1.
The Judge (2014 film)
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The Judge is a 2014 American drama film directed by David Dobkin. The film stars Robert Downey Jr, Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent DOnofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shepard, the film was released in the United States on October 10,2014. Thomas Newman also received a Satellite Award nomination for Best Original Score, Hank Palmer is a successful defense attorney in Chicago who has been estranged from his family in a small town in Indiana for some time. While in court, he receives a call telling him his mother has died, as he leaves to fly to his hometown of Carlinville, it is revealed that Hank is going through a divorce and custody battle for his young daughter. In Carlinville, Hank reunites with his older brother Glen, owner of a shop, and his younger brother Dale. Hank then stops by the county courthouse, softly enters a courtroom. The judge is Joseph Palmer, Hanks father, when Joseph sees Hank for the first time in many years, at the funeral, he is treating guests with kindness but acknowledges his son coldly. The next morning, Hank notices damage to his fathers Cadillac Coupe DeVille as he is preparing to leave, upon seeing the damage, Joseph denies knowing how it happened, but Hank believes his father was drinking and driving and damaged his own car. After a heated exchange, Hank leaves, promising never to return, but after boarding his plane, Hank learns that Joseph is being questioned by police with regard to a fatal hit and run. The victim is identified as Mark Blackwell, a recently released convicted murderer whose crimes, before the killing, after Blackwells blood is found on the car, Joseph is soon indicted, with prosecutor Dwight Dickham seeking a conviction for first-degree murder. Hank agrees to defend Joseph and learns that his father was undergoing chemotherapy, Joseph saw to it that Hank was sent to a youth detention center, and Hank left Carlinville after never receiving acknowledgement from Joseph for turning his life around. Hank also reconnects with his old girlfriend Sam, whom he abandoned after going to a Metallica concert more than 20 years ago and he discovers that Sam has a daughter, Carla, born nine months after he left, and deals with his concern that he is Carlas father. At trial, Hank believes he has established enough reasonable doubt in the case to result in an acquittal, but Joseph sabotages the case by testifying that although he still cannot remember the accident, he has come to believe that he probably did kill Blackwell intentionally. Joseph confesses on the stand that he was haunted by Blackwells case, having seen Hank in Blackwell. Having misread Blackwell, Joseph afterward saw him in Hank, after acknowledging Hank as the best lawyer he knows, Joseph dies peacefully in the boat. Hank, having peace with his father, returns to the courtroom Joseph once reigned over, and spins the judges chair. The script was written by Nick Schenk. In March 2011, the script was to be rewritten by David Seidler, in April 2013, Bill Dubuque was enlisted to rewrite it
The Judge (2014 film)
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Theatrical release poster
2.
A Little Chaos
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A Little Chaos is a 2014 British period drama film directed by Alan Rickman. The story was conceived by Allison Deegan and she co-wrote the screenplay along with Rickman, the film stars Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci, Helen McCrory, Steven Waddington, Jennifer Ehle and Rupert Penry-Jones. The film was financed by the Lionsgate UK and produced by BBC Films and it was the second film directed by Rickman, after his 1997 directorial debut The Winter Guest. It was the collaboration of Rickman and Winslet after their 1995 film Sense. Production took place in London in mid 2013, the film had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival as the closing night film on 13 September 2014. When noticing her move a plant in his garden prior to her interview. She tells him she wants to give them something uniquely French and not follow classical, on the night after her interview, André surprises Sabine at her home and tasks her with responsibility for an outdoor ballroom surrounded by a fountain and landscaping. Andrés plans had called for a constant supply of water from a distance at great expense. Sabine devises an alternate engineering solution based on a reservoir from which water can be recycled through the fountains she has designed. She makes little progress at first because she uses workers recommended by those who lost the contract to her, one of them, however, Thierry Duras, intervenes and offers his crews help. Sabine is soon noticed by the elite at court and is befriended by the Kings brother Duc Philippe dOrleans and his wife Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine. At several points as the story develops, Sabine is haunted by glimpses of a young girl in white or a girls voice she hears calling. André informs his wife, who is shaken at the prospect that this will lessen her influence at court, the king is shocked at the loss of his wife and takes refuge in contemplating plants, one of his great sensual and aesthetic pleasures, in his gardeners work area. Sabine accidentally encounters the king there, first mistaking him for the gardener and then when he reveals his identity befriends him and she finds great favour in the kings eyes, and he invites her to travel with him and his court to his palace and gardens at Fontainebleau. On a stormy day, Louis XIV visits Sabines work site and assesses the project skeptically, after he leaves with his retinue, Sabine is visited by Françoise, who tells her that Andrés passionate intentions are only a whim and will prove short-lived. After she and Sabine each depart, Françoises lover opens the gates from the reservoir and floods the work site, destroying much of the earthworks. In the partly destroyed works site, André finds a glove that he recognizes as belonging to his wife Françoise and he returns the glove to her, indicating he is aware of her role in the destruction of Sabines work guilt and ending their relationship. Sabine goes to Kings court and meets Duc de Lauzun, who introduces her to the mistress, the Marquise de Montespan
A Little Chaos
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Theatrical release poster
A Little Chaos
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Bosquet de la Salle-de-Bal at
Gardens of Versailles, designed by Sabine de Barra in the film but originally laid out by
André Le Nôtre between 1680 and 1683.
A Little Chaos
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Landscape scenes were shot at
Blenheim Palace.
3.
Toronto
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Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 2,731,571, Toronto is the fourth most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years, the city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga. Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, the British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York, York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canadas major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Toronto is well known for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, the name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto, meaning place where trees stand in the water. This refers to the end of what is now Lake Simcoe. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, in the 1660s, the Iroquois established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagonon the banks of the Humber River. By 1701, the Mississauga had displaced the Iroquois, who abandoned the Toronto area at the end of the Beaver Wars, French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the British-controlled lands north of Lake Ontario, the new province of Upper Canada was in the process of creation and needed a capital. Dorchester intended the location to be named Toronto, in 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase lands, instead naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe decided to move the Upper Canada capital from Newark to York, the York garrison was constructed at the entrance of the towns natural harbour, sheltered by a long sandbar peninsula. The towns settlement formed at the end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day intersection of Parliament Street. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the towns capture, the surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. US soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation, the sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington by British troops later in the war
Toronto
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From top left:
Downtown Toronto featuring the
CN Tower and
Financial District from the
Toronto Harbour,
City Hall, the
Ontario Legislative Building,
Casa Loma,
Prince Edward Viaduct, and the
Scarborough Bluffs
Toronto
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Coat of arms
Toronto
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Map of Toronto, 1894
Toronto
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Yonge Street in 1900
4.
Ontario
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Ontario, one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada, is located in east-central Canada. It is Canadas most populous province by a margin, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all Canadians. Ontario is fourth-largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and it is home to the nations capital city, Ottawa, and the nations most populous city, Toronto. There is only about 1 km of land made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border. Ontario is sometimes divided into two regions, Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The great majority of Ontarios population and arable land is located in the south, in contrast, the larger, northern part of Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and is heavily forested. The province is named after Lake Ontario, a thought to be derived from Ontarí, io, a Huron word meaning great lake, or possibly skanadario. Ontario has about 250,000 freshwater lakes, the province consists of three main geographical regions, The thinly populated Canadian Shield in the northwestern and central portions, which comprises over half the land area of Ontario. Although this area mostly does not support agriculture, it is rich in minerals and in part covered by the Central and Midwestern Canadian Shield forests, studded with lakes, Northern Ontario is subdivided into two sub-regions, Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Ontario. The virtually unpopulated Hudson Bay Lowlands in the north and northeast, mainly swampy. Southern Ontario which is further sub-divided into four regions, Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Golden Horseshoe, the highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 metres above sea level located in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario. In the south, elevations of over 500 m are surpassed near Collingwood, above the Blue Mountains in the Dundalk Highlands, the Carolinian forest zone covers most of the southwestern region of the province. A well-known geographic feature is Niagara Falls, part of the Niagara Escarpment, the Saint Lawrence Seaway allows navigation to and from the Atlantic Ocean as far inland as Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. Northern Ontario occupies roughly 87 percent of the area of the province. Point Pelee is a peninsula of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario that is the southernmost extent of Canadas mainland, Pelee Island and Middle Island in Lake Erie extend slightly farther. All are south of 42°N – slightly farther south than the border of California. The climate of Ontario varies by season and location, the effects of these major air masses on temperature and precipitation depend mainly on latitude, proximity to major bodies of water and to a small extent, terrain relief. In general, most of Ontarios climate is classified as humid continental, Ontario has three main climatic regions
Ontario
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Algonquin Provincial Park, Cache Lake
Ontario
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Flag
Ontario
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Summer at
Sandbanks Provincial Park on Lake Ontario.
Ontario
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The
Niagara Escarpment on the
Bruce Peninsula.
5.
Toronto International Film Festival
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The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Year-round, TIFF Bell Lightbox offers screenings, lectures, discussions, festivals, workshops, industry support, TIFF Bell Lightbox is located on the north west corner of King Street and John Street in downtown Toronto. In 2015,397 films from 71 countries were screened at 28 screens in downtown Toronto venues, welcoming an estimated 480,000 attendees, TIFF starts the Thursday night after Labour Day and lasts for eleven days. Founded in 1976, TIFF is now one of the most prestigious events of its kind in the world, in 1998, Variety magazine acknowledged that TIFF is second only to Cannes in terms of high-profile pics, stars and market activity. In 2007, TIME noted that TIFF had grown from its place as the most influential film festival to the most influential film festival. This is partially the result of TIFFs ability and reputation for generating Oscar buzz, the Toronto International Festival’s Grolsch People’s Choice Award — which is based on popular vote by Festival filmgoers — has emerged as a beacon of awards-season success. Founded by Bill Marshall, Dusty Cohl and Henk Van der Kolk and that first year,35,000 filmgoers watched 127 films from 30 countries presented in ten programmes. Piers Handling has been the director and CEO since 1994. TIFF was once centred on the Yorkville neighbourhood, but the Toronto Entertainment District later gained a level of prominence. TIFF is known for the celebrity buzz it brings to the area with international media setting up near its restaurants and stores for photos and interviews with the stars. In 2010, TIFF opened its permanent headquarters, TIFF Bell Lightbox, TIFF has grown, steadily adding initiatives throughout the years. TIFF Cinematheque and the Film Reference Library opened in 1990, the TIFF Kids International Film Festival launched in 1998. Film Circuit began exhibiting independent and Canadian films in under-serviced cities across Canada in 1994, the festival was founded in 1976 at the Windsor Arms Hotel by Bill Marshall, Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl. Beginning as a collection of the films from film festivals around the world. Ironically, however, Hollywood studios withdrew their submissions from TIFF due to concerns that Toronto audiences would be too parochial for their products, in 1994, the decision was made to replace the name Festival of Festivals with Toronto International Film Festival. From 1994 to 2009, the organization running TIFF was named Toronto International Film Festival Group. In 2009, the umbrella organization TIFFG was renamed to TIFF, in 2001, Perspective Canada, the programme that had focused on Canadian films since 1984, was replaced by two programmes, Canada First. A forum for Canadian filmmakers presenting their first feature-length work, featuring eight to 15 films, and Short Cuts Canada, in 2004, TIFF was featured as the site of murder mystery in the film Jiminy Glick in Lalawood, a comedy film starring Martin Short
Toronto International Film Festival
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The festival is headquartered at TIFF Bell Lightbox, which opened in 2010.
Toronto International Film Festival
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Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
Toronto International Film Festival
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TIFF box office at the
Manulife Centre in 2006
Toronto International Film Festival
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TIFF Bell Lightbox
6.
Robert Downey Jr.
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Robert John Downey Jr. is an American actor. His career has included critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of abuse and legal troubles. For three consecutive years from 2012 to 2015, Downey has topped the Forbes list of Hollywoods highest-paid actors, making an estimated $80 million in earnings between June 2014 and June 2015. He starred as the character in the 1992 film Chaplin. This earned him a Golden Globe Award and his character was written out when Downey was fired after two drug arrests in late 2000 and early 2001. After his last stay in a drug treatment program, Downey achieved sobriety. Each of these films has grossed over $500 million at the box office worldwide, four of these—The Avengers, Avengers, Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3 and Captain America, Downey Jr. has also played the title character in Guy Ritchies Sherlock Holmes and its sequel. Downey was born in Manhattan, New York, the younger of two children and his father, Robert Downey Sr. is an actor and filmmaker, while his mother, Elsie Ann, was an actress who appeared in Downey Sr. s films. Downeys father is of half Lithuanian Jewish, one-quarter Hungarian Jewish, and one-quarter Irish descent, while Downeys mother had Scottish, German, Downey and his older sister Allyson grew up in Greenwich Village. As a child, Downey was surrounded by drugs and his father, a drug addict, allowed Downey to use marijuana at age six, an incident which his father has said he now regrets. Eventually, Downey began spending every night abusing alcohol and making a phone calls in pursuit of drugs. During his childhood Downey had minor roles in his fathers films and he made his acting debut at the age of five, playing a sick puppy in the absurdist comedy Pound, and then at seven appeared in the surrealist Greasers Palace. At the age of ten, he was living in England and he attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York as a teenager. When his parents divorced in 1978, Downey moved to California with his father, Downey and Kiefer Sutherland, who shared the screen in the 1988 drama 1969, were roommates for three years when he first moved to Hollywood to pursue his career in acting. Downey began building upon theater roles, including in the short-lived off-Broadway musical American Passion at the Joyce Theater in 1983, rolling Stone magazine named Downey the worst SNL cast member in its entire run, stating that the Downey Fail sums up everything that makes SNL great. That same year, Downey had a dramatic acting breakthrough when he played James Spaders sidekick in Tuff Turf and he was considered for the role of Duckie in John Hughes film Pretty in Pink, but his first lead role was with Molly Ringwald in The Pick-up Artist. Because of these and other coming-of-age films Downey did during the 1980s, in 1987, Downey played Julian Wells, a drug-addicted rich boy whose life rapidly spirals out of his control, in the film version of the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero. In 1992, he starred as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, a role for which he prepared extensively, learning how to play the violin and he had a personal coach in order to help him imitate Chaplins posture and way of carrying himself
Robert Downey Jr.
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Downey at the 2014
San Diego Comic Con International
Robert Downey Jr.
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Downey at the premiere of
Air America, 1990
Robert Downey Jr.
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With
Rachel McAdams promoting
Sherlock Holmes at the 2009
San Diego Comic-Con International.
Robert Downey Jr.
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With the cast of
The Avengers,
Joss Whedon and
Kevin Feige at the 2010
San Diego Comic-Con International.
7.
Robert Duvall
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Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been nominated for seven Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and has multiple nominations and one win each of the BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild Award and he received the National Medal of Arts in 2005. Duvall began appearing in theatre during the late 1950s, moving into television and film roles during the early 1960s, playing Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird and appearing in Captain Newman and this was followed by a series of critically lauded performances in commercially successful films. Duvall was born January 5,1931, in San Diego, California, the son of Mildred Virginia, an actress, and William Howard Duvall. He has English, and smaller amounts of Belgian, French Huguenot, German, Scottish, Swiss-German, and Welsh ancestry. His mother was a relative of American Civil War General Robert E. Lee, Duvall was raised in the Christian Science religion and has stated that, while it is his belief, he does not attend church. He grew up primarily in Annapolis, Maryland, site of the United States Naval Academy and he recalled, I was a Navy brat. My father started at the Academy when he was 16, made captain at 39 and he attended Severn School in Severna Park, Maryland, and The Principia in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated, in 1953, from Principia College in Elsah, Duvall served in the United States Army for a brief period shortly after the Korean War leaving the Army as private first class. Thats led to confusion in the press, he explained in 1984. Hell, I barely qualified with the M-1 rifle in basic training, while stationed at Camp Gordon in Georgia, Duvall acted in an amateur production of the comedy Room Service in nearby Augusta, Georgia. In the winter of 1955, Duvall began studies at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City, under Sanford Meisner and he was there for two years. Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, and James Caan were among his classmates and he was there in 1957 attending Meisners classes. While studying acting, he worked as a Manhattan post office clerk, Duvall remains friends today with fellow California-born actors Hoffman and Hackman, who he knew during their years as struggling actors. In 1955, Duvall roomed with Hoffman in a New York City apartment while they were studying together at the Playhouse. Around this time, he roomed with Hackman, while working odd jobs such as clerking at Macys, sorting mail at the post office. The three roommates have since earned, among themselves,19 Academy Award nominations, with five wins, Duvall began his professional acting career with the Gateway Playhouse, an Equity summer theatre based in Bellport, Long Island, New York. Arguably his stage debut was in its 1952 season when he played the Pilot in Laughter In The Stars, after a years absence when he was with the U. S
Robert Duvall
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Duvall at the 2014
Toronto International Film Festival.
Robert Duvall
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Duvall with
Diane Lane at the 41st
Emmy Awards in September 1989
Robert Duvall
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President
George W. Bush stands with recipients of the 2005
National Medal of Arts, from left:
Leonard Garment,
Louis Auchincloss,
Paquito D'Rivera,
James De Preist,
Tina Ramirez, Robert Duvall, and
Ollie Johnston.
Robert Duvall
–
Duvall with future wife
Luciana Pedraza (right) shaking hands with a member of the "The Black Stallions" of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Four at the
Taormina Film Fest in Sicily in June 2003.
8.
Alan Rickman
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Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was an English actor and director known for playing a variety of roles on stage and on screen. Rickman trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and his first big television part came in 1982, but his big break was as the Vicomte de Valmont in the stage production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1985, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Rickman gained wider notice for his performances as Hans Gruber in Die Hard. L. OHara in An Awfully Big Adventure, Dr. Rickman died of cancer on 14 January 2016 at the age of 69. His final film roles are as Lieutenant General Frank Benson in the thriller Eye in the Sky, and the voice of Absolem, Rickman was born in West London, to a working-class family, the son of Margaret Doreen Rose, a housewife, and Bernard William Rickman. Rickmans father was a worker, house painter and decorator. His ancestry was English, Irish and Welsh, his father was Catholic, Rickmans family also included brothers David and Michael, and sister Sheila. When he was eight years old, Rickmans father died of cancer, leaving his mother to raise him. She married again in 1960, but divorced Rickmans stepfather after three years, before he met Rima Horton at 19, he stated that his first crush was at 10 years old to a girl named Amanda at sports day. As a child, he excelled at calligraphy and watercolour painting, after leaving Latymer, he attended Chelsea College of Art and Design and then the Royal College of Art. He wrote to request an audition with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, while there, he studied Shakespeare and supported himself by working as a dresser for Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Ralph Richardson. In 1978, he performed with the Court Drama Group, gaining parts in Romeo and Juliet and A View from the Bridge, while working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was cast in As You Like It. He appeared in The Barchester Chronicles, the BBCs adaptation of Trollopes first two Barchester novels, as the Reverend Obadiah Slope. Rickman was given the lead, the Vicomte de Valmont, in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Christopher Hamptons adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. After the RSC production transferred to Broadway in 1987, Rickman received both a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance, Rickmans career was filled with a wide range of roles. Alfred Blalock in HBOs Something the Lord Made and the mad monk Rasputin in the HBO biopic Rasputin, Dark Servant of Destiny, for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy. His performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves also earned him praise as one of the best actors to portray a villain in films, Rickman took issue with being typecast as a villain, even though he was known for playing unsympathetic characters. His portrayal of Severus Snape, the master in the Harry Potter series, was dark
Alan Rickman
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Alan Rickman after a seminar at the
John Golden Theater in November 2011
Alan Rickman
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Rickman in December 2009
Alan Rickman
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Rickman at the 2007
Tribeca Film Festival
Alan Rickman
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Alan Rickman posing for a fan after a performance of
John Gabriel Borkman in 2011
9.
Kate Winslet
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Kate Elizabeth Winslet, CBE, is an English actress and singer. Winslet is the recipient of an Academy Award, an AACTA Award, three BAFTA Awards, a BIFA Award, four Golden Globe Awards, a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. She is the youngest person to receive six Academy Award nominations, with seven nominations in total, in addition, she has won awards from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts and European Film Academy, among others, and the Honorary César Award in 2012. Brought up in Berkshire, Winslet studied drama from childhood and began her career in British television in 1991 and she made her film debut in Heavenly Creatures, for which she received praise. She garnered recognition for her role in Sense and Sensibility before achieving global stardom with the epic romance Titanic. Winslets performances in Iris, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, Little Children, Revolutionary Road, The Dressmaker, in 2008, film critic David Edelstein described her as the best English-speaking film actress of her generation. Winslets greatest commercial successes since Titanic include the romantic comedy The Holiday, the animated film Flushed Away, in addition to acting, Winslet has narrated documentaries and childrens books. She was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children in 2000 for narrating Listen to the Storyteller and she has also provided her vocals to soundtracks of her films, including the single What If from Christmas Carol, The Movie. Divorced from two directors, Jim Threapleton and Sam Mendes, Winslet is currently married to businessman Ned Rocknroll. Kate Elizabeth Winslet was born in Reading, Berkshire, England to Sally Anne, a barmaid, and Roger John Winslet and she has two sisters, Beth and Anna, and one brother, Joss Winslet. Winslet began studying drama at the age of 11 at the Redroofs Theatre School, a independent school in Maidenhead, Berkshire. At the age of 12, Winslet appeared in an advertisement directed by filmmaker Tim Pope for Sugar Puffs cereal. Pope said her naturalism was there from the start, Winslet made her television debut with a co-starring role in the BBC childrens science fiction serial Dark Season. This role was followed by appearances in the made-for-TV film Anglo-Saxon Attitudes in 1992, the sitcom Get Back, in 1992, Winslet attended a casting call for Peter Jacksons Heavenly Creatures in London. Winslet auditioned for the role of Juliet Hulme, a teenager who assists in the murder of the mother of her best friend, Pauline Parker. The film included Winslets singing debut, and her a version of Sono Andati. The film was released to reviews in 1994 and won Jackson. Winslet was awarded the Empire Award and London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year for her performance, the Washington Post writer Desson Thomson commented, As Juliet, Winslet is a bright-eyed ball of fire, lighting up every scene she’s in
Kate Winslet
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Winslet at the premiere of
The Dressmaker in
Toronto, September 2015
Kate Winslet
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Winslet at the
2006 Toronto International Film Festival
Kate Winslet
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Winslet at the 2007
Palm Springs International Film Festival
Kate Winslet
–
Winslet at the
2011 Venice Film Festival
10.
Bill Murray
–
William James Bill Murray is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Murray received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2016, Murray was born on September 21,1950 in Evanston, Illinois, and was raised in Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago. He is the son of Lucille, a room clerk, and Edward Joseph Murray II. Murray and his eight siblings were raised in a Roman Catholic Irish-American family, three of his siblings, John Murray, Joel Murray, and Brian Doyle-Murray, are also actors. A sister, Nancy, is an Adrian Dominican nun in Michigan and their father died in 1967 at the age of 46 from complications of diabetes when Bill was 17 years old. As a youth, Murray read childrens biographies of American heroes like Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok and he attended St. Josephs grade school and Loyola Academy. During his teen years, he worked as a golf caddy to fund his education at the Jesuit high school, one of his sisters had polio and his mother suffered several miscarriages. During his teen years he was the singer of a rock band called the Dutch Masters and took part in high school. After graduating, Murray attended Regis University in Denver, Colorado and he quickly dropped out, returning to Illinois. Decades later, in 2007, Regis awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree, on September 21,1970, his 20th birthday, the police arrested Murray at Chicagos OHare Airport for trying to smuggle 10 lb of cannabis, which he had allegedly intended to sell. The drugs were discovered when Murray joked to the next to him that he was smuggling. Murray was convicted and sentenced to probation, with an invitation from his older brother, Brian, Murray got his start at The Second City in Chicago, an improvisational comedy troupe, studying under Del Close. In 1974, he moved to New York City and was recruited by John Belushi as a player on The National Lampoon Radio Hour. In 1975, an Off-Broadway version of a Lampoon show led to his first television role as a cast member of the ABC variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell and that same season, another variety show titled NBCs Saturday Night premiered. Cosells show lasted just one season, canceled in early 1976, after working in Los Angeles with the guerrilla video commune TVTV on several projects, Murray rose to prominence in 1976. He officially joined the cast of NBCs Saturday Night Live for the second season, following the departure of Chevy Chase. Murray was with SNL for three seasons from 1977 to 1980. S, during the first few seasons of SNL, Murray was in a romantic relationship with fellow cast member Gilda Radner. Murray landed his first starring role with the film Meatballs in 1979 and he followed this up with his portrayal of Hunter S. Thompson in 1980s Where the Buffalo Roam
Bill Murray
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Murray at the 2015
San Diego Comic-Con International
Bill Murray
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Murray at the
2010 Toronto International Film Festival
Bill Murray
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Murray in 2014
Bill Murray
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Eric Clapton and Murray kicking off the Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2007
11.
The Imitation Game
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The Imitation Game is a 2014 American historical drama thriller film directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Graham Moore loosely based on the biography Alan Turing, The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as real-life British cryptanalyst Alan Turing, who decrypted German intelligence codes for the British government during World War II, keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Charles Dance and Mark Strong also star. The films screenplay topped the annual Black List for best unproduced Hollywood scripts in 2011, the Weinstein Company acquired the film for $7 million in February 2014, the highest amount ever paid for U. S. distribution rights at the European Film Market. It was released theatrically in the United States on November 28,2014, the Imitation Game was a commercial and critical success. It grossed over $233 million worldwide against a $14 million production budget and it received eight nominations at the 87th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay, winning the latter. It also garnered five nominations in the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and it also received nine BAFTA nominations, including Best Film and Outstanding British Film, and won the Peoples Choice Award at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival. The film was criticised by some for its portrayal of historical events and Turings character. However, the LGBT civil rights advocacy and political lobbying organisation the Human Rights Campaign honoured The Imitation Game for bringing Turings legacy to a wider audience. The police send a man to follow Turing into a pub, where he hands an envelope to a male prostitute, who is arrested shortly afterward and confesses that Turing is a client. Turing works in isolation from the others, to the disappointment of his colleagues, when Denniston refuses to fund the machines construction, Turing writes to Winston Churchill, who arranges the funding and names Turing as the team leader. Turing immediately fires Furman and Richards, who are rather than mathematicians. There is a flashback to 1928 when Turing was in the boys-only Sherborne School, the latter introduces him to recreational cryptography and arouses Turings romantic feelings, but dies after the spring break from bovine tuberculosis, leaving Turing scarred. Turings team, which more people, places a crossword puzzle in the newspaper and conducts a mathematical examination for candidates, eventually selecting Joan Clarke. The machine is finished, and Turing names it Christopher. Denniston orders the machine to be destroyed and Turing fired, Denniston relents and says he will give the team one month to decode an encrypted German message with the machine. During this time, Clarkes parents pressure her to leave Bletchley because she is unmarried and alone, at the engagement party, Cairncross advises Turing he is aware of his homosexuality, but warns him to keep it from Joan due to the risk of being caught. During an evening at a pub, Hugh begins to flirt with a colleague of Joans named Helen. As they flirt, Helen jokes how she has a crush on a German but cannot pursue him, Turing asks how she knows, and Helen clarifies that because the messages start with the same word, she suspects that must be someones name
The Imitation Game
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UK theatrical release poster
The Imitation Game
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Bletchley Park, "the home of the codebreakers" where parts of the film were shot
The Imitation Game
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Desplat composed the film's score in under three weeks
The Imitation Game
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Yahoo! president and CEO
Marissa Mayer (left) and 22nd
United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (right) both publicly expressed support and appreciation for Turing and the film
12.
Learning to Drive (film)
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Learning to Drive is a 2014 American comedy drama film. This is the collaboration between Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, and Isabel Coixet. The film was named first-runner up for the Peoples Choice Award at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, the film was released on August 21,2015. Learning to Drive is about the friendship that develops between two very different New Yorkers. Wendy is an author whose husband just left her, inspiring her to embrace her independence. Her teacher, Darwan, is a gentle Indian Sikh driving instructor with an arranged marriage. As Darwan teaches Wendy how to drive, they both learn valuable lessons about relationships, life, and the value of friendship, review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 66% score from 56 film critics reviews, with an average 6. 3/10. The consensus states, The storys a bit predictable, but Learning to Drive is elevated by typically strong work from stars Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley. On another review aggregator, Metacritic, the film has a score of 59 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics, official website Learning to Drive at the Internet Movie Database Learning to Drive, Katha Pollitt, The New Yorker, July 22,2002
Learning to Drive (film)
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Theatrical release poster
13.
Isabel Coixet
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Isabel Coixet Castillo is a Spanish film director. Her films follow a departure from traditional national cinema of Spain, clearing the path for thinking about national film from different perspectives. ”The recurring themes of “emotions, feelings and existential conflict” coupled with her distinct visual style secure the “multifaceted ” filmmakers status as a “catalan auteur”. Isabel Coixet started filming when she was given a 8mm camera on the occasion of her First Communion, after a BA degree in History at Barcelona University, Major in Eighteen and Nineteen centuries, she worked in advertising and spot writing. She won several accolades for her spots, and finally founded her own company in 2000. En 1988, Coixet made her debut as a scriptwriter and helmer in Demasiado Viejo Para Morir Joven, for this movie, she was nominated at the Goya Awards as a Best New Director. In 1996, she made her first feature in English, Things I Never Told You, in this moving drama, the cast was made up of American actors led by Lili Taylor and Andrew McCarthy. Coixet achieved her second nomination at the Goya Awards for Best Original Screenplay, then, in 1988, in association with a French production company, Coixet came back to a script in Spanish to direct the historical adventure A los que aman. This Spanish/Canadian coproduction was strongly praised at the Berlin International Film Festival, Coixet kept on working with Polley in a new movie, The Secret Life of Words, where Tim Robbins and Javier Cámara were costars. This movie was the recipient of four Goya Awards, Best Film, Best Director, Best Production and it was awarded at October 2003 Human Rights Film Festival. It was shot at Vancouver, and produced by Lakeshore Entertainment, based on Philip Roth’s novel The Dying Animal, the screenplay by Nicholas Meyer, Elegy was introduced at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival. In 2009, Map of the sounds of Tokio was released at the Cannes International Film Festival and it was shot in Japan and Barcelona, and starred by Rinko Kikuchi, Sergi López and Min Tanaka, the script was written by Coixet herself. That same year, she inaugurates From I to J at the Santa Mònica Art Center, also, she became member of the jury at the 59th Berlinale. In 2010, she took on the content in one of the three Spanish Pavilion lounges for the Expo Shangai China, in addition, she inaugurated the exhibition “Aral. El mar perdido, ” where it was shown an homonymous documentary shoot in Uzbekistan in 2009, in 2011, Coixet released Escuchando al Juez Garzón at the Berlinale Specials, a section of the Berlin International Film Festival. The magistrate talks by means of an interview with writer Manuel Rivas, the film earned the Goya Award for Best Documentary. That same year she shoots Another Me, an English production written and directed by her and with Sophie Turner, Rhys Iphans, in 2013 she started shooting Learning to Drive in New York City, starred by Sir Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson. It was premiered in Toronto International Film Festival and won the Grolsch Peoples Choice Award and her next project was Nobody Wants the Night, shot between Norway, Bulgary and Spain. It starred Juliette Binoche, Rinko Kikuchi and Gabriel Byrne, the film opened the 66th Edition of Berlin International Film Festival
Isabel Coixet
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2015 Berlin International Film Festival
14.
St. Vincent (film)
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St. Vincent is a 2014 American comedy-drama film written, directed and co-produced by Theodore Melfi, in his feature film debut. The film stars Bill Murray as the character and features Jaeden Lieberher, Melissa McCarthy, Chris ODowd. The film had its premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival where it was voted second runner-up as Peoples Choice Award for Best Film and it received a limited theatrical release on October 10,2014, and expanded to a wide release on October 24. The same day, it was released on Netflix in France, the film was a moderate commercial success, grossing $54.8 million against its $13 million budget, and received positive reviews from critics. Vincent MacKenna is a grumpy alcoholic Vietnam War veteran, living in Sheepshead Bay who smokes and gambles regularly. His wife, Sandy, developed Alzheimers years ago and can no longer recognize him, Vincents only close friends are a pregnant Russian sex worker named Daka and his cat, Felix. Despite his aggressive attitude toward strangers, Vincent has acquaintances who admire and care about him, Vincents 30-year-old Chrysler LeBaron gets damaged by a tree branch felled by his new neighbors moving van. Maggie Bronstein, a radiology tech divorcee, and her son Oliver meet Vincent, Maggie does the best to provide for Oliver, who is ostracized and bullied at his Catholic school, but is a knowledgeable, friendly boy, welcomed warmly by his new teacher. On his first day at his school, Olivers phone, wallet, Oliver asks Vincent if he can stay at his home until his mother comes home from work. Vincent offers to continue babysitting for a fee, Vincent picks up Oliver daily after school because Maggie often has late shifts. Vincents ideas of after-school activities involve visits to racetracks and bars, the mismatched pair begin to help each other mature, though Maggie is at first horrified by Vincents behavior. Vincent teaches Oliver how to defend himself, resulting in Oliver breaking Roberts nose, Vincent and Oliver win a high odds bet on the horses, enabling Vincent to pay off some of his debts. But he gambles away the rest, hoping to more to keep Sandy in her nursing home. Vincent is confronted in his home by loan sharks Zucko and Antwan who attempt to take Sandys jewelry, Vincent suffers a stroke and Zucko and Antwan leave him on the floor. Vincent is hospitalized and has physical therapy, Oliver, Maggie and Daka help Vincent recover, but he becomes depressed after finding out Sandy died while hospitalized. Olivers father, a lawyer, finds out about Vincent and uses the information to get joint custody, Oliver nominates Vincent, for his Saints Among Us school project and declares Vincent his saint, who happily reconciles with Oliver. Some time later, Daka gives birth to a child, and she along with Maggie, Oliver and Robert go to Vincents house, jack Nicholson was rumored to star in the film, but Murray signed on in July 2012. On March 11,2013, Melissa McCarthy was offered the female part
St. Vincent (film)
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Teaser poster
15.
Hajooj Kuka
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Hajooj Kuka is the founder of Refugee Club and the director Beats of the Antonov. Kuka was born in Sudan of the Mahas ethnic group, Kuka travels frequently between Nuba Mountains and the Blue Niles for his creative works. He resides in both Sudan and Kenya, Kuka previously worked at Middle East Broadcast Network in Virginia and Shilo Incorporation in New York City as a video editor and post production tech/ editor. He is currently director at 3ayin, a Sudanese Arabic reports of violent conflict occurrence in Sudan. Kuka studied Electrical Engineering at American University of Beirut and Digital Design at San Jose State University, California, in 2014 his documentary Beats of the Antonov on war, music, and identity won the Peoples Choice Award at 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Through his efforts, Kuka was listed in the Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the Leading Global Thinkers of 2014, Kuka is an active member of GIRIFNA, a non-violent resistance movement in Sudan. Kuka works with various activists in Sudan and in the diaspora for a state of affairs in the country. Despite the non-violence stance, the Sudanese government hunts, tortures and jails Sudanese activists at will and Kuka who has been detained himself, Kuka is optimistic that Sudanese resilience and resistance to oppression and injustice will yield a positive outcome in the long run. He envisions a country that promotes its various dynamism most especially on culture. Kuka is also a War Correspondent in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan
Hajooj Kuka
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Hajooj Kuka in Mombasa Jan 2015
16.
Seymour: An Introduction (film)
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Seymour, An Introduction is an American documentary film, released in 2014. The film was released on March 13,2015, by IFC Films, the film debuted on August 30,2014 at the Telluride Film Festival. The film was released on March 13,2015 in a limited release The film has received positive reviews, as of May 2015, it has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It has a score of 83% on Metacritic
Seymour: An Introduction (film)
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Film poster
17.
Ethan Hawke
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Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer, and director. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards and a Tony Award, Hawke has directed two feature films, three Off-Broadway plays, and a documentary, and written the novels The Hottest State, Ash Wednesday, and Rules for a Knight. He made his debut in 1985 with the science fiction feature Explorers. He then appeared in films before taking a role in the 1994 Generation X drama Reality Bites. Hawke was further honored with SAG Award nominations for films, along with BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for the latter. Hawke was born in Austin, Texas, to Leslie, a charity worker, and James Hawke, Hawkes parents were high school sweethearts in Fort Worth, Texas, and married young, when Hawkes mother was 17. Hawke was born a year later, Hawkes parents were students at the University of Texas at Austin at the time of his birth, and separated and later divorced in 1974. After the separation, Hawke was then raised by his mother, the two relocated several times, before settling in New York City, where Hawke attended the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights. Hawkes mother remarried when he was 10 and the moved to West Windsor Township, New Jersey. He later transferred to the Hun School of Princeton, a boarding school. In high school, Hawke aspired to be a writer, and he twice enrolled in New York Universitys English program, but dropped out both times to pursue acting roles. Hawke obtained his mothers permission to attend his first casting call at age 14 and he secured his first film role in 1985s Explorers, in which he played an alien-obsessed schoolboy alongside River Phoenix. The film received favorable reviews but had poor box office revenues, Hawke later described the disappointment as difficult to bear at such a young age, adding I would never recommend that a kid act. His next film appearance was not until 1989s comedy drama Dad, in 1989, Hawke made his breakthrough appearance, playing a shy student opposite Robin Williamss inspirational English teacher in Dead Poets Society. The film was critically well-received, the Variety reviewer noted Hawke, with revenue of US$235 million worldwide, the film remains Hawkes most commercially successful picture to date. Hawke later described the opportunities he was offered as a result of the success as critical to his decision to continue acting, I didnt want to be an actor. But then the success was so monumental that I was getting offers to be in such interesting movies and be in such interesting places, Hawkes next film, 1991s White Fang, brought his first leading role. The film, an adaptation of Jack Londons novel of the name, featured Hawke as Jack Conroy
Ethan Hawke
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Hawke at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival
Ethan Hawke
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Hawke at the premiere of
The Hottest State in
Austin, Texas, September 2007
Ethan Hawke
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Hawke at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival
Ethan Hawke
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Hawke at the premiere of
Before Midnight in
Berlin, Germany, February 2013
18.
What We Do in the Shadows
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It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014. The film was released on August 18,2014 by Madman Entertainment. The film earned $6.9 million on a $1.6 million budget, four vampires—Viago, Vladislav, Deacon, and Petyr—share a flat in the Wellington suburb of Te Aro. Deacon has a human servant —Jackie—who runs errands for the vampires, two months later the vampires accept Nick into their group and also bond with his human friend Stu, a computer programmer who shows them how to use modern technology. Nick struggles to adapt to life as a vampire and carelessly reveals his secret to strangers he meets in bars, one of these strangers, a vampire hunter, breaks into the flat during the day and kills Petyr by exposing him to sunlight. The vampires are furious when they discover Nick has indirectly caused Petyrs death, the police arrive to investigate a reported disturbance and Viago is able to hypnotize them so they dont see the blood or the dead body of the vampire hunter. Nick, Stu and Jackie also attend, to Deacons annoyance, Nick has turned Jackie into a vampire. When Pauline realizes that Stu and the camera-crew are human, the guests try to kill them. The vampires manage to escape the ball with Stu and the film-crew, Stu and one of the cameramen are caught and attacked by the werewolves. Assuming Stu is dead, the vampires grieve for him, a while later, Stu reappears—eventually reconciling the werewolves with the vampires. Nick and the vampires also resurface. Despite their differences with Nick, the vampires have adapted to early twenty-first century life, relationships. Taika Waititi as Viago, aged 379 – the uptight leader of the household, jemaine Clement as Vladislav, aged 862 – a former tyrant with extreme powers. Jonathan Brugh as Deacon, aged 183 – the young rebel of the group who is fond of knitting, erotic dancing, and being cool. Ben Fransham as Petyr, aged 8,000 – a Nosferatu-like vampire who lives on the floor of the flat in a stone coffin. Jackie Van Beek as Jackie – a human and Deacons familiar who cleans up after the vampires, cori Gonzalez-Macuer as Nick – an intended victim who is turned into a vampire by Petyr. Stu Rutherford as Stu – Nicks best friend who introduces the vampires to modern technology, rhys Darby as Anton – the leader of a local pack of werewolves. Ethel Robinson as Katherine – the love of Viagos life, elena Stejko as Pauline – Vladislavs ex-girlfriend whom he calls The Beast
What We Do in the Shadows
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New Zealand theatrical release poster
19.
Taika Waititi
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Taika David Waititi, also known as Taika Cohen, is a New Zealand film director, writer, actor, painter and comedian. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his 2004 short film Two Cars and his feature films Boy and Hunt for the Wilderpeople became the top grossing New Zealand films. His horror comedy film What We Do in the Shadows also received critical acclaim, Waititi has used his mothers surname, Cohen, for some of his work in film and writing. While a drama student at Victoria University of Wellington, Waititi was part of the ensemble, So Youre a Man. He was one half of the comedy duo The Humourbeasts alongside Jemaine Clement – recipients of New Zealands highest comedy accolade, in the same period Waititi began acting on screen. He won a film award for his work as one of the students in successful low-budget Dunedin film Scarfies. Among a variety of interests, Waititi began making comical short films for New Zealands annual 48-hour film contest. In 2005 his short film Two Cars, One Night earned him an Academy Award nomination, at the awards ceremony, he famously feigned falling asleep as the nominations were being read out. His first feature film, oddball romantic comedy Eagle vs Shark, was released in U. S. theatres for limited distribution in 2007, the film stars Waititis then real-life partner, Loren Horsley, as Lily. The same year, Waititi wrote and directed one episode of the TV show Flight of the Conchords and was director of another and his second feature, Boy, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Waititi also took one of the roles, as the ex-con father who returns to his family. On its release in New Zealand, Boy received enthusiastic reviews and was successful at the box office. After the success of Boy, Waititi hoped that the signature track Poi E would get to number one on the New Zealand charts. The song reached number three, but got to one on iTunes. In 2011, Waititi directed New Zealand TV series Super City starring Madeleine Sami, in 2013, Waititi co-wrote and co-directed vampire comedy mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows with friend and fellow comedian Jemaine Clement. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014, Waititi and Clement played members of a group of vampires who live in modern-day Wellington. Waititis fourth feature, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, when it was released back in New Zealand, the comedy adventure broke records for a New Zealand film in its opening weekend. Based on a book by the late Barry Crump, the film centres around a young boy, Waititi wrote the initial screenplay for the 2016 Disney film Moana, which focused on gender and family
Taika Waititi
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Taika Waititi speaking at 2015 Sundance Film Festival
20.
Jemaine Clement
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Jemaine Clement is a New Zealand comedian, actor, writer, director, and multi-instrumentalist, known as one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords along with Bret McKenzie. Jemaine Clement was born on 10 January 1974 in Masterton, New Zealand and he attended Makoura College in Masterton. After graduation, he moved to New Zealands capital Wellington, where he studied drama, there he met Taika Waititi with whom he went on to form So Youre a Man and The Humourbeasts. In 2004, the Humourbeasts toured New Zealand in a show titled The Untold Tales of Maui. The duo received New Zealands highest comedy honour, the Billy T Award, Clement and Bret McKenzie formed Flight of the Conchords while at Victoria University. They have toured internationally and released four CDs, Folk the World Tour in 2002, The Distant Future EP in 2007, Flight of the Conchords in 2008, in 2005 the Conchords produced Flight of the Conchords, a six-part comedy radio programme on BBC Radio 2. They appeared on Late Night with Conan OBrien, the Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show. After appearing in 2005 on HBOs One Night Stand, the Conchords were offered their own 12-part HBO series Flight of the Conchords, which was based on their earlier BBC radio series of the same name. Its first season ran from June to September 2007, and was renewed for a second season, in December 2009, the Conchords announced the show would not have a third season. Clement has appeared in feature films. His debut was in the kung fu comedy Tongan Ninja, directed by New Zealander Jason Stutter. He has worked with Stutter on two movies to date, the low budget ghost comedy Diagnosis Death and the drama Predicament. Clement also has a role in American comedy Gentlemen Broncos, directed by Napoleon Dynamites Jared Hess and this role landed him a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. Though Gentlemen Broncos was almost universally panned by critics, some singled out Clements performance for praise, in 2010, he voiced Jerry in Despicable Me and appeared in the film Dinner for Schmucks. In 2011, he voiced Nigel in Rio, and in 2012 he appeared as the primary antagonist Boris the Animal in Men in Black 3, in 2012, Jemaine co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in a vampire mockumentary titled What We Do in the Shadows with Taika Waititi. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 19 January 2014 and he also reprised his role as Nigel in Rio 2. Clement has starred in commercials internationally and provided voiceovers for many others in New Zealand. One of the gags of Flight of the Conchords is the traditional rivalry between New Zealand and Australia and the differences between their accents
Jemaine Clement
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Clement performing at
Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden in May 2010
21.
Tusk (2014 film)
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Tusk is a 2014 American comedy horror film written and directed by Kevin Smith, based on a story from his SModcast podcast. The film stars Michael Parks, Justin Long, Haley Joel Osment, Génesis Rodríguez, the film is intended to be the first in Smiths planned True North trilogy. Tusk had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, before it was released on September 19,2014. The film was Smiths first major release since Cop Out. Best friends Wallace Bryton and Teddy Craft host the popular podcast The Not-See Party, Wallace announces plans to fly to Canada to interview the Kill Bill Kid, an Internet celebrity famous for severing his leg with a samurai sword. Upon arriving in Manitoba, Wallace is surprised to learn that the Kill Bill Kid committed suicide, upset that he flew to Canada for nothing, Wallace decides to stay an extra day and find another person to interview. He finds a handbill from someone offering a room in his home for free and his interest piqued, Wallace arrives at the mansion of Howard Howe, a retired seaman in a wheelchair. Howard tells the story of how a walrus, whom he named Mr. Tusk, Wallace then passes out from the secobarbital laced in his tea that Howard made for him. The next morning, Wallace wakes up to find himself strapped into a wheelchair, Howard tells him he was bitten by a brown recluse spider and a local doctor had to amputate it to save Wallaces life. Howard not only reveals that he can walk, but lays out his plans for Wallace. Wallaces attempts to contact Teddy and Ally fail when neither answer their phone and it is then revealed that Ally and Teddy are in fact lovers. Wallace leaves Ally a voicemail apologizing for how he treated her, now aware that Wallace is in danger, Ally and Teddy fly to Canada to look for him. He sews Wallace into a costume made of human skin. A local detective puts Ally and Teddy in touch with Guy LaPointe, LaPointe reveals that Howard, nicknamed “The First Wife, has been kidnapping and murdering people for years, he says he believes Wallace may still be alive, but not as they remember him. They eventually find Howards address through two convenience store clerks, whom Wallace had annoyed earlier, by now, Wallace’s psyche has been completely broken and has been conditioned to think and behave like a walrus. Howard reveals that his obsession with walruses comes from killing and eating Mr. Tusk six months living on the island. For the past 15 years, he has attempted to turn his victims into his beloved savior in order to relive their last day, Ally and Teddy enter the enclave as Wallace bellows victoriously and viciously as a walrus does, much to their horror. LaPointe later enters the room and reluctantly aims a shotgun at Wallace, one year later, Wallace, still sewn into the pelt, lives in a wildlife sanctuary
Tusk (2014 film)
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Theatrical release poster
22.
Kevin Smith
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Kevin Patrick Smith is an American filmmaker, actor, comedian, public speaker, comic book writer, author, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the comedy film Clerks, which he wrote, directed, co-produced. Jay and Silent Bob have appeared in Smiths follow-up films Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back which were set primarily in his home state of New Jersey. Smith also directed and produced such as the buddy cop action comedy Cop Out, the horror film Red State, and the horror comedy Tusk. Smith is the owner of Jay and Silent Bobs Secret Stash and he also hosts the movie-review television show Spoilers. As a podcaster, Smith co-hosts several shows on his own SModcast Podcast Network, including SModcast, Fatman on Batman, Smith is well known for participating in long, humorous Q&A sessions that are often filmed for DVD release, beginning with An Evening with Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith was born on August 2,1970 in Red Bank, New Jersey, the son of Grace, a homemaker, and Donald E. Smith and he has an older sister, Virginia, and an older brother, Donald Smith, Jr. He was raised in a Catholic household, in the nearby clamming town of Highlands, as a child, Smiths days were scheduled around Donalds late shifts at the post office. Donald grew to despise his job, which greatly influenced Smith, Smith vowed never to work at something that he did not enjoy. Smith later attended Henry Hudson Regional High School, where as a B and C student, he would videotape school basketball games, an overweight teen, he developed into a comedic observer of life in order to successfully socialize with friends and girls. After high school, Smith attended the New School in New York, but did not graduate On his 21st birthday, Smith went to see Richard Linklaters comedy Slacker. Smith relates, It was the movie that got me off my ass, it was the movie that lit a fire under me, and I had never seen a movie like that before ever in my life. To finance the film, Smith maxed out more than a credit cards and sold his much-treasured comic book collection. He cast friends and acquaintances in the major parts. Clerks was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994, where it won the Filmmakers Trophy, at a restaurant following the screening, Miramax executive Harvey Weinstein invited Smith to join him at his table, where he offered to buy the movie. In May 1994, it went to the Cannes International Film Festival, released in October 1994 in two cities, the film went on to play in 50 markets, never playing on more than fifty screens at any given time. Despite the limited release, it was a critical and financial success, initially, the film received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, solely for the sexually graphic language. Smiths second film, Mallrats, which marked Jason Lees debut as a leading man and it received a critical drubbing and earned merely $2.2 million at the box office, despite playing on more than 500 screens
Kevin Smith
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Smith at the Montclair Film Festival, 2014
Kevin Smith
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Smith at the
2008 Toronto International Film Festival
Kevin Smith
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Smith at the 2008
Comic-Con convention
Kevin Smith
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Smith and the cast of
Comic Book Men at the
New York Comic Con.
23.
Big Game (2014 film)
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Big Game is a 2014 Finnish action adventure film directed by Jalmari Helander, based on the original story by Helander and Petri Jokiranta. The film stars Samuel L. Jackson, Onni Tommila, Felicity Huffman, Victor Garber, Ted Levine, Jim Broadbent, and Ray Stevenson. In the forest on a mission to prove his maturity to his kinsfolk, Oskari had been planning to track down a deer. As Morris plummets, he fires his gun and the bullets tear into the helicopter. With Moore acting as Oskaris prize, he assures Oskaris father that his son is the bravest man he has ever met, Samuel L. Ray Stevenson as Secret Service Agent Morris Mehmet Kurtuluş as Hazar, a CIA operative posing as a freelance terrorist. The films budget was €8.5 million, making it the most expensive film produced in Finland. Although the wilderness adventures are portrayed to take place in Finnish Lapland, the footage in the film are from the Alps. Big Game opened in Finland on 19 March 2015 at number 1, the following week it dropped -38% to finish the weekend with $199,996 from 103 screens. The film had made $1,420,000 as of 26 June 2015, as of 17 May 2015, the film had a worldwide total of $7,455,218. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics, on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 76% certified fresh critics score. On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 53 out of 100, indicating mixed or average reviews, Big Game at the Internet Movie Database Big Game at Box Office Mojo Big Game at Rotten Tomatoes Big Game at Metacritic
Big Game (2014 film)
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Theatrical release poster
24.
Felix and Meira
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Felix and Meira is a 2014 Canadian drama film directed by Maxime Giroux and starring Martin Dubreuil, Hadas Yaron and Luzer Twersky. The film premiered in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and it received numerous other film festival awards as was nominated for five Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture. In Mile End, Montreal, a Hassidic Jewish woman named Meira lives a miserable life and they have a young daughter named Elishiva, but Meira confides in her friend that she does not want any more children, despite their religious duty. Word reaches Shulem, who berates Meira for shaming the small family, by chance, Meira meets Félix, a French Canadian man who has just lost his father Théodore, who at the end of his life no longer knew Félix was his son. Meira is mystified by the fact that Félix has no children, as he is single and she avoids eye contact with him, and becomes enraged when, while they are playing Ping-Pong, Félixs sister Caroline unexpectedly arrives and sees her. Félix and Meira go out dancing, Caroline also informs Félix that their mother had an affair, drawing parallel to Félixs interest in a married woman. Eventually, Shulem sees Félix and Meira walking on a street together, rushes up behind them, finally, Shulem visits Félix in his apartment, informing him that if Meira and Félix reunite, Meira will never be allowed to return to the Hassidic community. Shulem also asks Félix to keep Meira safe and cared for, before leaving, Shulem notices a folded up piece of paper, that Félix says was written by Théodore and never read. Shulem reads it, revealing Théodore apologized for bullying Félix to conform to the family, Félix and Meira take Elishiva to Venice. Additionally, he said he lived near Hassidic Jews on Mile End, while meeting and discussing possible stories with co-writer Alexandre Laferrière at cafes, Giroux said we’d see these women and men walking by and we just didn’t know anything about them. Laferrière did much of the research, Giroux assembled a cast including actors who were once Hassidic Jews but later gave up that faith and culture. He commented, Its their story in a way and I know at some point and its tough for them to reinvent themselves and have a new life in our society. It was challenging to cast Yiddish-speaking actors in Montreal, but in New York several people pointed Giroux to Luzer Twersky, who they said would be interested. The producers recommended Hadas Yaron, but as she did not speak French or Yiddish, felix and Meira premiered in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It was also in competition at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, in January 2015, it screened at the New York Jewish Film Festival. The film had a release in Quebec theatres on 30 January 2015, distributed by FunFilm. It was released on DVD on 12 May 2015, by September 2015, the film had played in over 50 festivals and 15 countries. The film received positive reviews, with a 77% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it was included in the list of Canadas Top Ten feature films of 2014, selected by a panel of filmmakers and industry professionals organized by TIFF
Felix and Meira
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Film poster
25.
Abd al Malik (rapper)
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Abd al Malik, born Régis Fayette-Mikano, is a French rapper and spoken word artist of Congolese origin. He has also authored books in French, and directed an adaptation of one of his books. Régis Fayette-Mikano was born in the 14th arrondissement in Paris in 1975, when he was just two, the family moved back to Brazzaville, Congo, where they lived from 1977 to 1981. Upon his return to France, he lived in lower income house projects in Neuhof in Strasbourg studying at Collège Sainte-Anne de Strasbourg, after his parents divorced, he lived with his mother in a family of seven children. Despite suffering from dyslexia, he was part of the church choir, delving for a while in petty street crimes, he was greatly affected by death of some of his friends and immersed himself in reading literature. Talented in words and music, he formed with his brother Bilal and his cousin Aissa, other members included Mustapha, Mohammed and Karim, all from the neighborhood where he lived. Most of the come from the Neuhof quartier of Strasbourg. Having converted from Christianity to Islam, he took on the stage name Abd al Malik and this was an adaptation of his birth name Régis, being derived from rex meaning king in Latin whereas Malik means king in Arabic. NAP released their first maxi Trop beau pour être vrai, produced by Sulee B, on High Skills, in 1996, they released the album La Racaille sort 1 also on High Skills, selling over 25,000 copies. Based on this, NAP were signed to BMG, and their 1998 album La Fin du monde with participations from Wallen, Rockin Squat, Radical Kicker, Shurikn, Freeman, Rocca, a third album followed in 1999 called À lintérieur de nous also with BMG. After break-up of the rap group with the beginnings of the 2000s, Abd al Malik engaged in a career of rapping. His musical style incorporated elements of rap, hip hop, jazz, slam poetry and sufism with usually very serious and intricate thought and he also alluded to more traditional Francophone artists like Jacques Brel and Claude Nougaro in cultured rich texts filled with emotions. He released the self-produced Le face à face des cœurs in 2004 with limited chart success, but with his follow up Gibraltar, it was a big success with his deconstruction of notion of rap while staying in hip hop genre. In 2006, he won the Prix Constantin, an annual French music prize awarded to the best album of an artist who has come to prominence during the course of the past decade. In 2007, he presented his new project for fighting functional illiteracy in the Béni-Snassen collective with contributions from New African Poets, Wallen, Bilin, Hamcho, Matteo Falkone, the result was 2008 album from the project titled Spleen et Idéal. In January 2008, he was decorated with French chevalier Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the then Minister of Culture Christine Albanel during MIDEM, Abd al Malik has been very active in writing as well. The book won Belgian Laurence Trân Prize in 2005, the book won the Prix de littérature politique Edgar-Faure, a prize for political literature in 2010. In 2013, he published a book, LIslam au secours de la République and he also announced that a film was in preparation titled May Allah Bless France
Abd al Malik (rapper)
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Abd Al Malik
26.
Time Out of Mind (2014 film)
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Time Out of Mind is a 2014 American drama film written and directed by Oren Moverman. The film stars Richard Gere, Jena Malone, Ben Vereen, Kyra Sedgwick, the film was released on September 11,2015, by IFC Films. Set in the cacophony of New York, the story begins with the mild-mannered but confused George being thrown out from an apartment by Art. Later viewers find out this apartment was not his, but rented to an evicted acquaintance, from the start, George is indigent, he claims that someone has stolen his wallet. One can only guess hed been living on the edge for a while, several attempted telephone calls yield no help, and George is forced to sleep on the streets. At one point, seeking warmth, he sits at a hospital emergency room where he is approached by staff nurse Maire who treats him with compassion. Up until shortly before the end of the film, he is denying to others and himself that he is homeless, George pawns his belongings to buy liquor and he eventually gets a bed at a homeless shelter, where he befriends the mentally unstable but friendly Dixon. Dixon keeps George company as the latter goes through the trials of applying for public benefits and his eventual meeting with the advocate Laura leads to more self-realizations about the help he needs. Seeking reconciliation with his estranged daughter Maggie, his vulnerability is palpable and he appears guiltily obsessed with somehow reconnecting with her. Throughout the story, as Georges character and background become more evident, he becomes increasingly anhedonic. The story ends with George reaching out to Maggie in hopes for forgiveness, jackson Colman Domingo as Mr. Oyello On January 29,2014, the film was announced, with filming set to begin in March 2014. The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7,2014, on October 20,2014, IFC Films acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was released on September 11,2015, by IFC Films, Time Out of Mind received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 73%, based on 64 reviews, the sites critical consensus reads, Time Out of Mind demands patience, yet its noble intentions -- and Richard Geres committed performance -- are difficult to deny. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 75 out of 100, based on 25 critics, joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News gave the film five out of five stars, saying Never less than powerful. Without sentimentality or gloss, it illuminates a part of city life that far too often is lost in the shadows. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the three and a half stars out of four, saying Gere, who has shockingly never been nominated for an Oscar, is intuitive. Maybe its naive to think a movie like this can heighten our awareness, rex Reed of The New York Observer gave the film three out of four stars, saying Time Out of Mind is not sentimental or overly plotted
Time Out of Mind (2014 film)
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Theatrical release poster
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Margarita, with a Straw
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Margarita with a Straw is a 2014 Indian drama film directed by Shonali Bose. It stars Kalki Koechlin, who plays Laila, a teenager with cerebral palsy, revathy, Sayani Gupta, and William Moseley play supporting roles. The movie talks about struggle with the activities in her life. Margarita with a Straw was one of the five selected for the Work In Progress Lab of Film Bazaar 2013. The film made its premiere on 8 September 2014 as part of the Contemporary World Cinema Programme at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released in India on 17 April 2015, Laila is a teenager with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair. She is a student at Delhi University and a writer who writes lyrics. Laila falls for the singer of the college band and is heartbroken when she is rejected. She soon overcomes this phase, when she gets a scholarship for a semester at New York University, living in Manhattan, she meets an attractive young man named Jared in her creative writing class, who is assigned to help her in typing. She also meets the young activist Khanum, a blind girl of a Pakistani Bangladeshi descent. As she embarks on a journey of discovery, she figures out she is bisexual. She has sex with Jared and she doesnt tell Khanum, Lailas mother, believing the two are like best friends and oblivious to the fact that Khanum is her daughters lover, invites her to Delhi to spend the winter break with the family. It is during that time that Laila finds the courage to tell her mother about her sexuality and her relationship with Khanum and she also tells Khanum that she had sex with Jared and asks her to forgive her. Khanum thinks that she was being used by Laila and leaves her, after a short while Lailas mother falls sick and she learns that her mother had fourth stage colon cancer which has fallen into relapse after previous treatments. Later Laila and her mother patch up and come to terms with each other, after her mother dies Laila plays a recorded speech at her mothers funeral telling how much she loved her and how she was the only one who ever understood her. The story ends with Laila going on a date, with herself, signifying that she now has control of her life and doesnt need anyone else to love. The movie revolves around very delicate aspects of modern life and teaching society how its better to adhere. Subhash K. Jha of SkjBollywoodNews. com gave the movie 5 out of 5 stars and wrote Sip and this is a moving heartwarming lyrical and yummy tale of a girl so sassy, she defines the eternal quest to seize the day
Margarita, with a Straw
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Margarita With A Straw
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Shonali Bose
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Shonali Bose is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer. She is known for the social drama Amu, which was based on her own novel of the same name. Her next film, the 2015 drama Margarita with a Straw, was a critical and commercial success as well. Shonali hails from Calcutta, and grew up in Bombay and Delhi and she has been an activist since her student days at Miranda House College. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Delhi University and masters degree in Political Science from Columbia University and she was also involved in theater as an actor throughout school and college. Activist Malini Chib is her first cousin, on whom she made the drama film Margarita with a Straw and her short narrative films The Gendarme Is Here and Undocumented and feature-length documentary Lifting the Veil have screened in festivals and other venues throughout the world. Amu is her film debut which she had written, produced and directed. Amu released in India in January 2005 receiving popular and critical acclaim and it then went on to premier at the Berlin and Toronto film festivals amongst many other international festivals. She has also written the book Amu based on the screenplay which released simultaneously with the film, in 2012, she co-wrote Chittagong, directed by her former husband Bedabrata Pain which is about the Chittagong armoury raid of 1930. The film stars Manoj Bajpai as Masterda Surya Sen and her 2014 film, Margarita, with a Straw starring Kalki Koechlin, as a girl with cerebral palsy was premiered at 2014 Toronto Film Festival where it won the NETPAC Jury Award for Best Asian Film. Earlier, Bose was the first Indian to win the Sundance-Mahindra Global Filmmaker Award for the script and she was married to Bedabrata Pain but is now separated. 2005 Amu 2012 Chittagong 2014 Margarita, with a Straw 2005, National Film Award, star Screen Award - Best Englisg LAnguage Film - Amu
Shonali Bose
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Shonali Bose with Aamir Khan at the DVD Launch of Amu
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Black and White (2014 film)
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Black or White is a 2014 American drama film directed and written by Mike Binder. The film stars Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer, Gillian Jacobs, Jennifer Ehle, Anthony Mackie, the film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the United States on January 30,2015. Elliot Anderson is widowed after a car crash leads to the death of his wife, elliot raises his granddaughter Eloise as he struggles with his grief by binge-drinking. Elliot finds himself entrenched in a custody battle and will stop at nothing to keep his granddaughter from coming under the watch of her reckless father. On October 17, Relativity Media acquired the US rights to the film, principal photography of the film began on July 15,2013 in New Orleans with the filming lasting for five weeks. Relativity planned to release the film in time to qualify for the Oscar race, the limited release was scrapped, however, in favor of an immediate wide release. Black or White was released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 5,2015, Black or White grossed $21.6 million in North America against a budget of $9 million. Black or White received mixed reviews from critics, on Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 39% rating, based on 87 reviews, with an average rating of 5. 3/10. The websites consensus reads, Black or White has more on its mind than your average family drama, on Metacritic, the film has a score of 45 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews. According to CinemaScore, audiences gave the film a grade of A− on an A+ to F scale. Black or White at the Internet Movie Database
Black and White (2014 film)
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Theatrical release poster
