Hollywood Fest Honors Kathryn Bigelow, Nora Ephron, "UP" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Hollywood, CA (PRWEB) September 30, 2009 -- The 13th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, presented by Starz, have announced that director Kathryn Bigelow will be honored with the "Hollywood Director Award," Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Nora Ephron will be presented with the "Hollywood Screenwriter Award," Disney/Pixar's "UP," directed by Peter Docter, will get the "Hollywood Animation Award," and Paramount Pictures' "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar will receive the "Hollywood Visual Effects Award" at the festival's Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony.

The gala ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 26, 2009.

The announcement was made today by Carlos de Abreu, Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Film Festival. "It is a great pleasure to recognize the extraordinary talent of Kathryn Bigelow, Nora Ephron, Peter Docter and Scott Farrar," said Mr. de Abreu, "and to honor their achievements and contributions to filmmaking."

ABOUT KATHRYN BIGELOW

Kathryn Bigelow recently directed the "The Hurt Locker," a film that has received great acclaim. It stars Jeremy Renner, Brian Geraghty and Anthony Mackie in a riveting portrait of three members of the Army's elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad battling insurgents in Iraq. Bigelow's remarkable work has alternated between edgy and art-house fare ("The Loveless," "Near Dark," "The Weight of Water") and Hollywood products ("Point Break," "Strange Days," "K-19: The Widowmaker") throughout a highly regarded career spanning more than 25 years.

ABOUT NORA EPHRON

An Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Nora Ephron most recently wrote and directed the feature film "Julie and Julia." From Columbia Pictures, the film stars Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Stanley Tucci and was adapted by Ephron from the books "Julie & Julia" by Julie Powell and "My Life in France" by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme. Ephron is a journalist, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and director. Her credits include the films "Heartburn," "Silkwood," "When Harry Met Sally," "Sleepless in Seattle," "You've Got Mail" and "Bewitched," and the play "Imaginary Friends." Ephron has received three Oscar(r) nominations for screenwriting. Her books include "Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women," "Scribble, Scribble" and "Heartburn." Her latest book, "I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman," was a number one bestseller. Her play "Love, Loss, and What I Wore," written with her sister Delia Ephron, opened recently Off-Broadway in New York.

ABOUT "UP" AND PETER DOCTER

Peter Docter is the director and writer of the Walt Disney Studios'/Pixar Animation Studios' animated feature "UP," a comedy adventure about 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredericksen who takes to the air and heads to the wilds of South America with thousands of balloons attached to his house and an 8-year-old stowaway named Russell. The film features the voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, Jerome Ranft, John Ratzenberger and David Kaye, among others.

Docter made his debut as a director on "Monsters, Inc.," for which he received an Academy Award nomination. He earned another nomination for his original story credit on Disney/Pixar's Oscar(r)-winning "WALL-E." Along with John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, Docter developed the story and characters for "Toy Story," Pixar's first full-length feature film, for which he also served as supervising animator. He was a storyboard artist on "A Bug's Life" and wrote the original story treatment for "Toy Story 2."

ABOUT "TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN" AND SCOTT FARRAR

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" is the Paramount Pictures' sequel to the highly successful "Transformers" released in 2007, both directed by Michael Bay, with Scott Farrar as visual effects supervisor. In "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," Decepticon forces return to Earth on a mission to take Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) prisoner, after the young hero learns the truth about the Transformers and the sacrifices that have to be made to save Earth from an ancient threat seeking revenge, In addition to Shia LaBeouf, the film stars Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro.

Scott Farrar joined Industrial Light & Magic in 1981 as a camera operator on "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and was promoted to visual effects supervisor on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" in 1987. In 1985, he received an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his work on "Cocoon." Since then he has received Oscar(r) nominations for "The Chronicles of Narnia, "Backdraft," "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence," and "Transformers." His other projects at ILM include "xXx: State of the Union," "The Pacifier," "Peter Pan," "Tears of the Sun," "Space Cowboys," "The Haunting," "Deep Impact" and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," to name a few.

The festival and awards presenter is Starz Entertainment, LLC, a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. It offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz(r) and Encore(r) brands with approximately 17.7 million and 31.7 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs more than 1,000 movies per month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HD, Encore HD, Starz On Demand, Encore On Demand, MoviePlex On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore HD On Demand, MoviePlex HD On Demand, and Starz Play.

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

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