1.
Jennifer Westfeldt
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Westfeldt was born in Guilford, Connecticut, the daughter of Constance Connie, a therapist, and Patrick McLoskey Westfeldt, Jr. an electrical engineer. She graduated from Guilford High School and attended Yale University, where she sang with the a cappella group Redhot & Blue, Westfeldt started her career as a New York-based theater actor, and has starred in over 25 Off-Broadway and regional productions. She first came to Hollywood in 1997 and that year, she co-wrote and starred in an Off-Broadway play with Heather Juergensen called Lipschtick, The Story of Two Women Seeking The Perfect Shade that caught the attention of Hollywood studios. It was optioned by Radar Pictures and made into Kissing Jessica Stein, in which Westfeldt, in 2002, Westfeldt starred as Jessica in Kissing Jessica Stein. The film was a version of one of the sketches Westfeldt. In 2004, Westfeldt starred opposite Paul Schneider in the film How to Lose Your Lover. Westfeldt wrote, produced, and starred alongside Chris Messina in Ira & Abby, which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2006, in 2011, she wrote, produced, starred and made her directorial debut in Friends with Kids. The cast included Westfeldts boyfriend, Jon Hamm, the film was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011, and was released by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions in March 2012. Westfeldt was cast in a regular role for Two Guys, a Girl. In 2001 she was featured in three episodes of Judging Amy, in 2007, she was cast as the lead of ABCs Notes from the Underbelly, directed and executive produced by Barry Sonnenfeld. Notes ran for two seasons on ABC and her recent television credits include memorable arcs on ABCs hit Greys Anatomy, as well as starring in the TV movie Before You Say I Do opposite David Sutcliffe. Additional television credits include appearances in The Gene Pool, Dante, Hack, Snoops, in 2010, she was a guest star on Numb3rs and the show 24. She first appeared in the first four episodes of season eight and she provided the voice of Kit Luntayne in the Martha Speaks episodes Cora. Westfeldt has starred in over 25 Off-Broadway and regional productions and she made her 2004 Broadway debut in a revival of Wonderful Town. Her performance won her a Theatre World Award, a Drama League Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut, in 1997, Westfeldt began a relationship with actor Jon Hamm. They owned homes in Los Angeles and the Upper West Side in New York, what we have is much deeper and we both know that. To me, people get married when theyre ready to have kids, in April 2009, Hamm and Westfeldt formed their own production company, Points West Pictures. Hamm and Westfeldt are advocates of animal rescue and have adopted a mixed breed dog named Cora from the Much Love Animal Shelter in California, in September 2015, Hamm and Westfeldt announced they were ending their relationship
2.
Jackie Hoffman
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She is a veteran of Chicagos famed The Second City comedy improv group. Hoffman won the Joseph Jefferson Award, Chicagos venerable theatre award, Hoffman also joined the three-woman comic team behind The J. A. P. Show, Jewish American Princesses of Comedy, at the Actors Temple in April 2007 and she performed numerous roles in David and Amy Sedaris 2001 comic play, The Book of Liz, winning an Obie Award. Her other theatrical credits include The Sisters Rosensweig, Straightjacket, Incident at Cobblers Knob, in addition, she regularly performs at Joes Pub in one-woman concerts. In 2002, Hoffman was cast in the musical Hairspray on Broadway, playing the roles of Prudy Pingleton, Gym Teacher, Matron and she won the 2003 Theatre World Award for her performance. She co-starred as Calliope, muse of poetry, in the rock musical Xanadu on Broadway. Hoffman starred as Grandmama in the Broadway musical The Addams Family, in 2010, she also parodied Lady Gagas hit-single, Alejandro. She most recently played Madame Dilly and other roles in the 2014 Broadway revival of On the Town, Hoffman provided the voice of Mary Phillips, the Talk Radio host, in the video game Grand Theft Auto, San Andreas. She has also been a frequent guest on Late Night with Conan OBrien, in 2007 she was featured in the film Making Trouble, a tribute to female Jewish comedians, produced by the Jewish Women’s Archive. In 2011, Hoffman appeared as a cameo in The Sitter as Mrs. Sapperstein, in 2012, she has had a recurring role in The New Normal. She appeared in a role in the Oscar-winning movie Birdman in 2014. In 2017, she appeared in the first season of the FX series entitled Feud, Bette and Joan in the role of Joan Crawfords housekeeper and she also appears on Scott Alans CD, Dreaming Wide Awake, in a duet with Carly Jibson. Hoffman was born in Queens, New York, at age 46, during the run of her show Regrets Only, she was hospitalized for a hysterectomy to remove a benign tumor. She was back in three weeks, with a cot backstage for whenever she wasnt singing or talking, Jackie Hoffman at the Internet Movie Database Jackie Hoffman at the Internet Broadway Database
3.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
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Slumdog Millionaire is also Searchlights largest commercial success, with over $377 million of box office receipts, against a production budget of only $15 million. The most notable of the releases under these banners include Bill Cosby, Himself, Eating Raoul, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Reuben, Reuben, and Ziggy Stardust, in 2006, a sub-label, Fox Atomic, was created to produce and/or distribute genre films. Fox Atomic closed down in 2009, the Fox Searchlight Pictures logo is quite similar to the regular 20th Century-Fox logo, with even Alfred Newmans fanfare music accompanying it. The animation was used for Fox Videos third logo
4.
Romantic comedy film
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Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is a movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily. Another definition states that its primary distinguishing feature is a plot in which two sympathetic and well-matched lovers are united or reconciled. Romantic comedy films are a genre of comedy films as well as of romance films. However a romantic comedy is classified as a film with two genres not a new genre. Some television series can also be classified as romantic comedies, a wedding-bells, fairy-tale-style happy ending is practically mandatory. The basic plot of a comedy is that two characters meet, part ways due to an argument or other obstacle, then ultimately reunite. Sometimes the two meet and become involved initially, then must confront challenges to their union. Sometimes they are hesitant to become involved because they believe that they do not like each other, because one of them already has a partner. However, the screenwriters leave clues that suggest that the characters are, in fact, attracted to each other, the protagonists often separate or seek time apart to sort out their feelings or deal with the external obstacles to their being together. While the two protagonists are separated, one or both of them realizes that they are ideal for each other, or that they are in love with each other. Then, after one of the two makes some effort to find the other person and declare their love, or through an astonishing coincidental encounter. Then, perhaps with some comic friction or awkwardness, they declare their love for each other, the couple does not, however, have to marry, or live together happily ever after. The ending of a comedy is meant to affirm the primary importance of the love relationship in its protagonists lives. There are many variations on this basic plotline, sometimes, instead of the two lead characters ending up in each others arms, another love match will be made between one of the principal characters and a secondary character. Alternatively, the film may be a rumination on the impossibility of love, the basic format of a romantic comedy film can be found in much earlier sources, such as Shakespeare plays like Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Nights Dream. Some comedy films, such as Knocked Up, combine themes of romantic comedies and stoner comedies, often known as bromance, such films usually use sexual elements which bring the two characters together. Films in this genre include American Pie 2 and even Wedding Crashers, romantic comedies have begun to spread out of their conventional and traditional structure into other territory
5.
Jon Hamm
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Jonathan Daniel Jon Hamm is an American actor, director, and television producer best known for playing advertising executive Don Draper for the AMC television drama series, Mad Men. For much of the mid-1990s, he lived in Los Angeles, making appearances in television series Providence, The Division, What About Brian, during 2000, he made his feature movie debut in the space adventure movie Space Cowboys. The next year, he had a role in the independent comedy. He gained wide recognition when Mad Men began broadcast during July 2007 and he directed two episodes of the show. During 2008, Hamm appeared in a remake of the science fiction movie The Day The Earth Stood Still and his first leading movie role was in the 2010 independent thriller Stolen. He also had supporting roles in the movies The Town, Sucker Punch, Hamm has received 16 Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in Mad Men,30 Rock, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. His other television credits include featuring in the Sky Arts series A Young Doctors Notebook and guest roles in Parks and Recreation and Wet Hot American Summer, First Day of Camp. He provided his voice to the animated movie Shrek Forever After during 2010, Hamm was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Deborah and Daniel Hamm. His father managed a family trucking company, and his mother was a secretary and he is of German, English, and Irish descent, his surname originates with German immigrants. Hamms parents divorced when he was two old, and he lived in Missouri in Creve Coeur with his mother until her death from colon cancer. Hamm then lived with his father and his first acting role was as Winnie the Pooh for first grade. At 16, he was cast as Judas for the play Godspell and he attended John Burroughs School, a private school in Ladue, where he was a member of the football, baseball, and swim teams. During this time, he dated future actress Sarah Clarke and his father died when Jon was 20. After graduation during 1989, Hamm enrolled at the University of Texas, there, Hamm was arrested for participating with a violent hazing incident that occurred during November 1990, involving another student, Mark Sanders. Sanders was beaten with a paddle and a broom, while Hamm was leading him around the fraternity house, the incident resulted in the fraternity being ended on campus. Hamm completed the terms of a deferred adjudication, and the charges were dismissed during August 1995, Hamm then enrolled at the University of Missouri. At Missouri he answered an advertisement from a company seeking players for a production of A Midsummer Nights Dream, auditioned. Other roles followed, such as Leon Czolgosz in Assassins, after graduating during 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Hamm returned to his high school to teach eighth-grade acting
6.
Copyeditor
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In the context of publication in print, copy editing is done before typesetting and again before proofreading, the final step in the editorial cycle. In the United States and Canada, an editor who does this work is called a copy editor, an organisations highest-ranking copy editor, or the supervising editor of a group of copy editors, may be known as the copy chief, copy desk chief, or news editor. The senior subeditor of a publication is called the chief subeditor. As the prefix sub suggests, copy editors typically have less authority than regular editors, in the context of the internet, online copy refers to the text content of web pages. Similar to print, online copy editing is the process of revising the raw or draft text of web pages, copy editing has three levels, light, medium, and heavy. Depending on the budget and scheduling of the publication, the publisher will let the copy editor know what level of editing to employ, the type of editing one chooses, will help the copy editor prioritize their efforts. Within copy editing, there is mechanical editing and substantive editing and it refers to editing in terms of spelling, punctuation, correct usage of grammatical symbols, along with reviewing special elements like tables, charts, formatting footnotes, and endnotes. Substantive editing, also known as content editing, is the editing of material, including its structure, in this type of editing, internal inconsistencies and discrepancies can be dealt with. Substantive editing oftentimes can require heavy editing or rewriting as compared to mechanical editing, Mechanical editing is the process of proofreading a piece of writing for consistency, either internally or in accordance with the publishers house style. Most publishing firms use a widely recognized style manual such as The Chicago Manual of Style or The Associated Press Stylebook. Companies that produce documents and reports but do not consider themselves publishers in the usual sense, the goal of the copyeditor is to enforce inviolable rules while respecting personal stylistic preferences. This can be difficult, as some writers view grammatical revisions of the manuscript as a challenge to their intellectual ability or professional identity. For this reason, copy editors are encouraged to side with the author, if the authors preference is acceptable, it should be respected. This practice is complicated further by constantly evolving language conventions as recorded by books on grammar, additionally, the authors of such books often disagree. Content editing consists of reorganizing or restructuring the content of a document and this involves any inconsistent parts of the content as well as any variances. Copyeditors can either fix the content by rewriting it or heavily editing it, however, the copyeditor will often point out any difficult passages for the author to resolve on his or her own time. This type of fact checking is acceptable for copyeditors that know the subject matter. The copyeditor must also point out any biased language without infringing on the authors meaning and this includes material that might form the basis for a lawsuit alleging libel, invasion of privacy, or obscenity
7.
Rainer Maria Rilke
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Several critics have described Rilkes work as inherently mystical. These deeply existential themes tend to him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist writers. While Rilke is most known for his contributions to German literature, over 400 poems were written in French. In the later 20th century, his work found new audiences through its use by New Age theologians and self-help authors, in the United States, Rilke remains among the more popular, best-selling poets. He was born René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke in Prague and his childhood and youth in Prague were not especially happy. His father, Josef Rilke, became an official after an unsuccessful military career. His mother, Sophie Entz, came from a well-to-do Prague family, the Entz-Kinzelbergers, who lived in a house on the Herrengasse 8, where René also spent many of his early years. The relationship between Phia and her son was colored by her mourning for an earlier child, a daughter who had died only one week old. During Rilkes early years Phia acted as if she sought to recover the lost girl through the boy by dressing him in girls clothing and his parents marriage failed in 1884. His parents pressured the poetically and artistically talented youth into entering a military academy, which he attended from 1886 until 1891, from 1892 to 1895 he was tutored for the university entrance exam, which he passed in 1895. Until 1896 he studied literature, art history, and philosophy in Prague, in 1897 in Munich, Rainer Maria Rilke met and fell in love with the widely travelled, intellectual woman of letters Lou Andreas-Salomé. Rilke changed his first name from René to Rainer at Lous urging because she thought that name to be masculine, forceful. His relationship with married woman, with whom he undertook two extensive trips to Russia, lasted until 1900. But even after their separation, Lou continued to be Rilkes most important confidante until the end of his life, having trained from 1912 to 1913 as a psychoanalyst with Sigmund Freud, she shared her knowledge of psychoanalysis with Rilke. In 1898, Rilke undertook a journey lasting several weeks to Italy, in 1899, he travelled with Lou and her husband, Friedrich Andreas, to Moscow where he met the novelist Leo Tolstoy. Author Anna A. Tavis cites the cultures of Bohemia and Russia as the key influences on Rilkes poetry, in 1900, Rilke stayed at the artists colony at Worpswede. It was here that he got to know the sculptor Clara Westhoff and their daughter Ruth was born in December 1901. In the summer of 1902, Rilke left home and travelled to Paris to write a monograph on the sculptor Auguste Rodin, before long his wife left their daughter with her parents and joined Rilke there
8.
Art gallery
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An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection, the term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art, however, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere. In broad terms, in North American usage, the word gallery alone often implies a private gallery, the term contemporary art gallery refers usually to a privately owned for-profit commercial gallery. These galleries are found clustered together in large urban centers. Smaller cities are home to at least one gallery, but they may also be found in towns or villages. Contemporary art galleries are open to the general public without charge, however. They usually profit by taking a portion of art sales, from 25% to 50% is typical, there are also many non-profit or collective galleries. Some galleries in cities like Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate per day, curators often create group shows that say something about a certain theme, trend in art, or group of associated artists. Galleries sometimes choose to represent artists exclusively, giving them the opportunity to show regularly, a gallerys definition can also include the artist cooperative or artist-run space, which often operates as a space with a more democratic mission and selection process. A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges fees from artists in order to show their work, the shows are not legitimately curated and will frequently or usually include as many artists as possible. Most art professionals are able to identify them on an artists resume, University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art that are developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in both the West and East, making it a global practice, although largely overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in America alone. This number, in comparison to other kinds of art museums, throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions and monarchs and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces. Although these collections of art were private, they were made available for viewing for a portion of the public. In classical times, religious institutions began to function as a form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects often donated their collections to temples and it is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. At the Palace of Versailles, entrance was restricted to wearing the proper apparel – the appropriate accessories could be hired from shops outside
9.
IBM
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International Business Machines Corporation is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States, with operations in over 170 countries. The company originated in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company and was renamed International Business Machines in 1924, IBM manufactures and markets computer hardware, middleware and software, and offers hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM is also a research organization, holding the record for most patents generated by a business for 24 consecutive years. IBM has continually shifted its business mix by exiting commoditizing markets and focusing on higher-value, also in 2014, IBM announced that it would go fabless, continuing to design semiconductors, but offloading manufacturing to GlobalFoundries. Nicknamed Big Blue, IBM is one of 30 companies included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and one of the worlds largest employers, with nearly 380,000 employees. Known as IBMers, IBM employees have been awarded five Nobel Prizes, six Turing Awards, ten National Medals of Technology, in the 1880s, technologies emerged that would ultimately form the core of what would become International Business Machines. On June 16,1911, their four companies were amalgamated in New York State by Charles Ranlett Flint forming a fifth company, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company based in Endicott, New York. The five companies had 1,300 employees and offices and plants in Endicott and Binghamton, New York, Dayton, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, Washington, D. C. and Toronto. They manufactured machinery for sale and lease, ranging from commercial scales and industrial time recorders, meat and cheese slicers, to tabulators and punched cards. Thomas J. Watson, Sr. fired from the National Cash Register Company by John Henry Patterson, called on Flint and, Watson joined CTR as General Manager then,11 months later, was made President when court cases relating to his time at NCR were resolved. Having learned Pattersons pioneering business practices, Watson proceeded to put the stamp of NCR onto CTRs companies and his favorite slogan, THINK, became a mantra for each companys employees. During Watsons first four years, revenues more than doubled to $9 million, Watson had never liked the clumsy hyphenated title of the CTR and in 1924 chose to replace it with the more expansive title International Business Machines. By 1933 most of the subsidiaries had been merged into one company, in 1937, IBMs tabulating equipment enabled organizations to process unprecedented amounts of data, its clients including the U. S. During the Second World War the company produced small arms for the American war effort, in 1949, Thomas Watson, Sr. created IBM World Trade Corporation, a subsidiary of IBM focused on foreign operations. In 1952, he stepped down after almost 40 years at the company helm, in 1957, the FORTRAN scientific programming language was developed. In 1961, IBM developed the SABRE reservation system for American Airlines, in 1963, IBM employees and computers helped NASA track the orbital flight of the Mercury astronauts. A year later it moved its headquarters from New York City to Armonk. The latter half of the 1960s saw IBM continue its support of space exploration, on April 7,1964, IBM announced the first computer system family, the IBM System/360
10.
Idina Menzel
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Idina Kim Menzel is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. Menzel rose to prominence when she originated the role of Maureen Johnson in the Broadway musical Rent and her performance earned her a Tony Award nomination in 1996. She reprised the role in the musicals 2005 film adaptation, in 2003, Menzel originated the role of Elphaba in the Broadway musical Wicked, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Menzel returned to Broadway as Elizabeth Vaughan in the 2014 musical If/Then, the song reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making Menzel the first Tony Award-winning actress to reach the top 10. She ultimately won a Grammy award for the films soundtrack and her album Holiday Wishes was released in 2014 and reached number 6 on the Billboard 200 album chart, making it her highest charting album to date. Idina Kim Mentzel was born on May 30,1971 and her birthplace is varyingly reported as either Queens or Syosset. She grew up in Syosset, the daughter of Helene, a therapist, and Stuart Mentzel and she has a younger sister named Cara. Menzels family is Jewish, and her grandparents emigrated from Eastern Europe, Idina changed the spelling of her surname to Menzel to better reflect the pronunciation the Mentzel family had adopted in America. She was friends with actor Adam Pascal before they worked together in Rent, in 1995, Menzel auditioned for Rent, which became her first professional theatre job and her Broadway debut. Rent opened off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop on January 26,1996 and her final performance in the musical was on July 1,1997. Production of Hair and appeared on Broadway as Amneris in Aida, Menzel earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for her performance as Kate in the Manhattan Theatre Clubs 2000 off-Broadway production of Andrew Lippas The Wild Party. Her other off-Broadway credits include the run of Rent and The Vagina Monologues. Menzel received the 2004 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Elphaba, during her penultimate performance of Wicked on January 8,2005, she fell through a trap door and cracked a lower rib. The injury prevented her from performing in her show on January 9. Menzel did, however, make a special appearance at that performance, performed her final song. Menzel was replaced by Elphaba standby Shoshana Bean and she reprised her Tony Award-winning role as Elphaba in the West End production of Wicked when it opened at Londons Apollo Victoria Theatre on September 7,2006. During her run, she was the highest paid performer in the West End at $30,000 per week. Menzel finished her West End run on December 30,2006 and she was succeeded by Elphaba standby Kerry Ellis
11.
Film premiere
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A premiere or première is the debut of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières, a world première, four years later, it was staged again, this time in English, which was its English-language première in Britain. Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the premiere to Sid Grauman. Season premiere Film festival Film release Television pilot Media related to Premiere at Wikimedia Commons
12.
Los Angeles Film Festival
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The LA Film Festival is an annual film festival held in June in Culver City, California. It showcases independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, since 2001 it is run by the organization Film Independent, which also has been arranging the annual Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica since 1985. The festival began as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival in 1995, the LAIFF ran for six years, until it was absorbed into Film Independent in 2001. At its height, the LAIFF attracted 19,000 attendees, today, the LA Film Festival attracts more than 36,000 visitors. With an attendance of more than 36,000 people, it more than 100 feature films. The event also includes world premieres of such as Disney/Pixars Brave, and a variety of panels, seminars. The Festival features signature programs including the exclusive Filmmaker Retreat, hosted by a film director. In 2010, the Filmmaker Retreat was hosted by Kathryn Bigelow, in 2011, it was hosted by George Lucas at his Skywalker Ranch. In addition to films, it also screens short films created by high school students. Films submitted to the Festival are reviewed by Film Independents programming department, in 2011, the Festival showed over 200 films, music videos and shorts from over 30 countries. The first LAIFF took place over the course of five days in a single location, in 1996, the LAIFF expanded to include the Directors Guild of America Building in Hollywood. In 2001, the Festival became part of the organization Film Independent, in 2006, the Los Angeles Times became the Festivals main sponsor. In 2010 the Festival was moved to the Regal Cinemas at the L. A, live complex in downtown Los Angeles, with additional screenings at several other downtown venues including the Downtown Independent, Orpheum Theatre and the REDCAT Theatre. The Festival also has a tradition of screenings at the open-air John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood. Free screenings are scheduled at California Plaza, in conjunction with Grand Performances, today the LA Film Festival attracts over 36,000 visitors. The LA Film Festival is a festival in all categories for Film Independents Spirit Awards. It is also a festival for the short films categories of the Academy Awards. During the festival of 2009, festival officials was approached by Dole Food Company, Dole urged festival officials to immediately cease and desist their sponsorship of the documentary Bananas. *, directed by Fredrik Gertten
13.
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
14.
September 11, 2001 attacks
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The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11,2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, injured over 6,000 others, two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia and it was the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 343 and 72 killed respectively. Suspicion for the attack fell on al-Qaeda. The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror and invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded the powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to prevent terrorist attacks. Although al-Qaedas leader, Osama bin Laden, initially denied any involvement, al-Qaeda and bin Laden cited U. S. support of Israel, the presence of U. S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq as motives. Having evaded capture for almost a decade, bin Laden was located and killed by SEAL Team Six of the U. S. Navy in May 2011. S. many closings, evacuations, and cancellations followed, out of respect or fear of further attacks. Cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002, on November 18,2006, construction of One World Trade Center began at the World Trade Center site. The building was opened on November 3,2014. The origins of al-Qaeda can be traced to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan and helped organize Arab mujahideen to resist the Soviets. Under the guidance of Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden became more radical, in 1996, bin Laden issued his first fatwā, calling for American soldiers to leave Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden used Islamic texts to exhort Muslims to attack Americans until the stated grievances are reversed, Muslim legal scholars have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries, according to bin Laden. Bin Laden, who orchestrated the attacks, initially denied but later admitted involvement, in November 2001, U. S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. In the video, bin Laden is seen talking to Khaled al-Harbi, on December 27,2001, a second bin Laden video was released. In the video, he said, It has become clear that the West in general and it is the hatred of crusaders. Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, the transcript refers several times to the United States specifically targeting Muslims. He said that the attacks were carried out because, we are free, and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security we undermine yours, Bin Laden said he had personally directed his followers to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
15.
AfterEllen.com
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AfterEllen. com, founded in April 2002, is a website that focuses on the portrayal of lesbian and bisexual women in the media. TheBacklot. com, its site for gay and bisexual men, was launched in January 2005 under the name AfterElton. com. AfterEllen. com was founded by Sarah Warn, and AfterElton. com by Warn, Michael Jensen, Warn initially served as the editor in chief of both websites. Michael Jensen became editor in chief of AfterElton. com in November 2005, karman Kregloe became the editor in chief of AfterEllen. com in November 2009 and Dennis Ayers took over as editor in chief of AfterElton in 2011. Both websites were bought in 2006 by the television channel Logo. AfterEllen was sold in 2014 to Evolve Media, owner of CraveOnline, the site considers television, film, music, books, and celebrity news. It publishes articles, regular columns, reviews, recaps of television shows with lesbian and bisexual characters or subtextual content, and maintains several blogs. More recently, weekly video blogs, often called vlogs, have become a key part of AfterEllen. com, the popular of which include Brunch With Bridget, Lesbian Love. The site also features popular web series, such as the Streamy winning and it is the top website for LGBT women, reaching over 700,000 readers a month as of 2008. In March 2008, it was named one of the worlds 50 most powerful blogs by British newspaper The Observer for its irreverent look at how the community is represented in the media. In October 2014, it was announced that AfterEllen was acquired by Evolve Media, in September 2016 Evolve announced that AfterEllen would no longer publish editorial content but would continue as a platform for freelance writers. TheBacklot. com launched under the name AfterElton. com, the site is not affiliated with Elton John, although its original name refers to the milestone for gay men when John publicly came out. The site considers television, film, music, books, and it publishes articles, regular columns, reviews, recaps of television shows with gay and bisexual characters, and maintains several blogs, including the Meme by Ed Kennedy. Co-founder Michael Jensen was Editor in Chief from 2005 until September 25,2011, on January 12,2012, the site announced that Louis Virtel had been hired as its West Coast entertainment editor. Dennis Ayers announced on January 31,2013 that AfterElton would be changing its name to TheBacklot. com in April. The change was motivated by a desire to separate the site from its AfterEllens little brother origin and to reflect the general focus on Hollywood. The relaunch under the new name took place on April 17,2013, on June 29,2015, the site announced that it would be merging with NewNowNext, another LGBT-themed entertainment website owned by Logo. TheBacklot name will be discontinued, and Dan Avery will be editor-in-chief of the combined site, the website has not been updated since June 2016
16.
Rotten Tomatoes
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Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by Senh Duong and since January 2010 has been owned by Flixster, in February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcasts Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, since 2007, the websites editor-in-chief has been Matt Atchity. The name, Rotten Tomatoes, derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a stage performance. From early 2008 to September 2010, Current Television aired the weekly The Rotten Tomatoes Show, featuring hosts, a shorter segment was incorporated into the weekly show, InfoMania, which ended in 2011. In September 2013, the website introduced TV Zone, a section for reviewing scripted TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12,1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His goal in creating Rotten Tomatoes was to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in the U. S. As a fan of Jackie Chans, Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chans movies as they were being published in the United States, the first movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was Your Friends & Neighbors. The website was an success, receiving mentions by Netscape, Yahoo. and USA Today within the first week of its launch. They officially launched it on April 1,2000, in June 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired rottentomatoes. com for an undisclosed sum. In September 2005, IGN was bought by News Corps Fox Interactive Media, in January 2010, IGN sold the website to Flixster. The combined reach of both companies is 30 million unique visitors a month across all different platforms, according to the companies, in May 2011, Flixster was acquired by Warner Bros. In early 2009, Current Television launched the version of the web review site. It was hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox and written by Mark Ganek, the show aired every Thursday at 10,30 EST on the Current TV network. The last episode aired on September 16,2010 and it returned as a much shorter segment of InfoMania, a satirical news show that ended in 2011. By late 2009, the website was designed to enable Rotten Tomatoes users to create, one group, The Golden Oyster Awards, accepted votes of members for different awards, as if in parallel to the better-known Oscars or Golden Globes. When Flixster bought the company, they disbanded the groups, announcing, in the meantime, please use the Forums to continue your conversations about your favorite movie topics. As of February 2011, new community features have been added, for example, users can no longer sort films by fresh ratings from rotten ratings, and vice versa
17.
IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
18.
AllMovie
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AllMovie is an online guide service website with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. As of 2013, AllMovie. com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by All Media Network, AllMovie was founded by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine, who also founded AllMusic and AllGame. The AllMovie database was licensed to tens of thousands of distributors and retailers for point-of-sale systems, websites, the AllMovie database is comprehensive, including basic product information, cast and production credits, plot synopsis, professional reviews, biographies, relational links and more. AllMovie data was accessed on the web at the AllMovie. com website and it was also available via the AMG LASSO media recognition service, which can automatically recognize DVDs. In late 2007, Macrovision acquired AMG for a reported $72 million, the AMG consumer facing web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in August 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. The buyers also include the founders of SideReel and Ackrell Capital investor Mike Ackrell. All Media Network offices are located in San Francisco, California, AllMusic AllGame SideReel All Media Network Official website
19.
Box Office Mojo
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Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way, founded in 1999. In 2008, Box Office Mojo was bought by the Internet Movie Database, the website is widely used within the film industry as a source of data. From 2002–11, Box Office Mojo had forums popular with film fans, on October 10,2014, the websites URL was redirected to Amazons IMDB. com website for one day, but the website returned the following day without explanation. Brandon Gray began the site in 1999, in 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and grew the site to nearly two million readers. In July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon. com through its subsidiary, Box Office Mojo had forums with more than 16,500 registered users. On November 2,2011 the forums were closed along with any user accounts. Tracking is still very closely to the day by day, actual tabulation of distributors. The site also creates an overall chart, combining all box office returns from around the world, excluding the United States. The overall weekend chart currently tracks the Top 40 films as well as approximately fifty additional films with no ranking, the site additionally has yearly and all time features for its various territories. Box Office Mojo was as of June 2009 reporting limited data from overseas and is work on improvements, most of the international charts have not been updated since November 2014. On October 10,2014, all traffic to Box Office Mojo was redirected to IMDbs box office page, queries about the closure to IMDb and Amazon representatives were met with no response. Neither Brandon Gray, who founded the website but left several years ago after its sale to Amazon, nor Ray Subers, on Ray Subers Twitter account, he revealed the websites return, but also stated he would not answer any questions pertaining to closure. Subers subsequently left the website seven months later
20.
Metacritic
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Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of media products, music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs, and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged, Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source, a color of Green, Yellow or Red summarizes the critics recommendations and therefore the general appeal of the product to reviewers and, to a lesser extent, the public. It is regarded as the game industrys foremost review aggregator. Metacritics scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to the critics fame, stature, and volume of reviews. Metacritic was launched in July 1999 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. They sold Metacritic to CNET in 2005, CNET and Metacritic are now owned by the CBS Corporation. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal wrote in September 2004, Mr. Doyle,36, is now a product manager at CNET. Speaking of video games, Doyle said, A site like ours helps people cut through. unobjective promotional language and he added that the review process was not taken as seriously when unconnected magazines and websites provided reviews in isolation. In August 2010, the appearance was revamped, reaction from users was overwhelmingly negative. Certain publications are given more significance because of their stature, games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed by Keith Stuart of The Guardian to get a look behind the metascoring process. Stuart wrote, the phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings, have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years. The ranging of metascores is, Metacritic is regarded as the foremost online review site for the video game industry. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal has written that Metacritic influence the sales of games and he explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores can hurt the sales potential. He claimed that a number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as an early indicator of a games potential sales and, by extension. In 2004, Jason Hall of Warner Bros. began including quality metrics in contracts with partners licensing its movies for games, if a product does not at least achieve a specific score, some deals require the publisher to pay higher royalties. In 2008, Microsoft began using Metacritic averages to de-list underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games and these are the top 10 individual games with the highest scores on the site as of 2 April 2017
21.
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
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Legally Blonde 2, Red, White & Blonde is a 2003 American comedy film directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld and written by Kate Kondell. The supposed aerial views on Washington buildings were scale models built by the crew, the film opened on July 2,2003 to generally negative reviews from critics. However, it was a box office success, grossing $90 million in North America, Elle Woods wants her Chihuahua, Bruiser, to reunite with his mother, because she would like Bruisers mom to attend Elle and Emmetts wedding. Elle hires a detective to find Bruisers mother, only to discover that the owner of her dogs mother is Cest Magnifique and she finds out that her law firm represents the Cest Magnifique Corporation. Elle decides to leave Boston, where she and Bruiser have settled with her fiancé Emmett, and go to Washington, D. C. to work on Bruisers Bill. Elle is upset that her dogs mother is in a testing laboratory. While working for Congresswoman Victoria Rudd, Elle is met with skepticism, rudds member of staff, Timothy, sarcastically calls her Capitol Barbie. As the story moves along, Elle discovers that Bruiser is actually gay, after she is paged by The Paws that Refreshes, A Doggy Day Spa. Bruiser has been affectionate with Leslie, a Rottweiller owned by Congressman Stan Marks, Elle also finds that Congresswoman Libby Hauser, the Ranking Member of the same committee, was a member of Elles sorority Delta Nu. As a result, both Marks and Hauser warm to Elle and eventually come to support Bruisers Bill, Elle also discovers that Congresswoman Rudd has actually been working against her. Rudd has been doing so in an effort to satisfy the interests of a campaign donor named Bob. With the help of her friends, Elles discharge petition is successful, Bruisers mother and the rest of the dogs are released by Cest Magnifique Corporation. Elle and Emmett get married in a park in D. C. albeit not at Fenway Park as they had planned, in the final scene, Emmett asks Elle whether they want to live in Beverly Hills, Washington D. C. or Boston. As Elle has many legal and political job offers after the successful discharge hearing, she responds, Oh, I think I know just the place and it currently holds 38% on Rotten Tomatoes, the critical consensus being that this blonde joke is less funny the second time around. The movie hit theaters on the Wednesday before the Fourth of July in 2003, however, the following weekend the film could only boast sales half of that and LB2 quickly left theaters in the coming weeks. Grossing about $90 million in the U. S. the film was a success for the studio, though many expected it to perform just as well as Witherspoons last big movie, a soundtrack for the film was released on July 1,2003, by Curb Records. We Can was released as a single for the soundtrack by American country music recording artist LeAnn Rimes on October 28,2003, by Curb Records
22.
The Hammer (2007 film)
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The Hammer, other known as Jesse the Slugger, is a 2007 comedy film starring Adam Carolla and Heather Juergensen. It was directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld, Carolla plays a once-promising boxer, now a middle-aged construction worker, who attempts to join the U. S. Olympic boxing team. The film earned positive reviews during its theatrical release. Jerry Ferro is turning 40 years old and is not what you would call a success and he works part-time in construction as a carpenter and part-time as a boxing instructor at a fitness center near Los Angeles. He drives a pickup truck and loses both the construction job and the woman in his life. An amateur Golden Gloves boxer long ago, Jerry is asked one day if he would be willing to spar with a fighter named Malice Blake. He takes a beating, but surprisingly lands a one-punch knockout, due to his strong left hand, Jerrys boxing nickname was The Hammer, though a running joke depicts people assuming the nickname describes Jerrys work as a carpenter. He is noticed by Eddie Bell, a coach who will train boxers trying to qualify for the next Olympic Games, Bell invites him to come to the Olympic tryouts. Jerry is clearly too old and out-of-shape, so he isnt interested, but his friend and co-worker Oswaldo Sanchez gives him encouragement, as does Lindsay Pratt, an attractive lawyer who works out at the gym and has caught Jerrys eye. He is mocked by Bells top light-heavyweight contender, Robert Brown and he goes into serious training, loses weight and needles Brown, telling him theres a new sheriff in town in the light-heavyweight division. By falsely boosting Jerrys hopes, Bell can avoid paying him the usual $100 per day for a sparring partner. Jerry drives team members to the first stage of the Olympic qualifying eliminations in Phoenix, Coach Bell has gotten all he wanted out of Jerry and is so apathetic about the outcome that he deserts Jerrys corner in the middle of the bout. Motivated by the memory that he has never finished anything he ever started and he and Brown both advance to the next round of the competition, to be held in Pasadena. When Brown learns that Coach Bell has lied to Jerry about his prospects, Brown begins to sympathize with Jerry, unfortunately, they will need to fight each other soon, with only one able to qualify for the Olympics. On top of that, Lindsay has a job offer that would require her to out of state. Jerry knows he has little future in boxing, no matter what happens next, so he needs to get his priorities straight as he, in the final round of the competition, Jerry and Brown go up against each other. Lindsay decides to stay in California, at the fight, right as Jerry is about to win and KO Brown, Jerry instead hugs him and lets Brown win. The film ends with all three at a party at their house and Jerry becoming Browns trainer, ferro’s life is based on Adam Carolla’s real experiences as a construction worker in L. A
23.
The Wedding Banquet
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The Wedding Banquet is a 1993 film about a gay Taiwanese immigrant man who marries a mainland Chinese woman to placate his parents and get her a green card. His plan backfires when his parents arrive in the United States to plan his wedding banquet, the film was directed by Ang Lee and stars Winston Chao, May Chin, Gua Ah-leh, Sihung Lung, and Mitchell Lichtenstein. The Wedding Banquet is the first of three movies that Ang Lee made featuring gay characters, the second is Brokeback Mountain and the third is Taking Woodstock, the film is a co-production between Taiwan and the United States. Wai-Tung Gao and Simon are a gay couple living in Manhattan. Wai-Tung is in his late 20s, so his parents are eager to see him get married and have a child in order to continue the family line. When Wai-Tungs parents hire a dating service, he and Simon stall for time by inventing impossible demands and they demand an opera singer and add that she must be 59, have two PhDs, and speak five languages. The service actually locates a 58 Chinese woman who sings Western opera and she is very gracious when Wai-Tung explains his dilemma, as she, too, is hiding a relationship. At Simons insistence, Wai-Tung decides to one of his tenants, Wei-Wei. Besides helping Wei-Wei, Simon and Wai-Tung hope that this will placate Wai-Tungs parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gao announce they will visit from Taiwan, bringing gifts and US$30,000 to hold an extravagant wedding for their son. Wai-Tung dares not tell his parents the truth, because his father, as a part of the lie, Wai-Tung introduces Simon as his landlord. A day after Wai-Tungs parents arrive, he announces that Wei-Wei, however, the heartbreak his mother experiences at the courthouse wedding prepares the story for a shift to drama. The only way to atone for the wedding is a magnificent wedding banquet, offered by Mr. Gaos former driver in the army who now owns a restaurant. After the banquet, Wei-Wei has sex with a drunken Wai-Tung, Simon is extremely upset when he finds out, and his relationship with Wai-Tung begins to deteriorate. Shortly after, Mr. Gao has another stroke, and in a moment of anger, after a fight with both Simon and Wei-Wei, Wai-Tung admits the truth to his mother and she is shocked and insists that he not tell his father. However, the perceptive Mr. Simon accepts the Hongbao from Wai-Tungs father, Mr. Gao seeks and receives Simons promise not to tell his secret for, as he points out, without the sham marriage, hed never have a grandchild. While en route to an appointment for an abortion, Wei-Wei decides to keep the baby, in the final parting scene, as Wai-Tungs parents prepare to fly home, Mrs. Gao has forged an emotional bond to daughter-in-law Wei-Wei. Mr. Gao accepts Simon and warmly shakes his hand, in the end, both derive some happiness from the situation, and they walk off to board the aircraft, leaving the unconventional family to sort itself out. Winston Chao as Wai-Tung Gao May Chin as Wei-Wei Gu Gua Ah-leh as Mrs. Gao Sihung Lung as Mr. Gao Mitchell Lichtenstein as Simon Simon is a tall American with blue eyes and he speaks broken Mandarin Chinese but is proficient in cooking Asian dishes
24.
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love
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The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love is a 1995 film, written and directed by Maria Maggenti, of the story of two very different high school girls who fall in love. One day Evie Roy stops in a pristine Range Rover, unsure if her tires need air, Randy recognizes her from school and talks to her for the first time. Evie is a child living with her well-off, cultured mother, Evelyn. Randy and Evie start passing notes in school and hanging out with each other, during this time, Randy is approached by Wendys jealous husband Ali at the gas station, who grabs Randy and warns her to stay away from his wife. Randy spends much of her time with Evie hanging out in meadows, trading music, when Wendy next visits her, Randy rejects her, telling her she has a new girlfriend, Evie. Evie breaks up with her boyfriend Hayjay after he complains of her distant attitude towards him, later, apparently on a spur of the moment, she lends Randy a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, which Randy starts to devour. On the front steps of Rebeccas house, they kiss for the first time, Evie records it in her diary later, apparently wondering what it all means. Randy and Evie experiment with how out they can be as lesbians, remembering Randy’s warning of how intolerant the town can be, Evie nevertheless breaks the news to her three closest friends. One girl is supportive, but the two are hostile to the idea, one of them says, “God, Evie, if you were gonna turn gay you think you could at least choose someone who’s pretty. ”Meanwhile, Randy’s grades continue to plummet. When Evie’s mother leaves on a trip, the girls take the opportunity to cook a huge meal, indulging in wine. That night, they love, then fall asleep in Evie’s mother’s bed. The next morning, it is Evies 18th birthday, Evelyn returns prematurely with presents for her, but is shocked by the mess in the kitchen and the rest of the house. Furiously searching the upstairs, she discovers Evie and Randy, Rebecca, who has learned that Randy will not be graduating high school, goes over to go to Frank’s house with Vicky and Lena, where Randy had told them she would be staying the night. Rebecca threatens Frank until, panicked, he turns over Evie’s phone number and she calls, but Evie and Randy have already absconded and she is left talking to a furious Evelyn. Evie and Randy, crying, scared and accusatory, take refuge in a motel, Randy finally calls Wendy, who comes out, pays for the room and tries to comfort the girls. The movie ends with Randy and Evie kissing and hugging in the motel room doorway while everyone else argues in the background at top volume. Later, she realized this character was based on her first girlfriend, between 1992 and 1994 her script, a dark look at the middle and end of the girls relationship, grew until Maggenti abandoned it. The producers were delighted with this, so Maggenti wrote a new script which she finished in eight days
25.
Beautiful Thing (film)
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Beautiful Thing is a 1996 British film directed by Hettie MacDonald and released by Channel 4 Films. The screenplay was written by Jonathan Harvey based on his own play of the same name. Initially, the film was intended for television broadcast but it was so well-received that it was released in cinemas. The atmosphere of the film is influenced by a soundtrack consisting almost entirely of the work of Mama Cass Elliot. The story is set and filmed on Thamesmead, a working area of South East London dominated by post-war council estates. Sandra finds herself at odds with Leah, a sassy and rude neighbour who has been expelled from school, does several drugs, while Jamies homosexuality remains concealed, his introvert nature and dislike of football are reason enough for his classmates to bully him at every opportunity. In the absence of a bed, Ste has to make do with sleeping top-to-toe with Jamie. On the second night they share a bed, after a massage and a minor conversation, the next morning, Ste panics and leaves before Jamie awakens, avoiding him for days. Jamie works up the nerve to steal a Gay Times from a newsagent, apparently starting to accept his sexuality, Jamie finally spots Ste at a nearby party and confronts him, they prepare to leave together. Ste reacts poorly, angrily rejecting Jamie and running away, slowly, Ste accepts Jamies love and their relationship begins to develop as they visit a gay pub together. Sandra comes to accept her sons relationship, Beautiful Thing has been mostly commended by contemporary critics. As of 2 October 2010 the film holds a 90% approval rating on the aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert wrote The most interesting scenes involve the characters around them, the boys’ lives contain few surprises, but from the other characters there is one astonishment after another. Stephen Holden from The New York Times commented Ms. Henry is wonderful as a woman whose fighting spirit masks a streak of hard-bitten tenderness, in the United States, the film was released domestically by Sony Pictures Classics. The film was released on DVD in UK2001 and again in 2007, some of the actors that appeared in Beautiful Thing appeared in other work by Jonathan Harvey. Tameka Empson and Meera Syal played major roles in Beautiful People, Empson and Linda Henry now appear in EastEnders. Beth Goddard appeared in Gimme Gimme Gimme, Harvey himself made a cameo appearance, which he also did in Gimme Gimme Gimme and Beautiful People. A soundtrack for the film was released by MCA Records on 15 October 1996, Beautiful Thing at the Internet Movie Database
26.
Ma vie en rose
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Ma vie en rose is a 1997 Belgian drama film directed by Alain Berliner. It tells the story of Ludovic, a child who is seen by family and community as a boy, the film depicts Ludovics family struggling to accept this transgressive gender expression. The film was selected as the Belgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 70th Academy Awards, the rest of the family humor her as best they can, rationalizing that Ludovic is only trying to find her identity and will soon be over it. Trouble begins when Ludovic befriends Jérôme, the son of her fathers boss, when visiting Jérômes house, Ludovic enters his sisters room and puts on one of her dresses, not realizing that the sister is deceased and the room was merely kept in memory of her. Jérômes mother sees this and she and the rest of the neighbors are horrified, the community turns against Ludovic and, by extension, the rest of the Fabre family. After Ludovic stands in as Snow White in a school play, Ludovics father, under strain as an employee of Jérômes father, is unable to cope and causes conflict within the family. After a particularly bad argument, Ludovic attempts to mend the situation by hiding in a freezer to commit suicide and she is found in time and allowed to wear a skirt to a neighborhood party. While the other neighbors greet her warmly, Ludos father gets fired the next day, Ludo runs out of the house, distraught. Hanna, Ludovics mother, blames her for everything that has gone wrong and she wants to set Ludo straight, so she cuts her hair to make her look like her brothers. Ludo grows resentment towards her mother for doing this, ultimately deciding that she wants to live with her grandmother. When Ludo and his grandmother go visit her parents one weekend, the father announces that he has a new job, at their new house, Ludovic is befriended by Christine Chris Delvigne, a young girl who prefers to be seen as a boy. Chris mother invites Ludovic to Chris dress-up birthday party, which Ludo attends in a musketeer outfit, Chris, unhappy in a princess outfit, asks Ludo to swap and has the other young party guests force Ludo to do so upon refusal. When Ludovics mother sees her in the dress, she fears that their troubles are beginning again, hanna follows Ludovic to a billboard where she is shocked to see her in the picture, running away with Pam, the protagonist of a program he used to watch. When she tries to follow, she falls through the ground and she and Ludovics father assure Ludo that he may wear skirts if she wishes. In turn, she assures her mother that she never intended to run away with Pam. The film features a fashion doll brand, Le monde de Pam. Chris, Ludovics counterpart, near the end of the film has the given name as screenwriter Chris Vander Stappen. The color timing in the film is significant – it changes as parents exit from the school play, switching to cold-blue tones
27.
High Art
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High Art is a 1998 Canadian-American independent film directed by Lisa Cholodenko and starring Ally Sheedy and Radha Mitchell. Sydney, age 24, is a woman who has her whole life mapped out in front of her, living with longtime boyfriend James, and working her way up at the respected high-art photography magazine Frame, Syd has desires and frustrations that seem typical and manageable. But when a crack in her ceiling springs a leak and Syd finds herself knocking on the door of her upstairs neighbor, opening the door to an uncharted world for Syd is Lucy Berliner, a renowned photographer, enchanting, elusive, and curiously retired. Now 40, Lucy lives with her glamorous, heroin-addicted German girlfriend Greta. Syd is fascinated by Lucy and becomes drawn into the center of Lucys strangely alluring life upstairs, Syd mentions Lucy to her bosses but they remain uninterested until they realise exactly who Lucy is. At a lunch, Lucy agrees to work for the magazine as long as Syd is her editor, soon a working relationship develops between the two and a project is underway which promises a second chance for Lucys career. But as Syd and Lucys collaboration draws them together, their working relationship turns sexual. As Syd slowly discovers the darker truths of Lucys life on the edge, she is forced to confront her own hunger for recognition, the photographs themselves were made by Jojo Whilden. Official Site High Art at the Internet Movie Database High Art at Rotten Tomatoes High Art at Box Office Mojo Movie reviews, The New York Times Roger Ebert CNN
28.
Boys Don't Cry (film)
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Boys Dont Cry is a 1999 American romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Peirce and Andy Bienen. The film also stars Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, after reading about the case while in college, Peirce conducted extensive research for a screenplay, which she worked on for almost five years. The script took dialogue directly from footage in the 1998 documentary The Brandon Teena Story. Many actors sought the lead role during a three-year casting process before Swank was cast. Swank was chosen because her personality seemed similar to Teenas, Sevigny initially auditioned for the role of Brandon, but Peirce could not picture her playing a man, so she was ultimately cast as Teenas girlfriend Lana. Most of the characters were based on real-life people, others were composites. Filming occurred during October and November 1998 in the Dallas, Texas area, the producers initially wanted to film in Falls City, Nebraska, where the real-life events had taken place, however, budget constraints meant that principal photography had to occur in Texas. The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 8,1999, however, some people who had been involved with Brandon in real life criticized the film for not portraying the events accurately. Boys Dont Cry was nominated for awards, at the 72nd Academy Awards in 2000, Swank was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress. The pair were also nominated at the 57th Golden Globe Awards, Boys Dont Cry, which dealt with controversial issues, was initially assigned an NC-17 rating but was later reclassified to an R rating. It was released on video in September 2000. Brandon Teena is a trans man whose birth name was Teena Renae Brandon. When Brandon is discovered to be transgender by a former girlfriends brother, soon after, he is involved in a bar fight and is evicted from his cousins trailer. Brandon moves to Falls City, Nebraska, where he befriends ex-convicts John Lotter and Tom Nissen, Brandon becomes romantically involved with Lana, who is initially unaware of his biological sex and troubled past. The two make plans to move to Memphis, where Brandon will manage Lanas karaoke singing career, eventually, during a date night which ends with them having sex, Lana discovers that Brandon is actually biologically female, but continues to be intimate with him. The police detain Brandon on charges that arose prior to his relocation, Lana bails Brandon out and asks why he was placed in a womens prison. Brandon attempts to lie to her, saying he was born a hermaphrodite and will receive a sex change. However, while Brandon is in prison, Candace finds a number of documents listing Brandons birth name, Teena Brandon, Tom and John violently confront Brandon, forcing him to remove his pants and reveal his genitals. They try to make Lana look, but she shields her eyes, after this confrontation, Tom and John drag Brandon into Johns car and drive to an isolated location, where they beat and rape him
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The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy
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The Broken Hearts Club, A Romantic Comedy is a 2000 American film written and directed by Greg Berlanti. It follows the lives of a group of gay friends in West Hollywood, centered on a restaurant owned by the fatherly Jack, the friends rely on each other for friendship and support as they search for love, deal with loss, and discover themselves. The Broken Hearts Club was Berlantis first feature film, based around his circle of friends at the time, the movie was met with generally favorable reviews from critics, receiving praise for portraying homosexuality as normal and its characters as average gay men. The film follows the lives of a group of gay friends in West Hollywood, guiding them is restaurant owner Jack who provides them with advice and jobs for some of them who work part-time as servers at his restaurant. But when tragedy strikes, and the groups newest member, 23-year-old Kevin, attempts to fit in, the film had a working title of The Broken Hearts League as well as 8x10s, a term Berlantis sister used to describe the men he dated. Filming took place over the course of 20 days on a budget of USD$1,000,000. The movie was filmed in Los Angeles and West Hollywood, while restaurant exteriors and interiors were shot in Long Beach, the hardware store scene was filmed in Laurel Hardware Company in West Hollywood, which closed in 2009. The hospital used in the film was a hospital which the crew had to clean before they could film. The film was distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment and its subsidiary Sony Pictures Classics and produced by Banner Entertainment, the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 29,2000. It received a release on September 29,2000. In its opening weekend, showing at seven theaters, the film made $109,694, two weeks later, the film made $153,468 as it reached twenty-eight screens and the week later, it grossed $175,553 as it reached fifty-six. In its eighth week of release, The Broken Hearts Club played at sixty-two theaters, the films domestic gross totaled $1,746,585 after twelve weeks of release. The movie was released in a number of countries in 2001 and played at various gay, the Broken Hearts Club grossed $272,536 outside of the United States, bringing its worldwide gross to $2,019,121. The Broken Hearts Club was released on Region 1 DVD by Sony Pictures on March 6,2001 and it was released on Region 2 DVD on November 5. The movie review website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 62% of critics gave the film positive write-ups, based upon a sample of 26, according to Metacritic, the film has scored 51% based on 17 reviews, indicating mixed or average reviews. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the three stars out of four, praising the films positivity and the ordinariness of its characters. Ebert noted that instead of angst, Freudian analysis, despair and self-hate, CNN. coms Paul Clinton also lauded The Broken Hearts Club for focusing on the universal themes of romance, acceptance and family, as opposed to AIDS, coming out, and sex. Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly wrote “A majority oriented movie that assumes sophisticated familiarity with a sexual minority. ”Jami Bernard from Daily News commented “It’s the first mainstream gay movie that feels totally comfortable in its shoes
