The Race Is On! The Hollywood Awards Launch the Push Toward Oscar

The Race Is On! The Hollywood Awards Launch the Push Toward Oscar

Hollywood Film Festival & Hollywood Awards Set Pace for Awards Race

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hollywood Film Festival, co-chaired by Paula Wagner and presented by STARZ, has announced the nominees and honorees for the 2006 "Hollywood Awards." The announcement was made today in Hollywood by Carlos de Abreu, Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Film Festival.

"This year's Hollywood Film Festival continues its tradition of honoring the very best talent within our community. It is a celebration of all aspects of Hollywood filmmaking and the artists who help to create its lasting legacy on our culture," de Abreu said.

In the last three years, a total of 42 Academy Award nominations and 9 Oscars(R) were given to films the festival showcased and to the nominees and honorees of the Hollywood Awards(R).

The awards are comprised of three categories: Hollywood FILM Awards(R), Hollywood MOVIE Awards(R), and the Hollywood WORLD Awards(R).

The "Hollywood FILM Awards(R)" include Sony Pictures Classics' co-Presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard for leadership; the Film Foundation for film preservation; Robin Williams for career achievement; Oliver Stone for directing; Mike Medavoy for producing; Forest Whitaker, Penelope Cruz, Ben Affleck, and Sandra Bullock for acting, the cast of "Bobby" (Harry Belafonte, Joy Bryant, Nick Cannon, Emilio Estevez, Laurence Fishburne, Brian Geraghty, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Joshua Jackson, David Krumholtz, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, Lindsay Lohan, William H. Macy, Svetlana Metkina, Demi Moore, Freddy Rodriguez, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, Jacob Vargas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Elijah Wood) for ensemble acting; Eric Roth for screenwriting; Vilmos Zsigmond for cinematography; Joel Cox for editing; Gustavo Santaolalla for film composing; John Myhre for production design; Penny Rose for costume design; Kris Evans for make-up; John Knoll for visual effects; Disney/Pixar's "Cars," directed by John Lasseter, for animation; and Francine Maisler for casting. In addition, Derek Luke and Lindsay Lohan will be honored with the festival's Breakthrough Actor and Actress awards, and Ryan Murphy with the "Hollywood Breakthrough Director of the Year Award."

The "Hollywood MOVIE OF THE YEAR Awards(R)" cover the public's favorites for the year. The ten nominees are "Cars" directed by John Lasseter; "The Da Vinci Code" directed by Ron Howard; "The Devil Wears Prada" directed by David Frankel; "Little Miss Sunshine" directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris; "Mission: Impossible III" directed by J. J. Abrams; "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" directed by Gore Verbinski; "Superman Returns" directed by Bryan Singer; "United 93" directed by Paul Greengrass; "World Trade Center" directed by Oliver Stone; and "X-Men: The Last Stand" directed by Brett Ratner. The winner is decided by the public voting at the Yahoo! Movies Website -- movies.yahoo.com

The "Hollywood WORLD Awards(R)" cover films from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The ten nominees in alphabetical order are "12:08 East of Bucharest" (Romania) directed by Corneliu Porumboiu; "Buenos Aires, 1977" (Argentina) directed by Adrian Caetano; "Climates" (Turkey, France) directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan; "Grbavica" (Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany, Croatia) directed by Jasmila Zbanic; "The Lives of Others" (Germany) directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; "Pan's Labyrinth" (Mexico, Spain) directed by Guillermo del Toro; "The Queen" (UK, France, Italy) directed by Stephen Frears; "Red Road" (UK, Denmark) directed by Andrea Arnold; "Volver" (Spain) directed by Pedro Almodovar; and "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, UK) directed by Ken Loach.

The 2006 Annual Hollywood Film Festival(R) will take place from October 18 to 23. The festival's screenings take place at ArcLight Theatres in Hollywood. Its Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Monday, October 23.

Starz Entertainment Group LLC (SEG) is a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. SEG offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz(R) and Encore(R) brands with approximately 14 million and 26 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment Group airs more than 1,000 movies per month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HDTV, Starz On Demand and Vongo(SM). Starz Entertainment Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, www.starz.com.

For more information please go to http://www.hollywoodfestival.com/

Source: Hollywood Film Festival

CONTACT: Hollywood Film Festival(R), +1-310-288-1882,
awards@hollywoodawards.com

Web site: http://www.starz.com/

Web site: http://www.hollywoodfestival.com/

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