Hollywood Kudos to '127 HOURS' and 'The Social Network'

Danny Boyle, Christian Colson, Aaron Sorkin, Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall to be honored at the Hollywood Awards Gala

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 14th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, presented by Starz, are pleased to announce that producers Danny Boyle and Christian Colson will be honored with the "Hollywood Producer Award," screenwriter Aaron Sorkin will get the "Hollywood Screenwriter Award," and Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall will be honored with the "Hollywood Editor Award" at the festival's Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony.

The announcement was made today by Carlos de Abreu, Founder of the Hollywood Awards Gala.

"We are honored to recognize these exceptionally talented artists for their outstanding work and creative vision at this year's Hollywood Awards Gala," said de Abreu.

Previously announced honorees for this year's Hollywood Awards Gala include: Sean Penn for the "Humanitarian Award"; Helena Bonham Carter for the "Supporting Actress Award"; Sam Rockwell for the "Supporting Actor Award"; Andrew Garfield for the "Breakthrough Actor Award"; Mia Wasikowska for the "Breakthrough Actress Award"; Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 3" and director Lee Unkrich for the "Hollywood Animation Award"; Paramount Pictures' "Iron Man 2" and visual effects supervisors Ben Snow and Janek Sirrs for the "Hollywood Visual Effects Award"; Hans Zimmer for the "Film Composer Award"; Wally Pfister for "Cinematographer Award"; and Robert Stromberg for the "Production Designer Award."

The gala ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 25, 2010.

ABOUT DANNY BOYLE AND CHRISTIAN COLSON

DANNY BOYLE's (Director/Screenwriter/Producer) career started in the theatre with Howard Barker's "Victory," Howard Brenton's "The Genius" and Edward Bond's "Saved," which won the Time Out Award. Boyle also directed five productions for The Royal Shakespeare Company before moving into television where his work included producing Alan Clark's controversial "Elephant" and directing "Strumpet," "Vacuuming Completely Naked In Paradise" and the series "Mr. Wroe's Virgins," for which he received a BAFTA nomination.

In 1994 his first feature, "Shallow Grave, earned him the Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film at the BAFTA Awards, among a host of other accolades. Boyle's second film, "Trainspotting," is one of the highest grossing British independent films of all time. The critically acclaimed film won four Empire Awards including Best Director and Best Film and was nominated for a BAFTA Alexander Korda Award and an Academy Award® for Best Adapted Screenplay.

In 2002 the smash hit horror film "28 Days Later" earned Boyle a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. Boyle's other feature films include "Millions" starring James Nesbitt, Alex Etel and Lewis McGibbon; "The Beach," starring Leonardo DiCaprio; "A Life Less Ordinary," starring Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz and "Sunshine," starring Cillian Murphy. "Slumdog Millionaire, " his eighth internationally theatrically released film, won the People's Choice Award at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and went on to win more than 100 international industry awards including 4 Golden Globes, 7 BAFTAs and 8 Academy Awards including best picture. Boyle's latest feature "127 HOURS" stars James Franco in the extraordinary true story of outdoorsman Aron Ralston's entrapment in Blue John Canyon, Utah and will be released theatrically by Fox Searchlight on November 5th, 2010. The film marks Boyle's second collaboration with producer Christian Colson and the duo are together developing a slate of new films.

CHRISTIAN COLSON (Producer) is an Academy Award®-winning film producer, and Chairman of the London-based production company Cloud Eight Films. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1968, Christian graduated with a First Class Honours degree in English from Oxford University. In 1994 he began his film industry career at the talent agency London Management before becoming Head of Development UK for Harvey Weinstein's Miramax Films in 1998.

Between 2002 and 2009, Christian was Managing Director of Celador Films where he produced seven features including Neil Marshall's 2005 worldwide horror hit THE DESCENT, which won a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, and the Empire Award for Best Horror Film. In 2008 Christian produced Danny Boyle's multiple award-winning "Slumdog Millionaire," for which he received the Academy Award for Best Picture of 2008. 127 HOURS marks his second collaboration with Danny Boyle and will be released theatrically by Fox Searchlight on November 5th, 2010.

Christian is currently in pre-production on the Civil Rights drama "Selma," to be directed by Lee Daniels, and is developing a slate of films with Danny Boyle.

ABOUT AARON SORKIN

Screenwriter and playwright Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay for the highly anticipated film "The Social Network," directed by David Fincher and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake. The film is about the formation of Facebook and is set to be released on October 1.

Sorkin made his Broadway playwriting debut with the military courtroom drama "A Few Good Men," for which he received the John Gassner Award as Outstanding New American Playwright. He made his screenwriting debut with the film adaptation of "A Few Good Men," starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, which was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Sorkin followed this success with the screenplays for "Malice" and "The American President." He also created and wrote the television series "Sports Night" and "The West Wing," for which he won numerous awards, including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series for each of his four years on "The West Wing." Sorkin recently adapted "Moneyball," directed by Bennett Miller and starring Brad Pitt, which is currently in production at Sony. He has also acquired the rights to "The Politician," the best-selling book by Andrew Young about the downfall of former Senator John Edwards. Sorkin will adapt the book and make his directorial debut with "The Politician," which he will also produce.

ABOUT KIRK BAXTER AND ANGUS WALL

Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall were both nominated for an Academy Award for their editing work on "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Together they edited David Fincher's latest masterpiece "The Social Network" that stars Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake. In addition, they both edited David Fincher's "Zodiac" starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

Baxter's previous credits include title designer for HBO's "Big Love" and editor on the Academy Award nominated short live action film "Killing Joe." Wall's previous editing credits include Mike Mills' "Thumbsucker"; John Woo's "Hostage" starring Clive Owen; David Fincher's "Panic Room" starring Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, and Forest Whitaker; and Adam Collis' "Sunset Strip" starring Simon Baker.

The festival and awards will mark their return on October 20 for a weeklong series of screenings, competitions and awards. The Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 25, 2010.

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 16 premium channels including the flagship Starz® and Encore® brands with approximately 17.3 million and 31.9 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.

For more information please go to http://www.HollywoodFestival.com

Festival contact: 1.310.288.1882

SOURCE The Hollywood Film Festival