1.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
2.
Evita (1996 film)
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Evita is a 1996 American musical drama film based on Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webbers musical of the same name. The film depicts the life of Eva Perón, detailing her beginnings, rise to fame, political career, after Stone stepped down from the project in 1994, Parker agreed to write and direct the film. Recording sessions for the songs and soundtrack took place at CTS Studios in London, England. Parker worked with Rice and Lloyd Webber to compose the soundtrack, reworking the songs by creating the music first. They also wrote a new song, You Must Love Me, principal photography commenced in February 1996, and concluded in May of that year. Filming took place on locations in Buenos Aires and Budapest, the films production in Argentina was met with controversy, as the cast and crew faced protests over fears that the project would tarnish Evas image. Evita held its premiere at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, Hollywood Pictures gave the film a platform release which involved releasing it in select cities, before expanding distribution in the following weeks. The film had a release on December 25,1996. Evita was a success, grossing $141 million worldwide against a budget of $55 million. The film received a critical response, reviewers praised Madonnas performance. In a cinema in Buenos Aires on July 26,1952, as the nation goes into public mourning, Ché, a member of the public, marvels at the spectacle and promises to show how Eva did nothing, for years. At the age of 15, Eva lives in the town of Junín. She persuades a tango singer, Agustín Magaldi, with whom she is having an affair, after Magaldi leaves her, she goes through several relationships with increasingly influential men, becoming a model, actress and radio personality. She meets Colonel Juan Perón at a following the 1944 San Juan earthquake. Peróns connection with Eva adds to his populist image, since they are both from the working class. Eva has a show during Peróns rise and uses all her skills to promote him. The groundswell of support that Eva generates forces the government to release Perón, Perón wins election to the presidency and marries Eva, who promises that the new government will serve the descamisados. At the start of the Perón government, Eva dresses glamorously, soon after, she embarks on what is called her Rainbow Tour to Europe
3.
Alan Parker
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Sir Alan William Parker, CBE is an English film director, producer and screenwriter. Parkers early career, beginning in his teens, was spent as a copywriter. After about ten years of filming adverts, many of which won awards for creativity, Parker is noted for having a wide range of filmmaking styles and working in differing genres. His films have won nineteen BAFTA awards, ten Golden Globes, Parker was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to the British film industry and knighted as a Knight Bachelor in 2002. He has been active in both the British cinema and American cinema, along with being a member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain. In 2013 he received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the highest honour the British Film Academy can give a filmmaker, Parker donated his personal archive to the British Film Institutes National Archive in 2015. Parker was born into a family in Islington, North London, the son of Elsie Ellen, a dressmaker, and William Leslie Parker. He grew up on an estate of Islington, which has always made it easy for him to remain almost defiantly working-class in attitudes said the British novelist. Parker says that although he had his share of fun growing up, he felt he was studying for his secondary school exams. He had a background with no aspirations to become a film director, nor did anyone in his family have any desire to be involved in the film industry. The closest he came, he says, to anything related to films was learning photography. Parker attended Dame Alice Owens School, concentrating on science in his last year and he left school when he was eighteen to work in the advertising field, hoping that the advertising industry might be a good way to meet girls. His first job was office boy in the post room of an advertising agency, but more than anything, he says, he wanted to write, and would write essays and ads when he got home after work. His colleagues also encouraged him to write, which led him to a better position in the company. The great thing about advertising from a British point of view, is that it didnt have a kind of distinction as other jobs had. If you were half bright, they gave you a chance, I was very fortunate that they gave me that chance. Parker credits Puttnam with inspiring him and talking him into writing his first film script, by 1968, Parker had moved from copywriting to successfully directing numerous television advertisements. In 1970, he joined Alan Marshall to establish a company to make advertisements and that company eventually became one of Britains best commercial production house, winning nearly every major national and international award open to it
4.
Cold Comfort Farm (film)
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Flora Poste, an orphan in the 1920s, moves to the country with her rustic and backward relatives, the Starkadders. The Starkadders live in a farm off the beaten track in Sussex. Flora resolves to fix their situation, after the death of her estranged parents, Flora, who is an aspiring writer, decides that the only way for her to live whilst researching her writing is to stay with relatives. Her city-based relatives show no interest, so she sends letters to her country relatives, there are a few responses, most of which are unsuitable, but one is intriguing. She decides to go and stay with these relatives, the scene is complicated, but Flora soon realises that she can resolve the situation once she has assessed and solved each characters problems. Whilst she is doing so, she is pursued by a most unsuitable suitor, a most obnoxious character, in the process of her endeavours, the multitude of the complexities of the farm expose themselves and Flora excels at resolving all the issues. All the while it seems that things are impossible, but they are resolved in the end, kate Beckinsale as Flora Poste Joanna Lumley as Mrs. Hawk-Monitor Harry Ditson as Earl P. The Royal Military Canal was also used for scenes where Flora and Amos walk, cold Comfort Farm received generally positive reviews, it currently holds an 84% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. During its theatrical release in North America, the film grossed $5,682,429
5.
John Schlesinger
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John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director, and actor. He won an Academy Award for Best Director for Midnight Cowboy, Schlesinger was born in London, into a middle class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician. After St Edmunds School, Hindhead, Uppingham School and Balliol College, Oxford, Schlesingers acting career began in the 1950s and consisted of supporting roles in British films such as The Divided Heart and Oh. Rosalinda. and British television productions such as BBC Sunday Night Theatre, The Adventures of Robin Hood and he began his directorial career in 1956 with the short documentary Sunday in the Park about Londons Hyde Park. In 1959, Schlesinger was credited as exterior or second unit director on 23 episodes of the TV series The Four Just Men and his first two fiction films, A Kind of Loving and Billy Liar were set in the North of England. A Kind of Loving won the Golden Bear award at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival in 1962 and his third feature film, Darling, tartly described the modern, urban way of life in London and was one of the first films about swinging London. Schlesingers next film was the period drama Far from the Madding Crowd, both films featured Julie Christie as the female lead. Schlesingers next film, Midnight Cowboy, was internationally acclaimed, a story of two hustlers living on the fringe in the bad side of New York City, it was Schlesingers first film shot in the US, and it won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. During the 1970s, he made an array of films that were mainly about loners, losers and people outside the world, such as Sunday Bloody Sunday, The Day of the Locust, Marathon Man. In Britain, he did better with films like Madame Sousatzka, other later works include An Englishman Abroad, the TV play A Question of Attribution, The Innocent and The Next Best Thing. Schlesinger also directed Timon of Athens for the Royal Shakespeare Company, from 1973, he was an associate director of the Royal National Theatre, where he produced George Bernard Shaws Heartbreak House. He also directed operas, beginning with Les contes dHoffmann and Der Rosenkavalier. Schlesinger admitted to having voted for all three political parties in the UK at one time or another. Schlesinger was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to film in 1970, in 2003, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California Walk of Stars was dedicated to him. Schlesinger underwent a heart bypass in 1998, before suffering a stroke in December 2000. He was taken off life support at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs on 24 July 2003 and he was survived by his partner of over 30 years, photographer Michael Childers. A memorial service was held on 30 September 2003
6.
Everyone Says I Love You
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Set in New York City, Venice and Paris, the film features singing by actors not usually known for their singing. The emotions of an extended family in Manhattan are followed in song from NY to Paris. Various friends, lovers, acquaintances, and relatives act, interact, and sing, in New York, Venice, the film takes classic songs and fits them into an updated scenario, and in some cases with unexpected dance routines. The choreography is lively and the actors and actresses do not look like professional dancers and her voice was dubbed by Allen regular Olivia Hayman. The title song was written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, Allen is a well-known Groucho Marx fan. Marxs theme song from Animal Crackers Hooray for Captain Spaulding is featured, the film was released theatrically in North America on 8 December 1996 on three screens. Its opening weekend gross was $131,678 and it ended its North American run with $9,759,200. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 79% fresh rating, based on 43 reviews, the sites consensus states, A likable, infectious musical, Woody Allens Everyone Says I Love You is sometimes uneven but always toe-tapping and fun. Janet Maslin wrote a positive review in the New York Times, describing the film as a delightful. The film was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the 54th Golden Globe Awards, Everyone Says I Love You at the Internet Movie Database Everyone Says I Love You at Virtual History
7.
Woody Allen
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Heywood Woody Allen is an American actor, writer, director, comedian, playwright, and musician whose career spans more than six decades. He worked as a writer in the 1950s, writing jokes and scripts for television. In the early 1960s, Allen began performing as a stand-up comedian, as a comedian, he developed the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish, which he maintains is quite different from his real-life personality. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Allen in fourth place on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians and he is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers of the mid-1960s to late 1970s. Allen often stars in his films, typically in the persona he developed as a standup, some of the best-known of his over 40 films are Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Hannah and Her Sisters. In 2007 he said Stardust Memories, The Purple Rose of Cairo, critic Roger Ebert described Allen as a treasure of the cinema. Allen won four Academy Awards, three for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Director and he also won nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. His screenplay for Annie Hall was named the funniest screenplay by the Writers Guild of America in its list of the 101 Funniest Screenplays, in 2011, PBS televised the film biography Woody Allen, A Documentary on the American Masters TV series. Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in Brooklyn, New York and he and his sister, Letty, were raised in Midwood, Brooklyn. He is the son of Nettie, a bookkeeper at her familys delicatessen, and Martin Konigsberg and his family was Jewish, his grandparents immigrated from Russia and Austria, and spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, and German. His parents were born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His childhood was not particularly happy, his parents did not get along, Allen spoke German quite a bit in his early years. He would later joke that when he was young he was sent to inter-faith summer camps. While attending Hebrew school for eight years, he went to Public School 99 and to Midwood High School, at that time, he lived in an apartment at 968 East 14th Street. Unlike his comic persona, he was interested in baseball than school. He impressed students with his talent at card and magic tricks. To raise money, he wrote jokes for agent David O. Alber, at the age of 17, he legally changed his name to Heywood Allen and later began to call himself Woody Allen. According to Allen, his first published joke read, Woody Allen says he ate at a restaurant that had O. P. S and he was then earning more than both parents combined
8.
Flirting with Disaster (film)
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Flirting with Disaster is a 1996 American black comedy film written and directed by David O. Russell about a young fathers search for his biological parents. The film stars Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Téa Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, Glenn Fitzgerald, Alan Alda and it was screened out of competition in the Special Screenings section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Mel Coplin and his wife, Nancy, live in New York, near Mels neurotic, Jewish, adoptive parents, Ed and Pearl Coplin. Mel and Nancy have just had their first child, and Mel wont decide on a name for their son until he can discover the identity of his biological parents, after an adoption agency employee locates his biological mothers name in a database, Mel decides to meet her personally. Tina, the sexy but highly incompetent adoption agency employee, decides to accompany Mel, Nancy, the trip, of course, does not go as planned, and ends up becoming a tour of the United States. First, Mel is introduced to Valerie, a blond Scandinavian woman with Confederate roots whose twin daughters are at least six inches taller than Mel and they quickly realize that Valerie is not Mels biological mother, and Tina scrambles to get the correct information from the agency database. Meanwhile, Nancy becomes jealous as Tina and Mel begin to flirt, next, the group heads to Battle Creek, Michigan with the hope of meeting the man whose name appears as the person who delivered infant Mel to the adoption agency. The man, Fritz Boudreau, turns out to be a trucker with a violent streak, however, when he discovers that Mel might be his son, he becomes instantly friendly and lets Mel drive his semi-trailer truck, which Mel immediately crashes into a Post Office building. This leads to a run-in with two ATF agents, Tony and Paul, who are gay and in a relationship with each other and it is discovered that Tony and Nancy went to high school together. Charges are dismissed, and Fritz Boudreau tells Mel that he is not Mels father, Tina locates the current address of Mels biological parents, which turns out to be in rural New Mexico. Tony and Paul surprise everyone by deciding to tag along on the trip, while Mel and Tina become close, Nancy finds herself flirting with Tony, who returns the compliment, causing friction. The trip through rural New Mexico is fraught with more problems, at last the whole crowd descends on the front porch of Mels true biological parents, Richard and Mary Schlichting. They are asked to stay the night, while Richard and Mary are more than welcoming, Mels biological brother Lonnie is overly rude and jealous. It is during dinner that Mel discovers that Richard and Mary had to let Mel be adopted because they were in jail for making and distributing LSD in the late 1960s. Not only that, but Richard and Mary continue to manufacture LSD, as apparent when Lonnie, in an attempt to dose Mel with acid at dinner, accidentally doses Paul. In his drugged state Paul tries to arrest Richard and Mary and they attempt to escape and decide to take Mels car, hiding their supply of acid in the trunk. Mels adoptive parents arrive but then change their minds and decide to leave, when they change their minds again and make a blind U-turn, the two families crash. Mels adoptive parents are arrested while his biological parents escape to Mexico, not realizing what has happened Mel recounts the stories from dinner to Nancy and they agree to name the baby Garcia
