Special Tribute To "Footloose" Director Craig Brewer
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Oct. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 15th
Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented
by Starz Entertainment, has unveiled its line-up of finalists for
this year's festival, founder and executive director Carlos de Abreu announced today. The festival's
mandate is to bridge the gap between emerging independent
filmmakers and established Hollywood, and includes features,
documentaries and shorts.
The Hollywood Film Festival,
which takes place October 21-24 at
ArcLight Cinemas, will open on Friday,
October 21, with the world premiere of "DORFMAN," a romantic
comedy about Deb Dorfman who moves
to Los Angeles and ends up
igniting a renaissance of her own, while profoundly transforming
both herself and those around her. The comedy was directed by
Brad Leong and stars Sara Rue, Elliott
Gould, Sophie Monk, Haaz
Sleiman, and Catherine Hicks.
In addition, to commemorate the 15th year of the HFF, director
Craig Brewer, who got his start at
the festival, will be doing a special Q&A on Saturday, October 22, at 7:00 p.m. Brewer was discovered by the HFF in
2000, when the festival screened the world premiere of his feature
film, "The Poor and Hungry." The HFF then connected Brewer with an
entertainment attorney and manager and the rest is history as he
went on to direct "Hustle and Flow," "Black Snake Moan," and now
"Footloose." In addition to the Q&A with Brewer, the HFF will
also be screening a restored version of his original film, "The
Poor and Hungry."
This year's feature film line-up includes "ANSWERS TO NOTHING,"
a film by Matthew Leutwyler that is
a gritty drama of interweaving stories set in Los Angeles against the backdrop of a child
kidnapping case, starring Dane Cook,
Barbara Hershey, Julie Benz, Elizabeth
Mitchell, Zach Gilford,
Kali Hawk, Miranda Bailey, and Erik
Palladino; "AREA Q," directed by Gerson Sanginitto and
starring Isaiah Washington,
Murilo Rosa, Ricardo Conti, and Tania
Khalil, that follows Thomas
Mathews as he goes to Brazil to investigate encounters of the first,
second, and third kind; "HOPELESSLY IN JUNE," a film by
Vincent Brantley that stars
Brantley, Carolyn Neff, Keith David, Ed
Asner, Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr., and Peter Jason; "THE KILLING OF LEONARD RILEY,"
directed by Payman Benz and
Patrick DeLuca that follows a man as
he returns to his hometown to murder the drunk driver responsible
for killing his brother, and his filmmaker friend who accompanies
him to document the entire journey, starring DeLuca and
Adam Shapiro; "LANGUAGE OF A BROKEN
HEART," a film by Rocky Powell that
stars Juddy Talt, Julie White, Kate
French, Ethan Cohn,
Oscar Nunez and Lara Pulver; "THE TROUBLE WITH THE TRUTH," a
film by Jim Hemphill that stars
Lea Thompson, John Shea, Danielle
Harris, and Keri Lynn Pratt;
"TROUPERS," a documentary film by Saratoga Ballantine and
Dea Lawrence that takes a humorous
look at actors 80+ in Hollywood
and how they survived parental disapproval, the blacklist, divorce,
debt, rejection, depression, and decades of auditions to do what
they wanted to do: Act; and "THE WORLD OF Z," directed by
Brad Besser and Vince Clemente that takes viewers on a four-year
journey into the eccentric life of manic-depressive outside artist
Zbigniew Fiks, known simply as
Z.
This year's short film line-up includes "FIRST DATES," a film by
Sam Wasserman that takes viewers on
a comedic journey throughout the rough world of dating via a series
of eccentric vignettes as six individuals face their very own
peculiar "first date" experience and stars Madeline Zima, Ryan
Eggold, Adam Rose,
Jordan Ladd, Steve Talley, and Erica
Leerhsen; "MILF MONEY," directed by Aaron Priest, and starring Missi Pyle, Brian
Krause, Patrick Muldoon,
Rene Ashton, Texas Battle, and
Deena Dill; "A REUBEN BY ANY OTHER
NAME," a film by Jeremy Dylan Lanni
that takes a humorous look at the differences between Orthodox and
Reform Judaism in terms of the Reuben sandwich, starring
Jasmine Anthony, Anita Barone, Paul
Ben-Victor, Larry Cedar,
Pamela Cedar, Alanna Ubach, and Matt
Winston; "SEXTING," directed by Neil
LaBute and starring Julia
Stiles, Marin Ireland, and
Jamie Anderson, that follows a young
woman who is fed up with her relationship with a married man and
takes matters into her own hands as she decides to meet his wife
for coffee; "TAKE A SEAT," a film by Richell Morrissey that stars Kelly Noonan as an acclaimed Executive of the
Year who spirals into a panic while attempting to prepare herself
for a day filled with employee cutbacks; and "A JOURNEY WITH
PURPOSE," a documentary film directed by Gail Becker that follows nine-year-old
Joshua Miller as he joins his
grandfather on his journey back to his days as a child in the death
camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the experience that changed them
both forever.
For screening tickets please go to:
http://www.arclightcinemas.com
The festival will close on Sunday,
October 23, with the presentation of the "Hollywood
Discovery Awards" to announce the festival's winning films - Best
Feature Film, Best Documentary, and Best Short Subject.
For complete line-up go to
http://www.hollywoodfilmfestival.com
ABOUT STARZ ENTERTAINMENT, LLC:
The festival and awards presenter is Starz Entertainment, LLC, 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).
SOURCE Hollywood Film
Festival