HOLLYWOOD, CA, July 17, 2009 – “The Red Shoes,” the newly-restored 1948 masterpiece from directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, will have its U.S. premiere at the Directors Guild of America on July 29. The film underwent an extensive 2-year 4K digital restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation, in association with the British Film Institute, ITV Global Entertainment Ltd and Janus Films. The restoration was primarily funded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, aided by The Film Foundation and the Louis B. Mayer Foundation. HFPA President Philip Berk will be joined by Robert Gitt and Curtis Hansen in introducing the film at the special screening.

“Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger created a vision in ‘The Red Shoes,’ one that has never really been matched,” said Martin Scorsese, Founder and Chair of The Film Foundation. “There’s no question that it’s one of the most beautiful color films ever made, and one of the truest to the experience of the artist, the joy and pain of devoting yourself to a life of creation. Due to the incredible generosity of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, ‘The Red Shoes’ has been fully restored. Those of us who love film owe the HFPA a deep debt of gratitude.”

“We are grateful for the opportunity to support The Film Foundation in its outstanding efforts at preserving and restoring motion picture classics,“ said Philip Berk, President of the HFPA. “We are particularly proud of being associated with ‘The Red Shoes,’ an extraordinary film that influenced a generation of filmmakers.”

The world premiere of the restored “The Red Shoes” took place at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

UCLA archivist Robert Gitt explains: “In the restoration process, the entire film has been turned into ones and zeros, repaired, and then converted back into a motion picture again. In order to achieve a proper film ‘look,’ we compared the new digital images with those in an original Technicolor dye transfer print and in a new Eastman color test print struck by Cinetech Laboratories directly from the YCM camera negatives. Careful adjustments were made in the finalized digital version to combine the best qualities of modern color film (greater image sharpness, more sparkle in highlights) with the most pleasing attributes of vintage Technicolor dye transfer prints (bold colors, deep blacks, gentle contrast with a pleasing range of tones in actors’ faces). The end result is a restoration that combines the best of the past with our digital present.”

some 55 countries with a combined readership of more than 250 million. Through the success of the Golden Globe awards, the HFPA has been able to donate more than 7.7 million dollars over the past thirteen years to entertainment-related charities, as well as funding scholarships and other programs for future film and television professionals.

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT PUBLIC SCREENINGS: The premiere will be followed by five special screenings of “The Red Shoes” at UCLA July 31 – August 2. Tickets may be purchased at https://secure.cinema.ucla.edu/onlineboxoffice/.