HOLLYWOOD, CA, September 18, 2006 -- The 10th Annual Hollywood Film Festival® and Hollywood Awards®, co-chaired by Paula Wagner and presented by STARZ, will honor Sony Pictures Classics' co-Presidents MICHAEL BARKER and TOM BERNARD with its "Hollywood Leadership Award," and "Running with Scissors" director RYAN MURPHY with its "Hollywood Breakthrough Director of the Year Award." The awards will be bestowed as part of the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony on Monday evening, October 23, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

"This year we are proud to honor Michael Barker and Tom Bernard for their work with Sony Pictures Classics, and Ryan Murphy for his directorial debut. Their efforts and passion for filmmaking captivate audiences and raise the industry standard," said the festival's co-chair Paula Wagner.

MICHAEL BARKER and TOM BERNARD are co-Presidents and co-founders of Sony Pictures Classics (with Marcie Bloom), an autonomous division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, currently celebrating its 15th anniversary. Sony Pictures Classics distributes, produces, and acquires independent films from the United States and around the world. Honors bestowed on their team and their films include 18 Academy Awards and 73 Oscar® nominations, including three for Best Picture ("Howards End," "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon," "Capote").

Recent and upcoming films from Sony Pictures Classics include "Junebug" (Phil Morrison), "2046" (Wong Kar Wai), "Capote" (Bennett Miller), "Breakfast on Pluto" (Neil Jordan), "Cache" (Michael Haneke), "Why We Fight" (Eugene Jarecki), "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" (Tommy Lee Jones), "Friends With Money" (Nicole Holofcener), "Art School Confidential" (Terry Zwigoff), "Sketches of Frank Gehry" (Sydney Pollock), "Who Killed the Electric Car?" (Chris Payne), "Quinceneara" (Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer), "The Quiet" (Jamie Babbitt), "American Hardcore" (Paul Rachman), "Volver" (Pedro Almodovar), and "Curse of the Golden Flower" (Zhang Yimou).

Past highlights of Sony Classics Pictures' films include "Howards End" (Merchant Ivory), "Orlando" (Sally Potter), "Mi Vida Loca" (Allison Anders), "Vanya on 42nd Street" (Louis Malle), "Crumb" (Terry Zwigoff), "Safe" (Todd Haynes), "Persuasion" (Roger Michell), "The City of Lost Children" (Jean Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro), "Welcome to the Dollhouse" (Todd Solondz), "Lone Star" (John Sayles), "Waiting for Guffman" (Chris Guest), "Suburbia" (Richard Linklater), "In the Company of Men" (Neil LaBute), "Spanish Prisoner" (David Mamet), "The Opposite of Sex" (David Roos), "Central Station" (Walter Salles), "The General" (John Boorman), "Run Lola Run" (Tom Tykwer), "American Movie" (Chris Smith), "Sweet and Lowdown" (Woody Allen), "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" (Ang Lee), "Pollock" (Ed Harris), "Dogtown and Z Boys" (Stacy Peralta), "13 Conversations About One Thing" (Jill Sprecher), "All the Real Girls" (David Gordon Green), "Spider" (David Cronenberg), "Winged Migration" (Jacques Perrin), "Triplets of Bellville" (Sylvain Chomet), "The Fog of War" (Errol Morris), "The Company" (Robert Altman), "Baadasssss! " (Mario Van Peebles), "Kung Fu Hustle" (Steven Chow), and "Saraband" (Ingmar Bergman).

Sony Pictures Classics has also played a significant role in preserving film's heritage. Currently they are re-releasing eight Pedro Almodovar films throughout the United States with new prints. Together with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Merchant Ivory Foundation, they have restored and released nine of master filmmaker Satyajit Ray's greatest works. They have also preserved and reissued Vittorio de Sica's "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis."

Previously, Michael Barker and Tom Bernard were co-founders of Orion Classics and executives at United Artists, where they released films by Akira Kurosawa, R.W. Fassbinder, and Francois Truffaut.

This year, RYAN MURPHY directed his adaptation of the bestselling book "Running with Scissors." Starring Annette Bening and Gwyneth Paltrow, the film will be released on October 22. His next film will be "Dirty Tricks," an adaptation of the hit off-Broadway play about the life of Martha Mitchell. In addition to writing and directing the film, Ryan Murphy will produce it with Brad Pitt, with whom he produced "Running with Scissors." The film will star Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Annette Bening. Following that, Murphy will direct "Need," which will re-team him with Gwyneth Paltrow and which also stars Nicole Kidman.

Ryan Murphy is the Golden Globe-winning creator of FX's original drama series "Nip/Tuck." In addition to his duties as executive producer, he has also written and directed multiple episodes of the critically acclaimed hit series. Ryan Murphy began his career as a journalist, writing for such publications as the "Miami Herald," "Los Angeles Times," "New York Daily News," and "Entertainment Weekly." His screenwriting career began in the late 1990s when Steven Spielberg purchased his romantic comedy "Why Can't I Be Audrey Hepburn?" Murphy's next effort was the WB's "Popular," an award-winning black comedy/satire which he created and produced with his fellow "Nip/Tuck" executive producers Greer Shephard and Michael M. Robin.

Other industry professionals who will be honored for their achievements at the Gala Awards Ceremony are Academy Award-winning actor Robin Williams who will be honored with the "Hollywood Career Achievement Award," Oscar®-winning director Oliver Stone who will receive the "Hollywood Director of the Year Award," producer Mike Medavoy who will be honored with the "Hollywood Producer of the Year Award," actress Penelope Cruz who will receive the "Hollywood Actress of the Year Award," actress Sandra Bullock who will be honored with the "Hollywood Supporting Actress of the Year Award," Academy Award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth who will be honored with the "Hollywood Screenwriter of the Year Award," the cast of "Bobby" who will receive the "Hollywood Ensemble Acting of the Year Award," Oscar®-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond who will be honored with the "Hollywood Cinematographer of the Year Award," Academy Award-winning editor Joel Cox who will receive the "Hollywood Editor of the Year Award," Academy Award-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla who will get the "Hollywood Composer of the Year Award," two-time Oscar®-winning production designer John Myhre who will receive the "Hollywood Production Designer of the Year Award," costume designer Penny Rose who will be honored with the "Hollywood Costume Designer of the Year Award," make-up artist Kris Evans who will receive the "Hollywood Make-Up of the Year Award," Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" which will receive the "Hollywood Visual Effects of the Year Award," Disney/Pixar's "Cars" which will be honored with the "Hollywood Animation of the Year Award," and casting director Francine Maisler who will be honored with the "Hollywood Casting Director of the Year Award."

Prior years' Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony nominees, honorees and presenters have been a virtual "who's who" of Hollywood's A-list talent and executives, including Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Annette Bening, Halle Berry, Orlando Bloom, Matthew Broderick, Sandra Bullock, Chris Columbus, Russell Crowe, Cameron Crowe, Billy Crystal, Benicio Del Toro, Danny DeVito, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., Colin Farrell, Harrison Ford, Jodie Foster, Jamie Foxx, Mel Gibson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Haggis, Tom Hanks, Goldie Hawn, Anthony Hopkins, Ron Howard, Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Diane Keaton, Nicole Kidman, Laura Linney, Lucy Liu, George Lucas, Michael Mann, Rachel McAdams, Matthew McConaughey, Ewan McGregor, Sam Mendes, Mike Myers, Joaquin Phoenix, Sydney Pollack, Keanu Reeves, Susan Sarandon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Martin Scorsese, Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Charlize Theron, John Travolta and Naomi Watts, among many others.

The 2006 Annual Hollywood Film Festival will take place from October 18 to 23. The festival's screenings take place at ArcLight Theatres in Hollywood. Its Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Monday, October 23.

Starz Entertainment Group LLC (SEG) is a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. SEG offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz® and Encore® brands with approximately 14 million and 26 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment Group airs more than 1,000 movies per month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HDTV, Starz On Demand and Vongo(SM). Starz Entertainment Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, www.starz.com.

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