The 12th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, co-chaired by Paul Haggis and presented by Starz, are pleased to announce honorees who will be recognized for their achievements at the festival's Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony, which will take place on October 27, 2008, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Academy Award-winning actor and Hollywood icon Dustin Hoffman will be honored with the “Hollywood Career Achievement Award,” actor Josh Brolin with the “Hollywood Actor of the Year Award,” and actress Kristin Scott Thomas with the “Hollywood Actress of the Year Award.”

The announcement was made today by Carlos de Abreu, Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Film Festival. Said Mr. de Abreu, “It is a privilege to honor and to celebrate Dustin Hoffman's extraordinary talent and remarkable career, as well as the exemplary work of actor Josh Brolin and actress Kristin Scott Thomas.”

About Dustin Hoffman:
A two-time Academy Award winner and seven-time nominee, Dustin Hoffman continues to add singular performances to a career rich with characters that have obliterated the line dividing the archetypes of “character actor” and “leading man.” Hoffman caught the world's attention for his role as Benjamin Braddock in Mike Nichol's Academy Award nominated film “The Graduate.” Since then, he has been nominated for six more Academy Awards for such diverse films as “Midnight Cowboy,” “Lenny,” “Tootsie,” and “Wag the Dog.” Hoffman won the Oscar® in 1979 for his role in “Kramer vs. Kramer” and again in 1988 for “Rain Man.”

Hoffman will next star in “Last Chance Harvey,” a love story set in London, written and directed by Joel Hopkins, and co-starring Emma Thompson. “Last Chance Harvey” will be released by Overture Films on December 26. Hoffman will also lend his voice to the animated feature “The Tale of Despereaux” for Universal Pictures. Co-starring Matthew Broderick, Emma Watson, Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Tracey Ullman, and Robbie Coltrane, “The Tale of Despereaux” will be released on December 19. Hoffman was last heard as the voice of “Shifu” in the box office hit, “Kung Fu Panda” for DreamWorks Animation, which co-stars Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu and Ian McShane and has grossed over $625 million worldwide.

Dustin Hoffman's other film credits include “Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium,” “Stranger Than Fiction,” “Perfume,” “Meet the Fockers,” “Finding Neverland,” “I Heart Huckabees,” “The Lost City,” “Racing Stripes,” “Runaway Jury,” “Little Big Man,” “Straw Dogs,” “Papillon,” “All the President's Men,” “Marathon Man,” “Straight Time,” “Agatha,” “Ishtar,” “Dick Tracy,” “Billy Bathgate,” “Mad City,” “Hero,” “Sleepers,” “Sphere,” “American Buffalo,” “Hook” and “Outbreak.”

On stage, Hoffman has had an equally impressive career. After studying at the Pasadena Playhouse, he moved to New York to study with Lee Strasberg. Subsequently, his award-winning Off-Broadway success caught the attention of Mike Nichols, who cast him in “The Graduate.” In 1969, Hoffman made his Broadway debut in Murray Schisgal's “Jimmy Shine.” In 1974, he made his Broadway directorial debut with Schisgal's “All Over Town.” In 1984, he garnered a Drama Desk Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Willy Loman in the Broadway revival of “Death of a Salesman,” which he also produced, and he received a Tony Award nomination for his role as Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice.”

About Josh Brolin:
Josh Brolin continues to emerge as a powerful, sought-after film actor willing to take on challenging roles in both major studio productions as well as independents. He will be seen starring as George W. Bush in Oliver Stone's “W.” which is slated for release by Lionsgate on October 17. In addition, he will also be seen in Gus Van Sant's “Milk,” opposite Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, and James Franco. Brolin portrays Dan White, the San Francisco supervisor who murdered Harvey Milk, San Francisco's first openly gay elected official, and Mayor George Moscone in 1978. From Focus Features, “Milk” is due in theaters on November 26.

Most recently, Brolin received rave reviews for his performance in the Coen brothers' crime drama “No Country for Old Men” with Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem, Ridley Scott's “American Gangster,” opposite Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington, and again with Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon in Paul Haggis's drama “In the Valley of Elah.” Brolin was also seen in “Planet Terror” this year, part of the critically acclaimed Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez double feature “Grindhouse” alongside co-stars Rose McGowan and Freddy Rodriguez.

Brolin made his feature film debut starring in the action-comedy “Goonies.” His film credits since then include “Hollow Man,” “All the Rage,” “Flirting with Disaster,” “Coastlines,” “The Mod Squad,” “Nightwatch,” “Best Laid Plans” “Mimic” and “Into the Blue.” In television, his work includes the series “The Young Riders,” “Private Eye,” “Winnetka Road” and “Mister Sterling,” as well as the miniseries “Into the West,” the Showtime original film “Gang in Blue,” and CBS's adaptation of William Inge's Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Picnic.” Josh Brolin also has extensive experience on stage, including starring opposite Elias Koteas in the acclaimed production of Sam Shephard's “True West” and starring in the award-winning Off-Broadway play “The Exonerated,” among others.

About Kristin Scott Thomas:
Kristin Scott Thomas has become internationally renowned for her talent, elegance, versatility and commitment to her craft. Scott Thomas can currently be seen on Broadway in “The Seagull,” a performance for which she won the Olivier Award for Best Actress during the play's run at London's Royal Court Theatre. She will soon star in Phillipe Claudel's French language film, “I've Loved You So Long,” a story of redemption for a woman who has committed a terrible crime. The film is slated for release from Sony Classics on October 24. Scott Thomas is also a member of the stellar cast of the upcoming film “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” based on the novel by Sophie Kinsella. The film, from Walt Disney Studios, is set to hit theaters in February 2009.

Kristin Scott Thomas received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in 1996 in Anthony Minghella's “The English Patient.” In 2001, she was a member of the award-winning ensemble cast for Robert Altman's acclaimed film “Gosford Park.” Making her U.S. film debut in Prince's “Under the Cherry Moon,” Scott Thomas went on to acclaim in Mike Newell's “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” opposite Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell, and she won a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress. Other notable credits include Philip Haas's “Angels and Insects,” Richard Loncraine's “Richard III,” Brian De Palma's “Mission: Impossible,” Robert Redford's “The Horse Whisperer,” Sydney Pollack's “Random Hearts,” Irwin Winkler's “Life as a House,” Roman Polanski's “Bitter Moon,” Paul Schrader's “The Walker,” Justin Chadwick's “The Other Boleyn Girl,” and in French cinema, Guillaume Canet's “Ne le Dis à Personne” (“Tell No One”), Francis Veber's “La Doublure” (“The Valet”) and Pascal Bonitzer's “Petites Coupures” (“Small Cuts”).

About the Hollywood Film Festival & Hollywood Awards:
The 12th Annual Hollywood Film Festival®, presented by Starz, will mark its return on October 22, 2008, to the state-of-the-art ArcLight Theatres in Hollywood for a weeklong series of screenings, seminars, competitions, awards and a special presentation of “Genre Cinema.”

The festival and awards presenter is Starz Entertainment, LLC, a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. It offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz® and Encore® brands with approximately 17 million and 31.3 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs more than 1,000 movies per month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HD, Encore HD, Starz On Demand, Encore On Demand, MoviePlex On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore HD On Demand, MoviePlex HD On Demand, and Starz Play. 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 Liberty Entertainment Group (NASDAQ: LMDIA), a tracking stock group of Liberty Media Corporation.

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