The A-listers and wealthy festival attendees put the glitz and glamour of Cannes to use in the annual amfAR (American Foundation for AIDS Research) AIDS benefit. This black tie dinner, costing a minimum of $2,500 a plate, raises money for AIDS research and prevention programs. Thursday May 20, 2005, the 12 Cinema Against AIDS gala in Cannes, sponsored by Miramax Films and Palisade Pictures, co-sponsored by Pirelli and Warner Home Video, had their most successful event yet, raising over $3 million.  

Sharon Stone in particular has worked tirelessly with this event throughout the last several years. In an impassioned statement, she explained to us why she stays involved: �There used to be when I started maybe 12 million people with AIDS. Now there's 40 million people with AIDS. 15 million of them are children under the age of 16. One child every minute dies of AIDS.� 

In addition to Sharon Stone, celebrity attendees included Liza Minnelli, Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski, Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Benicio del Toro, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Chris Tucker, Ivana Trump, amFAR Chairman of the Board Kenneth Cole, and many others. Every year this benefit is one of the most star-studded events of the Cannes Film Festival.  

The event also orchestrates a now legendary live auction. Sharon Stone got it started with a bang by auctioning off two �amFAR Two� Louis Vuitton vanity cases of her own design for $180,000 each. The highest bid of the evening went to the Elton John/Chopard Package, which includes tickets to the Elton John Oscar party, an Elton John Chopard watch, and Remy Martin Cognac, purchased for $260,000. Milla Jovovich sang �Hey Big Spender� to the buyer as an added reward. Finally, Liza Minelli brought the auction to an impressive close, agreeing to sing � New York � after 30 people from the audience took the stage and agreed to give $10,000 each to amfAR. Several other items, including Penelope Cruz's Marchesa dress, tennis lessons with Monica Seles and Boris Becker, and Robert Rauschenberg's �Work of Art� sold for over $100,000 each.  

The annual Cinema Against AIDS gala began in 1993 and has raised over $18.2 million in the fight against AIDS. It has become one of the highlights of the Cannes Film Festival, with tickets greatly coveted. It also always has one of the most exciting guest lists, this year being no exception. With guests ranging from Brittney Murphy to the Olsen twins to Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, guests are always guaranteed a diverse crowd.  

amfAR itself is one of the world's leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to the support of AIDS research, AIDS prevention, treatment education, and the advocacy of sound AIDS-related public policy. Since 1985, amfAR has invested more than $233 million in its programs and has awarded grants to more than 2,000 researchers worldwide.  

Despite the growing awareness of how to prevent contracting AIDS, in 2004 an estimated 4.9 million people around the world contracted AIDS according to a study completed in December 2004. This study also found 39.4 million people living with AIDS, and 3.1 million died of AIDS in 2004 alone. 15-24 year olds account for half of all new HIV cases worldwide with more than 6,000 becoming infected every day. In low and middle income countries, an estimated 5 million people do not have the AIDS drugs that could save their lives. Even here in the UK , at the end of 2003 53,000 adults were living with HIV, of whom 14,300 (27%) were unaware of their infection. In 2004 there were 5,016 new cases, but that number is expected to increase to as high as 7,000 as further reports are received. 

If you want to do more to help prevent the spread of AIDS, even if you can't afford to donate money at this time, then there are still several things that you can do. 

http://www.amfar.org/ lists news, programs, benefit events, ways to donate, and lots of other useful information for anyone looking to do their part in the fight against AIDS.   In addition, for those of you in the UK , you can call the National AIDS Helpline at 0800 567 123 or the National African AIDS Helpline at 0800 0967 500.

Or visit the website http://www.avert.org/hivlondon.htm for a list of HIV/AIDS organizations in London , and http://www.avert.org/hivoutsidelondon.htm for a list of those in the rest of the UK. 

For those of you in the United States , you can visit the site http://www.avert.org/hiv_usa.htm to find local HIV/AIDS service organizations. And for more information the disease, call the CDC National AIDS hotline at 1-800-342-AIDS.  

These are simply a few of the sites that can be found on the web and are mentioned here merely to help get you started. A simple Google search for �AIDS charity programs� or �HIV/AIDS statistics� lists thousands of sites to choose from. amfAR does an enormous amount already, and can always use more help and donations.  

Cinema Against AIDS does tremendous work each year to help stop this horrible epidemic. Now it's our turn to do the same.