HOLLYWOOD, CA, August 1, 2007 -- In their 11th year, the Hollywood Film Festival® and Hollywood Awards®, presented by Starz, have named the panel of international judges assembled to decide on the nominations of this year's Hollywood World Awards®. The world awards will be bestowed October 22 at the prestigious Hollywood Awards® Gala ceremony, which takes place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. "Screen International" will present the award.

The award has become a key predictor of foreign films which are set to receive kudos in the year's awards season.

Last year's winner was Pedro Almodovar's "Volver" and its star Penelope Cruz accepted the award. Previous winners were "Mrs. Henderson Presents," "The Motorcycle Diaries" and "The Sea Inside."

A panel of international judges consisting of critics, festival directors and impartial executives chose the shortlist of films last year, which included "The Lives of Others," "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Queen."

Qualifying films must have their world premieres between Sept. 18, 2006, and Sept. 16, 2007, encompassing this year's crop from all the major film festivals.

This year's panel of judges has already been confirmed.

The chair of the panel is Hollywood Foreign Press Association Vice-President and Screen International US editor Mike Goodridge.

The 2007 panel of judges consists of:

• Teresa Cavina (Italy)
  International program manager (directing committee), Rome International Film Festival
• Dan Fainaru (Israel)
  Film critic, Screen International, Globes Daily & Cinematheque Magazine
• Manuel Grosso (Spain)
  Director, Seville Film Festival
• Nicole Guillemet (US)
  Director, Miami International Film Festival
• Jim Hamilton (Canada)
  Director of festival center programming, Toronto International Film Festival Group
• Sandra Hebron (UK)
  Artistic director, The Times BFI London Film Festival
• Richard Holmes
  Executive director, Melbourne International Film Festival
• Allan Hunter (UK)
  Film critic, Screen International & The Daily Express (UK)
• Tobias Kniebe (Germany)
  Film critic, Sueddeutsche Zeitung
• Derek Malcolm (UK)
  Film critic, The Evening Standard
• Despina Mouzaki (Greece)
  Director, Thessaloniki International Film Festival
• Jacob Neiiendam (Denmark)
  Head of programming, Copenhagen International Film Festival
• Jonathan Romney (UK)
  Film critic, Screen International & The Independent On Sunday
• Ilda Santiago (Brazil)
  Director, Rio International Film Festival

The Hollywood Film Festival presented by Starz is also looking to screen as many of the films as possible. Its final deadline for submissions is Aug. 20, although should a film be shortlisted it would be eligible for screening in the festival. This year's festival runs from Oct 17 to 22.

"We are very excited and proud that "Screen International" and its team will be joining with the festival to honor filmmakers from the global creative community," stated festival founder and executive director Carlos de Abreu. "We want to ensure that we bridge the gap between established Hollywood and world cinema by showcasing films during the 11th annual Hollywood Film Festival."

Screendaily will be posting updates on the Hollywood World Award throughout the summer, naming the jury which will vote on the year's best films and announcing the shortlist in the first week of October.

The Hollywood Film Festival will be announcing the shortlist in the first week of October.

The Hollywood Awards ceremony itself is one of the most glittering nights in the film calendar. At last year's event, attending luminaries included Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Sandra Bullock, Oliver Stone, Forest Whitaker, and Penelope Cruz, among many others.

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® and Encore® brands with approximately 15.8 million and 28.2 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, Starz On Demand and VongoSM. Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation that is attributed to Liberty Capital Group.

For more information please go to www.hollywoodfestival.com.

Festival Contact: 1.310.288.1882
Hollywood Film Festival®
433 N. Camden Drive, Suite 600
Beverly Hills, CA 90210