MUMBAI: The Hollywood Film Festival, co-chaired by Paula Wagner will be celebrating its 10th Anniversary. In keeping with its mission to bridge the gap between established Hollywood and the global creative community, the festival will once again present works of emerging filmmakers this year.

The films that will be aired include include features, documentaries, shorts, and music videos from around the world, including films from India, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, the Ukraine, the UK, and the US.

The festival’s Board of Advisors unveiled the line-up of the finalists for this year’s festival, as well as the Hollywood Awards nominees and honorees. The announcement was made by The Hollywood Film Festival founder and executive director Carlos de Abreu. The screenings will take place from 18 to 22 October.

With programming of both domestic and international films, the festival will present over 80 films, including gala and world premieres of 20th Century Fox’s Flicka by Michael Mayer, starring Alison Lohman and Tim McGraw, on 18 October, Starz’s Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride: Hunter S. Thompson On Film by Tom Thurman, featuring Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, John Cusack and Bill Murray, among others, on 19 October, and DreamWorks Animation’s Flushed Away, by David Bowers and Sam Fell, starring the vocal talents of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, and Ian McKellen on 22 October.

“The films that were selected for the festival are truly outstanding and showcase a wide array of talented filmmakers. This year’s line-up will present an excellent cross section of independent cinema from around the world,” said de Abreu.

Also, to continue with one of its mandates — giving a voice to the voiceless through the visual medium — some of its premieres include In A Soldier’s Footsteps, Uganda Rising and The Empire of Africa.

The festival’s closing night screenings include Phillip Noyce’s Catch A Fire, a drama about terrorism in Apartheid-era South Africa.

The Hollywood Film Festival also continues to honor excellence in the art of filmmaking with a special presentation of films by Academy Award – winning filmmaker Oliver Stone. The program will feature his award-winning films Salvador and Born on the Fourth of July on 21 October, and Platoon followed by World Trade Center on 22 October. 

This year’s nominees for the Hollywood World Awards 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 nominees for the Hollywood Movie of the Year Awards 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 festival is also presenting the Hollywood Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Festival showcase of horror films from 20 – 22 October.

This year’s industry professionals who will be honored for their achievements at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony 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 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 2006 Annual Hollywood Film Festival will take place from 18 to 23 October.

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