1.
David Fincher
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David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American director and producer, notably for films, television series, and music videos. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for the fantasy drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. For the latter, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and his films Zodiac and The Social Network are ranked in BBCs 2016 poll of the greatest motion pictures since 2000. Howard died of cancer in April 2003, Fincher knew from a young age he wanted to go into filmmaking. When Fincher was two old, the family moved to San Anselmo, California, where filmmaker George Lucas was one of his neighbors. Fincher moved to Ashland, Oregon in his teens, where he graduated from Ashland High School, inspired by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Fincher began making movies at age eight with an 8mm camera. Fincher was employed at Korty Films as a production assistant and he moved up the ranks and became a visual effects producer, working on the animated Twice Upon a Time. He was hired by Industrial Light & Magic in 1983 as an assistant cameraman and matte photographer, and worked on Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones, in 1984, he left ILM to direct a commercial for the American Cancer Society that depicted a fetus smoking a cigarette. This quickly brought Fincher to the attention of producers in Los Angeles, though he would continue to direct spots for Levis, Converse, Nike, Pepsi, Revlon, Sony, Coca-Cola, Chanel, and other companies, Fincher began to focus on music videos. Set on a career, Fincher co-founded video-production company Propaganda Films and started off directing music videos. After directing several music videos, Finchers feature debut was Alien 3, while it received an Oscar nomination for visual effects, the film was not well received by critics or moviegoers. Fincher became involved with disputes with 20th Century Fox over script. In Directors Cut, Picturing Hollywood in the 21st Century, he blames the producers for not putting the necessary trust in him. He stated in an interview with The Guardian in 2009, No one hated it more than me, to this day, no one hates it more than me. After this, he retreated back into the world of commercial, the film, based on a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker, told the story of two detectives tracking down a serial killer who bases his killings on the seven deadly sins. The film grossed more than $100 million domestically, after the success of Seven, Fincher went on to film The Game. The story focused on a closed-off San Francisco businessman who receives a gift from his younger brother. The film had middling box-office returns despite being well received by critics, Fight Club is a screen adaptation of Chuck Palahniuks 1996 novel about an insomniac office worker who opens up a club devoted exclusively to bare knuckle fighting for men
2.
Kathleen Kennedy (producer)
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Kathleen Kennedy is an American film producer. In 1981, she co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg and husband Frank Marshall and she was a producer on the 1982 film E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the Jurassic Park franchise, the first two of which became two of the top ten highest-grossing films of the 1990s. Kennedy is third only to Spielberg and Stan Lee in domestic box office receipts, on October 30,2012, she became the president of Lucasfilm, and the brand manager of the Star Wars franchise, after The Walt Disney Company acquired the company for over $4 billion. Overall, Kennedys work has included over 60 films,120 Academy Award nominations, one of her most recent projects, Lincoln, also produced by Spielberg, was nominated for seven Golden Globes and twelve Academy Awards. Kennedy was born in Berkeley, California, the daughter of Dione Marie Dede, a theater actress, and Donald R. Kennedy. Her twin sister, Connie, formerly a location manager in British Columbia, Kennedy graduated from Shasta High School in Redding, California, in 1971. She continued her education at San Diego State University where she majored in telecommunications, after her employment with KCST, she went on to produce a local talk show entitled Youre On for the station for four years before moving to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, Kennedy secured her first film production job working as an assistant to John Milius, during the production of 1941, while working for screenwriter John Milius, Kennedy came to the attention of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg hired Kennedy as his secretary, but both she and he reported that she was a terrible typist who was kept on only because of her good production ideas. Kennedy was credited as associate to Mr. Spielberg on Raiders of the Lost Ark and she began receiving producer credit with Spielberg on the box-office smash E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which continued on most of his films for the next three decades. Following her work on the Indiana Jones films, she rose to one of Hollywoods leading producers. In 1981 she helped co-found and run the successful production company Amblin Entertainment, with Spielberg. She went on to collaborate with a large and important group of directors, including Martin Scorsese, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson, and Clint Eastwood when they made films for Amblin. Kennedy took over a portion of the running of Amblin and served as president of the Amblin company until 1992. She became a partner with him in The Kennedy/Marshall Company, a Santa-Monica-based film-production company with a deal at DreamWorks. In 2007, she was the first recipient of Women in Films Paltrow Mentorship Award, for showing extraordinary commitment to mentoring and supporting the generation of filmmakers. In 2005 she was a producer on two of Spielbergs films, War of the Worlds and Munich, the latter of which earned her an Academy Award nomination. Marshall and Kennedy were producers for the US versions of two Studio Ghibli animated features, Ponyo released in 2009 and The Secret World of Arrietty, in May 2012, she stepped down from Kennedy/Marshall, leaving Marshall as sole principal of their eponymous film company
3.
Frank Marshall (film producer)
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Frank Wilton Marshall is an American film producer and director, often working in collaboration with his wife, Kathleen Kennedy. With Kennedy and Steven Spielberg, he was one of the founders of Amblin Entertainment, in 1991, he founded, with Kennedy, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, a film production company which has a contract with DreamWorks. Since May 2012, with Kennedy taking on the role of President of Lucasfilm, Marshall has consistently collaborated with directors Steven Spielberg, Paul Greengrass and Peter Bogdanovich. Born in Glendale, California, Marshall is the son of guitarist, conductor and his early years were spent in Van Nuys, California. In 1961, his family moved to Newport Beach, where he attended Newport Harbor High School, and was active in music, drama, cross country and he entered UCLA in 1964 as an engineering major, and graduated in 1968 with a degree in Political science. While at UCLA, he was initiated into Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and he helped create its first NCAA soccer team, in 1966, he met film director Peter Bogdanovich at a birthday party for the daughter of director John Ford, a friend of his father. Marshall volunteered to work on Bogdanovichs first film, Targets, which became his apprenticeship in film production, as he assumed various productions roles, even appearing in a bit part. Following graduation from UCLA, Marshall spent the two years working in Aspen and Marina del Rey, as a waiter/guitar player at the The Randy Tar. While traveling through Europe in March 1970, he received another call from Bogdanovich, three days later he arrived in Archer City, Texas, doubling as location manager and actor in this seminal film. Under Bogdanovichs guidance, Marshall would work his way up from assistant to associate producer on five more films. He branched out to work with Martin Scorsese as a producer on the music documentary The Last Waltz and as an associate producer on director Walter Hills gritty crime thriller. The following year, Marshall earned his first executive producer credit on Hills cult classic street gang movie and he continues to collaborate with Bogdanovich, working to finish their tenth film together, Orson Welles unfinished The Other Side of the Wind. In 1981, together with his future wife Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg, he co-founded Amblin Entertainment, one of the industrys most productive and profitable production companies. As a producer, Marshall has received five Oscar nominations for Best Picture for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Seabiscuit, The Sixth Sense, The Color Purple and his feature film directing debut was the thriller Arachnophobia, starring Jeff Daniels. In 1991, he and Kennedy created The Kennedy/Marshall Company and began producing their own films, Marshall directed the companys first film, Alive, about a rugby team struggling to survive in the snow after their plane crashes in the Andes. Next, he directed Congo, based on Michael Crichtons novel, followed by Eight Below, an adventure about loyalty, in 1998, directed the episode Mare Tranquilitatis, from the Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. As part of ESPNs 30 for 30 series, Marshall directed a documentary about Olympian Johann Olav Koss entitled Right to Play, since taking over as sole principal of the company, Marshall has broadened its slate beyond feature films to include television, documentaries and Broadway musicals. Marshall is a former VP, member of the board of directors and he was awarded the Olympic Shield in 2005, and inducted into the U. S. Olympic Hall of Fame class of 2008 for his years of service to the USOC
4.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short story)
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and first published in Colliers Magazine on May 27,1922. It was subsequently anthologized in his book Tales of the Jazz Age, in 1860 Baltimore, Benjamin is born with the physical appearance of a 70-year-old man, already capable of speech. His father Roger invites neighborhood boys to play him and orders him to play with childrens toys. At five, Benjamin is sent to kindergarten but is quickly withdrawn after he falls asleep during child activities. When Benjamin turns 20, the Button family realizes that he is aging backwards, at the age of 18, Benjamin enrolls in Amsterdam University, but is sent home by officials, who think he is a 50-year-old lunatic. In 1880, when Benjamin is 20, his father gives him a control of Roger Button & Co and he meets the young Hildegarde monchrief, a daughter of General Moncrief, and falls in love with her. Hildegarde mistakes Benjamin for a 50-year-old brother of Roger Button, she prefers older men and marries him six months later, years later, Benjamins business has been successful, but he is tired of Hildegarde because her beauty has faded and she nags him. Bored at home, he enlists in the Spanish–American War in 1898 and achieves great triumph in the military and he retires from the army to focus on his company, and receives a medal. In 1910, Benjamin, now looking like a 20-year-old, turns over control of his company to his son, Roscoe and his first year there is a great success, he dominates in football and takes revenge against Yale for rejecting him years before. However, during his junior and senior years he is only 16 years old, too weak to play football, after graduation, Benjamin returns home, only to learn that his wife has moved to Italy. He lives with Roscoe, who treats him sternly, and forces Benjamin to call him uncle, as the years progress, Benjamin grows from a moody teenager into a child. Eventually, Roscoe has a child of his own who later attends kindergarten with Benjamin, after kindergarten, Benjamin slowly begins to lose memory of his earlier life. His memory fades away to the point where he cannot remember anything except his nurse, everything fades to darkness shortly after. Fitzgerald, in his introduction to the story, remarks that he came across a plot in Samuel Butlers Note-Books several weeks after publishing Benjamin Button. A story with a plot was published in 1921 by the Austrian author Roda Roda in Die sieben Leidenschafte under the title Antonius de Padua Findling. J. G. Ballards 1961 story Mr F. is Mr F. features a man who regresses from adulthood to infancy when his wife becomes pregnant. In W. P. Kinsellas 1986 novel The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, young men and women in their late teens to early twenties suddenly started losing body mass. Eventually, they regressed to their weight, looking like new born babies
5.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, known professionally as F. Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist and short story writer, whose works illustrate the Jazz Age. While he achieved limited success in his lifetime, he is now regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the Lost Generation of the 1920s and he finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, was published posthumously, Fitzgerald also wrote numerous short stories, many of which treat themes of youth and promise, and age and despair. He was also named after his sister, Louise Scott Fitzgerald. Well, three months before I was born, he wrote as an adult, my mother lost her two children. I think I started then to be a writer and his mother was Mary Molly McQuillan Fitzgerald, the daughter of an Irish immigrant who had made his fortune in the wholesale grocery business. Fitzgerald was the first cousin once removed of Mary Surratt, hanged in 1865 for conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, Edward Fitzgerald had earlier worked as a wicker furniture salesman, he joined Procter & Gamble when the business failed. His parents, both Catholic, sent Fitzgerald to two Catholic schools on the West Side of Buffalo, first Holy Angels Convent and then Nardin Academy and his formative years in Buffalo revealed him to be a boy of unusual intelligence with a keen early interest in literature. His doting mother ensured that her son had all the advantages of an upper-middle-class upbringing and her inheritance and donations from an aunt allowed the family to live a comfortable lifestyle. In a rather unconventional style of parenting, Fitzgerald attended Holy Angels with the arrangement that he go for only half a day—and was allowed to choose which half. In 1908, his father was fired from Procter & Gamble, and the returned to Minnesota. When he was 13, he saw his first piece of writing appear in print—a detective story published in the school newspaper. In 1911, when Fitzgerald was 15 years old, his parents sent him to the Newman School, Fitzgerald played on the 1912 Newman football team. At Newman, he met Father Sigourney Fay, who noticed his incipient talent with the written word, after graduating from the Newman School in 1913, Fitzgerald decided to stay in New Jersey to continue his artistic development at Princeton University. He tried out for the football team, but was cut the first day of practice. He firmly dedicated himself at Princeton to honing his craft as a writer and he wrote for the Princeton Triangle Club, the Nassau Lit, and the Princeton Tiger. He also was involved in the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, which ran the Nassau Lit and his absorption in the Triangle—a kind of musical-comedy society—led to his submission of a novel to Charles Scribners Sons where the editor praised the writing but ultimately rejected the book
6.
Brad Pitt
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William Bradley Brad Pitt in Shawnee Oklahoma. He is an American actor and producer and he has received multiple awards and nominations including an Academy Award as producer under his own company Plan B Entertainment. Pitt first gained recognition as a hitchhiker in the road movie Thelma & Louise. His first leading roles in big-budget productions came with the dramas A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall, Pitt starred in the cult film Fight Club and the heist film Oceans Eleven and its sequels, Oceans Twelve and Oceans Thirteen. As a public figure, Pitt has been cited as one of the most influential and powerful people in the American entertainment industry, as well as the worlds most attractive man and his personal life is also the subject of wide publicity. Divorced from actress Jennifer Aniston, to whom he was married for five years and they have six children together, three of whom were adopted internationally. In September 2016, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt, William Bradley Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to William Bill Alvin Pitt, manager of a trucking company, and Jane Etta, a school counsellor. The family soon moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he lived together with his siblings, Douglas. Pitt has described Springfield as Mark Twain country, Jesse James country, having grown up with a lot of hills, Pitt attended Kickapoo High School, where he was a member of the golf, swimming and tennis teams. He participated in the schools Key and Forensics clubs, in school debates, following his graduation from high school, Pitt enrolled in the University of Missouri in 1982, majoring in journalism with a focus on advertising. As graduation approached, Pitt did not feel ready to settle down and he loved films—a portal into different worlds for me—and, since films were not made in Missouri, he decided to go to where they were made. Two weeks before earning his degree, Pitt left the university and moved to Los Angeles, while struggling to establish himself in Los Angeles, Pitt took lessons from acting coach Roy London. Pitts acting career began in 1987, with uncredited parts in the films No Way Out, No Mans Land and his television debut came in May 1987 with a two-episode role on the NBC soap opera Another World. In November of the same year Pitt had a guest appearance on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains and he appeared in four episodes of the CBS primetime series Dallas between December 1987 and February 1988 as Randy, the boyfriend of Charlie Wade. Later in 1988, Pitt made a guest appearance on the Fox police drama 21 Jump Street, in the same year, the Yugoslavian–U. S. Co-production The Dark Side of the Sun gave Pitt his first leading film role, the film was shelved at the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence, and was not released until 1997. He made guest appearances on television series Head of the Class, Freddys Nightmares, Thirtysomething, and Growing Pains. Pitt was cast as Billy Canton, an addict who takes advantage of a young runaway in the 1990 NBC television movie Too Young to Die. the story of an abused teenager sentenced to death for a murder
7.
Cate Blanchett
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Catherine Elise Cate Blanchett is an Australian actress and theatre director. She has received acclaim and many accolades, including six AACTA Awards. In 2013, she starred as Jasmine Francis in Woody Allens Blue Jasmine, Blanchett is one of only six actors, and the only actress, to receive Academy Award nominations for portraying the same role in two films, accomplished in her case by portraying Queen Elizabeth I. She is additionally the only Australian to win two acting Oscars, a seven-time Oscar nominee, she has also received nominations for Notes on a Scandal, Elizabeth, The Golden Age, Im Not There and Carol. Blanchett has also had a career on stage and is a four-time Helpmann Award winner for Best Female Actor in a Play. From 2008 to 2013, she and her husband Andrew Upton were co-CEOs, Blanchett has been awarded the Centenary Medal for Service to Australian Society by the Australian government. She was appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2012, in 2015, she was honoured by the Museum of Modern Art and received the British Film Institute Fellowship in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the industry. Blanchett was born on 14 May 1969 in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe and she is the middle of three children, her older brother is a computer systems engineer, and her younger sister is a theatrical designer. The two met when Blanchetts fathers ship broke down in Melbourne, when Blanchett was 10, her father died of a heart attack, leaving her mother to raise the family on her own. Blanchetts ancestry includes English, some Scottish, and remote French roots, Blanchett has described herself as being part extrovert, part wallflower during childhood. She had a penchant for dressing in traditionally masculine clothing, and went through goth and punk phases during her teenage years and she studied economics and fine arts at the University of Melbourne but dropped out after one year to travel overseas. While in Egypt, Blanchett was asked to play an American cheerleader, as an extra in the Egyptian boxing movie, Kaboria, in need of money, she accepted. Upon her return to Australia, she moved to Sydney and enrolled in the National Institute of Dramatic Art to pursue an acting career and she graduated from NIDA in 1992. Blanchetts first major role was opposite Geoffrey Rush, in the 1992 David Mamet play Oleanna for the Sydney Theatre Company. That year, she was also cast as Clytemnestra in a production of Sophocles’ Electra, a couple of weeks after rehearsals, the actress playing the title role pulled out, and director Lindy Davies cast Blanchett in the role. Her performance as Electra became one of her most acclaimed at NIDA, Blanchett played the role of Ophelia in an acclaimed 1994–95 Company B production of Hamlet directed by Neil Armfield, starring Rush and Richard Roxburgh, and was nominated for a Green Room Award. She appeared in the 1994 TV miniseries Heartland opposite Ernie Dingo, the miniseries Bordertown with Hugo Weaving and she also appeared in the 50-minute drama short Parklands, which received an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Her first leading role was as Lucinda Leplastrier in Gillian Armstrongs romantic drama Oscar and Lucinda, Blanchett received wide acclaim for her performance, and earned her first AFI Award nomination as Best Leading Actress, she lost to Deborah Mailman in Radiance
8.
Taraji P. Henson
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Taraji Penda Henson is an American actress and author. She studied acting at Howard University and began her Hollywood career in guest-roles on several shows before making her breakthrough in Baby Boy. In 2010, she appeared in the comedy Date Night and co-starred in the remake of The Karate Kid, Henson has also had an extensive career in television in series such as The Division, Boston Legal and Eli Stone. From 2011 to 2013, she co-starred as Detective Jocelyn Carter in the CBS drama Person of Interest, Henson went on to star in the ensemble film Think Like a Man and its 2014 sequel. She also won a Golden Globe Award, and was nominated for two Emmy Awards, in 2015 and 2016, in 2016, Time named Henson one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the annual Time 100 list. Henson also released a New York Times best selling autobiography titled Around the Way Girl, Henson has also executive produced some of her projects such as her 2014 film No Good Deed. In 2015 Henson teamed up with Empire co-star Terrence Howard to produce and host a variety special for Fox titled Taraji. The special returned again in 2016 but with just Henson alone, Henson has often spoken of the influence of her maternal grandmother, Patsy Ballard, who was her date to the Academy Awards the year she was nominated. Her first and middle names are of Swahili origin, with Taraji meaning hope, according to a mitochondrial DNA analysis, her matrilineal lineage can be traced to the Masa people of Cameroon. She has said that North Pole explorer Matthew Henson is the brother of my great-great grandfather, Henson graduated from Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in 1988. She then attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University where she studied engineering before transferring to Howard University to study drama. To pay for college, she worked mornings as a secretary at The Pentagon and evenings as a waitress on a dinner-cruise ship. Henson received her SAG Card in the early 1990s for doing 3 extra roles and her breakthrough role was in the 2001 comedy drama film Baby Boy in which she portrayed Yvette, alongside singer Tyrese Gibson. In 2005, Henson was in the independent film Hustle & Flow as Shug, the love interest of Terrence Howard, the film was nominated for two Academy awards, winning one. In 2008, she appeared opposite Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Henson plays the role of Queenie, Benjamins mother, in a performance that led to an Academy award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She noted in an interview that, Queenie is the embodiment of unconditional love, Henson was in Tyler Perry films The Family That Preys in 2008 and I Can Do Bad All By Myself in 2009. In 2010, she appeared in the remake of The Karate Kid alongside Jaden Smith, the film was a commercial success. In 2011, she starred as Tiffany Rubin in the Lifetime Movie Network film Taken from Me, the film was based on true events of the life of a New York woman Tiffany Rubin, whose son Kobe was abducted by his biological father to South Korea
9.
Julia Ormond
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Julia Karin Ormond is an English actress. She rose to prominence appearing in films as The Baby of Mâcon, Legends of the Fall, First Knight, Sabrina, Smillas Sense of Snow. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role in the HBO film Temple Grandin, Ormond was born in Epsom, Surrey, the daughter of Josephine, a laboratory technician, and John Ormond, a computer software designer. She attended independent schools, first Guildford High School and then Cranleigh School, Ormond first appeared on British television in the 1989 serial Traffik, about the illegal heroin trade from the far East to the streets of Europe. The story revolves around Jack Lithgow played by Bill Paterson, a Home Office minister in the UK government engaged in combating heroin importation, julia Ormond plays his drug addicted daughter Caroline an early role that won glowing reviews. Ormond subsequently appeared in television films early in her career, such as Young Catherine. In 1993 Ormond made her debut in the lead role of an international movie. In the following year she co-starred with Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall, in 1995, Ormond played lead roles in Jerry Zuckers First Knight opposite Richard Gere and Sean Connery and also in Sydney Pollacks Sabrina with Harrison Ford. In 1997 she played a role in the box office bomb thriller film Smillas Sense of Snow. She also starred opposite Oleg Menshikov in the 1998 Russian film The Barber of Siberia. Since the late 1990s Ormond has appeared in indie and television movies and played supporting roles in films, such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Che, Part One, kennedy Journalism Award, and was an official selection of the Toronto and Berlin International Film Festivals. On stage, she appeared in David Hares My Zinc Bed, on television, Ormond appeared as a guest star during the 2008–09 season of the CBS series CSI, NY. In 2010, she won an Emmy Award for her role in the HBO film Temple Grandin. She also guest starred in the tenth and final season of USA Networks series Law & Order, in addition, she played the part of Marie Calvet, mother to Megan Draper, in the AMC TV series Mad Men. For her performance on Mad Men, she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2012, in 2013, Ormond began starring in the Lifetime series Witches of East End as Joanna Beauchamp, one of the lead characters. Ormond married Rory Edwards in 1988, an actor she had met while performing in a production of Wuthering Heights, in 1999, she married political activist Jon Rubin. The couples child, daughter Sophie, was born in the autumn of 2004 and she is no longer married to Rubin. Ormond has been engaged in fighting human trafficking since the mid-1990s and she is also an advocate for Transatlantic Partners Against Aids, which attempts to raise awareness about AIDS in Russia and Ukraine, and is founding co-chairman of FilmAid International
10.
Jason Flemyng
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Jason Iain Flemyng is an English actor. He has also appeared in prominent roles in theatre and television in the UK. Flemyng speaks French fluently, and has three films in that language. He won the Best Actor Award at the Geneva Film Festival for his role in 1996s Alive, Flemyng was born in Putney, London, the son of Scottish television and film director Gordon Flemyng. He decided he wanted to become an actor appearing in theatrical productions at his school. I always wanted to be an actor, he told the BBC. From the time I fancied a girl who played Dorothy in the production of The Wizard of Oz. I auditioned for the role of the scarecrow so that I could have the most stage time with her, in the 1980s, he was involved with the National Youth Theatre and the political organisation the Young Socialists. He also became involved with Militant, an entryist group active within the Labour Party, Flemyng has subsequently claimed that both his theatrical and political activities at this time were simply a way of meeting girls. In 1990 he was admitted to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, following his graduation from LAMDA in the early 1990s he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. One of his first prominent roles on screen was a guest appearance in the American television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1992 and he was then a regular in the ITV drama series Doctor Finlay from 1993 to 1996. His first film appearance was in the 1994 version of The Jungle Book. Flemyng later claimed to have lost so much money playing poker with the films backers in between takes on set that he had to work on the four days of re-shoots the film required for no fee. He went on to appear in such as The Red Violin and Deep Rising, Snatch, George A. Romeros Bruiser. Flemyng also starred in the short film Feeling Good, written by Dexter Fletcher, the latter film was not a success, but Flemyng commented that, It was a bit of a nightmare. The film cost a fortune and didnt make back the money it was meant to, but I still get a huge kick out of doing films like that and From Hell. Any day you walk onto a set and Sean Connery or Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt is there has to be a good day, in parallel with his film career, Flemyng has continued to take various television roles. He told BBC News Online in 2004 that, Of the 40 feature films Ive made,15 of them failed to make it onto the screen and have ever been seen by cast
11.
Elias Koteas
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Elias Koteas is a Canadian actor of film and television, best known for his roles in Fallen, The Killing, and as Casey Jones in the first and third live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films. He currently co-stars as Alvin Olinsky on Chicago P. D, Koteas was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to a father who worked as a mechanic for the Canadian National Railways, and a milliner mother. His parents are both of Greek descent, from the Mani Peninsula, and he is a fluent Greek speaker, Koteas attended Vanier College in Montreal before leaving to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York in 1981, of which he is a 1983 graduate. He was a member of the Academys 1983–84 Production Company and he also attended the Actors Studio in New York City, where he studied acting under Ellen Burstyn and Peter Masterson. He went to Centennial Regional High School in Montreal and graduated from there, while at the AADA, Koteas played Father Rangier in the schools production of The Devils adapted by John Whiting from the Aldous Huxley novel. He was also Paris in The Golden Apple, a musical by John Latouche, Koteas played the supporting part of Specialist Pete Deveber in Gardens Of Stone. He is best known for playing the role of Thomas Daggett in the American film The Prophecy. Koteas went on to play the demonically-possessed serial killer Edgar Reese in the Denzel Washington thriller Fallen and he also appeared in John Hughes Some Kind of Wonderful, Atom Egoyans The Adjuster, Exotica, Ararat, Terrence Malicks The Thin Red Line and David Cronenbergs Crash. Koteas also made an appearance in Season 4 of The Sopranos as Dominic Palladino, the same year, he portrayed D. A. Mike Randolf in the courtroom drama Conviction, Koteas has also appeared in The Greatest Game Ever Played, a Disney biography about a young golfer, as well as the thrillers Skinwalkers in 2006, Zodiac and Shooter in 2007. In May/September 2008, he played the role of Joe, a robber, in the season 4 finale and season 5 premiere of CSI. He also appeared in The Killing on AMC, in 2010, he played major roles in Let Me In, the Matt Reeves re-adaptation of Let the Right One In, and Defendor, a Canadian superhero film starring Woody Harrelson. Koteas played Canadian Forces Colonel Xavier Marks on the short-lived series and he also appears in Winnie Mandela, a 2011 film about Winnie Mandela, former wife of Nelson Mandela. In August 2013, it was reported that Koteas had joined the NBC Chicago Fire spin-off Chicago P. D. as a series regular, Koteas plays Alvin Olinsky, a longtime undercover detective in the Intelligence Unit. The character was in uniform with Detective Voight and together share a secret over a fellow cops death. Canadian Film Encyclopedia Elias Koteas at the Internet Movie Database Elias Koteas at AllMovie Eloquent Elias Fan Site
12.
Tilda Swinton
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Katherine Matilda Tilda Swinton is a British actress, performance artist, model, and fashion muse, known for her roles in independent and Hollywood films. She is the recipient of two BAFTA Awards, one BIFA Award, an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and has received three nominations for a Golden Globe Award. She began her career in films directed by Derek Jarman, starting with Caravaggio, followed by The Last of England, War Requiem, Swinton won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for her performance as Isabella of France in Edward II. She next starred in Sally Potters Orlando, and was nominated for the European Film Award for Best Actress, Swinton was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in The Deep End. She followed this with appearances in Vanilla Sky, Adaptation, Young Adam and she then starred in the crime drama Julia, I Am Love, and the psychological thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin. Swinton later starred in the romantic fantasy drama, Only Lovers Left Alive. She is also known for her performances as the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia series, Swinton won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as lawyer Karen Crowder in Michael Clayton. In 2005, Swinton was given the Richard Harris Award by the British Independent Film Awards in recognition of her contributions to the British film industry, in 2013 she was given a special tribute by the Museum of Modern Art. Swinton was born in London, the daughter of Judith Balfour and her father is a retired major general in the British Army, and was Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire from 1989 to 2000. Her paternal great-grandfather was a Scottish politician and herald, George Swinton, the Swinton family is an ancient Anglo-Scots family that can trace its lineage to the Middle Ages. The family is one of three families that can trace their unbroken land ownership and lineage to before the Norman Conquest. Swinton attended three independent schools, Queens Gate School in London, the West Heath Girls School and also Fettes College for a brief period, West Heath was an expensive boarding school where she was a classmate and friend of Princess Diana. Children need their parents and the parents can provide. Swinton went to volunteer in Kenya during a break from college with a charity called Project Trust. In 1983, Swinton graduated from New Hall at the University of Cambridge with a degree in Social and Political Sciences, while at Cambridge, she joined the Communist Party, she later joined the Scottish Socialist Party. It was in college that Swinton began performing on stage, Swinton joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984, appearing in Measure for Measure. She also worked with the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, starring in Mann ist Mann by Manfred Karge in 1987, on television, she appeared as Julia in the 1986 mini-series Zastrozzi, A Romance based on the Gothic novel by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her first film was Caravaggio in 1986, directed by Derek Jarman, Swinton also played the title role in Orlando, Sally Potters film version of the novel by Virginia Woolf
13.
Alexandre Desplat
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Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat is a French film composer. Fox, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2, The Kings Speech, Moonrise Kingdom, Argo, Rise of the Guardians, Zero Dark Thirty, Godzilla, The Imitation Game, and Unbroken. Desplat was born in Paris, to a French father and a Greek mother who met at the University of California, after their marriage, they moved back to France, where Alexandre was born. Alexandre is the brother of Marie-Christine, also known as Kiki, who is leading jazz band Certains lAiment Chaud. At the age of five, he began playing piano and he also became proficient on trumpet and flute. He studied with Claude Ballif, Iannis Xenakis in France and Jack Hayes in the U. S. Desplat swiftly became skilled, Desplats musical interests were wide, listening to a mix of the French symphonists like Ravel and Debussy, jazz and even more exotic world music. He was also influenced by South American and African artists, among whom were Carlinhos Brown and Ray Lema. Being a big fan of films, Desplat set his sights on becoming a composer from an early age. He worked on his first film Le souffleur in 1986, when recording the music for his first film, he met violinist Dominique Lemonnier who became his favorite soloist, artistic director and wife. Desplat worked on many films throughout his career since the 1980s, and his big Hollywood break came in 2003 with the soundtrack for the film Girl with a Pearl Earring. Fox, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, The Ghost Writer, Daniel Auteuils remake of La Fille du Puisatier, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Desplat has composed songs that have been sung in films by such artists as Akhenaton, Kate Beckinsale, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Valérie Lemercier, Miosotis. He has also written music for the theatre, including pieces performed at the Comédie Française, Desplat has conducted performances of his music played by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Munich Symphony Orchestra. Desplat has also given Master Classes at La Sorbonne in Paris, in 2007, he composed the scores for Philip Pullmans Golden Compass, Zach Helms directorial debut Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium with American composer Aaron Zigman, and the Ang Lee movie Lust, Caution. He won the 2007 BMI Film Music Award,2007 World Soundtrack Award,2007 European Film Award and he also won the Silver Berlin Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Best Film Music in The Beat that My Heart Skipped. In 2008, Desplat received his second Oscar nomination for David Finchers Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Desplat received his third Oscar nomination and a BAFTA nomination for Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2010, both of which were won by Michael Giacchino for Up. In early 2011, Desplat began to write the music to Harry Potter and he reunited with director David Yates, who offered Desplat the opportunity to score the second part after his work on the Part 1 soundtrack in 2010 enchanted everyone in the control room. Desplats soundtrack sequel to the 2008 film Largo Winch was released in 2011 and was well received, Desplats 2011 projects included The Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick, A Better Life, La Fille du Puisatier, Roman Polanskis Carnage, and George Clooneys Ides of March
14.
Paramount Pictures
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Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film studio based in Hollywood, California, that has been a subsidiary of the American media conglomerate Viacom since 1994. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor contracted 22 actors and actresses and these fortunate few would become the first movie stars. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé, followed by the Nordisk Film company. It is the last major film studio headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company, hungarian-born founder, Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time. By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success and its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, which starred Sarah Bernhardt. That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, the Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first feature film. Hodkinson and actor, director, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies, Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor, until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation, in 1916, Zukor maneuvered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged the three companies into one, with only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players-Lasky and its Paramount Pictures soon dominated the business. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, the driving force behind Paramounts rise was Zukor. In 1926, Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg and they purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street for US$1 million. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, three years later, because of the importance of the Publix Theatres, it became Paramount Publix Corporation. In 1928, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps, animated cartoons produced by Max, the Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney. The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957, Paramount was also one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as talkies, and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris
15.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
16.
Romance film
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Romance films make the romantic love story or the search for strong and pure love and romance the main plot focus. Occasionally, romance lovers face obstacles such as finances, physical illness, various forms of discrimination, as in all quite strong, deep, and close romantic relationships, tensions of day-to-day life, temptations, and differences in compatibility enter into the plots of romantic films. In romantic television series, the development of romantic relationships may play out over many episodes. Historical romance - A romantic story with a period setting and this includes films such as Gone with the Wind, Doctor Zhivago and Titanic. Romantic drama usually revolves around an obstacle which prevents deep and true love between two people. Music is often employed to indicate the mood, creating an atmosphere of greater insulation for the couple. The conclusion of a romantic drama typically does not indicate whether a final union between the two main characters will occur. Chick flick is a term associated with romance films as many are targeted to a female audience. As such, the terms cannot be used interchangeably, films of this genre include Dirty Dancing, The Notebook, Dear John, A Walk to Remember, and Romeo + Juliet. Romantic comedies are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as true love is able to surmount most obstacles. Humour in such films tends to be of a verbal, low-key variety or situational, films within this genre include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Moonstruck, As Good as It Gets, Somethings Gotta Give, It Happened One Night, When Harry Met Sally. Romantic fantasies describe fantasy stories using many of the elements and conventions of the romance genre, romantic action comedies are films that blend romantic comedy and action. Examples include Killers, Knight and Day, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, This Means War, romantic thriller is a genre of film which has a storyline combining elements of the romance film and the thriller genre. Some examples of romantic thriller films are The Adjustment Bureau, The Phantom of the Opera, The Tourist, The Bodyguard, Unfaithful, and Wicker Park
17.
Fantasy film
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Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction films and horror films, Fantasy films often have an element of magic, myth, wonder, escapism, and the extraordinary. Several sub-categories of fantasy films can be identified, although the delineations between these subgenres, much as in literature, are somewhat fluid. The most common fantasy subgenres depicted in movies are High Fantasy and Sword, both categories typically employ quasi-medieval settings, wizards, magical creatures and other elements commonly associated with fantasy stories. High Fantasy films tend to feature a more richly developed fantasy world, often, they feature a hero of humble origins and a clear distinction between good and evil set against each other in an epic struggle. Many scholars cite J. R. R, to some, the term Sword and Sandal has pejorative connotations, designating a film with a low-quality script, bad acting and poor production values. Another important subgenre of films that has become more popular in recent years is contemporary fantasy. Such films feature magical effects or supernatural occurrences happening in the world of today. Fantasy films set in the afterlife, called Bangsian Fantasy, are less common, other uncommon subgenres include Historical Fantasy and Romantic Fantasy, although 2003s Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl successfully incorporated elements of both. As noted above, superhero movies and fairy tale films might each be considered subgenres of fantasy films, as a cinematic genre, fantasy has traditionally not been regarded as highly as the related genre of science fiction film. Since the late 1990s, however, the genre has gained new respectability in a way, tolkiens The Lord of the Rings and J. K. Jacksons The Lord of the Rings trilogy is due to its ambitious scope, serious tone. These pictures achieved phenomenal commercial and critical success, and the installment of the trilogy became the first fantasy film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Harry Potter series has been a financial success, has achieved critical acclaim. Following the success of ventures, Hollywood studios have greenlighted additional big-budget productions in the genre. These have included adaptations of the first, second, and third books in C. S and this is in contrast to science fiction films, which are often released during the northern hemisphere summer. The huge commercial success of these pictures may indicate a change in Hollywoods approach to fantasy film releases. Fantasy films have a history almost as old as the medium itself, however, fantasy films were relatively few and far between until the 1980s, when high-tech filmmaking techniques and increased audience interest caused the genre to flourish
18.
Romantic interest
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Romance is the expressive and pleasurable feeling from an emotional attraction towards another person often associated with sexual attraction. It is eros rather than agape, philia, or storge, historically, the term romance originates with the medieval ideal of chivalry as set out in its chivalric romance literature. Humans have an inclination to form bonds with one another through social interactions. The debate over an exact definition of love may be found in literature as well as in the works of psychologists, philosophers, biochemists and other professionals. The addition of drama to relationships of close, deep and strong love, psychologist Charles Lindholm defined love to be. an intense attraction that involves the idealization of the other, within an erotic context, with expectation of enduring sometime into the future. The word was originally an adverb of the Latin origin Romanicus, the connecting notion is that European medieval vernacular tales were usually about chivalric adventure, not combining the idea of love until late into the seventeenth century. In primitive societies, tension existed between marriage and the erotic, but this was expressed in taboo regarding the menstrual cycle. Anthropologists such as Claude Lévi-Strauss show that there were forms of courtship in ancient as well as contemporary primitive societies. There may not be evidence, however, that members of such societies formed loving relationships distinct from their established customs in a way that would parallel modern romance, before the 18th century, many marriages were not arranged, but rather developed out of more or less spontaneous relationships. After the 18th century, illicit relationships took on an independent role. In bourgeois marriage, illicitness may have become more formidable and likely to cause tension, in Ladies of the Leisure Class, Rutgers University professor Bonnie G. Smith depicts courtship and marriage rituals that may be viewed as oppressive to modern people. She writes When the young women of the Nord married, they did so without illusions of love and they acted within a framework of concern for the reproduction of bloodlines according to financial, professional, and sometimes political interests. Subsequent sexual revolution has lessened the conflicts arising out of liberalism, anthony Giddens, in his book The Transformation of Intimacy, Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Society, states that romantic love introduced the idea of a narrative into an individuals life. He adds that telling a story was one of the meanings of romance, according to Giddens, the rise of romantic love more or less coincided with the emergence of the novel. It was then that romantic love, associated with freedom and therefore the ideals of romantic love, for the discourse of intimacy emotional closeness was much more important than passion. This does not mean by any means that intimacy is to replace romance, on the contrary, intimacy and romance coexist. The 21st century has seen the growth of globalization and people now live in a world of transformations that affect almost every aspect of our lives, one example of the changes experienced in relationships was explored by Giddens regarding homosexual relationships. According to Giddens since homosexuals were not able to marry they were forced to more open
19.
81st Academy Awards
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During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. The ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC, and was produced by Bill Condon and Laurence Mark, Actor Hugh Jackman hosted the show for the first time. Two weeks earlier in a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California held on February 7, Slumdog Millionaire won eight awards, the most of the evening, including Best Picture and Best Director for Danny Boyle. The telecast garnered almost 37 million viewers in the United States, the nominees for the 81st Academy Awards were announced on January 22,2009, at 5,38 a. m. PST at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, by Sid Ganis, president of the Academy, the Curious Case of Benjamin Button received the most nominations with thirteen, Slumdog Millionaire came in second with ten. The winners were announced during the ceremony on February 22,2009. Slumdog Millionaire was the film to win Best Picture without any acting nominations. Sean Penn became the person to win Best Lead Actor twice. Best Supporting Actor winner Heath Ledger became the performer to win a posthumous acting Oscar. The first actor to receive this distinction was Peter Finch who posthumously won Best Actor for Network two months after his death in January 1977. With its six nominations, Best Animated Feature Film winner WALL-E tied with 1991s Beauty, winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface. Jerry Lewis The following individuals presented awards or performed musical numbers, in September 2008, the Academy selected producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark to co-produce the telecast. Nearly three months later, actor Hugh Jackman, who had previously emceed three consecutive Tony Awards ceremonies between 2003 and 2005, was chosen as host of the 2009 gala. Jackman expressed his anticipation of the awards in the few days preceding, notable changes were introduced in the production of the telecast. Another unique feature of the ceremony was that the orchestra performed onstage instead of being relegated to a pit, in a break from previous presentations, five previous Oscar-winning performers presented each of the acting categories as opposed to only one or two. In addition, the Academy announced that for the first time since Oscar began broadcasting on television, furthermore, a montage of upcoming 2009 films was shown over the ceremonys closing credits. Several other people participated in the production of the ceremony, chris Harrison hosted Road to the Oscars, a weekly behind-the-scenes video blog on the Oscar ceremony website. David Rockwell designed a new set and stage design for the ceremony, Film historian and author Robert Osborne greeted guests entering the festivities at the Hollywood and Highland Center
20.
Academy Award for Best Director
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The Academy Award for Best Director is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of a director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in the film industry. However, these categories were merged for all subsequent ceremonies, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the directors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. For the first eleven years of the Academy Awards, directors were allowed to be nominated for multiple films in the same year, the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture have been very closely linked throughout their history. Of the 89 films that have been awarded Best Picture,63 have also been awarded Best Director, since its inception, the award has been given to 69 directors or directing teams. John Ford has received the most awards in this category with four, william Wyler was nominated on twelve occasions, more than any other individual. As of the 2017 ceremony, Damien Chazelle is the most recent winner in category for his work on La La Land. Chazelle also became the youngest director in history to receive this award, two directing teams have shared the award, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story in 1961 and Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men in 2007. The Coen brothers are the siblings to have won the award. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full calendar year from January 1 to December 31. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com
21.
Academy Award for Best Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Emil Jannings receiving the award for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the branch of AMPAS. In the first three years of the awards, actors were nominated as the best in their categories, at that time, all of their work during the qualifying period was listed after the award. The following year, this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actor is nominated for a performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year, since its inception, the award has been given to 79 actors. Daniel Day-Lewis has received the most awards in this category with three Oscars, spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier were nominated on nine occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Casey Affleck is the most recent winner in category for his role as Lee Chandler in Manchester by the Sea. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933
22.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Gale Sondergaard was the first winner of award for her role in Anthony Adverse. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 78 actresses. Dianne Wiest and Shelley Winters have received the most awards in this category with two awards each, despite winning no awards, Thelma Ritter was nominated on six occasions, more than any other actress. As of the 2017 ceremony, Viola Davis is the most recent winner in category for her role as Rose Maxson in Fences. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, inside Oscar, The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York, United States, Ballantine Books, oscars. org Oscar. com The Academy Awards Database
23.
New Orleans
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New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U. S. Census, the New Orleans metropolitan area had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502. The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and it is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music, and its celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras. The city is referred to as the most unique in the United States. New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River, the city and Orleans Parish are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north, before Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. As of 2015, it ranks third in population, trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish, La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded May 7,1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time and his title came from the French city of Orléans. The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris, during the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a campaign against the British from the city in 1779. New Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight, nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians, Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city. The Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the republic in the Western Hemisphere. It had occurred several years in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue
24.
Hurricane Katrina
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Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. The storm is ranked as the third most intense United States landfalling tropical cyclone. Overall, at least 1,245 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods, total property damage was estimated at $108 billion, roughly four times the damage wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 in the United States. Early the following day, the new depression intensified into Tropical Storm Katrina, the cyclone headed generally westward toward Florida and strengthened into a hurricane only two hours before making landfall at Hallandale Beach and Aventura on August 25. After very briefly weakening to a storm, Katrina emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on August 26. The storm caused severe destruction along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas, much of it due to the storm surge, severe property damage occurred in coastal areas, such as Mississippi beachfront towns, over 90 percent of these were flooded. Boats and casino barges rammed buildings, pushing cars and houses inland, over fifty breaches in New Orleanss hurricane surge protection were the cause of the majority of the death and destruction during Katrina on August 29,2005. Eventually 80% of the city and large tracts of neighboring parishes became flooded, according to a modeling exercise conducted by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, two-thirds of the deaths in Greater New Orleans were due to levee and floodwall failure. All of the studies concluded that the USACE, the designers and builders of the levee system as mandated by the Flood Control Act of 1965, is responsible. This is mainly due to a decision to use shorter steel sheet pilings in an effort to save money, exactly ten years after Katrina, J. Many other government officials were criticized for their responses, especially New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, several agencies including the United States Coast Guard, National Hurricane Center, and National Weather Service were commended for their actions. They provided accurate hurricane weather tracking forecasts with sufficient lead time, Hurricane Katrina formed as Tropical Depression Twelve over the southeastern Bahamas on August 23,2005, as the result of an interaction of a tropical wave and the remains of Tropical Depression Ten. It strengthened into Tropical Storm Katrina on the morning of August 24, the tropical storm moved towards Florida, and became a hurricane only two hours before making landfall between Hallandale Beach and Aventura on the morning of August 25. The storm weakened over land, but it regained hurricane status about one hour after entering the Gulf of Mexico, on August 27, the storm reached Category 3 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, becoming the third major hurricane of the season. An eyewall replacement cycle disrupted the intensification, but caused the storm to nearly double in size, the storm rapidly intensified after entering the Gulf, growing from a Category 3 hurricane to a Category 5 hurricane in just nine hours. This rapid growth was due to the movement over the unusually warm waters of the Loop Current. Katrina attained Category 5 status on the morning of August 28 and reached its peak strength at 1800 UTC that day, with sustained winds of 175 mph. However, this record was broken by Hurricane Rita
25.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
26.
Tugboat
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A tug is a boat or ship that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugboats are powerful for their size and strongly built, and some are ocean-going, some tugboats serve as icebreakers or salvage boats. Early tugboats had steam engines, but today most have diesel engines, many tugboats have firefighting monitors, allowing them to assist in firefighting, especially in harbors. Seagoing tugs fall into four categories, The standard seagoing tug with model bow that tows its payload on a hawser. The notch tug which can be secured in a notch at the stern of a specially designed barge and this configuration is dangerous to use with a barge which is in ballast or in a head- or following sea. Therefore, notch tugs are usually built with a towing winch and these units stay combined under virtually any sea conditions and the tugs usually have poor sea-keeping designs for navigation without their barges attached. Vessels in this category are considered to be ships rather than tugboats. These vessels must show navigation lights compliant with those required of ships rather than required of tugboats. Articulated tug and barge units also utilize mechanical means to connect to their barges, the tug slips into a notch in the stern and is attached by a hinged connection. ATBs generally utilize Intercon and Bludworth connecting systems, aTBs are generally staffed as a large tugboat, with between seven and nine crew members. The typical American ATB operating on the east coast customarily displays navigational lights of a towing vessel pushing ahead, compared to seagoing tugboats, harbour tugboats are generally smaller and their width-to-length ratio is often higher, due to the need for a lower draught. In smaller harbours these are also termed lunch bucket boats, because they are only manned when needed and only at a minimum. The number of tugboats in a harbour varies with the harbour infrastructure, things to take into consideration includes ships with/without bow thrusters and forces like wind, current and waves and types of ship. River tugs are also referred to as towboats or pushboats and their hull designs would make open ocean operation dangerous. River tugs usually do not have any significant hawser or winch and their hulls feature a flat front or bow to line up with the rectangular stern of the barge, often with large pushing knees. Tugboat engines typically produce 500 to 2,500 kW, for safety, tugboats engines often feature two of each critical part for redundancy. A tugboats power is stated by its engines horsepower and its overall bollard pull. The largest commercial harbour tugboats in the 2000s-2010s, used for towing container ships or similar, had around 60-65 tons of bollard pull, Tugboats are highly maneuverable, and various propulsion systems have been developed to increase maneuverability and increase safety
27.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
28.
George Balanchine
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Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years. He was a known for his musicality, he expressed music with dance. Balanchine was invited to America in 1933 by an arts patron named Lincoln Kirstein. Along with Kirstein, Balanchine also co-founded the New York City Ballet, the rest of Balanchines Georgian side of the family comprised largely artists and soldiers. Little is known of Balanchines Russian, maternal side and his mother, Melitons second wife, Maria Nikolayevna Vasilyeva, was fond of ballet and viewed it as a form of social advancement from her lower reaches of the St. Petersburg society. She was eleven years younger than Meliton and rumored to have been his former housekeeper, as a child, Balanchine was not particularly interested in ballet, but his mother insisted that young Giorgi audition with his sister Tamara, who shared her mothers interest in the art. Georges brother Andria Balanchivadze instead followed his fathers love for music, tamaras career, on the other hand, was cut short by her death in unknown circumstances as she was trying to escape on a train from besieged Leningrad to Georgia. After graduating in 1921, Balanchine enrolled in the Petrograd Conservatory while working in the corps de ballet at the State Academic Theater for Opera and his studies at the conservatory included advanced piano, music theory, counterpoint, harmony, and composition. Balanchine graduated from the conservatory during 1923, and danced as a member of the corps until 1924, while still in his teens, Balanchine choreographed his first work, a pas de deux named La Nuit. This was followed by duet, Enigma, with the dancers in bare feet rather than ballet shoes. During 1923, with dancers, Balanchine formed a small ensemble. At this time, the impresario Sergei Diaghilev invited Balanchine to join the Ballets Russes as a choreographer, Diaghilev soon promoted Balanchine to ballet master of the company and encouraged his choreography. Between 1924 and Diaghilevs death in 1929, Balanchine created nine ballets and he described it as the turning point in my life. Apollo is regarded as the original neoclassical ballet, apollo brought the male dancer to the forefront, giving him two solos within the ballet. Apollo is known for its minimalism, utilizing simple costumes and sets and this allowed the audience not to be distracted from the movement. Balanchine considered music to be the influence on choreography, as opposed to the narrative. Suffering a serious injury, Balanchine had to limit his dancing. After Diaghilevs death, the Ballets Russes went bankrupt, to earn money, Balanchine began to stage dances for Charles B
29.
Murmansk
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The city is named for the Murman Coast, Murman is itself an older Russian term for Norwegians. Although Murmansks population is in decline—299,148,307, 257 ,336, 137 ,468, Murmansk was the last city founded in the Russian Empire. On June 29,1916, Russian Transport Minister Alexander Trepov petitioned to grant urban status to the railway settlement, on July 6,1916, the petition was approved and the town was named Romanov-on-Murman, after the imperial Russian dynasty of Romanovs. On September 21,1916, the ceremony was performed. After the February Revolution of 1917, on April 3,1917, in the winter of 1917 the British North Russia Squadron under Rear Admiral Thomas Kemp was established at Murmansk. From 1918 to 1920, during the Russian Civil War, the town was occupied by the Western powers, who had allied in World War I. On February 13,1926, local self-government was organized in Murmansk for the first time, during a session of the Murmansk City Soviet. Prior to this, the city was governed by the authorities of Alexandrovsky Uyezd, while this plan was not confirmed by the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee, in 1935–1937 several rural localities of Kolsky and Polyarny Districts were merged into Murmansk anyway. According to the Presidium of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee resolution of February 26,1935, however, the provisions of the resolution were not fully implemented, and due to military construction in Polyarnoye, the administrative center was instead moved to Murmansk in the beginning of 1935. In addition to being the center of Murmansk Okrug, Murmansk also continued to serve as the administrative center of Polyarny District until September 11,1938. This status was retained when Murmansk Okrug was transformed into Murmansk Oblast on May 28,1938, the supplies were brought to the city in the Arctic convoys. For the rest of the war, Murmansk served as a point for weapons. This unyielding, stoic resistance was commemorated at the 40th anniversary of the victory over the Germans in the designation of Murmansk as a Hero City on May 6,1985. During the Cold War Murmansk was a center of Soviet submarine, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the nearby city and naval base of Severomorsk remains the headquarters of the Russian Northern Fleet. In 1974, a massive 35. 5-meter tall statue Alyosha, in 1984, the Hotel Arctic, now known as Azimut Hotel Murmansk, opened and became the tallest building above the Arctic Circle. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the City of Murmansk—an administrative unit with the equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the City of Murmansk is incorporated as Murmansk Urban Okrug and they were abolished on June 2,1948. The same city districts were created for the time on June 23,1951
30.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
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The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States entry into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U. S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U. S. -held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, the attack commenced at 7,48 a. m. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, all eight U. S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but the USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service, the Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed,2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the station, shipyard, maintenance. Japanese losses were light,29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, one Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured. The surprise attack came as a shock to the American people. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, the U. S. responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940, Roosevelt to proclaim December 7,1941, a date which will live in infamy. Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, over the next decade, Japan continued to expand into China, leading to all-out war between those countries in 1937. Japan spent considerable effort trying to isolate China and achieve sufficient resource independence to attain victory on the mainland, from December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on USS Panay, the Allison incident, and the Nanking Massacre swung public opinion in the West sharply against Japan. Fearing Japanese expansion, the United States, the United Kingdom, in 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China. The United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline to Japan, an invasion of the Philippines was also considered necessary by Japanese war planners. War Plan Orange had envisioned defending the Philippines with a 40 and this was opposed by Douglas MacArthur, who felt that he would need a force ten times that size, and was never implemented. By 1941, U. S. planners anticipated abandonment of the Philippines at the outbreak of war and orders to that effect were given in late 1941 to Admiral Thomas Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet
31.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
32.
U.S. Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
33.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
34.
Chandler Canterbury
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Chandler Canterbury is an American actor. Chandler Canterbury was born in Houston, Texas, the son of Kristine and he has an older brother, Colby, who is also an actor, and a younger sister named Shelby, an actress. He starred in Summit Entertainments thriller Knowing, and won a 2008 Young Artist Award for his performance as a sociopathic child following his fathers murderous example on Criminal Minds. He was seen in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, playing the character at the age of eight. In 2010, he appeared in the psychological thriller After Life opposite Liam Neeson, additional roles include appearances in Universals Repo Men and in Timothy Linh Buis Powder Blue. He appeared as a young Peter Bishop in the Fringe episode Subject 13, in 2013, he co-starred opposite Saoirse Ronan in The Host and played the lead character opposite Annalise Basso in Standing Up, based on a book by Brock Cole called The Goats. Chandler Canterbury at the Internet Movie Database
35.
Elle Fanning
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Mary Elle Fanning is an American actress. Her maternal grandfather is American football player Rick Arrington, and her aunt is ESPN reporter Jill Arrington, Fanning is the younger sister of Dakota Fanning, who is also an actress. She has Irish, German, English, and French ancestry, Fanning and her family are members of the Southern Baptist Convention. She has been quoted as saying, Were just normal sisters and we both go to school and we just play together. Fanning started acting before turning three years old and she began her acting career by playing the younger version of her older sister Dakotas characters in the mini-series Taken and the movie I Am Sam. In 2002, at the age of four, Fanning won her first role independent of her sister in the comedy Daddy Day Care. Anecdotal evidence of her skill was seen in the decision to cast her in the role of Ruth in The Door in the Floor opposite Jeff Bridges. The films producers planned to hire identical twins for the intense shooting schedule but were so impressed with Fanning that they used only her. Late in 2003, Fanning appeared in Because of Winn-Dixie in the role of Sweetie Pie Thomas. In 2004, she did work in the English dubbed version of Miyazakis animated film My Neighbor Totoro. Later that same year, she filmed I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, in early 2005, Fanning filmed scenes in Charlottes Web as the future granddaughter of Fern Arable played by Dakota Fanning. However, the scenes did not make the final cut, in mid-2005, she played Debbie, the daughter of Richard and Susan Jones in the film Babel. In early 2006, Fanning filmed scenes in both The Nines and Déjà Vu, in mid-2006, she filmed The Lost Room a sci-fi TV mini-series. Also in 2006, she appeared on the episode Need to Know of House, MD and she also appeared in an of Criminal Minds in 2006, playing the supporting role of Tracey in The Boogeyman. By the end of 2006, Fanning began to lead roles. The first of these was the one of Emma Learner in Reservation Road—the grieving daughter of Grace, the film deals with the aftermath of a tragic car accident in which Emmas brother is killed. In early 2007, Fanning reunited with her Babel co-stars, Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, mid-year 2007, Fanning filmed the title role Phoebe of Phoebe in Wonderland. Phoebe in Wonderland also starred Felicity Huffman and was released in March 2009, from July through October 2007, Fanning appeared in The Nutcracker in 3D, playing Mary
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