the Lifetime Achievement Award is a filmmaker who is not afraid to take a stand for those who exist at the margins of society. His filmmaking ranges from political films with social pathos to grand epics with the biggest stars. Regardless of what form the story takes, Stephen Frears shows us that he is a director with a genuine curiosity for people’s life stories.” The prize has previously been awarded to directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Quentin Tarantino, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Oliver Stone and Mike Leigh. Stephen Frears latest film Philomena (2013) was shown during the Stockholm International Film Festival two years ago and he returns with The Program (2015), which tells the dramatic story of Lance Armstrong. The undefeated Tour de France champion was discovered to be involved in the most sophisticated doping program in the history of cycling. Starring Ben Foster as Armstrong and Chris O’Dowd as David Walsh, the journalist who devoted years to reveal the scandalous fraud, The Program is described as a gripping story with a deeply psychological portrait of its main characters. The Program stars Ben Foster, Lee Pace, Dustin Hoffman, Chris O ‘Dowd, Elaine Cassidy, Jesse Plemons, and Laura Donnelly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItBL6Qmloj0
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Robert Redford, Helen Mirren, Steve Golin to be Honored at 2015 IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards

Robert Redford and Helen Mirren will be presented with Actor and Actress Tributes at the 2015 IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards set for Monday, November 30th at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Steve Golin will be awarded the Industry Tribute. They will join Todd Haynes, the previously announced Director Tribute recipient. “We are thrilled to recognize the careers and achievements of such lauded industry veterans as Robert Redford, Helen Mirren, and Steve Golin as part of our 25th anniversary celebrations,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center. “To celebrate these individuals who have contributed so much to the independent film community and to the entertainment world at large – and in such a landmark year for the Gothams – is truly an honor.” Todd Haynes, Robert Redford, Helen Mirren, and Steve Golin will join a prestigious group of previous honorees including: Bennett Miller, Tilda Swinton, Ted Sarandos, Jeff Skoll, James Schamus, Bob & Harvey Weinstein, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sheila Nevins, Jonathan Sehring and film critic Roger Ebert; actors Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Charlize Theron, Stanley Tucci, Natalie Portman, Javier Bardem, and Penélope Cruz; filmmakers David O. Russell, David Cronenberg, Mira Nair and Gus Van Sant. For the fifth year, IFP will present the euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers ‘Live the Dream’ grant, a $25,000 cash award for an alumnus of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs. This grant aims to further the careers of emerging female directors by supporting the completion, distribution and audience engagement strategies of their first feature film. The 2014 winner of this grant was director, writer, and producer Chloé Zhao, whose film Songs My Brothers Taught Me premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. In addition, euphoria Calvin Klein will present the annual Best Actress award. Submissions for the IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards are now being accepted in seven of the competitive categories: Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best Actor, Best Actress, Breakthrough Actor, Best Screenplay, and the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award. The deadline for submissions is September 17th.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger to be Honored at Zurich Film Festival, Fest to Screen Latest Film “MAGGIE” | TRAILER

Arnold Schwarzenegger will receive the coveted Golden Icon Award at this year’s Zurich Film Festival (ZFF), taking place September 24 to October 4, 2015. The award is considered the Festival’s most prestigious symbol of recognition, awarded in appreciation of the lifetime achievements of an actor or actress. In addition to receiving ZFF’s Golden Icon Award, Schwarzenegger will present his latest film, MAGGIE, and discuss his body of work in A Conversation With… Arnold Schwarzenegger’. “We are extraordinarily proud to welcome Arnold Schwarzenegger one of Hollywood’s most iconic legends, to Zurich and are delighted that he will share his films and stories with our public,” said Zurich Film Festival Artistic Director Karl Spoerri. “Arnold has had a transformative career that no one in Hollywood can match and established himself as a global brand, even beyond the box office. We are honored to present him with our Golden Icon award at this year’s Festival.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cthHQnwk9zY Image: Arnold Schwarzenegger with Abigail Breslin in ‘Maggie.’ Tracy Bennett/Roadside Attractions
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MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Voted Best Film by International Federation of Film Critics, FIPRESCI

Mad Max: Fury Road directed by George Miller, has been voted best film by the International Federation of Film Critics, FIPRESCI. The vote for the FIPRESCI Gran Prix 2015 saw the participation of 493 Federation members around the world, who made their choice from among films to have premiered after 1 July 2014. The four finalists included Saul Fia / Son of Saul, Nie yinniang/ The Assassin, Taxi Téhéran and Mad Max: Fury Road. Mad Max: Fury Road was screened in the Official Selection out of competition at the last Cannes Festival. This is the first time that a film by George Miller has won the FIPRESCI Grand Prix, presented since its creation in 1999 to Richard Linklater, Michael Haneke, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jafar Panahi, Pedro Almodóvar, Jean-Luc Godard and Nuri Bilge Ceylan, among others. Director George Miller (pictured above) says: “You could have knocked me over with a feather! It’s lovely to have this great cohort of critics acknowledge our collective labours in this way” Mad Max: Fury Road will have a special screening on September 18 at the San Sebastian Festival, attended by George Miller, who will collect the FIPRESCI Grand Prix at the Festival opening gala.
Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the wasteland in a war rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa. They are escaping a citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe, from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord marshalls all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEJnMQG9ev8
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Academy Award Nominated-German Actor Armin Mueller-Stahl to Receive Zurich Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award

Armin Mueller-Stahl, one of the few German actors whose careers have spanned East Germany, West Germany and Hollywood, will be the recipient of the 2015 Zurich Film Festival’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Following the award ceremony, Mueller-Stahl will present Jim Jarmusch’s NIGHT ON EARTH (1991), where he played an East German taxi driver trying his luck in New York. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_ESHkySoJs His most noteworthy films include LOLA (1981), OBERST REDL (1985), MOMO (1986), MUSIC BOX (1989), NIGHT ON EARTH (1991), DAS GEISTERHAUS (1993) and SHINE (1996). Raised in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and initially trained as a concert violinist, East Prussia-born Mueller-Stahl played the lead role in approximately 60 TV and cinema films, and became one of the most decorated GDR actors ever. Armin Mueller-Stahl’s career came to an abrupt end when he signed the petition against the expatriation of singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann. He moved from East to West Berlin in 1980, where his career continued with roles in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s LOLA (1981) and DIE SEHNSUCHT DER VERONIKA VOSS (1982) et al. Despite being barely able to speak English, Armin Mueller-Stahl decided to make a fresh start in the USA. His first film MUSIC BOX (1989) by Costa Gavras was both an artistic and commercial success. He received an Academy Award nomination for his role in his second Hollywood film, Barry Levinson’s AVALON (1990), and SHINE (1996), garnered him his second Academy Award nomination. Despite his success in Hollywood, Armin Mueller-Stahl returned to Germany, where he took on such leading roles as Thomas Mann in the three-part TV series DIE MANNS – EIN JAHRHUNDERTROMAN (2001).
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Director Jonathan Demme to be Honored at Venice International Film Festival

Director Jonathan Demme (Ricki and the Flash, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Rachel Getting Married) will be honored with the Persol Tribute to Visionary Talent Award at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. The festival also selected Jonathan Demme to be the President of the Orizzonti Jury. The Director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera, commented “Jonathan Demme is part of that generation of cinephile auteurs who revolutionized Hollywood in the Seventies. From the cultured reinterpretation of genres in his early films, to the development of a personal film style deeply rooted in the individual, to his systematic incursion into documentary filmmaking distinguished by his innovative approach, Demme has brought to life a vivid gallery of characters against the background of an exuberantly pop American landscape that harks back to the classic figurative experiences of the Sixties, anticipating the post-Modernist experimentation of many contemporary auteurs. Colourful, exuberant, straightforward, passionate and intelligent, his cinema moves easily from studio productions to independent, fiction and documentary films, indulging his personal taste for the unexpected, for a shift in tone or genre within each individual film, which has become the original and recognizable hallmark of his style”.
Jonathan Demme is considered to be one of the most important authors in contemporary cinema. He is a director, producer and screenwriter. He has directed unforgettable world-famous masterpieces such as The Silence of the Lambs (1991), winner of five Oscars including Best Film and Best Director, and Philadelphia(1993), winner of two Oscars. He made his debut as a director in 1974 at Roger Corman’s production company, and has since directed over thirty films, in various genres from horror to comedy, some of which have become cult movies, such as The Last Embrace (1979),Something Wild (1986) and Married to the Mob (1988). Demme has demonstrated remarkable talent in directing films with strong musical elements (Stop Making Sense, 1984; Neil Young: Heart of Gold, 2006; Ricki and the Flash, 2015). He has participated many times in the Venice Film Festival with some of his most significant films, such as Melvin and Howard (1980, in Competition, winner of two Oscars), The Manchurian Candidate (2004, Out of Competition), Man from Plains (2007, Orizzonti Doc), Rachel Getting Married (2008, in Competition), I’m Caroline Parker: the Good, the Bad and the Beautiful (2011, Orizzonti) and Enzo Avitabile Music Life (2012, Out of Competition). His newest film is Ricki and the Flash (2015), with Meryl Streep
The 72nd Venice International Film Festival will be held on the Lido from September 2nd to 12th 2015.
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15 Students Are Winners of 42nd Student Academy Awards

The Academy has voted fifteen students as winners of the 42nd Student Academy Awards competition. The Academy received a record number of entries this year — 1,686 films from 282 domestic and 93 international colleges and universities — which were voted upon by a record number of Academy members. Past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 47 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared eight awards. Previous winners include Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Spike Lee, Trey Parker and Robert Zemeckis. The winners are (listed alphabetically by film title): Alternative “Chiaroscuro,” Daniel Drummond, Chapman University, California “Zoe,” ChiHyun Lee, The School of Visual Arts, New York Animation “An Object at Rest,” Seth Boyden, California Institute of the Arts “Soar,” Alyce Tzue, Academy of Art University, San Francisco “Taking the Plunge,” Nicholas Manfredi and Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, The School of Visual Arts Documentary “Boxeadora,” Meg Smaker, Stanford University “I Married My Family’s Killer,” Emily Kassie, Brown University “Looking at the Stars,” Alexandre Peralta, University of Southern California Narrative “Day One,” Henry Hughes, American Film Institute, California “Stealth,” Bennett Lasseter, American Film Institute “This Way Up,” Jeremy Cloe, American Film Institute Foreign Film “Everything Will Be Okay…,” Patrick Vollrath, Filmakademie Wien, Austria “Fidelity,” Ilker Catak, Hamburg Media School, Germany “The Last Will,” Dustin Loose, Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany Students will arrive in Los Angeles for a week of industry activities that will culminate in the awards ceremony onThursday, September 17, at 7:30 p.m., at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The medal placements – gold, silver and bronze – in the five award categories will be announced at the ceremony. First-time honors go to Chapman University in the Alternative category and Filmakademie Wien in the Foreign Film competition. Academy members voted the winners from a field of 33 finalists, announced last month. The 42nd Student Academy Awards ceremony on September 17 is free and open to the public, but advance tickets are required. The Student Academy Awards were established in 1972 to provide a platform for emerging global talent by creating opportunities within the industry to showcase their work. image via pinterest: Spike Lee accepting a Dramatic Merit Award for his student film “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads”, with presenter Ronald Neame at the 1983 (10th) Student Academy Awards ceremony.
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Mexican Director Arturo Ripstein to Be Honored at 2015 Venice International Film Festival

Mexican director Arturo Ripstein will be honored at the upcoming 72nd Venice International Film Festival as celebration of his fiftieth year as a filmmaker. The ceremony will take place on the night of the presentation of his latest film, La calle de la amargura. The Director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera stated: “Arturo Ripstein is the most vital, tenacious and original director of the generation that made its debut in the mid-Sixties, the heir of the golden age of Mexican studio films and the forerunner of the new generation of contemporary authors such as Carlos Reygadas, Guillermo del Toro and Nicolas Pereda, each of whom in their own way, recognizes the profound debt that they owe to his work. In his so many unforgettable films, most of them co-written with Paz Alicia Garciadiego, Ripstein has brought to life a restless and afflicted universe, populated with characters pathetically on the verge of the abyss into which they are destined to fall. The strange blend of beauty and brutality, compassion and violence, irony and sadness, adds a wholly personal dimension to his cinema, which delves its roots into popular tragedy and the atmospheres of melodrama, which he cleverly re-elaborates. These elements are also to be found, their power and beauty intact, in his latest film, which the Venice Film Festival has the pleasure of presenting in its world premiere screening”. The awards ceremony for this honor will take place before the screening of the film, which is scheduled for Thursday September 10th, in the Palazzo del Cinema’s Sala Grande.
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Spike Lee, Gena Rowlands, Debbie Reynolds to Receive Honorary Oscar Awards

Spike Lee, Gena Rowlands, and Debbie Reynolds will honored at the upcoming Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 7th Governors Awards on Saturday, November 14. The Academy will present Honorary Awards to Spike Lee and Gena Rowlands, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to DebbieReynolds. The Honorary Award, an Oscar statuette, is given “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.” The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, also an Oscar statuette, is given “to an individual in the motion picture arts and sciences whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.” “The Board is proud to recognize our honorees’ remarkable contributions at this year’s Governors Awards,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “We’ll be celebrating their achievements with the knowledge that the work they have accomplished – with passion, dedication and a desire to make a positive difference – will also enrich future generations.”
Lee, a champion of independent film and an inspiration to young filmmakers, made an auspicious debut with his NYU thesis film, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” which won a Student Academy Award® in 1983. He proceeded to blaze a distinctive trail with such features as “She’s Gotta Have It,” “School Daze” and “Do the Right Thing,” which earned him a 1989 Oscar® nomination for Original Screenplay. His work as a director ranges from the Oscar-nominated documentary feature “4 Little Girls” to such mainstream successes as “Malcolm X” and “Inside Man.” Lee’s other feature credits include “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Jungle Fever,” “Crooklyn,” “He Got Game,” “25th Hour,” “Miracle at St. Anna” and “Red Hook Summer.” He currently serves as the artistic director of the graduate film program at NYU. Rowlands, an original talent whose devotion to her craft has earned her worldwide recognition as an independent film icon, received Academy Award nominations for her lead performances in “A Woman under the Influence” (1974) and “Gloria” (1980), both directed by her husband and frequent collaborator, John Cassavetes. She got her start on the New York stage and in live television in the 1950s and has appeared in 40 feature films to date, from “The High Cost of Loving” in 1958 to “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” which she starred in earlier this year. Her other notable films include “Lonely Are the Brave,” “Faces,” “Minnie and Moskowitz,” “Opening Night,” “Another Woman,” “Unhook the Stars,” “Hope Floats,” “Playing by Heart,” “The Notebook” and “Broken English.” Reynolds, a Hollywood icon since she won hearts with her buoyant performance in “Singin’ in the Rain,” embarked on the role of a lifetime as a founding member of the Thalians, a charitable organization conceived and sustained by entertainers to promote awareness and treatment of mental health issues. She served as the group’s president almost continuously from 1957 to 2011, adding numerous terms as board chair and frequently presiding over its annual fundraising gala. Her tireless efforts have enabled the Thalians to contribute millions to the Mental Health Center at Cedars-Sinai and to UCLA’s Operation Mend, which helps military veterans recover from the physical and psychological wounds of war. Reynolds has appeared in more than 40 feature films, including “The Tender Trap,” “A Catered Affair” and “Mother,” and received a 1964 Oscar nomination for her lead performance in “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”

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Cate Blanchett to Receive BFI Fellowship; TRUTH Added to BFI London Film Festival

Cate Blanchett will receive the BFI’s highest honor, the BFI Fellowship, at the BFI London Film Festival’s annual Awards Ceremony. TRUTH, starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford, will have its UK Premiere on the same night and, in honor of the award, is screening as the Fellowship Special Presentation film. Based on the book “Truth and Duty” by Mary Mapes, TRUTH tells the incredible story of Mary Mapes, an award-winning CBS News journalist and Dan Rather’s 60 Minutes producer and the risks she took to expose a story on the then President George W. Bush. TRUTH, which screens as the Fellowship Special Presentation, is directed by James Vanderbilt, based on the book “Truth and Duty” by Mary Mapes, played in the film by Cate Blanchett who stars with Robert Redford as Dan Rather. The film chronicles the story Mapes and Rather uncovered that sitting US president, George W. Bush, may have been AWOL from the United States National Guard for over a year during the Vietnam War. When the story blew up in their face, the ensuing scandal ruined Dan Rather’s career, nearly changed a US Presidential election, and almost took down all of CBS News in the process. Blanchett is also starring in Todd Haynes’ Carol, the festival’s American Express Gala, as an alluring woman trapped in a loveless marriage who falls for a young woman (Rooney Mara) working as a department store clark in 50s Manhattan. Each year at the LFF Awards Ceremony a BFI Fellowship is awarded to an individual in recognition of their outstanding contribution to film or television. Previous BFI Fellowships have been presented to Stephen Frears in 2014, the late Sir Christopher Lee – given the honor by his friend Johnny Depp – in 2013, Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter in 2012 and Ralph Fiennes, who was presented his BFI Fellowship by friend Liam Neeson, in 2011. In the last year, Al Pacino and Mel Brooks were also awarded BFI Fellowships.
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