Kudos for Wick, Fisher, Goldsman, Gregson-Willams

The Hollywood Film Festival will honor Oscar(r)-winning producer DOUGLAS WICK and producer LUCY FISHER with the "Hollywood Producers of the Year Award," Academy Award-winning screenwriter AKIVA GOLDSMAN with the "Hollywood Screenwriter of the Year Award," Lions Gate Films Releasing President TOM ORTENBERG with its "Hollywood Leadership Award," Librarian of Congress Dr. JAMES BILLNGTON with the "Hollywood Film Preservation Award" and award-winning composer HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS with the "Hollywood Composer of the Year Award."

The awards will be bestowed upon the honorees as part of the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony on Monday evening, October 24, 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, and Mr. Wick, Ms. Fisher, Mr. Goldsman, Mr. Ortenberg, Dr. Billington, and Mr. Gregson-Williams are great examples of that excellence," said de Abreu.

Producers DOUGLAS WICK and LUCY FISHER are co-heads of Red Wagon Entertainment. Their upcoming films include "Memoirs of a Geisha," directed by Rob Marshall, and Sam Mendes's "Jarhead." Together they produced "Bewitched," "Peter Pan," and "Stuart Little 2." Prior to forming Red Wagon, Lucy Fisher served as Vice-Chairman of Sony's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, where she supervised such films as "Men in Black," "My Best Friend's Wedding," "Air Force One," "Jerry Maguire," "Zorro," "As Good as It Gets" and "Stuart Little," and Douglas Wick produced "Gladiator," which won the Best Picture Oscar(r), "Stuart Little," "Spy Game," "Hollow Man," "Girl, Interrupted" and "Working Girl," among other films.

Screenwriter AKIVA GOLDSMAN received the highest film industry honors for his groundbreaking portrayal of schizophrenia in his adaptation of "A Beautiful Mind," which earned him an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Writers Guild Award. Mr. Goldsman's writing credits include "Cinderella Man," "I, Robot," "Practical Magic," "A Time to Kill," "Batman Forever" and "The Client." He is currently working on an adaptation of the blockbuster novel "The Da Vinci Code," which is being directed by Ron Howard for Columbia Pictures.

TOM ORTENBERG is President of Lions Gate Films Releasing. During his tenure, the company has generated a string of prestigious, provocative commercial and award-winning hits, including
"Gods and Monsters," "Affliction," "Dogma," "American Psycho," "The Red Violin," "Shadow of the Vampire," "Monster's Ball," "Girl With a Pearl Earring," "The Cooler," "The Punisher," "Fahrenheit 9/11," "Open Water," "Saw," "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" and "Crash."

As the Librarian of Congress, Dr. JAMES BILLINGTON has worked tirelessly for film preservation. He spearheaded the 1993 congressional study on the state of American film preservation. At his recommendation, Congress put aside preservation money for archives across the country and created the National Film Registry. In 1996, the National Film Preservation Foundation was created by Congress, at the recommendation of the Library of Congress, as the nonprofit charitable affiliate of the Library of Congress's National Film Preservation Board. Dr. Billington is greatly expanding the library's media storage and preservation laboratory, and he has continuously championed the library's American Memory National Digital Library (NDL) Program, which makes freely available online over 8.5 million American historical films from the collections of the library and other research institutions.

HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS has created the scores for a long and extremely varied list of films, both animated and live-action, including the upcoming films "Domino," from New Line Cinema, and Disney's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe." His other films include "Kingdom of Heaven," "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," "Return to Sender," "Shrek 2," "Man on Fire," "Veronica Guerin," "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas," "Phone Booth," "Passionada," "Spy Game," "King of the Jungle," "Shrek," "Chicken Run," "The Tigger Movie," "Enemy of the State," "Antz," "As Good as It Gets," "Smilla's Sense of Snow" and "The Fan," among others.

Other industry professionals who will be honored for their achievements at the Gala Awards Ceremony are Oscar(r)-nominated cinematographer Pawel Edelman who will receive the "Hollywood Cinematographer of the Year Award," Academy Award-winning editor Walter Murch who will be honored with the "Hollywood Editor of the Year Award," Oscar(r)-winning director Hayao Miyazaki who will be honored with the "Hollywood Animation of the Year Award," Academy Award-winning senior visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren who will be honored with the "Hollywood Visual Effects of the Year Award," special make-up effects supervisor Gregory Nicotero who will receive the "Hollywood Make-Up of the Year Award," supervising sound editor David G. Evans who will receive the "Hollywood Sound of the Year Award," Academy Award-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood who will be honored with the "Hollywood Costume Designer of the Year Award," Oscar(r)-winning production designer Grant Major who will receive the "Hollywood Production Designer of the Year Award" and casting director Avy Kaufman who will be honored with the "Hollywood Casting Director of the Year Award."