The Hollywood Film Festival’s Board of Advisors is proud to announce that along with honoring producer Sydney Pollack and Sony topper Amy Pascal, this year’s festival will honor Oscar®-winning director Ron Howard with its “Hollywood Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award,” Academy Award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins with its “Hollywood Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award – Male Performer,” and Oscar®-winning actress Goldie Hawn with the “Hollywood Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award – Female Performer” at the Hollywood Film Awards Gala Ceremony. The festival will also present its “Hollywood Breakthrough Award – Male Performer” to Orlando Bloom and its “Hollywood Breakthrough Award – Female Performer” to Scarlett Johansson.
The awards will be bestowed upon the honorees as part of the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony on Monday evening, October 20, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Other industry professionals who will be honored for their achievements at the Gala Awards Ceremony are Columbia Pictures Chairman Amy Pascal for leadership, Sydney Pollack for producing, Ron Bass for screenwriting, John Toll for cinematography, Michael Kahn for editing, Howard Shore for music-in-film, David Foster for songwriting, Andrew Stanton for animation, John Gaeta for visual effects, Ann Roth for costume design, William J. Creber for production design, and Deborah Aquila for casting.
This year’s Festival chairwoman, Paula Wagner says, “There is no more appropriate place than the Hollywood Film Festival to honor the illustrious talents of Anthony Hopkins, Goldie Hawn, Ron Howard and Sydney Pollack — all magnificent artists who have created some of the most memorable characters and truly unforgettable films.”
Ron Howard has directed many popular, acclaimed, and successful films over the past quarter of a century. Most recently, he won the Best Director Oscar® in 2002 for “A Beautiful Mind,” starring Russell Crowe. The film also brought the Best Picture Oscar® to Mr. Howard and his producing partner Brian Grazer. Since his debut as a feature film director with “Grand Theft Auto” in 1977, Ron Howard has helmed such feature films as “Night Shift,” “Splash,” “Cocoon,” “Willow,” “Parenthood,” “Backdraft,” “Far and Away,” “Apollo 13,” “Ransom,” “EDtv,” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” His upcoming projects include “The Missing,” starring Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett, and “Cinderella Man,” which will star Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger.
Anthony Hopkins’s impressive acting career in film spans more than 35 years and work in more than 50 feature films. Mr. Hopkins won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his brilliant performance as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs.” He received three other Oscar® nominations, for his performances in “The Remains of the Day,” “Nixon,” and “Amistad.” His other film credits include starring with Nicole Kidman in Robert Benton’s “The Human Stain,” which is scheduled for release this month, as well as such films as “Red Dragon,” “Bad Company,” “Hannibal,” “Titus,” “Meet Joe Black,” “The Mask of Zorro,” “Legends of the Fall,” “The Road to Wellville,” “Shadowlands,” “The Trial,” “Dracula,” “Howards End,” “Spotswood,” “84 Charing Cross Road,” “The Bounty,” “A Change of Seasons,” “The Elephant Man,” “Magic,” “A Bridge Too Far,” “Audrey Rose,” “All Creatures Great and Small,” “A Doll’s House,” “Hamlet,” and “The Lion in Winter.” Mr. Hopkins’s career has also included noted stage and television work, including his Emmy Award-winning performances as Bruno Hauptmann in “The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case,” and Adolf Hitler in “The Bunker.”
Academy Award-winning actress Goldie Hawn has delighted audiences since the beginning of her feature film career and she won an Oscar® for best supporting actress for her performance in her second feature film — “Cactus Flower,” starring Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman. Ms. Hawn also received a Best Actress Oscar® nomination for “Private Benjamin.” Most recently she starred with Susan Sarandon in “The Banger Sisters.” Some of Ms. Hawn’s other feature films include “Town & Country,” “The Out-of-Towners,” “Everyone Says I Love You,” “The First Wives Club,” “Death Becomes Her,” “HouseSitter,” “Bird on a Wire,” “Overboard,” “Swing Shift,” “Best Friends,” “Foul Play,” “The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox,” “Shampoo,” “The Sugarland Express,” “Butterflies Are Free,” and “There’s a Girl in My Soup.”
Orlando Bloom made his feature film debut starring as “Legolas” in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” He continued in the second and third installments of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy — “The Two Towers” and the “The Return of the King,” which is scheduled for release in December. This summer, Mr. Bloom starred opposite Johnny Depp in the blockbuster “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” directed by Gore Verbinski. He will be seen with Heath Ledger in the upcoming “Ned Kelly,” directed by Gregor Jordan, and in Alex De Rakoff’s “The Calcium Kid.” He is currently filming Wolfgang Petersen’s epic “Troy” opposite Brad Pitt and Eric Bana. Mr. Bloom also appeared in Ridley Scott’s award-winning film “Black Hawk Down.”
Scarlett Johansson attained worldwide recognition for her performance as Grace MacLean, the teen traumatized by a riding accident in Robert Redford’s “The Horse Whisperer.” She will soon be seen starring opposite Bill Murray in “Lost in Translation,” Sofia Coppola’s follow-up to “The Virgin Suicides,” and starring opposite Colin Firth and Tom Wilkinson in Peter Webber’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” In January she will star opposite Erika Christensen in Brian Robbins’s “The Perfect Score.” Ms. Johansson recently wrapped production opposite John Travolta in “A Love Song for Bobby Long,” and is set to star in “A Good Woman,” opposite Helen Hunt. She recently starred in Eva Gardos’s “An American Rhapsody” and Terry Zwigoff’s “Ghost World,” opposite Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi. Her other film credits include “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” “Eight Legged Freaks,” “Manny & Lo,” “Home Alone 3,” “If Lucy Fell,” “Just Cause,” and “North.”
Festival Co-chair Paula Wagner is a producer and partner of the production company Cruise/Wagner Productions. Over the past ten years, they have produced a wide variety of films ranging from the Mission: Impossible series to The Others to NARC to Vanilla Sky.
The 2003 Annual Hollywood Film Festival, which will take place from October 15 to 20, incorporates in its activities the Hollywood Film Conference, Hollywood Film Screenings, and Hollywood Awards. The screenings and conference will take place at the Arclight Theatres in Hollywood. The Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Monday, October 20.
