Sylvester Stallone, Morgan Freeman, Lori McCreary and Director Tom Hooper to be Honored at The Hollywood Awards Gala

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The 14th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, presented by Starz, are pleased to announce that Hollywood icon and Academy Award-nominated Sylvester Stallone will receive the "Hollywood Career Achievement Award," Oscar-winning Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary will be recognized with the "Hollywood Innovator Award," and director Tom Hooper will be honored with the "Hollywood Director Award" at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony.

"It is a privilege to honor and to celebrate Sylvester Stallone's extraordinary talent and remarkable career, as well as the great innovative work of Morgan Freeman and Lorie McCreary in the convergence of technology and filmmaking, and the outstanding directing talent of Tom Hooper in his new film "The King's Speech," said Carlos de Abreu, Founder of the Hollywood Awards Gala.

Previously announced honorees for this year's Hollywood Awards Gala include: Sean Penn for the "Humanitarian Award"; Annette Bening for the "Actress Award"; Robert Duvall for the "Actor 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"; Danny Boyle and Chris Colson for the "Producer Award"; Aaron Sorkin for the "Screenwriter Award"; Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 3" and director  Lee Unkrich for the "Animation Award"; Hans Zimmer for "Film Composer Award"; Wally Pfister for "Cinematographer Award"; Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for the "Editor Award"; Paramount Pictures' "Iron Man 2" and visual effects supervisors Ben Snow and Janek Sirrs for the "Visual Effects Award"; and Robert Stromberg for "Production Designer Award."

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

ABOUT SYLVESTER STALLONE

Academy-nominated Sylvester Stallone has received worldwide recognition as an actor, writer and director ever since he played the title role in his own screenplay of "Rocky," which won the Academy Award in 1977 for Best Picture, and brought Oscar® nominations to Stallone for acting and writing.

After the success of that seminal motion picture, "Rocky" grew into a franchise of five sequels. In 2006, Stallone concluded the series with "Rocky Balboa," a critical and popular success that resolutely confirmed both Stallone and "Rocky" as iconic cultural symbols.

Sylvester Stallone wrote, directed and starred in "Rambo," which continued the saga of Vietnam vet John Rambo 25 years after the debut of "Rambo: First Blood," shot on location in Burma.

This summer, he released his most ambitious project to date -- the action thriller "The Expendables" -- which he wrote, directed and starred in, and which opened as Number One at the Box Office, making him the only actor to open Number One Films across Five Decades.

Sylvester Stallone's first role came in 1974 when he was cast as one of the leads in "The Lords of Flatbush." He also received his first writing credit for additional dialogue on the film.

Stallone's other credits as actor/writer/director are Rocky II and Paradise Alley. As actor and co-writer, Stallone filmed "F.I.S.T.," "Rambo: First Blood Part II," "Rhinestone and Rambo III." He co-wrote, directed and produced "Staying Alive" and starred in "Nighthawks," "Victory," "Tango & Cash and Lock Up. Rocky V, starring and written by Stallone, opened in 1990.

He also starred in "Demolition Man," "The Specialist," "Assassins and Daylight." He starred in the challenging and unique role of Freddy Hefli in "Cop Land," had the starring role in "Get Carter,"  and wrote and starred in the number one box office race-car thriller "Driven." He filmed "Avenging Angelo" and starred as "The Toymaker" in the hit film "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. "

ABOUT MORGAN FREEMAN AND LORI McCREARY

Oscar-winning Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary are being honored for over 15 years of commitment to researching technology and educating the entertainment industry on its effect on all aspects of film production and distribution.

From their 2005 digital "Open House" and industry-wide anti-piracy campaign "make it easier to buy film than to pirate" to the ongoing Camera Assessment Series, they continue to influence and inform current filmmakers and future storytellers.

Freeman's and McCreary's Revelations

Entertainment spearheaded, financed and produced with the ASC and PGA this groundbreaking Assessment Series. Seven digital motion picture-ready cameras and one 35mm motion picture camera were put into a real-life production environment to create the first ever fully documented camera assessment in modern cinematography.

ABOUT TOM HOOPER

Director Tom Hooper's latest feature film, "The King's Speech," recently won the People's Choice Award at the 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival, garnering enormous Oscar season buzz. Inspired by the true story of Britain's King George VI (played by Colin Firth) who overcame a speech impediment with the help of a dedicated yet unconventional therapist, played by Geoffrey Rush -- at a time when the British people needed a leader's voice.

Hooper's career includes directing Emmy-winning long-form television, including the commanding "John Adams" for HBO.  Hooper directed the critically-acclaimed, "The Damned United," as well as "Red Dust" starring Hilary Swank and "Longford" starring Jim Broadbent.

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 service provider operating in the United States. It offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz(r) and Encore(r) brands with approximately 17.1 million and 31.1 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs more than 1,000 movies and new original series every month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HD, Encore HD, Starz On Demand, Encore On Demand, MoviePlex On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore HD On Demand, MoviePlex HD On Demand, and Starz Play. 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 Liberty Starz, a tracking stock group of Liberty Media Corporation.

SOURCE The Hollywood Film Festival