Judd Apatow, John Hawkes, Quvenzhane Wallis, Wally Pfister, And The Avengers Take Hollywood Film Awards Honors

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Sept. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 16th Annual Hollywood Film Awards, presented by the Los Angeles Times, is pleased to announce that writer/director/producer Judd Apatow will be given the "Hollywood Comedy Award"; actor John Hawkes will receive the "Hollywood Breakout Performance Award"; actress Quvenzhane Wallis will receive the "New Hollywood Award"; cinematographer Wally Pfister, A.S.C. will receive the "Hollywood Cinematographer Award"; and Disney and Marvel Entertainment's "The Avengers," directed by Josh Whedon, produced by Kevin Feige and with visual effects from VFX supervisors Janek Sirrs and Jeff White will receive the "Hollywood Visual Effects Award."

"We look forward to celebrating these exceptionally talented filmmakers and artists for their outstanding work and creative vision," said Carlos de Abreu, Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Film Awards.

The Hollywood Film Awards Gala Ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 22, 2012. The event honors cherished stars and up-and-coming talent, and traditionally kicks off the film awards season with the biggest stars and top industry executives in attendance.

"We are very proud to be the first stop of the awards season. In the last nine years, a total of 85 Oscar nominations and 32 Oscars were given to the honorees of the Hollywood Film Awards," said de Abreu.

Last year's awards show reached a total TV audience of more than 41 million media impressions, in addition to more than 300 million online and print readers' impressions.

Aside from celebrating accomplishments on screen, the Hollywood Film Awards established the "Hollywood Gives Back" program to expand and continue highlighting and assisting important local and national charities to raise funds. Over the years, the Hollywood Film Awards has contributed to such charities as the following: The Art of Elysium, Artists For Human Rights, Artists for Peace and Justice, MatchingDonors.com, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, the Enough Project, and Variety The Children's Charity of So. CA, among others.

Further, the Hollywood Film Awards selects individuals to be recipients of their "Hollywood Humanitarian Awards" in recognition of their contribution to the betterment of their communities or society at large. Prior recipients include Nobel Peace Prize winner and ex-President of East Timor, Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel Laureate Jody Williams, Father Rick Frechette, and actor and activist Sean Penn.

ABOUT JUDD APATOW
Audiences will get to experience Judd Apatow's next film, "This Is 40," when it is released by Universal Pictures on December 21, 2012. An original comedy that expands upon the story of Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) from the blockbuster hit "Knocked Up," we will see first-hand how they are dealing with their current state of life. The film also stars John Lithgow, Megan Fox, Iris Apatow, Maude Apatow, Jason Segel, Melissa McCarthy, Robert Smigel, Charlene Yi and Albert Brooks.

Initially aspiring to become a professional comedian, Apatow eventually stopped performing in favor of writing. After writing on a few award shows, cable specials, "The Larry Sanders Show" and "The Ben Stiller Show" (which he co-created), Apatow served as an executive producer on NBC's critically-acclaimed "Freaks and Geeks." He then made his feature-film debut as a director with 2005's "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." Co-written by Apatow and the film's star, Steve Carell, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" opened at No. 1 at the box office. In 2007, he directed, wrote and produced "Knocked Up," which grossed more than $200 million internationally. He followed this up by producing the hit comedies "Superbad," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Pineapple Express" and writing and directing 2009's "Funny People." Additional producing credits include "The Cable Guy," "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," and "Get Him to the Greek." In 2011, he produced the most successful R-rated female comedy of all time, "Bridesmaids," which received Oscar® nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Melissa McCarthy), as well as numerous other awards. Apatow is currently in production on the HBO series "Girls," and recently produced "The Five-Year Engagement," the latest comedy from director Nicholas Stoller.

ABOUT JOHN HAWKES
John Hawkes has been working non-stop since his critically acclaimed performance as Teardrop in "Winter's Bone," the role which earned him an Independent Spirit Award win and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Next, Hawkes will be seen in Ben Lewin's "The Sessions," the story of a man confined to an iron lung who is determined - at age 38 - to lose his virginity. He also recently completed production on "Lincoln," "Arcadia" and "The Playroom."

Hawkes' additional film credits include "Higher Ground," "Contagion," "Martha Marcy May Marlene," "Me and You and Everyone We Know," "American Gangster," "Miami Vice," "Identity," "The Perfect Storm," "Small Town Saturday Night," "Hardball," "Wristcutters: A Love Story," "The Amateurs," "From Dusk Till Dawn," and "A Slipping-Down Life." On the small screen, Hawkes starred as Sol Star in HBO's critically lauded drama "Deadwood" and now plays Danny McBride's brother Dustin in the comedy "Eastbound and Down."

ABOUT QUVENZHANE WALLIS
At the age of five, Quvenzhane Wallis, a Louisiana native, was cast as the lead in Benh Zeitlin's critically acclaimed feature film "Beasts of the Southern Wild." Her portrayal of Hushpuppy, a young girl growing up in the flood plagued bayous of Louisiana, is being recognized as one of the best performances by a child actor in over a decade. The film went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and the Camera d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Wallis recently wrapped production on Steve McQueen's highly anticipated film "Twelve Years A Slave," in which she will play the daughter of a man kidnapped from New York City in the early 1800s and sold into slavery.

ABOUT WALLY PFISTER, A.S.C.
Wally Pfister's ascent as a director of photography began when he shot Christopher Nolan's "Memento" in 1999. That work earned him a Spirit award nomination for cinematography. Since then, he has joined the ranks of the top Hollywood cinematographers, earning 3 Academy Award nominations, and one win for his work. The first nomination came for 2005s "Batman Begins," for which he was also honored, by his peers, with an American Society of Cinematographers Award nomination. The following year, he was nominated for his cinematography work on "The Prestige," and in 2009, for Christopher Nolan's record-breaking blockbuster, "The Dark Knight." He won his Oscar in 2010 for "Inception" also directed by Nolan. He also served as director of photography on the thriller, "Insomnia," for Nolan, "The Italian Job," directed by F. Gary Gray, as well as "Laurel Canyon," and "Moneyball". Films that Pfister has photographed on have grossed over three-billion dollars worldwide. In between feature films, Pfister also works as Director/Cameraman on Commercials. He is currently in pre-production on his feature film Directorial debut, which is due to begin filming in early 2013.

ABOUT "THE AVENGERS" AND VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISORS JANET SIRRS AND JEFF WHITE
Janek Sirrs is a respected VFX veteran, whose credits include The Matrix, I am Legend, Batman Begins, and Iron Man 2. He won the Best Visual Effects Oscar for the Matrix and was nominated for Iron Man 2.

Jeff White joined ILM in 2002 as a creature technical director. He has a Masters of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and has spent the last 5 years as Associate VFX Supervisor on the Transformers franchise. The Avengers marks his first time at the helm as Visual Effects Supervisor.

ABOUT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
The Los Angeles Times is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country, with a daily readership of 1.6 million and 2.7 million on Sunday, more than 16 million unique latimes.com visitors monthly and a combined print and online local weekly audience of 4.4 million. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Times has been covering Southern California for more than 130 years. The Los Angeles Times Media Group (LATMG) businesses and affiliates include the Los Angeles Times, The Envelope, Times Community News and Hoy Los Angeles and reach approximately 5.2 million or 39% of all adults in the Southern California marketplace. LATMG also owns and operates California Community News, as well as Tribune Direct's west coast division and is part of Tribune Company, one of the country's leading media companies with businesses in publishing, the Internet and broadcasting. Additional information is available at http://latimes.com/aboutus.

ABOUT THE HOLLYWOOD FILM AWARDS
The Hollywood Film Awards were created to honor excellence in the art of filmmaking, both in front of and behind the camera, and launch the awards season. The criteria is: recipients are selected to be honored for their body of work and/or a film(s) that is to be released between January 1 and December 31 by an advisory team. In addition, for the recipients of our "film awards craft categories" (aside from evaluating their body of work), our Advisory team takes into consideration the recommendation of their guilds/societies. Last year alone, our recipients received 12 nominations and 5 Oscars. In the last 9 years, a total of 85 Oscar nominations and 32 Oscars were given to our honorees. The awards are bestowed at a GALA ceremony that takes place at the prestigious Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

The Hollywood Film Awards are presented in conjunction with Presenting Sponsor the Los Angeles Times, Premier sponsors ArcLight Cinemas and Hollywoodnews.com, exclusive Regional Print Media sponsor Los Angeles Confidential and trade Media sponsor the Hollywood Reporter. Special support is provided by American Cinema Editors - A.C.E., American Society of Cinematographers - A.S.C., The Art Directors Guild - A.D.G., Celebrity Services, The Casting Society of America - CSA, Costume Designers Guild - CDG, Columbia Pictures, Creative Artists Agency, DreamWorks SKG, Entertainment Tonight, Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, ICM, ILM, Motion Picture Editors Guild, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Walt Disney/Pixar, The Weinstein Company, WME. The Beverly Hilton Hotel is the Official Host Hotel and Getty Image is the Official Photography Agency.

http://www.hollywoodfilmawards.com

SOURCE Hollywood Film Awards