PAN'S LABYRINTH Wins The RONDO!!! Who Else Has The Coveted RONDO?

Harry here... if I could win any award ever, it would be a RONDO. Long Live Rondo! And Guillermo - I'm so jealous of your RONDO!

PAN'S LABYRINTH, GODZILLA TAKE TOP HONORS IN FIFTH RONDO AWARDS Basil Gogos retrospective is named Best Book; 1931 Dracula picked as Best Restoration; Sci-Fi Boys takes Indie crown; Ray Castile is Monster Kid of the Year March 12, 2007 ARLINGTON, VA -- The wartime fantasy of PAN'S LABYRINTH took top honors in the Fifth Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, voted best film in a year dominated by nostalgia for monsters past. The online survey of nearly 1,500 classic horror enthusiasts also named GOJIRA, the original 1954 Japanese version of Godzilla, as the Best DVD of 2006, and Universal's brightening of the 1931 DRACULA with Bela Lugosi as the Best Restoration of the year. In a showdown of TV monster comedies, the first season of THE ADDAMS FAMILY beat out THE MUNSTERS as Best Classic TV DVD of 2006. An episode of the British revival of DR. WHO was named Best TV Presentation, besting favorites such as HEROES and LOST. Book of the Year went to FAMOUS MONSTER ART OF BASIL GOGOS by Kerry Gammill and J. David Spurlock, a color-splashed celebration of the artist who illustrated the covers of Famous Monsters of Filmland during the "horror boom" of the 1960s. And toy collector Ray Castile was named "Monster Kid of the Year" for helping to create a museum-quality monster toy exhibit which toured horror conventions in the summer of 2006. The Rondo award program, named after 1940s character actor Rondo Hatton, is an email survey of the classic horror fan community sponsored by the Classic Horror Film Board. Now in its fifth year, it is the biggest survey of its kind. By the final weekend, 1,480 classic horror fans and pros had emailed choices in 25 categories. "The strength of this year's vote shows the classic horror community remains alive and well, and quite discerning when it comes to deciding which projects best capture the spirit of the black-and-white and Technicolor thrills we all grew up with,'' said David Colton, organizer of the event. Among other winners: -- A 16-page examination in SCARY MONSTERS MAGAZINE by Bob Statzer on the making and lingering mysteries behind DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN was voted Best Article. -- A startling portrait of a vampire from BLOOD OF DRACULA by Joe "Sorko" Schovitz, which fronted MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #21, was voted Best Cover of 2006. -- Awards also went to Christopher Lee and others on THE WICKER MAN (Best Commentary), and to Famous Monsters' magazine co-founder Forrest J Ackerman's 90th birthday party in Los Angeles (Best Fan Event). In a year of grue-curdling horror films such as SAW III and a remake of THE HILLS HAVE EYES, Rondo voters instead turned to Guillermo Del Toros' Academy Award-winning LABYRINTH as Best Genre Film of 2006. The film drew 259 votes, more than double its nearest competitor, THE DESCENT. And a documentary about the founding icons of horror fandom called THE SCI-FI BOYS was the clear choice in the very competitive Best Independent Production category. The vote was marked by some controversy in that the film received a boost when Universal tied it to Jackson's KING KONG release (Jackson is one of the "boys"), and marketed the DVD exclusively at Best Buy. The other films lacked that kind of push, but Colton said that SCI-FI BOYS, produced by Paul Davids and containing rare home footage, had all the earmarks of an independent production. "It was an indie that made good,'' Colton said. SCI-FI BOYS won despite a very strong field, including Mark Redfield's hallucinogenic reverie, THE DEATH OF POE; a screen test for a hoped-for biopic called KREATING KARLOFF; longtime fan Don Glut's 8mm compilation, I WAS A TEENAGE MOVIE-MAKER; Ted Newsom's send-up of 50s sci-fi films, THE NAKED MONSTER; a documentary, THE WITCH'S DUNGEON, celebrating 40 years of thrills at a Connecticut museum dedicated to recreating classic monsters; and a public-domain comedy combining new footage with vintage Karloff, Chaney and Lugosi called TERROR IN THE TROPICS. In other categories, Tim and Donna Lucas saw their magazine, VIDEO WATCHDOG, win top magazine honors for a fifth straight year; Lucas' spin-off blog, VIDEO WATCHBLOG, was voted Best Website. Legendary horror host Zacherley won Best CD for INTERMENT FOR TWO, a collection of songs and TV and radio spots in New York in the 60s and 70s. A series of detailed bobblehead dolls of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man called the Headknockers from NECA, was voted Best Toy, Model or Collectible. The Monster Bash, a family-friendly horror convention in suburban Pittsburgh, was named Best Convention for the fourth time, and Dark Horse Comics took the Best Horror Comic award for its collection of adaptations called UNIVERSAL MONSTERS CAVALCADE OF HORROR. Sam Borowski, an L.A.-based screenwriter and documentarian, garnered the most votes in the write-in category of Best Writer. Frank Dietz, a fan-favorite who exhibited his charcoal and oil paintings of classic monsters in Los Angeles this summer, was voted Best Artist. Asked to name the most controversial aspect of the last year in classic horror, voters picked the closing of Tower Records and the end of two long-running genre magazines, Cult Movies and Psychotronic, as evidence that there is increasingly "nowhere to browse.'' The voters, despite voting satisfaction with the new DRACULA transfer from Universal, nonetheless expressed anger that more classic films are not receiving better treatment and upgrades as they are released and re-released. The most votes of all -- 358 -- went to a call to release on DVD the long-unavailable classic, ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, with Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi as the "Sayer of the Law.'' Casa Negra, which has released several legendary Mexican horror films, including THE VAMPIRE and THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN, was named Best DVD Company, an indication that voters are eager for more of the Mexican film industry's vintage films. Finally, six new members were chosen for the Monster Kid Hall of Fame. The new inductees are: -- Paul and Jackie Blaisdell, who created a series of unforgettable science fiction icons in the 1950s, including the Saucermen, the She Creature and "Beulah,'' the giant vegetable that tried to conquer the earth. -- Don Glut, a lifelong horror and science fiction fan and filmmaker whose research into Frankenstein and other monsters helped build the foundation for today's horror scholarship. -- Jack Davis, the pioneering comic book artist, illustrator and master caricaturist whose work in EC Comics, CREEPY and other publications revealed that fear could come with a smile. -- Director Joe Dante, whose films such as MATINEE, GREMLINS and THE HOWLING and newer work continue to celebrate the best of classic horror sensibilities and fun. -- German Robles, the Mexican horror star who helped define the look and menace of modern vampires. -- Frank Frazetta, the legendary artist who found beauty and classicism in the pulp fantasies of the last century. The awards announced Sunday will be followed by a Rondo presentation at WonderFest in Louisville over Memorial Day weekend. Many of the winners will receive Rondo Hatton statuettes, sculpted by Kerry Gammill (monsterkid.com), and cast by Tim M. Lindsey (tmlindsey.com). For more information and a complete list of winners and nominees, please visit www.rondoaward.com.