HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Sept. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
15th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards,
presented by Starz Entertainment, are pleased to announce honorees
that will be recognized for their achievements at the festival's
Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony, which will take place at the
Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly
Hills on October 24, 2011.
Academy Award-nominated actor Christopher Plummer will receive the "Hollywood
Supporting Actor Award," for "Beginners," actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt will be honored with the
"Hollywood Breakthrough Actor Award," for "50/50," actress
Jessica Chastain will be honored
with the "Hollywood Breakthrough Actress Award," for "The Tree of
Life," "Coriolanus," "The Debt," "The Help," and "Take Shelter,"
and actress Felicity Jones will
receive the "New Hollywood Award" for "Like Crazy."
"It is extraordinary that all of these honorees have contributed
their talent to such high quality films, and it is a great pleasure
to honor them for their work," said Carlos
de Abreu, Founder of the Hollywood Awards Gala.
The Hollywood Film Awards Gala launches the awards season. In
the past eight years a total of 73 Oscar nominations and 27 Oscars
were given to the honorees of the Hollywood Awards.
The 2011 Hollywood Film Festival has also announced they will
honor the cast of "The Help" (Jessica
Chastain, Viola Davis,
Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris
Lowell, Ahna O'Reilly, Octavia
Spencer, Emma Stone,
Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Cicely
Tyson and Mike Vogel) with
the "Hollywood Ensemble Acting Award," Cinematographer Emmanuel
Lubezki, Editor Stephen Mirrione,
Production Designer James Murakami and Visual Effects Supervisor
Scott Farrar at their annual Awards
Gala. In addition, Gore Verbinski's "Rango" will be honored at the
Hollywood Film Awards Gala Ceremony, along with additional honorees
to be announced in the coming weeks.
ABOUT CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER
Christopher Plummer has long been
one of the most respected actors in theater and film. In 2008,
Alfred A. Knopf published Plummer's
memoir, "In Spite of Myself," which became one of the most
acclaimed autobiographies of recent years. He has also written for
the stage, television, and the concert hall.
Mr. Plummer's first film was Sidney
Lumet's "Stage Struck," with Henry
Fonda and Susan Strasberg. His notable movies since then
have included John Huston's "The Man
Who Would Be King," in which he portrayed author Rudyard Kipling, Anthony
Mann's "The Fall of The Roman Empire," Guy Hamilton's "Battle of Britain," Sergei
Bondarchuk's "Waterloo," Nicholas
Ray's "Wind Across the Everglades," Robert Mulligan's "Inside Daisy Clover,"
Robert Wise's Academy Award-winning
"The Sound of Music," opposite Julie
Andrews, Blake Edwards' "The
Return of the Pink Panther," with Peter
Sellers, Daryl Duke's "The
Silent Partner," Bob Clark's "Murder
by Decree," in which he played Sherlock
Holmes and for which he won the Genie Award (Canada's Oscar equivalent) for Best Actor,
Jeannot Szwarc's "Somewhere in
Time," with Christopher Reeve;
Nicholas Meyer's "Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovered Country," Spike Lee's
"Malcolm X" and "Inside Man," Taylor
Hackford's "Dolores
Claiborne," Terry Gilliam's
"Twelve Monkeys" and "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,"
Ron Howard's Academy Award-winning
"A Beautiful Mind," Atom Egoyan's "Ararat," Douglas McGrath's "Nicholas Nickleby," Jon
Turteltaub's "National Treasure," Gary David Goldberg's "Must Love Dogs,"
Stephen Gaghan's "Syriana,"
Terrence Malick's "The New World,"
Michael Schroeder's "Man in the
Chair," for which Mr. Plummer was named Best Actor at the
Palm Beach International Film
Festival; and Michael Mann's "The
Insider," as Mike Wallace.
For his portrayal of novelist Leo Tolstoy, opposite Helen Mirren, in "The Last Station," written and
directed by Michael Hoffman, Mr.
Plummer received Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Spirit Award,
and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
Most recently, he was seen starring alongside Ewan McGregor in writer/director Mike Mills acclaimed comedy/drama
"Beginners."
He again stars as the legendary John Barrymore in the feature
"Barrymore," directed and adapted by Erik
Canuel from the William Luce play for which Mr. Plummer won
a Tony Award. The film recently premiered at the 2011 Toronto
International Film Festival. Next he will star with Daniel Craig and Rooney
Mara in David Fincher's "The
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," due out in December 2011.
ABOUT JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT
Joseph Gordon-Levitt will next be
seen in "50/50," a comedy directed by Jonathan Levine that stars Seth Rogen, Anna
Kendrick and Bryce Dallas
Howard. He will then star in the action thriller "Premium
Rush," directed by David Koepp, who
also co-wrote the script. He recently wrapped production on
"Looper," for which he reunited with his "Brick" director,
Rian Johnson, and will star opposite
Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. He is currently in production on
"The Dark Knight Rises," the third and final installment in the
Batman series, which will be directed by Christopher Nolan. Gordon-Levitt was also
recently cast as Robert Todd Lincoln
in the film "Lincoln" alongside Daniel
Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee
Jones, which will be directed by Steven Spielberg.
Gordon-Levitt's additional film credits include Christopher Nolan's Academy Award-nominated
action-drama "Inception," "Hesher," "(500) Days of Summer," "G.I.
Joe: The Rise of Cobra," "Miracle at St. Anna," "Stop-Loss," "The
Lookout," "Killshot," "Shadowboxer," "Brick; "Mysterious Skin," and
"Manic. Early in his career, Gordon-Levitt won a Young Artist Award for his first major role, in
Robert Redford's drama "A River Runs
Through It." He went on to co-star in "Angels in the Outfield,"
"The Juror," "Halloween H20," and "10
Things I Hate About You."
ABOUT JESSICA CHASTAIN
Jessica Chastain recently
co-starred in "The Tree of Life," this year's Palme d'Or winner at
Cannes, written and directed by
Terrence Malick and starring
Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, "The Help" written and directed by
Tate Taylor, in which she co-stars
with Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris
Lowell, Ahna O'Reilly, Octavia
Spencer, Emma Stone,
Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Cicely
Tyson and Mike Vogel, as well
as "The Debt" with Helen Mirren and
Sam Worthington. She will next be
seen in the feature films "Coriolanus," directed by and co-starring
Ralph Fiennes, "The Wettest County"
opposite Tom Hardy and Shia LaBeouf, and "Take Shelter" co-starring
with Michael Shannon.
Chastain attended the Juilliard
School where she starred in "Romeo and Juliet." At the
senior class Juilliard showcase, Chastain landed a coveted talent
deal with Emmy Award-winning executive producer and writer
John Wells. After completing a pilot
for Wells and director P.J. Hogan,
Chastain returned to the stage in the Los Angeles Wadsworth Theatre
production of "Salome," where director Estelle Parsons and Al
Pacino cast Chastain to play the title role of Salome
opposite Pacino. Continuing the collaboration, she starred in the
recent film version, "Wilde Salome," directed by Pacino. Chastain's
work in "Salome" received enormous critical attention and led to
her being cast in the dynamic title role in "Jolene" directed by
Dan Ireland. The film also stars
Rupert Friend, Frances Fisher, Dermot
Mulroney and Michael Vartan.
Chastain won the Best Actress Award at the 2008 Seattle Film Festival for this role.
ABOUT FELICITY JONES
Felicity Jones earned a Special
Jury Award for acting when "Like Crazy" debuted at the Sundance
Film Festival. She reunites with Drake
Doremus for his follow-up, a currently untitled film she is
shooting in New York with
Guy Pearce and Amy Ryan. Jones also recently completed several
additional projects including "Hysteria," with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh
Dancy and Rupert Everett;
"This Beautiful Fantastic," directed by Joel Hopkins and written by Simon Aboud; and "Cheerful Weather for the
Wedding," directed by Donald Rice
based on Julia Strachey's 1932 novella, with Mackenzie Crook, Elizabeth McGovern and Luke Treadaway.
Additional film credits include the following: Page 8, a
thriller by award-winning director David
Hare; The Chalet Girl, a romantic comedy with Ed Westwick, Bill Nighy and Brooke Shields; Julie
Taymor's film adaptation of William
Shakespeare's The Tempest, also starring Dame Helen Mirren, Ben
Whishaw and Alfred Molina;
Albatross, directed by Niall
MacCormick and co-starring Julia
Ormond; Cemetery Junction, a comedy written and directed by
the award-winning partnership of Ricky
Gervais and Stephen Merchant,
alongside a stellar cast including Ralph
Fiennes, Emily Watson and
Matthew Goode; Soulboy, a
coming-of-age drama directed by Shimmy Marcus; Cheri, directed by
Stephen Frears, co-starring
Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates and Rupert
Friend; Brideshead Revisited, directed by Julian Jarrold, opposite Matthew Goode, Ben
Whishaw and Hayley Atwell;
and Flashbacks Of A Fool, with Daniel
Craig, Harry Eden, rapper
Eve, Keeley Hawes and Olivia Williams.
ABOUT STARZ ENTERTAINMENT, LLC:
The festival and awards presenter is Starz Entertainment, LLC,
is a premium movie and original programming entertainment service
provider operating in the United
States. The company offers 17 premium channels including the
flagship STARZ® and ENCORE® brands with approximately 19 million
and 32.9 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs
in total more than 1,000 movies and original series every month
across its pay TV channels. Starz Entertainment is recognized as a
pay TV leader in providing HD, On Demand, HD On Demand and online
advanced services for its STARZ, ENCORE and MOVIEPLEX brands. Starz
Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC,
which is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation and
is attributed to the Liberty Starz tracking stock group (NASDAQ:
LSTZA).
For more information go to
http://www.hollywoodfilmfestival.com
Hollywood Film Festival®
433 N. Camden Drive, Suite 600
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
info@hollywoodawards.com
SOURCE Hollywood Film
Festival