George Clooney Earns Hollywood Film Festival Award

George Clooney  Hollywood Film Festival's Award
George Clooney to be Honored at Hollywood Film Festival’s Awards Gala Ceremony (PRNewsFoto/Hollywood Film Festival)

Writer, actor, producer, director, and Oscar-winner George Clooney has been named the “Hollywood Actor Award” winner for this year’s Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards to be held on October 24, 2011 in Beverly Hills. Clooney was chosen as the winner because of his performance in The Descendants, according to the Hollywood Film Festival.

“George Clooney delivered a flawless and passionate performance in Alexander Payne’s human drama, The Descendants. Clooney continues to shine as one of Hollywood’s most gifted actors. We’re delighted to honor him at this year’s Hollywood Film Awards,” stated Mr. Carlos de Abreu, Hollywood Film Festival Founder and Executive Director.

In addition to Clooney, the 2011 Hollywood Film Festival will honor Glenn Close with the “Hollywood Career Achievement Award,” Michelle Williams with the “Hollywood Actress Award” for My Week with Marilyn, Christopher Plummer with the “Hollywood Supporting Actor Award” for Beginners, Carey Mulligan with the “Hollywood Supporting Actress Award” for Shame, Joseph Gordon-Levitt with the “Hollywood Breakthrough Actor Award” for 50/50, Felicity Jones with the “New Hollywood Award” for Like Crazy, and the cast of The Help with the “Hollywood Ensemble Acting Award.”

More on George Clooney [Courtesy of the Hollywood Film Festival]:

George Clooney is recognized as much for his global humanitarian efforts as he is for his accomplishments in the entertainment industry.

Clooney has won an Oscar (Best Supporting Actor, “Syriana”), two Golden Globes (Best Supporting Actor, “Syriana” & Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”), and received four Oscar nominations (Best Director & Best Original Screenplay, “Good Night, and Good Luck”; Best Actor, “Michael Clayton” and “Up In the Air”).

Clooney stars in Fox Searchlight’s “The Descendants,” directed by Alexander Payne. The film premiered at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival, screened at the 2011 Telluride Film Festival, and will be the closing night film at the New York Film Festival.

Clooney’s other acting credits include “Up in the Air,” “Michael Clayton,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Out of Sight,” “Batman & Robin,” “One Fine Day,” “From Dusk ‘Til Dawn,” “Burn After Reading,” “Intolerable Cruelty,” and “Oceans 11-3.”

Clooney co-starred, co-wrote, and directed Sony’s political thriller “The Ides of March,” which was the opening night film at the 2011 Venice Film Festival and which also screened at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival. The film was produced by Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions. Other Smokehouse films include “The American,” “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” and the upcoming “Argo.”

Clooney made his directorial debut in 2002 with “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” winning the Special Achievement in Film Award from the National Board of Review. In 2006, he received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay for “Good Night, and Good Luck.” That same year Clooney received his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for “Syriana.” It was the first time in Academy history that an individual had received acting and directing nominations for two different films in the same year. Two years later, Clooney directed “Leatherheads,” a Smokehouse production.

Among the many honors Clooney received was the 2007 Peace Summit Award, given at the eighth World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. In 2008, Clooney was designated a U.N. Messenger of Peace.

In January 2010, Clooney co-produced the “Hope for Haiti Now!” telethon, which raised more than $66 million, setting a new record for donations made by the public through a disaster-relief telethon. In 2010 Clooney received the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award for his dedication to humanitarian efforts in Sudan and Haiti. In December of 2010, Clooney – along with the United Nations, Harvard University and Google – launched “The Satellite Sentinel Project,” an effort to monitor human-rights violations between Southern and Northern Sudan.