The awards ceremony of the first edition of the Patricia McQueeny (PMQ)Award will take place on October 20 at the Auditorium´s Sinopoli Hall.

The 2006 prize was awarded by the Honorary Committee – composed of actor Harrison Ford, producer Sheryl Lansing and the RomeFilmFest´s General Director Giorgio Gosetti, with executive secretary Pierre Gallivanoni – to Jim Berkus, co-founder and president of the United Talent Agency (UTA).

The PMQ Award came about as a tribute to the memory of Patricia McQueeney, one of the most remarkable professionals of the entertainment industry, as well as Harrison Ford´s agent for over 30 years. The award is intended to pay homage to the agents and managers who often have a key role in their clients´ careers and even personal lives. Each year, the PMQ Award will be assigned to an agent or manager who represents an actor or actress whose career choices are seen as being particularly interesting.

Berkus is being awarded for his commitment in making UTA a point of reference in the industry, representing some of the most important directors, scriptwriters and actors throughout the world. Artists such as Johnny Depp, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Curtis Hanson, Joel and Ethan Coen, M. Night Shyamalan, Wes Anderson, Harold Ramis, Charlie Kaufman, along with Ford, have entrusted their careers to UTA.

After the ceremony, on the evening of October 20, the PMQ Award Charity Dinner will be held in the beautiful Villa Giulia in support of hypotherapy. It will be a fundraising dinner in memory of McQueeney, with Ford attending as special guest.

Vanity Fair Italia will host the event, in collaboration with the RomeFilmFest, which will bring together many eminent people from the entertainment and culture industries in the humanitarian effort to raise money in support of Ride On and L’Auriga, two associations that work in the field of hypotherapy. The first, founded by McQueeney, is based in the US, while the second is in Italy.

The event will also be a real “festa” moment for cinema lovers. Vanity Fair will present the book Vanity Fair Unpublished along with a photographic exhibition featuring magnificent pictures by legendary photographers who have captured international movie, music and art stars.

David Bailey, Fabrizio Ferri, Ruven Afanador, Nathalie Demontes, Marco Glaviano, Luca Babini, Mark Liddell, Ellen Von Unwerth, Maki Galimberti, Eugenio Requenco, Roxanne Lowitt and André Rau are some of the masters of photography selected by the magazine, which produced over half of the published articles.