HOLLYWOOD, CA, August 10, 1999 -- The 3rd Annual Hollywood Film Festival's "Hollywood Awards" ceremony, honoring emerging independent filmmakers and established Hollywood professionals, was held last night before a standing-room-only audience of over 1,000 Hollywood Film Festival attendees at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. Special honors went to legendary actor Jack Lemmon for his lifetime contribution to the art of film, and to such acclaimed filmmakers as John Schlesinger, Irwin Winkler, Dede Allen, Jerry Goldsmith, and Jane Jenkins and Janet Hirshenson, as well as actors Drew Barrymore, James Caan, and Jackie Chan and Hollywood's Honorary Mayor, Johnny Grant.

The Hollywood Film Festival honored the independently produced feature films "Rosenzweig's Freedom" and "Jimmy Zip" with the awards "Best Feature Over a Million" and "Best Feature Under a Million," respectively. "Rosenzweig's Freedom," which tells the story of a Jewish laborer who is suspected of having killed a neo-Nazi, was written and directed by Israeli filmmaker Liliane Targownik. "Jimmy Zip," was directed by Robert McGinley, and is a coming of age action-art film.

The Hollywood Film Festival was founded in 1997 by Carlos de Abreu and Janice Pennington, "New York Times" best-selling authors and producers. Regarding the conclusion of the 3rd annual festival, Mr. de Abreu said, "We are delighted by the response we have received from Hollywood and the independent filmmaking community during the course of this past week. Our conferences were packed and our screenings were well-attended. We had over 15,000 attendees and last night's gala awards ceremony was truly an extraordinary 'Hollywood' moment."

In addition to the feature film awards, "The Children of Chabannes," by Lisa Gossels and Dean Wetherell, was voted the Hollywood Film Festival's Best Documentary. The festival also named "Damned If You Do," by Jim Zeilinger, as Best Short Film, and "Mutt," by director Kirby Atkins, as Best Animated Film. In other awards categories, the feature "Lithium" by director/writer David Flamholc, was the recipient of the "Hollywood Young Filmmaker Award." Celebrities and Hollywood notables who attended the 6-day-long fest included James Caan, Jan DeBont, Martha Coolidge, Council member Jackie Goldberg, Jerry Goldsmith, Johnny Grant, Arthur Hiller, Janet Hirshenson, Jane Jenkins, Val Kilmer, Steve Kmetko, Martin Landau, Jack Lemmon, Lynn Redgrave, L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, Mark Rydell, John Schlesinger, Neil Simon, Patrick Swayze, Jon Voight, Irwin Winkler, Jeff Yapp, and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to name some. Attendees at the gala awards presentation Monday evening were treated to the music of renowned bandleader Johnny Crawford and his twelve-piece orchestra.

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