Hollywood Film Festival Unveils Line-Up

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The 14th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, presented by Starz, has unveiled its line-up of finalists for this year's festival, founder and executive director Carlos de Abreu announced today. The programming includes features, documentaries and shorts from around the world.

The Hollywood Film Festival, which takes place October 22-25 at ArcLight Cinemas, will open on Friday, October 22, with the feature "RECONCILIATION: MANDELA'S MIRACLE," a sensitive documentary about how Nelson Mandela saved his country from bloody civil war and dismantled the system of apartheid through the spirit of reconciliation. The documentary was directed by Michael Henry Wilson and stars FW De Klerk, Zindzi Mandela, Clint Eastwood, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Francois Pienaar and The Springboks.

This year's lineup includes "THE 5TH QUARTER," a film by Rick Bieber that is based on real events in 2006 and stars Aidan Quinn, Andie MacDowell, and Ryan Merriman; "BENEATH THE BLUE," directed by Michael D. Sellers and starring Paul Wesley as a young Naval officer who is assigned to "recover" a dolphin that has disappeared from the Navy's Marine Mammal program; "BLACK, WHITE AND BLUES," a film by Mario Van Peebles that stars Michael Clarke Duncan, Tom Skerritt, Kiele Sanchez, Taryn Manning, Luke Perry, and Morgan Simpson; "BROTHER'S JUSTICE," directed by David Palmer and Dax Shepard, and starring Dax Shepard, Tom Arnold, Nate Tuck, Bradley Cooper, and David Koechner; "FORT MCCOY," a film by Kate Connor and Michael Worth that stars Eric Stoltz, Kate Connor, Lyndsy Fonseca, Andy Hirsch, Camryn Manheim, and Seymour Cassel, and is based on the true story of Kate Connor's grandparents when they lived next to a Nazi POW camp in Wisconsin during WWII -- a coming-of-age story, a romance and the journey of one man struggling to find his worth in a war that does not want him; and "WILD TARGET," a film by Jonathan Lynn that stars Emily Blunt, Bill Nighy, Rupert Grint, and Rupert Everett. It is the story of Rose, a beautiful, quick-witted con-artist, who makes a killing selling fake paintings. But when she scams an art loving gangster, he sets Europe's most efficient and expensive assassin on her tail.

For comedic artists around the world, Hollywood has always been the final stop and the festival continues to spotlight those burgeoning cinematic masters of laughs in the second year of the Hollywood Comedy Film Festival, curated by entertainment journalist Anthony D'Alessandro.

Among those films showing this year is the world premiere of "HOLLYWOOD AND WINE," about a working actress and her boyfriend's run-in with sleazy producers and the mob, co-directed by Matt Berman and Kevin Farley, and starring an all-star cast of "Saturday Night Live" alums Chris Kattan, David Spade, Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz, Norm MacDonald as well as. Nicky Whelan, Chazz Palminteri, Vivica A. Fox and Pamela Anderson. The mockumentary "BROTHER'S JUSTICE" co-directed by Dax Shepard and David Palmer follows Shepard's attempt to convince his showbiz friends -- Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher, David Koechner, Nate Tuck, Tom Arnold and Jon Favreau -- to participate in his brilliant martial arts film. "Wild Target" directed by Jonathan Lynn, stars Emily Blunt as a con-artist who double-crosses the mob with fake paintings and is pursued by a sharp assassin (Bill Nighy). Rupert Grint of "Harry Potter" fame also stars. "BEWARE THE GONZO" directed by Bryan Goluboff follows a rebellious teen journalist who wages an underground movement against the upper echelon of students who have ousted him from the academy's newspaper. Ezra Miller, Zoe Kravitz, Jesse McCartney, Judah Friedlander, Amy Sedaris and Campbell Scott star. "BUZZKILL" directed by Steven Kampmann tells the tale of a struggling British writer who becomes famous after a notorious serial murderer, played by "SNL's" Darrell Hammond, steals his car and the newest draft of his script.

For screening tickets please go to: http://www.arclightcinemas.com

The festival will close on Sunday, October 24, with the presentation of the "Hollywood Discovery Awards" to announce the festival's winning films - Best Feature Film, Best Documentary, Best Comedy and Best Short Subject.

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 (NASDAQ: LSTZA).

http://www.hollywoodfestival.com

SOURCE Hollywood Film Festival