The Hollywood Film Awards will be presented tonight, beginning the movie industry’s ever-expanding awards season, and while this will be the 18th year the honors have been doled out, it will be the first time the ceremony is televised.
Queen Latifah will host the Hollywood Palladium event, which will be broadcast on CBS, although tape-delayed on the West Coast. Differing from other major awards ceremonies, there are no previously announced nominees, although winners of some categories have already been announced.
While nominees were not announced in advance, a list of celebrities expected to attend was released. Among those expected are Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Eddie Redmayne, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Michael Keaton, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Julianne Moore, Chris Pratt and Gerard Butler.
The awards that will be presented during the telecast are:
— Career Achievement;
— Actor;
— Actress;
— Supporting Actor;
— Supporting Actress;
— Ensemble;
— Breakout Performance Actress;
— Breakout Performance Actor;
— Director;
— Breakthrough Director;
— Song;
— Animation;
— Screenwriter;
— Film;
— Comedy;
— Blockbuster;
— Documentary; and
— New Hollywood.
Other honorees who have already been announced are:
— Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, “Birdman”;
— Visual Effects: Scott Farrar, “Transformers: Age of Extinction”;
— Composer: Alexandre Desplat, “The Imitation Game”;
— Costume Design: Milena Canonero, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”;
— Editing: Jay Cassidy and Dody Dorn, “Fury”;
— Production Design: Dylan Cole and Gary Freeman, “Maleficent”;
— Sound: Ren Klyce, “Gone Girl”; and
— Makeup and Hairstyling: David White (special makeup effects) and Elizabeth Yanni-Georgiou (hair and makeup designer), “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
A new category this year is the International Award, which will be presented to Chinese actress Jing Tian.
A Humanitarian award is also expected to be presented to honor a person for “contribution to the betterment of their communities or society at large.”
The Hollywood Film Awards were founded in 1997 by producer/screenwriter Carlos de Abreu and his wife, Janice Pennington. Capitalizing on the timing of the awards show, they even trademarked the phrase “Official Launch of the Award Season” to distinguish it as the first film honors of the season — even though many of the films it may honor likely haven’t been released in theaters yet.
