Laura Morante
Laura Morante is an Italian film actress. Morante was born in Santa Fiora, province of Grosseto, the daughter of a lawyer and playwright Marcello Morante, son of Irma, a schoolteacher of Jewish descent, Francesco Lo Monaco, from Sicily, brother of the novelist Elsa Morante. Laura's mother is instead Maria Bona Palazzeschi. A dancer, Morante started her acting career on stage at 18 years old, in the theatrical company of Carmelo Bene, she made her film debut in Oggetti Smarriti. Directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci, whose brother would direct the second film in which Morante would appear, La Tragedia di un uomo ridicolo, she had her breakout thanks to Nanni Moretti, who gave her the title role in Bianca. After her marriage to French actor Georges Claisse, Morante moved to Paris, thanks to her participation in numerous productions, she acquired a certain notoriety in European art cinema. Returned to Italy, in 2001 she won the David di Donatello for best actress her performance in Moretti's The Son's Room.
She was nominated for the David di Donatello in the same category in 2003, for Gabriele Muccino's Remember Me, My Love, won the Silver Ribbon for best actress for Love Is Eternal While It Lasts by Carlo Verdone. Morante attracted considerable attention with her performance as the neglected Madame Jourdain, with whom the young Molière, played by Romain Duris, falls in love, in the 2007 release Molière, she provided the voice of Helen Parr/Elastigirl in the Italian-dubbed version of the Pixar animated film, The Incredibles. Active in France, in 2012 Morante made her directorial and writing debut with the Franch-Italian co-production Cherry on the Cake, for which she was nominated for the David di Donatello for best new director. Laura Morante on IMDb
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival, until 2002 called the International Film Festival and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries from all around the world. Founded in 1946, the invitation-only festival is held annually at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, it is one of the "Big Three" alongside the Venice Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival. On 1 July 2014, co-founder and former head of French pay-TV operator Canal+, Pierre Lescure, took over as President of the Festival, while Thierry Fremaux became the General Delegate; the board of directors appointed Gilles Jacob as Honorary President of the Festival. The 2018 Cannes Film Festival took place between 8 and 19 May 2018; the jury president was Australian actress Cate Blanchett, Shoplifters, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, won the Palme d'Or. The Cannes Film Festival has its origins in 1932 when Jean Zay, the French Minister of National Education, on the proposal of historian Philippe Erlanger and with the support of the British and Americans, set up an international cinematographic festival.
Its origins may be attributed in part to the French desire to compete with the Venice Film Festival, which at the time was shocking the democratic world by its fascist bias. The first festival was planned for 1939, Cannes was selected as the location for it, but the funding and organization were too slow and the beginning of World War II put an end to this plan. On 20 September 1946, twenty-one countries presented their films at the First Cannes International Film Festival, which took place at the former Casino of Cannes. In 1947, amid serious problems of efficiency, the festival was held as the "Festival du film de Cannes", where films from sixteen countries were presented; the festival was not held in 1950 on account of budgetary problems. In 1949, the Palais des Festivals was expressly constructed for the occasion on the seafront promenade of La Croisette, although its inaugural roof, while still unfinished, blew off during a storm. In 1951, the festival was moved to spring to avoid a direct competition with the Venice Festival, held in autumn.
During the early 1950s, the festival attracted a lot of tourism and press attention, with showbiz scandals and high-profile personalities' love affairs. At the same time, the artistic aspect of the festival started developing; because of controversies over the selection of films, the Critics' Prize was created for the recognition of original films and daring filmmakers. In 1954, the Special Jury Prize was awarded for the first time. In 1955, the Palme d'Or was created, replacing the Grand Prix du Festival, given until that year. In 1957, Dolores del Río was the first female member of the jury for the official selection. In 1959, the Marché du Film was founded, giving the festival a commercial character and facilitating exchanges between sellers and buyers in the film industry. Today it has become the first international platform for film commerce. Still, in the 1950s, some outstanding films, like Night and Fog in 1956 and Hiroshima, My Love in 1959 were excluded from the competition for diplomatic concerns.
Jean Cocteau, three times president of the jury in those years, is quoted to have said: "The Cannes Festival should be a no man's land in which politics has no place. It should be a simple meeting between friends."In 1962, the International Critics' Week was born, created by the French Union of Film Critics as the first parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival. Its goal was to showcase first and second works by directors from all over the world, not succumbing to commercial tendencies. In 1965 Olivia de Havilland was named the first female president of the jury, while the next year Sofia Loren became president; the 1968 festival was halted on 19 May. Some directors, such as Carlos Saura and Miloš Forman, had withdrawn their films from the competition. On 18 May filmmaker Louis Malle along with a group of directors took over the large room of the Palais and interrupted the projections in solidarity with students and labour on strike throughout France, in protest to the eviction of the President of the Cinémathèque Française.
The filmmakers achieved the reinstatement of the President, they founded the Film Directors' Society that same year. In 1969 the SRF, led by Pierre-Henri Deleau created the Directors' Fortnight, a new non-competitive section that programs a selection of films from around the world, distinguished by the independent judgment displayed in the choice of films. During the 1970s, important changes occurred in the Festival. In 1972, Robert Favre Le Bret was named the new President, Maurice Bessy the General Delegate, he introduced important changes in the selection of the participating films, welcoming new techniques, relieving the selection from diplomatic pressures, with films like MASH, Chronicle of the Years of Fire marking this turn. In some cases, these changes helped directors like Tarkovski overcome problems of censorship in their own country; until that time, the different countries chose the films that would represent them in the festival. Yet, in 1972, Bessy created a committee to select French films, another for foreign films.
In 1978, Gilles Jacob assumed the position of General Delegate, introducing the Caméra d'Or award, for the best first film of any of the main events, the Un Certain Regard section, for the non-competitive categories. Other changes were the decrease of length of the festival down to thirteen days, thus reducing the number of selected films.
Tilda Swinton
Katherine Matilda Swinton is a British actress. She blockbusters, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 2007 film Michael Clayton. She won the BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actress for the 2003 film Young Adam, has received three Golden Globe Award nominations. Swinton began her career in experimental films, directed by Derek Jarman, starting with Caravaggio, followed by The Last of England, War Requiem, The Garden. Swinton won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for her portrayal of Isabella of France in Edward II, she next starred in Sally Potter's Orlando, was nominated for the European Film Award for Best Actress. Swinton was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in The Deep End, she followed this with appearances in Vanilla Sky, Constantine, I Am Love. She won the European Film Award for Best Actress and received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the psychological thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin.
She is known for her performance as the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Her other film appearances include Female Perversions, The War Zone, The Beach, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, Moonrise Kingdom, Only Lovers Left Alive, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Trainwreck, A Bigger Splash, Doctor Strange and Suspiria. Swinton was given the Richard Harris Award by the British Independent Film Awards in recognition of her contributions to the British film industry. In 2013, she was given a special tribute by the Museum of Modern Art. Katherine Matilda Swinton was born on 5 November 1960 in London, the daughter of Judith Balfour and Sir John Swinton, she has three brothers. Her father was a retired major general in the British Army, was Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire from 1989 to 2000, her mother was Australian. Her paternal great-grandfather was a Scottish politician and herald, George Swinton, her maternal great-great-grandfather was the Scottish botanist John Hutton Balfour.
The Swinton family is an ancient Anglo-Scots family. The family is one of only three British families that can trace their unbroken land ownership and lineage to before the Norman Conquest. Swinton attended three independent schools: Queen's Gate School in London, the West Heath Girls' School, Fettes College for a brief period. West Heath was an expensive boarding school where she was a classmate and friend of Lady Diana Spencer; as an adult, Swinton has spoken out against boarding schools, stating that West Heath was "a lonely and isolating environment" and that she thinks boarding schools "are a cruel setting in which to grow up and I don't feel children benefit from that type of education. Children need their parents and the love parents can provide." Swinton went to volunteer in Kenya during a break from college with an educational gap year charity called Project Trust. In 1983, Swinton graduated from New Hall at the University of Cambridge with a degree in Social and Political Sciences. While at Cambridge, she joined the Communist Party.
It was in college. Swinton joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984, she worked with the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, starring in Mann ist Mann by Manfred Karge in 1987. On television, she appeared as Julia in the 1986 mini-series Zastrozzi: A Romance based on the Gothic novel by Percy Bysshe Shelley, her first film was Caravaggio in 1986, directed by Derek Jarman. She went on to star in several Jarman films, including The Last of England, War Requiem opposite Laurence Olivier, Edward II, for which she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 1991 Venice Film Festival. Swinton performed in a performance art piece, Volcano Saga, by Joan Jonas in 1989; the 28-minute video art piece is based on a thirteenth-century Icelandic Laxdeala Saga, it tells a mythological myth of a young woman whose dreams tell of the future. Swinton played the title role in Orlando, Sally Potter's film version of the novel by Virginia Woolf; the part allowed Swinton to explore matters of gender presentation onscreen which reflected her lifelong interest in androgynous style.
Swinton reflected on the role in an interview accompanied by a striking photo shoot. "People talk about androgyny in all sorts of dull ways," said Swinton, noting that the recent rerelease of Orlando had her thinking again about its pliancy. She referred to 1920s French artist and playful gender-bender Claude Cahun: "Cahun looked at the limitlessness of an androgynous gesture, which I've always been interested in."Recent years have seen Swinton move towards more mainstream projects, including the leading role in the American film The Deep End, in which she played the mother of a gay son she suspects of killing his boyfriend. For this performance, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, she appeared as a supporting character in the films The Beach, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Vanilla Sky, as the archangel Gabriel in Constantine. Swinton has appeared in the British films The Statement and Young Adam. In 2005, Swinton performed as the White Witch Jadis, in the film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, an
2046 (film)
2046 is a 2004 Hong Kong romantic drama film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai. It is a loose sequel to Wong's films Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love, it follows the aftermath of Chow Mo-wan's unconsummated affair with Su Li-zhen in 1960s Hong Kong but includes some science fiction elements and makes frequent references to the date of December 24 or Christmas Eve, on which many significant events in the film occur. The film is the third chapter of a shared story that began with Days of Being Wild and continued with In the Mood for Love. There are four main story arcs to the film. Three are about the relations of Chow with women; the first concerns Chow and Wang Jing-wen, the second is about Chow and Bai Ling, the third is about Chow and a different woman, named Su Li-zhen. The fourth takes place in Chow's mysterious world of 2046 and concerns a Japanese passenger falling in love with a gynoid. Typical of Wong Kar-wai films, the arcs are presented in non-chronological order; the approximate order of the arcs is listed below.
This section is the only part narrated by Chow's fictional character and not Chow himself. Set in the far future, a huge rail network connects the planet; the world is a vast dystopia, lonely souls all try to reach a mysterious place called 2046 in order to recapture lost loves. In the world of 2046 nothing changes, so there is never loss or sadness. No one has returned from 2046 except the protagonist, a lonely Japanese man named Tak; as the story begins, Tak is on a long train ride returning from 2046. As Chow Mo-wan's life is revisited, we learn that he is still struggling to get over the loss of his idealised love, Su Li-zhen, he returns to Hong Kong after being in Singapore for a number of years to try to forget his anguish. To cover up his pain, he becomes a suave ladies' man. Chow attends beds many women. On Christmas Eve, Chow meets Lulu from the first film whom he remembers from Singapore, although she has no recollection of him; that night, Chow Mo-wan takes Lulu home as she accidentally keeps her room key.
As he leaves, he notices that her room number is 2046, the same room number that he and Su Li-zhen had during their emotional affair. Upon returning a few days to return the room key, the landlord informs Chow that the room is not available due to renovations; the landlord offers him the adjacent room 2047. Chow learns that Lulu was stabbed in the room the night before by a jealous boyfriend. Chow agrees to rent room 2047 in the meantime. After the renovation of room 2046 is complete, the landlord asks Chow. However, by this time he decides to stay there; the rooms 2046 and 2047 are connected by a common hallway, Chow watches and gets involved with the people that move into 2046. The first person that moves next door into 2046 is Wang Jing-wen. Chow spends a good deal of time just observing her from his room, he learns. The relationship is forbidden by her father. Wang breaks up with her boyfriend suffers a breakdown and is institutionalised. Afterwards, the next tenant that moves into 2046 is the younger daughter of the landlord, Wang Jie-wen.
She is young and flirtatious. She tries to seduce him but he refuses each time. A short time Chow runs into some financial difficulties, stops going out. To make some extra money, he starts to write a science fiction series called 2046; the story is set about a group of heart sick individuals looking for love. The only place to find it is at a mysterious location called 2046. All of the characters in 2046 are based on people that Chow has met, such as Su Li-zhen, Lulu, or Wang Jing-wen. Whether 2046 is a place, a room, or a state of mind is never explicitly defined. Chow makes the story somewhat bizarre and erotic, readers seem to take notice; the third person to move into room 2046 is the coquettish Bai Ling. She wears similar qipao dresses as the original Su Li-zhen but radiates a much more aggressive sensuality than her. While it is never explicitly stated in the film, it is implied that she is a nightclub girl who doubles as a high-class prostitute. However, she is intent on finding a long-term relationship.
In one instance, when Chow overhears her arguing with a man, Bai tells the man that to continue seeing her, he must end his relationship with the other woman. Chow again spends a lot of time observing her across the thin wall separating rooms 2046 and 2047. On the next Christmas Eve, Bai runs into Chow just after she is dumped by her boyfriend before they are to go to Singapore. Chow suggests. During dinner, Chow tells Bai about his experiences in Singapore, she is intrigued, after dinner she agrees to try to form a platonic friendship with him by borrowing time from each other. Their brief friendship does not last however. Not Chow wants to keep the relationship physical. To compromise, Bai soon develops a compensation system where he pays her 10 Hong Kong dollars each time he stays over. However, over time Bai finds that she has feelings for Chow, she asks him to discontinue seeing other women. Chow gives a counter offer, the option to be his customer for $10 each night. Bai breaks things off with Chow.
As a way of revenge, Bai descends into seeing men for money
Mamoru Oshii
Mamoru Oshii is a Japanese filmmaker, television director and screenwriter. Famous for his philosophy-oriented storytelling, Oshii has directed a number of popular anime, including Urusei Yatsura, Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor 2: The Movie, he holds the distinction of having created the first OVA, Dallos. For his work, Oshii has received and been nominated for numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or and Golden Lion, he has attracted praise from international directors such as James Cameron and The Wachowskis. As a student, Mamoru Oshii was fascinated by the film La Jetée by Chris Marker, he repeatedly watched European cinema, such as films by Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni and Jean-Pierre Melville. These filmmakers, together with Jean-Luc Godard, Andrei Tarkovsky and Jerzy Kawalerowicz, would serve as influences for Oshii's own cinematic career, he was influenced by his father, a cinephile. In 1976, he graduated from Tokyo Gakugei University; the following year, he entered Tatsunoko Productions and worked on his first anime as a storyboard artist on Ippatsu Kanta-kun.
During this period at Tatsunoko, Oshii worked on many anime as a storyboard artist, most of which were part of the Time Bokan television series. In 1980, he moved to Studio Pierrot under the supervision of Hisayuki Toriumi. Mamoru Oshii's work as director and storyboard artist of the animated Urusei Yatsura TV series brought him into the spotlight. Following its success, he directed two Urusei Yatsura films: Urusei Yatsura: Only You and Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer; the first film, though an original story, continued much in the spirit of the series. Beautiful Dreamer was written by Oshii with no consultation from Takahashi and was a significant departure and an early example of his now contemporary style. Beautiful Dreamer is notable for experimenting with concepts such as a time loop, where a high-school class relives the same day over and over again, as well as dreams and reality manipulation. In the midst of his work with Studio Pierrot, Oshii took on independent work and directed the first OVA, Dallos, in 1983.
In 1984, Oshii left Studio Pierrot. Moving to Studio Deen, he wrote and directed Angel's Egg, a surreal film rich with Biblical symbolism, featuring the character designs of Yoshitaka Amano; the producer of the film, Toshio Suzuki founded the renowned Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Following the release of the film and Takahata began collaborating with Mamoru Oshii on his next film, Anchor; the film was canceled early in the initial planning stages. Despite their differences, Toshio Suzuki and Studio Ghibli would help Oshii with his production of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. To this day, Oshii maintains skeptical, but respectful, views of each of Takahata and Miyazaki's films. Though he has been critical of Miyazaki's attitude towards his workers, he claims that he would feel "strangely empty" and "it would be boring" if both Miyazaki and Takahata stopped making films. In the late 1980s, Oshii was solicited by his friend; the group was composed of Masami Yuki, Yutaka Izubuchi, Akemi Takada and Mamoru Oshii.
Together they were responsible for the Patlabor TV series, OVA, films. Released in the midst of Japan's economic crisis, the Patlabor series and films projected a dynamic near-future world in which grave social crisis and ecological challenges were overcome by technological ingenuity, were a big success in the mecha genre. Between production of the Patlabor movies/series, Oshii delved into live-action for the first time, releasing his first non-animated film, The Red Spectacles; this led to another live-action work titled Stray Dog: Kerberos Panzer Cops. Following Stray Dog Oshii made yet another live-action film, Talking Head, a surreal look at his view on film. In 1995, Mamoru Oshii released his landmark animated cyberpunk film, Ghost in the Shell, in Japan, the United States, Europe, it hit the top of the US Billboard video charts in 1996, the first anime video to do so. Concerning a female cyborg desperate to find the meaning of her existence, the film was a critical success and is regarded to be a masterpiece and anime classic.
After a 5-year hiatus from directing to work on other projects, Oshii returned to live-action with the Japanese-Polish feature Avalon, selected for an out of competition screening at the Cannes Film Festival. His next animated feature film was the long-awaited sequel to Ghost in the Shell, titled Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Four years in the making, the film focuses on Batou as he investigates a series of gruesome murders, while trying to reconcile with his deteriorating humanity. Though it received mixed reviews, Innocence was selected to compete at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for the coveted Palme d'Or prize, making it the first anime to be so honored. Oshii was approached to be one of the directors of The Animatrix, but he was unable to participate because of his work in Innocence. Following Innocence, Oshii contemplated directing a segment for the anthology film Paris, je t'aime, but declined the offer. Meanwhile, in 2005, there were talks of a Kenta Oshii collaboration, it was announced that Oshii would write the script for a film titled Elle is Burning, as well as provide CGI consultation, while Fukasaku would direct.
Although Oshii completed the script, the film was shelved because, among
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American filmmaker and actor. His films are characterized by nonlinear storylines, satirical subject matter, an aestheticization of violence, extended scenes of dialogue, ensemble casts consisting of established and lesser-known performers, references to popular culture and a wide variety of other films, soundtracks containing songs and score pieces from the 1960s to the 1980s, features of neo-noir film, his career began in the late 1980s when he wrote and directed My Best Friend's Birthday, the screenplay of which formed the basis for True Romance. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992, funded by money from the sale of his script Natural Born Killers to Oliver Stone. Empire deemed Reservoir Dogs the "Greatest Independent Film of All Time", its popularity was boosted by his second film, Pulp Fiction, a black comedy crime film, a major success both among critics and audiences. For his next effort, Tarantino paid homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s with Jackie Brown, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch.
Kill Bill, a stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of Kung fu films, Japanese martial arts, Spaghetti Westerns and Italian horror, followed six years and was released as two films: Volume 1 in 2003 and Volume 2 in 2004. Tarantino next directed Death Proof in 2007, as part of a double feature with Robert Rodriguez, under the collective title Grindhouse, his long-postponed Inglourious Basterds, which tells an alternate history of Nazi Germany, was released in 2009 to positive reviews. After that came critically acclaimed Django Unchained, a Western film set in the Antebellum South, his eighth film, The Hateful Eight, was released in its roadshow version in 70 mm film format, with opening "overture" and halfway-point intermission. His ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is scheduled to be released in 2019; the film, set in Los Angeles in 1969, is his first based on true events. Tarantino's films have garnered both commercial success, he has received many industry awards, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and the Palme d'Or, has been nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy.
In 2005, he was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. Filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called him "the single most influential director of his generation". In December 2015, Tarantino received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry. Tarantino was born on March 27, 1963, in Knoxville, the only child of Connie McHugh and Tony Tarantino, an actor and producer, his father is of Italian descent, his mother has Irish and Cherokee ancestry. Quentin was named for Burt Reynolds' character in the CBS series Gunsmoke. Tarantino's mother met his father during a trip to Los Angeles, where Tony was a law student and would-be entertainer, she married him soon after, to gain independence from her parents. After the divorce, Connie Tarantino left Los Angeles and moved to Knoxville, where her parents lived. In 1966, Tarantino and his mother moved back to Los Angeles. Tarantino's mother married musician Curtis Zastoupil soon after arriving in Los Angeles, the family moved to Torrance, a city in Los Angeles County's South Bay area.
Zastoupil encouraged Tarantino's love of movies, accompanied him to numerous film screenings. Tarantino's mother allowed him to see movies with adult content, such as Carnal Knowledge and Deliverance. After his mother divorced Zastoupil in 1973, received a misdiagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma, Tarantino was sent to live with his grandparents in Tennessee, he remained there less than a year before returning to California. At 14 years old, Tarantino wrote one of his earliest works, a screenplay called Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit, based on Hal Needham's 1977 film Smokey and the Bandit starring Burt Reynolds; the summer after his 15th birthday, Tarantino was grounded by his mother for shoplifting Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch from Kmart. He was allowed to leave only to attend the Torrance Community Theater, where he participated in such plays as Two Plus Two Makes Sex and Romeo and Juliet. At about 15, Tarantino dropped out of Narbonne High School in Los Angeles, he worked as an usher at a porn theater in Torrance, called the Pussycat Theatre.
Tarantino attended acting classes at the James Best Theatre Company, where he met several of his eventual collaborators. While at James Best, Tarantino met Craig Hamann, with whom he collaborated to produce My Best Friend's Birthday. Throughout the 1980s, Tarantino worked a number of jobs, he spent time as a recruiter in the aerospace industry, for five years, he worked at Video Archives, a video store in Manhattan Beach, California. Former Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Danny Strong described Tarantino as "such a movie buff, he had so much knowledge of films that he would try to get people to watch cool movies."After Tarantino met Lawrence Bender at a Hollywood party, Bender encouraged him to write a screenplay. His first attempted script, which he described as a "straight 70s exploitation action movie" was never published and was abandoned soon after. Tarantino co-wrote and directed his first movie, My Best Friend's Birthday, in 1987; the final reel of the film was completely destroyed in a lab fire that occurred during editing, but its screenplay formed the basis for True Romance.
In 1986, Tarantino got his first Hollywood job, working with Roger Avary as production assistants on Dolph Lundgren's exercise video, Maximum Potentia
Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov is a Russian filmmaker and head of the Russian Cinematographers' Union. Three times Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation. Full Cavalier of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" Nikita Mikhalkov won the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival and nominated for the Academy Award in the category "Best Foreign Language Film" for the film "Close to Eden". Winner of the Academy Award in the category "Best Foreign Language Film" and the Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival for the film "Burnt by the Sun". Mikhalkov received the "Special Lion" of the Venice Film Festival for his contribution to the cinematography and nominated for the Academy Award in the category "Best Foreign Language Film" for the film "12". Mikhalkov was born in Moscow into the artistic Mikhalkov family, his great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a princess of the House of Golitsyn. Nikita's father, Sergei Mikhalkov, was best known as writer of children's literature, although he wrote lyrics to his country's national anthem on three different occasions spanning nearly 60 years – two different sets of lyrics used for the Soviet national anthem, the current lyrics of the Russian national anthem.
Mikhalkov's mother, poet Natalia Konchalovskaya, was the daughter of the avant-garde artist Pyotr Konchalovsky and granddaughter of another outstanding painter, Vasily Surikov. Nikita's older brother is the filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky known for his collaboration with Andrei Tarkovsky and his own Hollywood action films, such as Runaway Train and Tango & Cash. Mikhalkov studied acting at the children's studio of the Moscow Art Theatre and at the Shchukin School of the Vakhtangov Theatre. While still a student, he appeared in Georgi Daneliya's film I Step Through Moscow and his brother Andrei Konchalovsky's film Home of the Gentry, he was soon on his way to becoming a star of the Soviet cinema. While continuing to pursue his acting career, he entered VGIK, the state film school in Moscow, where he studied directing under film maker Mikhail Romm, teacher to his brother and Andrei Tarkovsky, he directed his first short film in 1968, I'm Coming Home, another for his graduation, A Quiet Day at the End of the War in 1970.
Mikhalkov had appeared in more than 20 films, including his brother's Uncle Vanya, before he co-wrote and starred in his first feature, At Home Among Strangers in 1974, an Ostern set just after the 1920s civil war in Russia. Mikhalkov established an international reputation with A Slave of Love. Set in 1917, it followed the efforts of a film crew to make a silent melodrama in a resort town while the Revolution rages around them; the film, based upon the last days of Vera Kholodnaya, was acclaimed upon its release in the U. S. Mikhalkov's next film, An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano was adapted by Mikhalkov from Chekhov's early play and won the first prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival. In 1978, while starring in his brother's epic film Siberiade, Mikhalkov made Five Evenings, a love story about a couple separated by World War II, who meet again after eighteen years. Mikhalkov's next film, A Few Days from the Life of I. I. Oblomov, with Oleg Tabakov in the title role, is based on Ivan Goncharov's classic novel about a lazy young nobleman who refuses to leave his bed.
Family Relations is a comedy about a provincial woman in Moscow dealing with the tangled relationships of her relatives. Without Witness tracks a long night's conversation between a woman and her ex-husband when they are accidentally locked in a room; the film won the Prix FIPRESCI at the 13th Moscow International Film Festival. In the early 1980s, Mikhalkov resumed his acting career, appearing in Eldar Ryazanov's immensely popular Station for Two and A Cruel Romance. At that period, he played Henry Baskerville in the Soviet screen version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, he starred in many of his own films, including At Home Among Strangers, A Slave of Love, An Unfinished Piece for Player Piano. Incorporating several short stories by Chekhov, Dark Eyes stars Marcello Mastroianni as an old man who tells a story of a romance he had when he was younger, a woman he has never been able to forget; the film was praised, Mastroianni received the Best Actor Prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination for his performance.
Mikhalkov's next film, set in the little-known world of the Mongols, received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Mikhalkov's Anna: 6–18 documents his daughter Anna as she grows from childhood to maturity. Mikhalkov's most famous production to date, Burnt by the Sun, was steeped in the paranoid atmosphere of Joseph Stalin's Great Terror; the film received the Grand Prize at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, among many other honours. To date, Burnt by the Sun remains the highest-grossing film to come out of the former Soviet Union. In 1996, he was the head of the jury at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival. Mikhalkov used the critical and financial triumph of Burnt by the Sun to raise $25 million for his most epic venture to date, The Barber of Siberia; the film, screened out of competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, was designed as a patriotic extravaganza for domestic consumption.
It featured Julia Ormond and Oleg Menshikov, who appears in Mikhalkov's films, in the leading
