William Shatner to Host the Golden Groundhog Awards

William Shatner (Kirk) will host the inaugural Golden Groundhog Awards to honour the best underground movie of 2005.

On February 2nd - Groundhog Day - Shatner will oversee awards given to "genuinely outstanding films that lacked the distribution and marketing support needed to become the blockbuster hits they deserved to be," according to the Golden Groundhogs web site. Shatner, noted the publicists, "has enjoyed tremendous success on the silver screen" yet "also knows that great films can fall through the cracks."

Shatner recently founded a DVD club to promote unheralded sci-fi films, something that connected with the organizers of the Golden Groundhogs. "The whole purpose of our organization is to highlight the amazing films that did not make it into the public consciousness because they didn't have support from studios." said Stephanie Silver, one of the founders of the awards. "The William Shatner DVD Club has a similar mission." Because Shatner is also "a true Hollywood icon", she added, he was an obvious choice to host the awards.

"I'm honored that they chose me," Shatner himself said. "I believe that great movies deserve to be seen, regardless of who makes them." Eligible films must have earned less than $1 million at the U.S. box office. Nominees include Elijah Wood's Green Street Hooligans as well as Nine Lives, a film starring such luminaries as Glenn Close and Sissy Spacek which grossed only $347,000 domestically.

More information and a full list of nominees are available here.

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