I have learned that Gore Verbinski‘s Rango — an animated film from Paramount that was released in May, has made nearly $250 billion internationally, and features the voices of Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone, and Timothy Olyphant — has been chosen to receive this year’s Hollywood Animation Award at the 15th annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, the first awards show of the Oscar season, at a gala ceremony on October 24, 2011, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Several previous recipients of this honor went on to win the best animated feature Oscar, including its four most recent winners, Ratatouille (2007), Wall-E (2008), Up (2009), and Toy Story 3 (2010).
Carlos de Abreu, the Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Film Festival, said, “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.”
