HOLLYWOOD – Lester Cohen, a co-founder of the celebrity photo agency WireImage, scanned the tip sheet that tells him which stars to expect on the red carpet Monday night at the Hollywood Film Festival’s award banquet in Beverly Hills.
“The names on it are pretty impressive,” Cohen said. “For a photographer that wants a great turnout of celebrities, this is how you make your bread-and-butter. It’s not as glitzy or glamorous as the Oscars. It’s a little more relaxed. But there is enough pandemonium that everyone is trying to get someone’s attention, get eye contact with the celebrities. One moment, it might be Penelope Cruz. Five minutes later, Ben Affleck. Then Sandra Bullock … . Looking at this list, I imagine there will be lots of screaming and elbows thrown to try and get the best photos.”
No, it’s not Cannes or Sundance. But the much smaller Hollywood Film Festival and its annual award dinner, which is the highlight of the six-day festival that begins today, still manages to attract plenty of A-list celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Cameron Diaz, Billy Crystal, Nicole Kidman, Harrison Ford and Danny DeVito.
For its 10th anniversary, the festival will be honoring filmmaker Oliver Stone, and a discussion with the Oscar-winning filmmaker will follow the screenings of his “Born on the Fourth of July” and “World Trade Center.” Other movies screening during the festival include Michael Mayer’s “Flicka” as well as a documentary on the late Hunter S. Thompson called “Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride” and the new animated film “Flushed Away.”
On a more serious note, there is a concentration of films that seek to shed light on human atrocities in Africa, among them the apartheid-era drama “Catch a Fire,” starring Oscar winner Tim Robbins and Derek Luke.
For this year’s banquet, Robert De Niro is scheduled to wing in from Rome to present an award to Eric Roth, the screenwriter behind De Niro’s new film, “The Good Shepherd.” Cruz and Forest Whitaker are also expected on stage to receive the evening’s top acting prizes – Cruz for her role in the film “Volver” and Whitaker for “The Last King of Scotland.” And if only half the ensemble cast of “Bobby” shows up (they include such stars as Helen Hunt, Sharon Stone, Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Lindsay Lohan and Martin Sheen), the photographers stationed at the Beverly Hilton should have a field day.
“It’ll be like a mini-screamfest,” Cohen said of the red carpet scene, noting that his agency will likely have two photographers and an editor on site to rush their celebrity photos to the weekly U.S. publications, which go to press Monday night. And that doesn’t begin to include the overseas magazines and newspapers that have an insatiable appetite for celebrity photos.
A decade ago, only about 300 guests turned out at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to watch Kirk Douglas accept the festival’s first career achievement award. Many thought that first festival would be the last. After all, no one had ever heard of the festival or its founder, Carlos de Abreu. But by positioning itself in October – just as the Oscar race is gearing up – and by staging an award show where the stars can let their hair down without the fear of being on live television, the Hollywood Film Festival manages to draw top names and power brokers year after year.
DeVito’s publicist, Stan Rosenfield, said that much like the Golden Globe Awards of old, which had a great party without always relying on a live television broadcast, the Hollywood Film Festival puts the accent on fun. Celebrities come because they get an award, receive some publicity and then table hop with their friends and co-workers in the industry.
In addition to Whitaker and Cruz, this year’s award winners will include Robin Williams, who is receiving the career achievement award; Lindsay Lohan; Ben Affleck; Sandra Bullock; Oliver Stone; Derek Luke; Ryan Murphy; producer Mike Medavoy; Pixar’s John Lasseter; and the cast of “Bobby.” Presenters announced include De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Nicolas Cage, Bill Condon, Benicio Del Toro and Laura Linney.
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