HOLLYWOOD, CA, August 10, 2006 -- The 10th Annual Hollywood Film Festival, co-chaired by Paula Wagner and presented by STARZ, announces honorees who will be recognized for their outstanding achievements at the festival's Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony, which will take place on October 23, 2006, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Oscar®-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond will receive the "Hollywood Cinematographer of the Year Award," Academy Award-winning editor Joel Cox will be honored with the "Hollywood Editor of the Year Award," Academy Award-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla will get the "Hollywood Composer of the Year Award," two-time Oscar®-winning production designer John Myhre will receive the "Hollywood Production Designer of the Year Award," costume designer Penny Rose will be honored with the "Hollywood Costume Designer of the Year Award," and casting director Francine Maisler will be honored with the "Hollywood Casting Director of the Year Award."

The "Hollywood Awards" will be bestowed upon the honorees during the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony on Monday evening, October 23, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The announcement was made today by Carlos de Abreu, Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Film Festival. Said Mr. de Abreu, "Mr. Zsigmond, Mr. Cox, Mr. Santaolalla, Mr. Myhre, Ms. Rose, and Ms. Maisler have demonstrated extraordinary ability throughout their careers. They are highly talented professionals whose work and creative vision are to be applauded and honored."

Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, won an Oscar® for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and Academy Award nominations for "The River" and "The Deer Hunter." He also won an Emmy for "Stalin" and an Emmy nomination for "The Mists of Avalon." His most recent feature film project is Universal's "The Black Dahlia," due for release in September. Among Mr. Zsigmond's scores of feature film credits are such classics as "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," "Deliverance," "Cinderella Liberty," "The Long Goodbye," "Scarecrow," and "The Sugarland Express."

Editor Joel Cox won the Best Editing Oscar® for "Unforgiven" (1993) and an Oscar® nomination for "Million Dollar Baby." Both films were directed by Clint Eastwood and won Best Picture Academy Awards. Mr. Cox's latest project is "Flags of Our Fathers," also directed by Clint Eastwood," which is due for release in October. Joel Cox's body of work as an editor includes "Mystic River," "Blood Work," "Space Cowboys," "True Crime," "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," "The Bridges of Madison County," "A Perfect World," "Bird," "Heartbreak Ridge," "Pale Rider," "Sudden Impact," "Bronco Billy," "The Enforcer," and "Farewell, My Lovely," among many others.

Composer Gustavo Santaolalla won the Oscar® this year for Best Original Score for Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain." Most recently he was the composer of Paramount Vantage's "Babel," which stars Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt. Other films on which Mr. Santaolalla has served as a composer include "North Country," "The Motorcycle Diaries" (for which he won a BAFTA Award), "21 Grams," and "Love's a Bitch."

Production designer John Myhre is a two-time Academy Award winner for his work on last year's "Memoirs of a Geisha" and for 2002's "Chicago." Both of his Oscar®-winning films were directed by Rob Marshall. Mr. Myhre was also nominated for an Academy Award for his work on "Elizabeth." Most recently, he was production designer on DreamWorks' upcoming "Dreamgirls," which is due for release in December. Among his other production design credits are "Ali," "X-Men," "Anna Karenina," and "Foxfire."

Penny Rose is the costume designer of this summer's Disney blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," directed by Gore Verbinski, as well as the first film in the series ("Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl") and the third "Pirates" film, which is due for release in 2007. Over the past 25 years, she has provided her costume design expertise on such films as "The Weather Man," "King Arthur," "The Sleeping Dictionary," "The Good Thief," "Entrapment," "The Parent Trap," "In Love and War," "Evita," Mission: Impossible," "The Road to Wellville," "Shadowlands," "Splitting Heirs," "The Commitments," "Another Country," "Local Hero," and "La Guerre du feu," among others.

Francine Maisler most recently served as casting director on Universal's "Miami Vice," Paramount Vantage's "Babel," Sony's upcoming "Stranger Than Fiction," due for release in November, and Sony's "Spider-Man 3," scheduled for release in 2007. Ms. Maisler's work as a casting director on more than 40 feature films includes "The New World," "Memoirs of a Geisha," "Stay," "Bewitched," "Spanglish," "Meet the Fockers," "Collateral," "Two Brothers," "21 Grams," "Down With Love," "I Spy," "Red Dragon," "Stuart Little 2," "Spider-Man," "A Knight's Tale," "Finding Forrester," "28 Days," "You've Got Mail," "How Stella Got Her Groove Back," "Out of Sight," "As Good As It Gets," "Gattaca," "The Fifth Element," "The People vs. Larry Flynt," and "The Usual Suspects."

Prior years' Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony nominees, honorees and presenters have been a virtual "who's who" of Hollywood's A-list talent and executives including Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Annette Bening, Halle Berry, Orlando Bloom, Matthew Broderick, Sandra Bullock, Chris Columbus, Russell Crowe, Cameron Crowe, Billy Crystal, Benicio Del Toro, Danny DeVito, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., Colin Farrell, Harrison Ford, Jodie Foster, Jamie Foxx, Mel Gibson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Haggis, Tom Hanks, Goldie Hawn, Anthony Hopkins, Ron Howard, Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Diane Keaton, Nicole Kidman, Laura Linney, Lucy Liu, George Lucas, Michael Mann, Rachel McAdams, Matthew McConaughey, Ewan McGregor, Sam Mendes, Mike Myers, Joaquin Phoenix, Sydney Pollack, Keanu Reeves, Susan Sarandon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Martin Scorsese, Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Charlize Theron, John Travolta and Naomi Watts, among many others.

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® and Encore® 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

Festival Contact:
Hollywood Film Festival®
Ph: 310.288.1882
awards@hollywoodawards.com