Academy Award Winner Marisa Tomei Helps Celebrate Grand Opening Of The Sie FilmCenter

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Category: Entertainment News

Published on Wednesday, 07 October 2015 17:08

The Denver Film Society (DFS) announced Academy Award-winning actress Marisa Tomei will help celebrate the grand opening of the Sie FilmCenter, the permanent home of the Denver Film Society, in a public unveiling that also honors Anna and John J. Sie.

Through a generous donation from Anna and John J. Sie, the Sie FilmCenter has undergone both an interior and exterior redesign and is now the permanent home of DFS. 

The Sie FilmCenter is made up of 11,285 square feet, concessions, a bar and restaurant and three theaters with a total of 266 seats. The exterior signage of the Sie FilmCenter was designed by ArtHouse Design and the building and the interior were designed by Semple Brown Design.

"Film is truly a vessel for history - whether through documentaries or fiction representing a moment in time," said Tomei. "How film brings the world and worldly topics to an audience can be truly transformational and I applaud the Sie family for investing in the Denver Film Society and the society's film festival. Being of Italian descent I'm especially excited about the Maglione Italian Filmmaker Award."

In 2014, the Sie FilmCenter welcomed more than 73,000 movie-goers, presented 586 films, and hosted more than 75 filmmaker guests. The state-of-the-art facility features carefully curated content, using film as a medium to bring diverse audiences unique and thought-provoking experiences. In addition to weekly calendar titles, the Sie FilmCenter offers film education courses, the Filmmaker Focus program, specialty programming like National Theatre Live! and various film series including Women+Film. Guests at the Sie FilmCenter enjoy state of the art projection, newly renovated auditoriums and seating, a full bar, locally sourced concessions and free parking.

"The Sie Film Center is a testimony to the great legacy that Anna and John J. Sie have given to the city of Denver and to Colorado as a whole. Their legacy, through all their philanthropic investments will be celebrated through the Grand Opening of the Sie FilmCenter," said DFS Board Chair James Bunch. "We cannot thank them enough for their foresight and their incredible generosity!"

"We are honored to celebrate this occasion with the Denver Film Society and our Colfax neighbors," said John J. Sie. "The exterior sign solidifies the Sie FilmCenter as a cultural institution, nestled among some of Denver's most cherished independent retailers, on Denver's most infamous street. We look forward to continuing the legacy of bringing communities together through the power of film."  

John J. Sie, who is the retired founder of Starz Entertainment Group, LLC, together with his wife, Anna Maglione Sie, established the Anna and John J. Sie Foundation in 2003 to support philanthropic work about the world.

The Sie's have been generous supporters of DFS as far back as 2000 when John and Starz donated $5 million that secured the first theater location for the organization on the Auraria Campus.  Later, in 2008, the Sies established an endowment fund at DFS to fund the Maria & Tommaso Maglione Italian Filmmaker award, honoring both Anna's heritage and her parents.

In the spirit of the Maglione Award, the grand opening of the Sie FilmCenter will feature an appearance by Italian actress. Marisa Tomei.

"Ms. Tomei is a brilliant actress who embodies why we choose to celebrate contemporary Italian cinema each year," says Anna Maglione Sie. "We are thrilled to have her participate in the dedication of the Sie FilmCenter to the Denver community."

The Grand Opening of the Sie FilmCenter is a private event. The Sie FilmCenter will resume standard operating hours October 8 and will serve as the flagship venue for the upcoming Denver Film Festival, November 4 - 15.

Founded in 1978, the Denver Film Society (DFS) is a membership-based, 501(c)(3) nonprofit cultural institution that produces film events throughout the year, including the award-winning Starz Denver Film Festival and the popular, summertime series Film on the Rocks. With a vision to cultivate community and transform lives through film, the Film Society provides opportunities for diverse audiences to discover film through creative, thought-provoking experiences.

The permanent home of the Denver Film Society, the Sie FilmCenter, is Denver's only year-round cinematheque, presenting a weekly-changing calendar of first-run exclusives and arthouse revivals both domestic and foreign, narrative and documentary - over 600 per year, all shown in their original language and format. DFS's one-of-a-kind programs annually reach more than 200,000 film lovers and film lovers-in-training.

The Anna and John J. Sie Foundation supports the sharing of knowledge among peoples and cultures throughout the global community. The Foundation's main areas of grant giving are Down syndrome, International Security and Diplomacy, Education, Arts and Culture, and Media.

The Foundation is the founding donor of the Sie Center for Down Syndrome at Children's Hospital Colorado, the Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome on the Anschutz Medical Campus, and the Sié Chéou-Kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy at the University of Denver's Josef Korbel School of International Studies.

It supports the BioFrontiers Institute and the College of Music at the University of Colorado Boulder, the Denver School of Science and Technology, the Denver Art Museum, the Sie FilmCenter and Denver Film Society, and numerous other civic, social and educational institutions.