HOLLYWOOD, CA, August 21, 2006 -- The 10th Annual Hollywood Film Festival® and Hollywood Awards®, co-chaired by Paula Wagner and presented by STARZ, will honor producer MIKE MEDAVOY with the "Hollywood Producer of the Year Award" and Oscar®-winning screenwriter ERIC ROTH with the "Hollywood Screenwriter of the Year Award."

The awards will be bestowed upon the honorees as part of the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony on Monday evening, October 23, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The announcement was made today by Carlos de Abreu, Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Film Festival. "Every year we are very proud to honor excellence in the art of filmmaking in all its disciplines. Mike Medavoy and Eric Roth are exemplary representatives of that excellence," said de Abreu.

From agent to studio chief and now producer, MIKE MEDAVOY has been involved with over 300 feature films. Seventeen of those have gone on to be nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture and seven have won. This year marks the tenth anniversary of Phoenix Pictures, the company Mr. Medavoy formed with his partner Arnie Messer. Phoenix has made more then 30 films, including "The Thin Red Line," "The People vs. Larry Flynt," and now a slate of highly anticipated films including "All the King's Men," starring Sean Penn, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Patricia Clarkson, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, and Kate Winslet and written and directed by Steve Zaillian, "Zodiac," starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, and Robert Downey Jr. and directed by David Fincher, and "Miss Potter," starring Renee Zellweger, Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson and directed by Chris Noonan. January 2007 marks the release of "Pathfinder," starring Karl Urban and directed by Marcus Nispel, followed next summer by the Robin Williams starrer "License to Wed," with John Krasinski and Mandy Moore, and directed by Ken Kwapis, and then "Resurrecting the Champ," starring Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Hartnett, and Alan Alda and directed by Rod Lurie.

During his heralded career, Mr. Medavoy has served as an agent to the likes of Steven Spielberg, Jane Fonda, and Francis Ford Coppola, as chairman of Tri-Star Pictures and as a co-founder of Orion Pictures. He has helped bring to the screen such classics as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Rocky," "Platoon," "Dances With Wolves," "Silence of the Lambs," and "Philadelphia," to name a few.

Aside from the entertainment business, Mr. Medavoy has been very active in the community. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles by former Governor Jerry Brown, he was appointed by Mayor Richard Riordan as Commissioner on the Los Angeles Board of Parks and Recreation, and he was appointed in 2002 by Governor Gray Davis to the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center's Executive Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Tel Aviv, the Board of Trustees of the UCLA Foundation, and the Board of Advisors at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. Mr. Medavoy is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an honorary fellow of the DeSantis Center's National Advisory Board.

Screenwriter ERIC ROTH received the Academy Award and the Writer's Guild Award for his screenplay adaptation of "Forrest Gump," and he has received two other Oscar® nominations, for his adaptations for "Munich" and "The Insider." For his work on "The Insider" he also received a Writer's Guild Award nomination and won the Humanitas Award. Mr. Roth's current motion pictures are "Lucky You," directed by Curtis Hanson and starring Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, and Robert Duvall, and "The Good Shepherd," directed by Robert De Niro and starring Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, and Robert De Niro. Mr. Roth is currently working on "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," which is being directed by David Fincher, produced by Kathleen Kennedy, and stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, and "Shantaram," starring Johnny Depp. Eric Roth's other film credits include "Ali," "The Horse Whisperer," "Mr. Jones," and "Suspect." Eric Roth attended the University of California at Santa Barbara, Columbia University, and UCLA, where he won the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award. His first produced screenplay was "The Nickel Ride." Directed by Robert Mulligan, the 1975 film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Other industry professionals who will be honored for their achievements at the Gala Awards Ceremony are 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," 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," 20th Century Fox's "X-Men: The Last Stand" which will receive the "Hollywood Make-Up 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 17 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.

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

Festival Contact:
Hollywood Film Festival®
Ph: 310.288.1882
awards@hollywoodawards.com