1.
John Turturro
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He has appeared in over sixty films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler and Spike Lee. An Emmy Award winner, Turturro has also nominated for four Screen Actors Guild Awards. Turturros mother was Sicilian and his father immigrated from Giovinazzo, Bari, Turturro was raised a Roman Catholic and moved to the Rosedale section of Queens, New York with his family when he was six. He majored in Theatre Arts at the State University of New York at New Paltz, Turturros first film appearance was a non-speaking extra role in Martin Scorseses critically acclaimed Raging Bull. He created the role of John Patrick Shanleys Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at the Playwrights Conference at the Eugene ONeill Theatre Center in 1983. He repeated it the following year Off-Broadway and won an Obie Award, Spike Lee liked Turturros performance in Five Corners so much that he cast him in Do the Right Thing. He has also appeared in several of Adam Sandlers movies, such as Mr. Deeds and he played a severely disturbed patient of Jack Nicholsons character in the comedy Anger Management and played Johnny Depps characters antagonist in Secret Window. He won an Emmy award for his portrayal of Adrian Monks brother Ambrose in the USA Network series Monk and he has also been nominated and won many awards from film organizations such as Screen Actors Guild, Cannes Film Festival, Golden Globes and others. Turturro produced and directed, as well as acted in, the film Illuminata and he wrote and directed the film Romance and Cigarettes. In 2006 he appeared in Robert De Niros The Good Shepherd, in 2010 he directed Passione, which chronicles the rich musical heritage of Naples, Italy. The cast included Julie Kavner, Marlo Thomas, Mark Linn-Baker, Turturros fifth directorial film Fading Gigolo premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in mid-September 2013. Turturro also acts in the film alongside Woody Allen, who played a novice pimp overseeing the sex work of Turturros character. In March 2014, Turturro received the Career Achievement tribute and award at the 31st Edition of the Miami International Film Festival at the Olympia Theater in Downtown Miami, Turturros brother is actor Nicholas Turturro. Artist Ralph Turturro, composer and film director Richard Termini and actress Aida Turturro are his cousins and he has two sons, Amedeo and Diego, with his wife, actress Katherine Borowitz. Turturro participates as a member of the Jury for the NYICFF, in January 2011, Turturro received his Italian passport, and holds dual Italian and U. S. citizenship
2.
James Gandolfini
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James Joseph Gandolfini Jr. was an American actor and producer. He was best known for his role as Tony Soprano, an Italian-American crime boss and he garnered enormous praise for his performance, winning three Emmy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and one Golden Globe Award. His other notable roles included mob henchman Virgil in True Romance, enforcer and stuntman Bear in Get Shorty, after finishing The Sopranos, Gandolfini produced the documentary Alive Day Memories, Home from Iraq, in which he interviewed injured Iraq War veterans. His second documentary, Wartorn, 1861–2010, analyzed the impact of posttraumatic stress disorder on soldiers, Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey. His mother, Santa, was a school lunch lady of Italian ancestry who was born in the United States. His father, James Joseph Gandolfini Sr. was a native of Borgo Val di Taro who worked as a bricklayer and cement mason, James Sr. earned a Purple Heart in World War II. Gandolfinis parents were devout Roman Catholics and spoke Italian at home, due to the influence of his parents, he developed a strong sense of Italian American identity and visited Italy regularly. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in studies from Rutgers University in 1982. He also worked as a bartender and club manager in Manhattan prior to his acting career, Gandolfini performed in a 1992 Broadway production of On the Waterfront for six weeks. In the film Terminal Velocity, Gandolfini played Ben Pinkwater, a seemingly mild-mannered insurance man who turns out to be a violent Russian mobster, in 1995 he was in the box office hit Crimson Tide. In that same year in Get Shorty, he appeared as a bearded ex-stuntman with a Southern accent, the show debuted in 1999 and was broadcast until 2007. For his depiction of Soprano, Gandolfini won three Emmys for Best Actor in a Drama and Entertainment Weekly listed him as the 42nd Greatest TV Icon of All Time. In addition to the awards that he won, Gandolfini received numerous nominations, in 2007 Gandolfini produced a documentary with HBO focused on injured Iraq War veterans and their devotion to America while surveying the physical and emotional costs of war. Gandolfini interviewed ten surviving soldiers, who revealed their thoughts about the challenges they face reintegrating into society and they also reflected on their memories of the day when they narrowly escaped death and what life may have been like in other circumstances. He returned to the stage in 2009, appearing in Broadways God of Carnage with Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels. He received a Tony Award nomination in the category of Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his role in the play but lost to Geoffrey Rush from the play and he played the Mayor of New York in the 2009 remake of The Taking of Pelham 123. In 2010 Gandolfini produced another documentary with HBO, which analyzed the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder throughout American history and it featured interviews with American military officials on their views of PTSD and how they are trying to help soldiers affected by it. Letters from soldiers of the American Civil War and World War I who were affected by PTSD are examined, along with interviews with soldiers affected by PTSD, Gandolfini was executive producer of the HBO film about Ernest Hemingway and his relationship with Martha Gellhorn, titled Hemingway & Gellhorn
3.
Susan Sarandon
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Susan Abigail Sarandon is an American actress and activist. She is an Academy Award and BAFTA Award winner who is known for her social and political activism for a variety of causes. She was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1999 and received the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award in 2006, Sarandon began her career in the 1970 film Joe, before appearing in the soap opera A World Apart. In 1975, she starred in the classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for Atlantic City, Thelma & Louise, Lorenzos Oil, and The Client, before winning for Dead Man Walking. She has also won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Client, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress for Dead Man Walking. Her other films include, Pretty Baby, The Hunger, The Witches of Eastwick, Bull Durham, White Palace, Little Women, Stepmom, Igby Goes Down, Enchanted, The Lovely Bones, Tammy and she returned to Broadway in the 2009 revival of Exit the King. On television, she is a five-time Emmy Award nominee, including for her guest roles on the sitcoms Friends and Malcolm in the Middle, in March 2017, Sarandon began portraying Bette Davis in the first season of FXs anthology series Feud. Sarandon was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City and she is the eldest of nine children born to Lenora Marie and Phillip Leslie Tomalin, an advertising executive, television producer, and one-time nightclub singer. She has four brothers, Philip Jr. Terry, Tim and OBrian and four sisters, Meredith, Bonnie, Amanda and her father was of English, Irish, and Welsh ancestry, his English ancestors being from Hackney in London and his Welsh ancestors being from Bridgend. On her mothers side, she is of Italian descent, with ancestors from the regions of Tuscany, Sarandon was raised Roman Catholic and attended Roman Catholic schools. She grew up in Edison, New Jersey, where she graduated from Edison High School in 1964. She then attended The Catholic University of America, from 1964 to 1968, in 1969, Sarandon went to a casting call for the motion-picture Joe with her then-husband Chris Sarandon. Although he did not get a part, she was cast in a role of a disaffected teen who disappears into the seedy underworld. Between 1970 and 1972, she appeared on the soap operas A World Apart and Search for Tomorrow, playing Patrice Kahlman and Sarah Fairbanks, in 1975, she appeared in the cult favorite The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That same year, she played the female lead in The Great Waldo Pepper. She was twice directed by Louis Malle, in Pretty Baby, the latter earned Sarandon her first Academy Award nomination. Her most controversial appearance was in Tony Scotts The Hunger in 1983
4.
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
5.
Icon Productions
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Icon Productions is an American-Australian independent production company founded in August 1989 by actor/director Mel Gibson and Australian producing partner Bruce Davey. Icon started when Gibson was having trouble in financing the 1990 film Hamlet, according to Davey, Mel wanted to make Hamlet and the agent he had who was helping him with it lasted about five minutes. Its pretty hard to get someone to give you money to make Hamlet. I told him if he wanted to make this happen, someone had to roll up their sleeves and find the and he asked me if I wanted to have a crack at it. Unlike most other independents, Icon internally funds most of its development and packaging costs, mainly by Gibson, felicias Journey director Atom Egoyan has praised the companys creative independence and risk-taking, Mels dream was to create an alternative to the studio system and make films free of interference. Hes been able to use his celebrity status to set up a viable company. Icon is able to take risks that studios wont broach, furthermore, it owns a library of over 250 film titles. In 2008, Icon entered the business for the first time by purchasing Dendy Cinemas, Australias largest independent film distributor. Icon Productions has also launched the label Con Artists Productions, in the UK and Australia, its DVDs are usually distributed by Warner Home Video, though some of their UK DVDs have been released by MGM Home Entertainment. Icon films are distributed in DVD, Blu-ray and HD VMD. After the financial success of The Passion of the Christ, there was frequent mention of the ability of Icon to function as a mini-studio, however, Bruce Davey has downplayed those expectations, saying, The last thing we want is to become a studio. We dont want to become top heavy. We want to be independent and passionate and we dont want to lose the magic. Gibson has explained that the name was chosen because icon means image in Greek. The logos artwork features a small crop of the left eye from the Theotokos of Vladimir icon. The main executives at Icon were Mel Gibson, Bruce Davey, Mark Gooder, Vicki Christianson, Simon Crowe David Miercourt, producer Stephen McEveety has also worked many years at Icon. In September 2008, Davey and Gibson sold the Icon international sales, neither Icon Productions nor the Dendy cinemas were part of the acquisition deal. Tills new company will continue to use the Icon name and will have a three-year first-look deal with Icon Productions to handle the rights to its productions
6.
Sony Pictures Classics
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Sony Pictures Classics is a film production and distribution studio division of Sony Pictures founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produces and acquires specialty films such as documentaries, independent and art films in the United States, as of 2015, Barker and Bernard are co-presidents of the division. Sony Pictures Classics was founded on January 1,1992, by Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, the model of the company is to produce, acquire and/or distribute independent films from the United States and internationally. Sony Pictures Classics has a history of making investments for small films. It has a history of not overspending and its largest commercial success of the 2010s is Woody Allens Midnight in Paris, which grossed over $56 million in the U. S. becoming Allens highest-grossing film ever in the United States. Leviathan Love Is Strange The Lunchbox Magic in the Moonlight Mr
7.
Venice Film Festival
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The film festival is part of the Venice Biennale, which was founded by the Venetian City Council in 1895. The film festival has taken place in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi, since its inception the Venice Film Festival has grown into one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The 74th Venice International Film Festival is scheduled to be held from 30 August to 9 September 2017, the first edition of the Venice Film Festival was carried out from the 6 to the 21 of August in 1932. The festival began with an idea of the president of the Venice Biennale Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata and Luciano De Feo, with good reason, the festival was considered the first international event of its type, receiving strong support from authorities. This first edition was held on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior on the Venice Lido, and at that stage it was not a competitive event. The very first film to be shown in the history of the Festival was Rouben Mamoulians Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the second edition was held two years later, from 1 to 20 of August in 1934. For the first time it included a competition, at least 19 countries took part with over 300 accredited journalists. The Mussolini Cup was introduced for best foreign film and best Italian film, other awards were the Great Gold Medals of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment to best actor and actress. The prize for best foreign film went to Robert J. Flahertys Man of Aran and was a confirmation of the taste of the time for auteur documentaries, starting in 1935, the Festival became a yearly event under the direction of Ottavio Croze. The actors award was renamed Volpi Cup, in 1936 an international jury was nominated for the first time and in 1937 the new Cinema Palace, designed by the architect Luigi Quagliata, was inaugurated. The 1940s represent one of the most difficult moments for the review, the conclusion of the Second World War divides the decade in two. Before 1938 political pressures distorted and ruined the festival, in addition, few countries participated and there was an absolute monopoly of institutions and directors that were members of the Rome-Berlin Axis. The festival resumed full speed in 1946, after the war, with the return of normalcy, Venice once again became a great icon of the film world. In 1947 the festival was held at the Doges Palace, a most magnificent backdrop for hosting a record 90 thousand participants, surely it can be considered one of the greatest editions in the history of the festival. For the next twenty years the festival continued its development and expansion in accordance with the plan set in motion after the war. In 1963 the winds of change blow strongly during Luigi Chiarini’s directorship of the festival, during the years of his presidency, Chiarini aspired to renew the spirit and the structures of the festival, pushing for a total reorganization of the entire system. The social and political unrest of 1968 had strong repercussions on the Venice Bienniale, from 1969 to 1979 no prizes were awarded and the festival returned to the non-competitiveness of the first edition
8.
Musical film
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The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline. The musical film was a development of the stage musical after the emergence of sound film technology. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater, performers often treat their song, in a sense, the viewer becomes the diegetic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. The 1930s through the early 1950s are considered to be the age of the musical film. Musical short films were made by Lee de Forest in 1923–24, beginning in 1926, thousands of Vitaphone shorts were made, many featuring bands, vocalists and dancers. The Jazz Singer, released in 1927 by Warner Brothers, was the first to include a track including non-diegetic music and diegetic music. This feature-length film was also a musical, featuring Al Jolson singing Dirty Hands, Dirty Face, Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Blue Skies and My Mammy. Historian Scott Eyman wrote, As the film ended and applause grew with the houselights and she saw terror in all their faces, she said, as if they knew that the game they had been playing for years was finally over. Still, only isolated sequences featured live sound, most of the film had only a musical score. In 1928, Warner Brothers followed this up with another Jolson part-talkie, The Singing Fool, theaters scrambled to install the new sound equipment and to hire Broadway composers to write musicals for the screen. The first all-talking feature, Lights of New York, included a sequence in a night club. The enthusiasm of audiences was so great that in less than an all the major studios were making sound pictures exclusively. The Broadway Melody had a plot about two sisters competing for a charming song-and-dance man. Advertised by MGM as the first All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing feature film, it was a hit, there was a rush by the studios to hire talent from the stage to star in lavishly filmed versions of Broadway hits. The Love Parade starred Maurice Chevalier and newcomer Jeanette MacDonald, written by Broadway veteran Guy Bolton, Warner Brothers produced the first screen operetta, The Desert Song in 1929. They spared no expense and photographed a large percentage of the film in Technicolor and this was followed by the first all-color, all-talking musical feature which was entitled On with the Show
9.
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
