Director Louis J. Horvitz will return to direct the 79th Annual Academy Awards telecast, producer Laura Ziskin has announced.

This will be Horvitz's 11th time directing the Academy Awards show. In August of this year, Horvitz added a fifth Emmy Award to his mantel for his achievement in directing the 78th Annual Academy Awards. He has received a total of eight Emmy nominations and four Emmy Awards for his Oscar telecast work.

Horvitz just directed the most recent Emmy Awards (his 12th time) and completed his 15th stint directing both The Kennedy Center Honors and The American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. This year, he completed his 11th year as executive producer-director of An Evening of Stars and directed The 41st Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.

In a career that has spanned three decades, Horvitz has helmed numerous other high-profile programs including the Daytime Emmy Awards, The Kids Choice Awards, CBS at 75, Lifetime's Achievement Awards: Women Changing the World, VH-1's DIVAS, Macy's July 4th Spectacular, The 2004 MTV Movie Awards, The Bad Boys of Comedy, The VH-1 Concert for New York City benefiting survivors of 9/11, and U2 Half Time at the Superbowl.

Nominations for the 79th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2007, at 5:30 a.m. PST in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2006 will be presented on Sunday, February 25, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC Television Network at 5 p.m. PST, beginning with a half-hour red carpet arrivals segment, The Road to the Oscars.