The 15th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment, have announced that “Rango” will receive this year’s Hollywood Animation Award at the festival’s gala ceremony on October 24, 2011, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies feature film is directed by Gore Verbinski and stars Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone and Timothy Olyphant as the Spirit of the West. The screenplay was written by Oscar®-nominated screenwriter John Logan with the story by John Logan, Gore Verbinski and James Ward Byrkit. Produced by Verbinski’s Blind Wink Productions, Graham King and John Carls, “Rango” also marks the first animated feature film for award-winning special effects house Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).

The announcement was made today by Carlos de Abreu, Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Film Festival. “It is a great pleasure to recognize “Rango” as the recipient of our animation award. This piece of cinematic treasure borders on surrealism and “Rango” will be a classic for generations to come.”

Past recipients of the Hollywood Animation Award include “Cars,” “Ratatouille,” “Toy Story 3,” “UP,” and “Wall-E.”

About “RANGO”
From the director of “The Pirates of the Caribbean” comes RANGO, featuring Johnny Depp in an original animated comedy-adventure that takes moviegoers for a hilarious and heartfelt walk in the Wild West. The story follows the comical, transformative journey of “Rango” (Depp), a sheltered chameleon living as an ordinary family pet, while facing a major identity crisis. After all, how high can you aim when your whole purpose in life is to blend in? When Rango accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, a lawless outpost populated by the desert’s most wily and whimsical creatures, the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt . . . until, in a blaze of action-packed situations and encounters with outrageous characters, “Rango” starts to become the hero he once only pretended to be. With a cast that includes Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone and Timothy Olyphant as the Spirit of the West, Rango is an exciting new twist on the classic Western legend of the outsider who saves a town, and himself in the process.

About Starz Entertainment, LLC:
The festival and awards presenter is Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie and original programming entertainment service provider operating in the United States. The company offers 17 premium channels including the flagship STARZ® and ENCORE® brands with approximately 19 million and 32.9 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs in total more than 1,000 movies and original series every month across its pay TV channels. Starz Entertainment is recognized as a pay TV leader in providing HD, On Demand, HD On Demand and online advanced services for its STARZ, ENCORE and MOVIEPLEX brands. 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 the Liberty Starz tracking stock group (NASDAQ: LSTZA).

– hollywoodnews.com