James Franco and Sally Hawkins, riding high following acclaimed performances in Pineapple Express and Happy-Go-Lucky, will receive the breakthrough acting awards at the 12th Annual Hollywood Film Festival's Hollywood Awards gala on October 27.

Doubt director John Patrick Shanley and Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black will each collect breakthrough honours for their craft.

Disney/Pixar's Wall-E will receive the Hollywood Animation Of The Year Award and Paramount's Iron Man and visual effects supervisors John Nelson and Ben Snow will receive the Hollywood Visual Effects Of The Year Award.

Franco will next be seen in Nights In Rodanthe and Milk, while Hawkins recently completed work on Sherry Horman's Desert Flower and Lone Scherfig's An Education, both of which will be released in 2009.