Hackademy Awards Name 'Nine' Smokiest of All for 09

SACRAMENTO, Calif. Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Reeking like a blast of cigarette breath, "Nine" stunk up the 2009 screen with basically two hours of tobacco use and smoked past the competition as Thumbs Down! Movie recipient at the Feb. 25 Hackademy Awards.

Direction of the star-studded PG-13 musical soared far above the wildest expectations of any cigarette marketer and totally beyond anything resembling historical context. There were so many smoking scenes packed into its nearly two-hour running time that reviewers had trouble keeping count.

The extremes undertaken to include smoking in nearly every scene earned Daniel Day Lewis the Thumbs Down! Actor Award for his portrayal of the nicotine-addicted Guido Contini.

The Hackademy Awards raise awareness of the impact of tobacco use in films on pre-teens and young adults. Studies have established a direct link between smoking depicted in films and an increased willingness by teens to try smoking, showing that 40 percent of the youth who try tobacco products do so because of exposure to smoking in movies, according to researchers at Dartmouth College.

Complete results and ongoing reviews of movies are available at www.scenesmoking.org.

The Hackademy Awards also gives an annual Thumbs Up! Award to a movie that either doesn't include tobacco use, or even better, includes a realistic message about tobacco's disastrous effect on health.

For the Thumbs Up! Award, youth reviewers picked "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," another PG-13 release. Transformers was totally tobacco free, a refreshing surprise in the action thriller genre, and more evidence that the smoke is finally clearing in at least one corner of the entertainment industry. "Transformers" was among 11 PG and PG-13 movies from Paramount in 2009, making it the first major studio to release 100 percent smoke-free youth rated movies.

Joining Day Lewis in the actor category was Sigourney Weaver, who won a Thumbs Down! Actress Award for her role in "Avatar." As scientist Dr. Grace Augustine, she demands a cigarette after making the switch from avatar back to human.

On a more positive note, Hackademy Awards for Thumbs Up! actor and actress reflected a hopeful trend in two PG-13 movies. While unfortunately filled with plenty of smoking, the Black Lung-rated "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" also has Thumbs Up! Actress Hope Olaide Wilson's teen character delivering anti-smoking messages in the movie.

This year's Thumbs Up! Actor award went to Taylor Lautner, who delivered a smokeless performance in the tobacco-free vampire hit "New Moon."

Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails promotes cleaner air, healthier lungs and a tobacco-free tomorrow. Originally founded in 1917, the organization that is today Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails is an independent non-profit. For more information, call (916) 444-5900, or visit www.sacbreathe.org .

SOURCE Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails