1.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
2.
Malibu, California
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Malibu is a beach city in Los Angeles County, California, situated 30 miles west of Downtown Los Angeles. Known for its Mediterranean climate, a 21-mile strip of the Malibu coast incorporated in 1991 into the City of Malibu, the area is known for being the home of Hollywood movie stars, people in the entertainment industry, and other affluent residents. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,645, signs around the city proclaim 27 miles of scenic beauty, referring to the historical 27-mile Malibu coast spanning from Tuna Canyon west to Point Mugu in Ventura County. Most Malibu residents live within a few hundred yards of Pacific Coast Highway, for many residents of the unincorporated canyon areas, Malibu has the closest commercial centers and are included in the Malibu zip codes. The city is bounded by Topanga to the east, the Santa Monica Mountains to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the south. Nicknamed the Bu by surfers and locals, beaches along the Malibu coast include Surfrider Beach, Zuma Beach, Malibu Beach, Topanga Beach, Point Dume Beach, County Line and they named it Humaliwo or the surf sounds loudly. The citys name derives from this, as the Hu syllable is not stressed, explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo is believed to have moored at Malibu Lagoon, at the mouth of Malibu Creek, to obtain fresh water in 1542. The Spanish presence returned with the California mission system, and the area was part of Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit—a 13 and that ranch passed intact to Frederick Hastings Rindge in 1891. Few roads even entered the area before 1929, when the state won another court case, by then May Rindge was forced to subdivide her property and begin selling and leasing lots. In 1926, in an effort to selling land to stave off insolvency. At its height, Malibu Potteries employed over 100 workers, and produced decorative tiles which furnish many Los Angeles-area public buildings, the factory, located one-half mile east of the pier, was ravaged by a fire in 1931. Although the factory reopened in 1932, it could not recover from the effects of the Great Depression. A distinct hybrid of Moorish and Arts and crafts designs, Malibu tile is considered highly collectible. Fine examples of the tiles may be seen at the Adamson House and Serra Retreat, the unfinished building was sold to the Franciscan Order in 1942 and is operated as a retreat facility, Serra Retreat. It burned in the 1970 fire and was using many of the original tiles. Most of the Big Rock Drive area was purchased in 1936 by William Randolph Hearst and he sold the lower half of his holdings there in 1944 to Art Jones. Jones was one of the prominent early realtors in Malibu, starting with the leases of Rindge land in Malibu Colony. He was also the owner/part-owner of the Malibu Inn, Malibu Trading Post, mcAnany Way is named after him
3.
American Film Institute
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The American Film Institute is an American film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the moving picture arts in America. AFI is supported by funding and public membership. The institute is composed of leaders from the film, entertainment, business, a board of trustees chaired by Sir Howard Stringer and a board of directors chaired by Robert A. Daly guide the organization, which is led by President and CEO Bob Gazzale. Prior leaders were founding director George Stevens, Jr. and Jean Picker Firstenberg. <ref>AFI Board of Trustees etc. American Film Institute. October 2014. Retrieved December 24,2014. </ref>Two years later, in 1967, AFI was established, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Ford Foundation. The institute established a program for filmmakers known then as the Center for Advanced Film Studies. The institute moved to its current eight-acre Hollywood campus in 1981, the film training program grew into the AFI Conservatory, an accredited graduate school. AFI educates audiences and recognizes excellence through its awards programs and 10 Top 10 Lists. In 1969, the established the AFI Conservatory for Advanced Film Studies at Greystone. The first class included filmmakers Terrence Malick, Caleb Deschanel and Paul Schrader, mirroring a professional production environment, Fellows collaborate to make more films than any other graduate level program. Admission to AFI Conservatory is highly selective, with a maximum of 140 graduates per year, in 2013, Emmy and Oscar-winning director, producer and screenwriter James L. Brooks joined AFI as Artistic Director of the AFI Conservatory where he provides leadership for the film program. Brooks artistic role at the AFI Conservatory has a legacy that includes Daniel Petrie, Jr. Robert Wise. Award-winning director Bob Mandel served as Dean of the AFI Conservatory for nine years, jan Schuette took over as Dean in 2014. AFI Conservatorys alumni have careers in film, television and on the web and they have been recognized with all of the major industry awards – Academy Award, Emmy Award, guild awards, and the Tony Award. The AFI Catalog, started in 1968, is a web-based filmographic database, early print copies of this catalog may also be found at your local library. Each year the AFI Awards honor the ten outstanding films and ten outstanding television programs, the awards are a non-competitive acknowledgement of excellence. The Awards are announced in December and a luncheon for award honorees takes place the following January. The juries consisted of over 1,500 artists, scholars, critics and historians, with movies selected based on the films popularity over time, historical significance, citizen Kane was voted the greatest American film twice. AFI operates two film festivals, AFI Fest in Los Angeles, and AFI Docs in Silver Spring, Maryland, AFI Fest is the American Film Institutes annual celebration of artistic excellence
4.
University of California, Santa Barbara
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The University of California, Santa Barbara is a public research university and one of the 10 campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a 1, 022-acre site near Goleta, California, tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joined the University of California system in 1944 and is the third-oldest general-education campus in the system. UCSB is one of Americas Public Ivy universities, which recognizes top public universities in the United States. The university is a doctoral university and is organized into five colleges. UCSB was ranked 37th among National Universities, 8th among U. S. public universities, the university was also ranked 48th worldwide for 2016-17 by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and 42nd worldwide by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2016. UC Santa Barbara is a high activity research university with twelve national research centers. UCSB was the No.3 host on the ARPAnet and was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1995, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos compete in the Big West Conference of the NCAA Division I. The Gauchos have won NCAA national championships in soccer and mens water polo. UCSB traces its origins back to the Anna Blake School which was founded in 1891 and offered training in home economics and industrial arts. The Anna Blake School was taken over by the state in 1909 and became the Santa Barbara State Normal School, the State College system sued to stop the takeover, but the Governor did not support the suit. A state initiative was passed, however, in 1946 to stop subsequent conversions of State Colleges to University of California campuses, from 1944 to 1958 the school was known as Santa Barbara College of the University of California, before taking on its current name. When the vacated Marine Corps training station in Goleta was purchased for the growing college. Originally, the Regents envisioned a small, several thousand-student liberal arts college, chronologically, UCSB is the third general-education campus of the University of California, after Berkeley and UCLA. The original campus the Regents acquired in Santa Barbara was located on only 100 acres of largely unusable land on a seaside mesa, all of this change was done in accordance with the California Master Plan for Higher Education. In 1959, UCSB professor Douwe Stuurman hosted the English writer Aldous Huxley as the universitys first visiting professor, Huxley delivered a lectures series called The Human Situation. In the late 1960s and early 1970s UCSB became nationally known as a hotbed of anti-Vietnam War activity, a bombing at the schools faculty club in 1969 killed the caretaker, Dover Sharp. UCSBs anti-Vietnam activity impelled then Governor Ronald Reagan to impose a curfew, weapon-carrying guardsmen were a common sight on campus and in Isla Vista during this time. On May 23,2014, a killing spree occurred in Isla Vista, California, all six people killed during the rampage were students at UCSB
5.
Los Angeles Music Center
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The Music Center is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Located in downtown Los Angeles, The Music Center is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum, each year, The Music Center welcomes more than 1. The center is home to on-going community events, arts festivals, outdoor concerts, participatory arts activities and workshops, in April 1955, Dorothy Chandler, wife of Los Angeles Times publisher Norman Chandler, began fundraising toward a permanent home for the Philharmonic. Ultimately Mrs. Chandler raised almost $20 million in private donations, the rest of the complex was completed in April 1967. The additional venues, the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre, were dedicated on April 19 and 12,1967, respectively. The Mark Taper Forum, scandalizing the power structure of Los Angeles, according to its artistic director Gordon Davidson, the Ahmanson Theatre opened with a performance of the Man of La Mancha by the Civic Light Opera. The first dramatic season at the Ahmanson featured Ingrid Bergman in ONeills More Stately Mansions, the Philharmonic and L. A. Master Chorale joined forces to provide the accompaniment to Eisensteins restored silent film classic Alexander Nevsky. While the Civic Light Operas last season at The Music Center was in 1987 and its productions have included Wagners Tristan and Isolde directed by Jonathan Miller and designed by David Hockney. On Sunday afternoon, May 4,1969, Peace on Earth by Jacques Lipchitz was dedicated and his sculpture portrays a dove descending to earth with the spirit of peace, symbolized by the Madonna standing inside a tear shaped canopy, supported by a base of reclining lambs. Lawrence E. Deutsch and Lloyd Rigler donated $250,000 to commission a work for the fountain, the architects of The Music Center, Welton Becket and Associates, opposed placing sculpture in the plaza between the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Mark Taper Forum. However, after a search, the Art Committee of The Music Center commissioned Lipchitz. Today, no work of art in Los Angeles is more photographed. The Dance Door, a sculpture, was created in 1978 by Robert Graham and donated to The Music Center in 1982 by Frederick. Dance Door consists of an ornamented life-size bronze door, hinged on a bronze frame, the door itself is hollow centered and composed of approximately 7 welded case panels on each side. Abstracted figures of dancers are cast in low relief on the door panels, on October 23,2003 The Music Center opened the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, expanding the campus to 11 acres. The 2, 265-seat Concert Hall is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Music Center is governed by a Board of Directors chaired by Lisa Specht. Center President and Chief Operating Officer is Stephen D. Rountree, the County of Los Angeles owns The Music Center and provides funding for its maintenance, operations, grounds-keeping, security and ushers. Revenue from the operation of The Center garage offsets these expenses, the Music Center and the four performing arts companies are responsible for the productions presented in the theatres
6.
California Bar Association
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The State Bar of California is Californias official bar association. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct and it is directly responsible to the Supreme Court of California. All attorney admissions and disbarments are issued as recommendations of the State Bar, the State Bar was legally established on July 29,1927, when the State Bar Act went into effect. The State Bar of California is the largest in the United States, with 253,306 living members as of February 2015 and it is headquartered in San Francisco, with branch offices in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Article 6, Section 9 of the California Constitution states, The State Bar of California is a public corporation. Every person admitted and licensed to practice law in this State is, the State Bar acts as the administrative arm of the California Supreme Court in matters involving the admission, regulation, and discipline of attorneys. Generally, practicing law in the state of California without being a member of the State Bar is the crime of unauthorized practice of law. S, the State Bars predecessor was a voluntary state bar association known as the California Bar Association. It took almost ten years to establish an integrated bar in California, sullivan, who was also the President of the Bar Association of San Francisco, organized BASF committees to draft and propose appropriate legislation. Both BASF-drafted bills died in the California Legislature, in 1919 and 1921 and that bill died by Governor Friend Richardsons pocket veto. After two more years of lobbying, the CBA tried again, Governor C. C. Young signed the State Bar Act into law on March 16,1927. The State Bar immediately mailed out registration forms to all California attorneys, identification numbers were assigned to each attorney as they registered, notably, State Bar Number 1 went to Chief Justice William H. Waste. By October 1,1927,7,872 lawyers had registered and these lawyers then voted by mail for the State Bars first Board of Governors. On November 17, the State Bar held a dinner at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. By the time the dinner started,9,602 lawyers had registered, the next morning, during the State Bars organization meeting, the CBA yielded to its successor by winding up its affairs and ending its corporate existence. The State Bar of California is one of a number of integrated bar associations where much of its member fee structure must be ratified annually by both the legislature and the governor. Without such annual reauthorization, it can charge California lawyers only $77 per year, in 1990, The U. S. Supreme Court ruled in Keller v. In October 1997, Governor Pete Wilson vetoed the fee authorization bill for that year and he pointed out that Californias bar had the highest annual fee in the country at $478. He also stated that the State Bar had become bloated and inefficient, as a result, the State Bar was forced to lay off 500 of its 700 personnel on June 26,1998
7.
American Jews
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American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are Americans who are Jews, either by religion, ethnicity, or nationality. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews and their US-born descendants, Minority Jewish ethnic divisions are also represented, including Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and a smaller percentage of converts to Judaism. The American Jewish community manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions, depending on religious definitions and varying population data, the United States is home to the largest or second largest Jewish community in the world. In 2012, the American Jewish population was estimated at between 5.5 and 8 million, depending on the definition of the term and this constitutes between 1. 7% and 2. 6% of the total U. S. population. Jews have been present in what is today the United States of America since the mid-17th century, however, they were small in number, with at most 200 to 300 having arrived by 1700. The majority were Sephardic Jewish immigrants of Spanish and Portuguese ancestry, until after 1720 when Ashkenazi Jews from Central, after passage of the Plantation Act of 1740, Jews were specifically permitted to become British citizens and immigrate to the colonies. Until about 1830, Charleston, South Carolina had more Jews than anywhere else in North America and they primarily became merchants and shop-owners. Jewish migration to the United States increased dramatically in the early 1880s, as a result of persecution, many Jews also emigrated from Romania. Over 2,000,000 Jews landed between the late 19th century and 1924, when the Immigration Act of 1924 restricted immigration, most settled in the New York metropolitan area, establishing the worlds major concentrations of Jewish population. In 1915 the circulation of the daily Yiddish newspapers was half a million in New York City alone, in addition thousands more subscribed to the numerous weekly papers and the many magazines. American Jewish writers of the time urged assimilation and integration into the wider American culture,500,000 American Jews fought in World War II, and after the war younger families joined the new trend of suburbanization. There, Jews became increasingly assimilated and demonstrated rising intermarriage, more recent waves of Jewish emigration from Russia and other regions have largely joined the mainstream American Jewish community. Americans of Jewish descent have been successful in many fields. Scholars debate whether the historical experience for Jews in the United States has been such a unique experience as to validate American exceptionalism. Korelitz shows how American Jews during the late 19th and early 20th centuries abandoned a racial definition of Jewishness in favor of one that embraced ethnicity. The key to understanding this transition from a racial self-definition to a cultural or ethnic one can be found in the ‘’Menorah Journal’’ between 1915 and 1925, siporin uses the family folklore of ethnic Jews to their collective history and its transformation into an historical art form. They tell us how Jews have survived being uprooted and transformed, many immigrant narratives bear a theme of the arbitrary nature of fate and the reduced state of immigrants in a new culture. By contrast, ethnic family narratives tend to show the more in charge of his life
8.
Ojai, California
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Ojai is a city in Ventura County in the U. S. state of California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles, the valley is about 10 miles long by 3 miles wide, surrounded by hills and mountains. The population was 7,461 at the 2010 census, down from 7,862 at the 2000 census. Ojai is a destination with boutique hotels and recreation opportunities including hiking. It also has small businesses specializing in local and ecologically friendly art, design, and home improvement—such as galleries, chain stores are prohibited by Ojai city law to encourage local small business development and keep the town unique. The origin of the name Ojai has historically been known as derived from a Native American word meaning nest, the citys self-styled nickname is Shangri-La referencing the natural beauty of this health-and-spirituality-focused region. Chumash Indians were the inhabitants of the valley. They called it Ojai, which derives from the Ventureño Chumash word ʼawhaý meaning moon, the area became part of the Rancho Ojai Mexican land grant made to Fernando Tico in 1837, and he established a cattle ranch. Tico sold it in 1853 without much success to prospectors searching for oil, by 1864, the area was settled. The town was out in 1874 by real estate developer R. G. Surdam and named Nordhoff, California, in honor of the writer Charles Nordhoff, leading up to and during World War I, American sentiment became increasingly anti-German. Across the United States, German and German-sounding place names were changed, as part of this trend, Nordhoff was renamed Ojai in 1917. The public high school in Ojai is still named Nordhoff High School, the public junior high school, named Matilija, formerly served as Nordhoff Union High School and still features large tiles with the initials NUHS on the steps of the athletic field. The main turning point in the development of the city was the coming of Edward Libbey and he saw the valley and fell in love, thinking up many plans for expansion and beautification of the existing rustic town. A fire destroyed much of the original western-style downtown Nordhoff—Ojai in 1917, afterwards Libbey helped design, finance, and build a new downtown more in line with the then contemporary taste for Spanish Colonial Revival style architecture. To thank Libbey for his gifts to the town, the proposed a celebration to take place on March 2 of each year. Libbey declined their offer to call it Libbey Day, and instead suggested Ojai Day, the celebration still takes place each year in October. The arcade and bell tower still stand, and have come to serve as symbols of the city, libbeys pergola was destroyed in 1971, after being damaged in an explosion
9.
Stanford University
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Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, adjacent to Palo Alto and between San Jose and San Francisco. Its 8, 180-acre campus is one of the largest in the United States, Stanford also has land and facilities elsewhere. The university was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Stanford was a former Governor of California and U. S. Senator, he made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students 125 years ago on October 1,1891, Stanford University struggled financially after Leland Stanfords death in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley. The university is one of the top fundraising institutions in the country. There are three schools that have both undergraduate and graduate students and another four professional schools. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. Stanford faculty and alumni have founded a number of companies that produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue. It is the alma mater of 30 living billionaires,17 astronauts and it is also one of the leading producers of members of the United States Congress. Sixty Nobel laureates and seven Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford, dedicated to Leland Stanford Jr, their only child. The institution opened in 1891 on Stanfords previous Palo Alto farm, despite being impacted by earthquakes in both 1906 and 1989, the campus was rebuilt each time. In 1919, The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace was started by Herbert Hoover to preserve artifacts related to World War I, the Stanford Medical Center, completed in 1959, is a teaching hospital with over 800 beds. The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which was established in 1962, in 2008, 60% of this land remained undeveloped. Besides the central campus described below, the university also operates at more remote locations, some elsewhere on the main campus. Stanfords main campus includes a place within unincorporated Santa Clara County. The campus also includes land in unincorporated San Mateo County, as well as in the city limits of Menlo Park, Woodside. The academic central campus is adjacent to Palo Alto, bounded by El Camino Real, Stanford Avenue, Junipero Serra Boulevard, the United States Postal Service has assigned it two ZIP codes,94305 for campus mail and 94309 for P. O. box mail
10.
Columbia Law School
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Columbia Law School is a professional graduate school of Columbia University, a member of the Ivy League. It is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked in the top five by U. S. News. Columbia is especially known for its strength in corporate law. Columbia Law School was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School and was known for its legal scholarship dating back to the 18th century. Cabinet members and Presidential advisers, U. S. Senators, Representatives, and Governors, according to Columbia Law Schools 2013 ABA-required disclosures, 95% of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. The law school was ranked #1 of all law schools nation-wide by the National Law Journal in terms of sending the highest percentage of 2015 graduates to the largest 100 law firms in the US, the teaching of law at Columbia reaches back to the 18th century. Columbia College appointed its first professor of law, James Kent, the lectures of Chancellor Kent in the course of four years had developed into the first two volumes of his Commentaries, the second volume being published November 1827. Kent did not, however, succeed in establishing a law school or department in the College, thus, the formal instruction of law as a course of study did not commence until the middle of the 19th century. The Columbia College Law School, as it was officially called, was founded in 1858. The first law school building was a Gothic Revival structure located on Columbias Madison Avenue campus, thereafter, the college became Columbia University and moved north to the neighborhood of Morningside Heights. As Columbia Law Professor Theodore Dwight observed, at its founding the demand for a course of study in law was still speculative. No institution resembling a law school had existed in New York. Legal education was, however, at a low ebb. The clerks in the law offices were left almost wholly to themselves, frequently they were not even acquainted with the lawyers with whom, by a convenient fiction, they were supposed to be studying. In general, the examinations were purely perfunctory, a politician of influence was not readily turned away. Few studied law as a science, many followed it as a trade or as a convenient ladder whereby to rise in a political career, indeed, Columbia Law School was one of the few law schools established in the United States before the Civil War. Jay was fortunate to have attentive supervision because the quality and time of learning the law varied greatly within the profession, the original course of study to obtain a degree consisted of just two years, rather than the modern standard of three. The first lecture in the Law School was delivered on Monday, Nov 1,1858, by Mr. Dwight and it was an introductory lecture, afterwards printed
11.
George Stevens
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George Cooper Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. Among his most notable films are A Place in the Sun, Shane, Giant and he was born in Oakland, California, and his family included his father Landers Stevens and his mother Georgie Cooper, both stage actors. His uncle was drama critic Ashton Stevens and he also had two brothers, Jack and writer Aston Stevens. He learned about the stage from his parents and worked and toured with them on his path to filmmaking and he broke into the movie business as a cameraman, working on many Laurel and Hardy short films, such as Night Owls. His first feature film was The Cohens and Kellys in Trouble in 1933, in 1934 he got his first directing job, the slapstick Kentucky Kernels. His big break came when he directed Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams in 1935 and he went on in the late 1930s to direct several Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies, not only with the two actors together, but on their own. In 1940, he directed Carole Lombard in Vigil in the Night, and the film has an ending for European audiences in recognition of World War II. During World War II, Stevens joined the U. S. Army Signal Corps and headed a unit from 1943 to 1946. Stevens also helped prepare the Duben and Dachau footage and other material for presentation during the Nuremberg Trials, in 2008, his footage was entered into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as an essential visual record of World War II. One result of his World War II experiences was that his subsequent films became more dramatic, the motion picture I Remember Mama from 1948 was the last movie that he made with comic scenes. He was responsible for such films as A Place in the Sun, Shane, The Diary of Anne Frank, Giant. He ended his career with the 1970 film The Only Game in Town with Warren Beatty. In the same year, he was head of the jury at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival, in 1973 he was a member of the jury at the 8th Moscow International Film Festival. Stevens was the father of television and film writer-producer-director George Stevens, Jr. the first CEO, George Jr. Stevens died following a heart attack on March 8,1975, on his ranch in Lancaster, California, north of Los Angeles. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, Stevens headed the U. S. Army Signal Corps unit that filmed the Normandy landings and the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. For these contributions, he was awarded the Legion of Merit, Stevens has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1701 Vine Street. He won the Academy Award for Best Director twice, in 1951 for A Place in the Sun and he was also nominated in 1943 for The More the Merrier, in 1954 for Shane, and in 1959 for The Diary of Anne Frank. The moving image collection of George Stevens is held at the Academy Film Archive, the film material at the Academy Film Archive is complemented by material in the George Stevens papers at the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library
12.
George Lucas
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George Walton Lucas Jr. is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur. He is best known as the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as the founder of Lucasfilm and he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm, before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012. Upon graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967, Lucas co-founded American Zoetrope with fellow filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Lucas wrote and directed THX1138, based on his earlier student short Electronic Labyrinth, THX1138 4EB, which was a critical success but a financial failure. His next work as a writer-director was the film, American Graffiti, inspired by his teen years in early 1960s Modesto, California, the film was critically and commercially successful, and received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. Following the first Star Wars film, Lucas produced and co-wrote the following installments in the trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, along with Steven Spielberg, Lucas co-created and wrote the Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade. Lucas also produced and/or wrote a variety of films through Lucasfilm in the 1980s and 1990s, Lucas also returned to directing with the Star Wars prequel trilogy, consisting of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. He later collaborated on the story for the Indiana Jones sequel Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, five of Lucass seven features are among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the North American box office, adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Lucas is one of the American film industrys most financially successful filmmakers, Lucas is considered a significant figure in the New Hollywood era. Lucas was born and raised in Modesto, California, the son of Dorothy Ellinore Lucas and George Walton Lucas and he is of German, Swiss-German, English, Scottish, and distant Dutch and French descent. Growing up, Lucas had a passion for cars and motor racing, on June 12,1962, while driving his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina, another driver broadsided him, flipping over his car, nearly killing him, causing him to lose interest in racing as a career. He attended Modesto Junior College, where he studied anthropology, sociology and he also began shooting with an 8 mm camera, including filming car races. At this time, Lucas and his friend John Plummer became interested in Canyon Cinema, screenings of underground, avant-garde 16 mm filmmakers like Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage, and Bruce Conner. Lucas and Plummer also saw classic European films of the time, including Jean-Luc Godards Breathless, François Truffauts Jules et Jim, thats when George really started exploring, Plummer said. Through his interest in racing, Lucas met renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler, another race enthusiast. Wexler, later to work with Lucas on several occasions, was impressed by Lucas talent, George had a very good eye, and he thought visually, he recalled. Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, Lucas shared a room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood, and John Milius and he also became good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg
13.
American Graffiti
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Suzanne Somers and Joe Spano have cameos. Set in Modesto, California in 1962, the film is a study of the cruising and rock, the film is told in a series of vignettes, telling the story of a group of teenagers and their adventures over a single evening. The genesis of American Graffiti was in Lucas own teenage years in early 1960s Modesto. filming was initially set to take place in San Rafael, California, but the production crew was denied permission to shoot beyond a second day. American Graffiti premiered on August 2,1973 at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland and was released on August 11,1973 in the United States, the film received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Produced on a $777,000 budget, it has one of the most profitable films of all time. Since its initial release, American Graffiti has garnered an estimated return of well over $200 million in box office gross and home video sales, not including merchandising. In 1995, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, a sequel, More American Graffiti, was released in 1979. Curt and Steve are scheduled to travel the next morning to Northeastern United States to start college, despite receiving a $2,000 scholarship from the local Moose Lodge, Curt has second thoughts about leaving Modesto. Steve gives Toad his 1958 Chevrolet Impala to watch while hes away at college until he returns at Christmas, Steves girlfriend, Laurie, who is also Curts sister, arrives in her car. Steve suggests to Laurie, who is already glum about him going to college, though not openly upset, she is displeased with his proposal which affects their interactions the rest of the evening. Curt accompanies Steve, last years high school student class president, and Laurie, after leaving the hop, Curt is coerced by a group of greasers to participate in an initiation rite that involves hooking a chain to a police car and ripping out its back axle. The Pharaohs tell Curt that The Blonde is a wife or prostitute. Determined to get a message to the girl, Curt drives to the local radio station to ask DJ Wolfman Jack. Inside the radio station, Curt encounters a man who tells him that the voice of The Wolfman is pre-taped from afar. The man still accepts the message from Curt to see what he could do, as he is leaving the station, Curt sees the man talking into the microphone and hears the voice of The Wolfman, and realizes the man is the actual DJ himself. Sure enough, The Wolfman eventually reads the message on the radio for The Blonde to meet Curt or call him at a number which happens to be a telephone booth, Curt waits by the telephone booth and early the next morning, he is awakened by the phone ringing. It turns out to be The Blonde who says she knows him, Curt replies probably not, intimating that he decided to go to college and will be leaving that morning. Meanwhile The Toad, in Steves car, and John, in his yellow 1932 Deuce Coupé hot rod, Toad, who is normally socially inept with girls, successfully picks up a flirtatious, and somewhat rebellious, girl named Debbie
14.
Star Wars
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Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise, centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of characters a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The franchise began in 1977 with the release of the film Star Wars and it was followed by the successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, these three films constitute the original Star Wars trilogy. A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, which received mixed-to-negative reactions, a sequel trilogy began in 2015 with the release of Star Wars, The Force Awakens. All seven films were nominated for Academy Awards and have been successes, with a combined box office revenue of over $7.5 billion. Spin-off films include Star Wars, The Clone Wars and Rogue One, Star Wars also holds a Guinness World Records title for the Most successful film merchandising franchise. In 2015, the value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at USD $42 billion. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion and earned the rights to all subsequent Star Wars films. Walt Disney Studios owns digital distribution rights to all the Star Wars films, the events depicted in the Star Wars franchise take place in an unnamed fictional galaxy at an undetermined point in the distant past. Many species of creatures are depicted. Robotic droids are also commonplace and are built to serve their owners. Space travel is common, and many planets in the galaxy are members of a single galactic government. In the prequel trilogy, this is depicted in the form of the Galactic Republic, at the end of the trilogy and throughout the original trilogy. Preceding and during the trilogy, this government is the New Republic. One of the prominent elements of Star Wars is the Force and it is described in the first produced film as an energy field created by all living things surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the galaxy together. While the Force can be used for good, known as the side, it also has a dark side that, when pursued, imbues users with hatred, aggression. The sequel trilogy introduces the Knights of Ren, an order of practitioners of the side of the Force aligned with the First Order. The first film in the series, Star Wars, was released on May 25,1977 and this was followed by two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21,1980, and Return of the Jedi, released on May 25,1983
15.
Indiana Jones (franchise)
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The Indiana Jones franchise is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Indiana Jones, Jr. a fictional archaeologist. It began in 1981 with the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, a prequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, followed in 1984, and a sequel, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, was released in 1989. A fourth film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was released in 2008, the series was created by George Lucas, the films star Harrison Ford and are directed by Steven Spielberg. The Walt Disney Company has owned the Indiana Jones intellectual property since its acquisition of Lucasfilm, a fifth film is planned for release on July 19,2019, with both Spielberg and Ford returning. Marvel Comics began publishing The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones in 1983, numerous Indiana Jones video games have been released since 1982. The first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark is set in 1936, Indiana Jones is hired by government agents to locate the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis. The Nazis have teams searching for artifacts, including the Ark. The Nazis are being helped by Indianas nemesis René Belloq, with the help of his old flame Marion Ravenwood and Sallah, Indiana manages to recover the Ark in Egypt. The Nazis steal the Ark and capture Indiana and Marion, Belloq and the Nazis perform a ceremony to open the Ark, but when they do so, they are all killed gruesomely by the Arks wrath. Indiana and Marion, who survived by closing their eyes, manage to get the Ark to the United States, the second film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is set in 1935, a year before Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana escapes Chinese gangsters with the help of singer/actress Willie Scott, the trio crash-land in India, where they come across a village whose children have been kidnapped. A destructive cult led by Mola Ram has also taken the holy Sankara Stones, Indiana manages to overcome Mola Rams evil power, rescues the children and returns the stones to their rightful place, overcoming his own mercenary nature. Indiana and his friend Marcus Brody are assigned by American businessman Walter Donovan to find the Holy Grail and they are teamed up with Dr. Elsa Schneider, following on from where Indianas estranged father Henry left off before he disappeared. It transpires that Donovan and Elsa are in league with the Nazis, however, Indiana recovers his fathers diary filled with his research, and manages to rescue him before finding the location of the Grail. Both Donovan and Elsa fall to the temptation of the Grail, while Indiana, the fourth film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is set in 1957, nineteen years after The Last Crusade, thus acknowledging the real-life passing of years between films. Indiana is having a quiet life teaching before being thrust into a new adventure and he races against agents of the Soviet Union, led by Irina Spalko for a crystal skull. His journey takes him across Nevada, Connecticut, Peru, in 1973, George Lucas wrote The Adventures of Indiana Smith. Like Star Wars, it was an opportunity to create a version of the movie serials of the 1930s and 1940s
16.
Superman in film
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The fictional character Superman, an American comic book superhero in DC Comics publications, has appeared in movies almost since his inception. He debuted in cinemas in a series of animated shorts beginning in 1941, an independent studio, Lippert Pictures, released the first Superman feature film, Superman and the Mole Men, starring George Reeves, in 1951. Ilya and Alexander Salkind and Pierre Spengler purchased the Superman film rights in 1974, after numerous scripts, Richard Donner was hired to direct the film, filming Superman and Superman II simultaneously. Donner had already shot eighty percent of Superman II with Christopher Reeve before it was decided to finish shooting the first film, the Salkinds fired Donner after Supermans release, and commissioned Richard Lester as the director to finish Superman II. Ilya Salkind commissioned a fifth Superman script before Warner Bros. acquired the rights entirely in 1993, the studio hired Bryan Singer to take over the franchise in 2004, releasing Superman Returns in 2006, which starred newcomer Brandon Routh. Donners directors cut for Superman II was also released that year, despite positive reviews, Warner Bros. was disappointed with the financial performance of Superman Returns, and canceled Singers proposed sequel. Henry Cavill reprised the role of Superman in 2016 with Batman v Superman, Superman first appeared in cinemas in a series of 17 theatrical animated shorts from between 1941 and 1943. They were released by Paramount Pictures, of those seventeen, nine were produced by Fleischer Studios and further eight by its successor, Famous Studios. The first appearances of Superman in live-action film were in two serials for Columbia Pictures, Superman in 1948 and Atom Man vs. Superman in 1950, Superman and the Mole Men is a 1951 superhero film starring George Reeves as Superman and Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane. The film was produced by Barney Sarecky and directed by Lee Sholem with the screenplay by Richard Fielding. Shot on a low budget, it served as a run for the syndicated TV series Adventures of Superman. In 1973, producer Ilya Salkind convinced his father Alexander to buy the rights to Superman and they hired Mario Puzo to pen a two-film script, and negotiated with Steven Spielberg to direct, though Alexander Salkind rejected him as Jaws went over budget. Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman signed on to play Jor-El and Lex Luthor respectively, however, Brando was faced with an obscenity lawsuit in Italy over Last Tango in Paris, and Hamilton was unable to shoot in England as he had violated his tax payments. The Salkinds hired Richard Donner to direct the film, Donner hired Tom Mankiewicz to polish the script, giving it a serious feel with Christ-like overtones. Christopher Reeve was cast as Superman, having failed to impress the Salkinds before bulking up. Brando meanwhile, despite spending less than two weeks on the shoot, and not even reading the script until then, earned $3.7 million up front, shooting of the two films was marred by Donners bad relationship with the Salkinds, with Richard Lester acting as mediator. With the film going over-budget, the decided to temporarily cease production of II. Despite Supermans success, Donner did not return to finish Superman II, and it was completed with Lester, the Salkinds also cut Brando for financial reasons, while John Williams quit as composer due to turning his attention to other projects
17.
Universal Pictures
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Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America and is one of Hollywoods Big Six studios. Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, one story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the days takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons, for Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures, in June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. Laemmle broke with Edisons custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers, by naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as The Biograph Girl, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley. Eventually all would be out by Laemmle. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its efforts in the Hollywood area. On March 15,1915, Laemmle opened the worlds largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, studio management became the third facet of Universals operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers, Bluebird, more ambitious productions, and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, despite Laemmles role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew and he also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Character actor Lon Chaney became a card for Universal in the 1920s
18.
Jurassic Park (film)
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Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science-fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R. Molen. The first installment of the Jurassic Park franchise, it is based on the 1990 novel of the name by Michael Crichton, with a screenplay written by Crichton. Before Crichtons novel was published, four put in bids for the film rights. With the backing of Universal Studios, Spielberg acquired the rights for $1.5 million before publication in 1990, Koepp wrote the final draft, which left out much of the novels exposition and violence and made numerous changes to the characters. Filming took place in California and Hawaii between August and November 1992, and post-production rolled until May 1993, supervised by Spielberg in Poland as he filmed Schindlers List. The dinosaurs were created with groundbreaking computer-generated imagery by Industrial Light & Magic and it was well received by critics, who praised its special effects, John Williams musical score, and Spielbergs direction. The film won more than twenty awards, including three Academy Awards for its achievements in visual effects and sound design. A fifth installment is scheduled for a 2018 release, industrialist John Hammond and his bioengineering company, InGen, have created a theme park called Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar, a Costa Rican island, populated with cloned dinosaurs. After one of the dinosaur handlers is killed by a Velociraptor, Gennaro invites mathematician Ian Malcolm, while Hammond invites paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler. Upon arrival, the group is stunned to see a live Brachiosaurus, at the parks visitor center, the group learns that the cloning was accomplished by extracting dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes that had been preserved in amber. DNA from frogs was used to fill in gaps in the dinosaur genomes, to prevent breeding, all the dinosaurs were made female. Malcolm scoffs at the idea of controlled breeding, declaring it impossible. The crew witness the birth of a raptor and visit the raptor enclosure. During a luncheon, the debates the ethics of cloning. The group is joined by Hammonds grandchildren, Lex and Tim Murphy, for a tour of the park. The tour does not go as planned, with most of the failing to appear. The tour is cut short as a storm approaches Isla Nublar. Most of the park employees depart on a boat for the mainland and the return to their electric tour vehicles, except Ellie
19.
Back to the Future
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Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox as teenager Marty McFly, who is sent back in time to 1955, where he meets his future parents in high school and accidentally becomes his mothers romantic interest. Christopher Lloyd portrays the eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett Doc Brown, Marty and Doc must also find a way to return Marty to 1985. Zemeckis and Gale wrote the script after Gale mused upon whether he would have befriended his father if they had attended school together, various film studios rejected the script until the financial success of Zemeckis Romancing the Stone. Zemeckis approached Steven Spielberg, who agreed to produce the project at Amblin Entertainment, the first choice for the role of Marty McFly was Michael J. Fox. However, he was filming his television series Family Ties. Consequently, Eric Stoltz was cast in the role, during filming, Stoltz and the filmmakers decided that the role was miscast, and Fox was again approached for the part. Now with more flexibility in his schedule and the blessing of his shows producers, Fox managed to out a timetable in which he could give enough time. Back to the Future was released on July 3,1985, grossing over $381 million worldwide, ronald Reagan even quoted the film in his 1986 State of the Union Address. Teenager Marty McFly is an aspiring musician dating girlfriend Jennifer Parker in Hill Valley and his father George is bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen, while his mother Lorraine is an overweight, depressed alcoholic. While dissatisfied with Martys relationship with Jennifer, Lorraine recalls how she met George when her father hit him with a car, on October 26,1985, Marty meets his scientist friend, Dr. Emmett Brown, at a shopping mall parking lot. Doc unveils a time machine built from a modified DeLorean and powered by plutonium stolen from Libyan terrorists, Doc demonstrates the navigation system with the example date of November 5,1955, the day he conceived the machine. A moment later, the Libyans arrive and shoot him, apparently killing him, Marty escapes in the DeLorean, but inadvertently activates the time machine, and arrives in 1955 without the required plutonium needed to return. There, Marty encounters the teenage George, who is bullied by classmate Biff, after Marty saves George from an oncoming car and is knocked unconscious, he awakens to find himself tended by an infatuated Lorraine. Marty leaves and tracks down Docs younger self to help him return to 1985, with no plutonium, Doc explains that the only power source capable of generating the necessary 1.21 gigawatts of electrical power for the time machine is a bolt of lightning. Marty shows Doc a flyer from the future that recounts a lightning strike at the courthouse the coming Saturday night. Marty realizes that he has prevented his parents from meeting and Doc warns Marty that he will be erased from existence if he not find a way to introduce George to Lorraine. Doc formulates a plan to harness the power of the lightning while Marty sets about introducing his parents, when Lorraine asks Marty to the upcoming school dance, Marty plans to have George rescue Lorraine from Martys inappropriate advances
20.
Henry and June
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Henry and June, From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin is a 1986 book that is based upon material excerpted from the unpublished diaries of Anaïs Nin. This, the first of five volumes of unexpurgated diaries, concentrates on her passionate involvement with the writer Henry Miller. It is noteworthy that Nins source material —her diaries —was able to spawn two dramatically different narratives about the time period, both widely read and praised. The expurgated diary reveals Nin the philosopher and amateur but astute psychologist, the unexpurgated diary reveals a woman breaking out into wild sexual discovery. It is introduced by her second—coterminous—husband, a film based on the book was released in 1990. At the end of 1931, Nin finds herself dissatisfied with being a timid, faithful wife to her banker husband, Nin and her husband contemplate the possibility of opening their relationship, and determine that it would threaten their marriage. However when Anais meets June Miller, she is drawn to her and perceives June to be the most beautiful. Nin pursues an intense, ambiguous, sexually charged friendship with her. When June leaves, Nin becomes involved with Henry, and begins a sexual and emotional affair with him. A friendship is formed between the two that was maintained throughout both artists lives, the book was later filmed as Henry & June directed by Philip Kaufman, with Fred Ward as Miller, Uma Thurman as June, and Maria de Medeiros as Anaïs Nin. The movie, released in 1990, is notable as the first film to be released in the United States with an NC-17 rating, the same year the book was also adapted into a film as The Room of Words, a low-budget Italian production directed by Franco Molé
21.
Cape Fear (1991 film)
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Cape Fear is a 1991 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and a remake of the 1962 film of the same name. It stars Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, and Juliette Lewis, and features cameos from Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, and Martin Balsam and it was Pecks final theatrical film. The film was acclaimed and received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor. Sam Bowden is a lawyer in the vicinity of Wilmington, North Carolina, Max Cady is a former client whom Bowden defended 14 years earlier when he was working as a public defender in Atlanta. Cady was tried for the violent rape and battery of a young woman, Bowden, appalled by Cadys crime, buried evidence that might have lightened Cadys sentence or even secured his acquittal. Cady subsequently studied law in prison and assumed his own defense, after his release from prison, Cady tracks down Bowden and hints he has learned about Bowden burying the report. Several incidents involving Cady impact the Bowden family, which consists of Bowdens wife Leigh, Bowden attempts to have Cady arrested, but police lieutenant Elgart, says there is no evidence of a crime. At a bar, Cady meets Lori Davis, a colleague of Bowden with whom she might be having a love affair, at her house, Cady cuffs her hands behind her back, breaks her arm and rapes her. Lori refuses to press charges, ashamed of what happened, Bowden hires private investigator Claude Kersek to follow Cady. Cady next approaches Danielle at her school by impersonating her new drama teacher, Bowden warns him to leave his family and him alone or suffer the consequences. Cady secretly tapes the conversation with a hidden recorder, Kersek persuades Bowden to hire three men to beat Cady and intimidate him, but as Bowden watches from a hiding place, Cady turns the tide on his attackers and viciously beats them. Cady uses the recording of Bowdens threat and a display of his own injuries to file for a restraining order against Bowden. Cadys new lawyer, Lee Heller, files a complaint with the North Carolina State Bar, Kersek reasons that Cady may try to enter the Bowden house during Bowdens appearance at a bar hearing out of town. They fake Bowdens departure and hide in the house, hoping that Cady will break in so that he can be shot in self-defense, Cady kills Kersek and the housekeeper before escaping. Bowden, Leigh, and Danielle discover the bodies, horrified, they flee to their houseboat, which is docked upstate along Cape Fear. Cady follows them by tying himself to the chassis of their car and he attacks the family on the boat, beating and tying up Bowden, and prepares to rape Leigh and Danielle while making Bowden watch. Danielle sprays Cady with lighter fluid while he lights a cigar, engulfing him in flames, however, Cady clings to a rope and pulls himself back on board. As the boat is rocked by a violent thunderstorm, a badly burned Cady confronts Bowden with a mock trial, the storm knocks him off his feet, allowing Bowden to gain the upper hand once the women make it to shore
22.
Sneakers (1992 film)
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In 1969, students Martin Brice and Cosmo are sneakers who hack into computer networks using university equipment, to redistribute conservative funds to various liberal causes. The police burst in and arrest Cosmo while Martin is out getting pizza, Martin is approached by NSA officers Dick Gordon and Buddy Wallace, who know of his former identity. Martin is hesitant but agrees to help, with help from his former girlfriend, Liz, Martin and his team secure the box, which is disguised as a telephone answering machine. During their subsequent celebration party, Whistler, Mother, and Carl investigate the box, Martin works out that Setec Astronomy is an anagram of too many secrets, and issues a lockdown until they can deliver the box the next day. Martin hands the box to the NSA officers, but quickly leaves after Crease discovers that Janek was killed the night before and he contacts a friend named Gregor in the Russian consulate, who confirms that the officers were rogue agents, and that Janek was working for the NSA. Before Gregor can elaborate further, fake FBI agents kill him and kidnap Martin to a location where hes reunited with Cosmo. While in prison, Cosmo developed ties with organized crime, allowing him to escape and he explains his plan to use Janeks box to destabilize the world economy, and offers Martin the chance to join him. Martin refuses, whereupon Cosmo uses the box to break into the FBI, Cosmo has Martin knocked out and taken back to the city. Martin contacts his team and they relocate to Lizs apartment and they contact NSA agent Abbott, who wants the box but cannot offer assistance without it being in Martins possession. Whistler analyzes the sounds that Martin heard during his kidnapping, and is able to identify the area where Martin was taken. They find a toy company at that location, which is a front for Cosmos operation and they track down Werner Brandes, the employee whose office is next to Cosmos. They set Liz up with a fake computer date with Brandes to get his keycard and vocal recognition codes, the team successfully get into the building to recover the box. Brandes begins to suspect Liz during the date, and alerts Cosmo to a possible break-in, once Liz mentions the computer date in Cosmos presence, he realizes that Martin is responsible and locks down the facility and holds Martin at gunpoint. Again he tries to convince Martin to join him, but Martin refuses, the team escapes before Cosmo realizes that he is holding an empty duplicate of the boxs case. Back at their offices, Martins team is surrounded by agents led by Abbott, after Abbott and the agents leave with the box, Martin shows his team he has rendered the box useless by taking out the main processor. In early drafts, the character of Liz was a bank employee, the role was changed because Lasker and Parkes believed that it took too long for her character to develop. I cant remember having so much fun on a movie, Tobolowsky recalled in a 2012 anniversary piece for Slate and he had initially scoffed at the script based on its title alone, but his agent persuaded him to actually read it, and he reconsidered. Afterward, he told his agent, Now I know what a hundred million dollars at the box office reads like and it was one of the most spectacular casts Ive ever been lucky enough to be a part of, Tobolowsky wrote
23.
Casino (film)
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Casino is a 1995 American epic crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone. It is based on the non-fiction book Casino, Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi, the two previously collaborated on the hit film Goodfellas. In Casino, De Niro stars as Sam Ace Rothstein, a Jewish American top gambling handicapper who is called by the Italian Mob to oversee the operations at the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. His character is based on Frank Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust, Fremont, Pesci plays Nicholas Nicky Santoro, based on real-life Mob enforcer Anthony Spilotro, a made man. Nicky is sent to Vegas to make sure that money from the Tangiers is skimmed off the top, Sharon Stone plays Ginger McKenna, Aces scheming, self-absorbed wife, based on Geri McGee. Casino was released on November 22,1995, to a positive critical response and was a box office success. Stones performance was praised, earning her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. Impressed with his work, mafia boss Remo Gaggi sends Sams childhood friend and mob enforcer Nicholas Nicky Santoro and his associate Frank Frankie Marino to protect Sam and the whole operation. Nickys volatile temper soon gets him banned from every casino in Las Vegas, so he gathers his own crew and engages in independent shakedowns, Sam meets and falls in love with a hustler and former prostitute, Ginger McKenna. Meanwhile, Sam makes an enemy in county commissioner Pat Webb for firing his brother-in-law Don Ward for incompetence. When Sam refuses to him, Webb pulls Sams license from the backlog. Sam blames the incident on Nickys recklessness and the two argue furiously in the desert after Sam attempts to tell Nicky to leave Las Vegas. The casino counters begin stealing some money for themselves, prompting the Midwest mafia bosses to put Artie Piscano of the Kansas City mafia in charge of overseeing the transactions, piscanos detailed complaints - complete with names - spurs the FBI to begin investigating the casino. Meanwhile, Sam finally seeks divorce from Ginger, tired of her alcoholism and she then kidnaps their daughter, Amy, taking her to Los Angeles, and plans to flee to Europe with Lester. Sam convinces her to back with Amy, and then scolds her for stealing his money. After he overhears Ginger talking on the phone about killing him, he kicks her out of the house, Ginger then approaches Nicky for help in getting her valuables from their shared vault in the bank, and the two start an affair. Sam discovers this after finding Amy tied to her bed by Ginger, Sam disowns Ginger, and so does Nicky. A furious and drunk Ginger crashes her car into Sams driveway, making a scene, though she succeeds in taking her share of the money from the bank, she is arrested by the FBI for aiding and abetting Sam
24.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
25.
Schindler's List
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Schindlers List is a 1993 American epic historical period drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg and scripted by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the novel Schindlers Ark by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally and it stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindlers Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern. Ideas for a film about the Schindlerjuden were proposed as early as 1963, poldek Pfefferberg, one of the Schindlerjuden, made it his lifes mission to tell the story of Schindler. Spielberg became interested in the story when executive Sidney Sheinberg sent him a review of Schindlers Ark. Principal photography took place in Kraków, Poland, over the course of 72 days in 1993, Spielberg shot the film in black and white and approached it as a documentary. Cinematographer Janusz Kamiński wanted to give the film a sense of timelessness, John Williams composed the score, and violinist Itzhak Perlman performs the films main theme. Schindlers List premiered on November 30,1993, in Washington, D. C. and it was released on December 15,1993, in the United States. Often listed among the greatest films made, it was also a box office success. It was the recipient of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, in 2007, the American Film Institute ranked the film 8th on its list of the 100 best American films of all time. The Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2004, in Kraków during World War II, the Germans had forced local Polish Jews into the overcrowded Kraków Ghetto. Oskar Schindler, an ethnic German, arrives in the city hoping to make his fortune, a member of the Nazi Party, Schindler lavishes bribes on Wehrmacht and SS officials and acquires a factory to produce enamelware. To help him run the business, Schindler enlists the aid of Itzhak Stern, a local Jewish official who has contacts with black marketeers, Stern helps Schindler arrange financing for the factory. Schindler maintains friendly relations with the Nazis and enjoys wealth and status as Herr Direktor, sS-Untersturmführer Amon Göth arrives in Kraków to oversee construction of Płaszów concentration camp. When the camp is completed, he orders the ghetto liquidated, many people are shot and killed in the process of emptying the ghetto. Schindler witnesses the massacre and is profoundly affected, Schindler is careful to maintain his friendship with Göth and, through bribery and lavish gifts, continues to enjoy SS support. Göth brutally mistreats his Jewish maid Helen Hirsch and randomly shoots people from the balcony of his villa, as time passes, Schindlers focus shifts from making money to trying to save as many lives as possible. To better protect his workers, Schindler bribes Göth into allowing him to build a sub-camp, as the Germans begin to lose the war, Göth is ordered to ship the remaining Jews at Płaszów to Auschwitz concentration camp. Schindler asks Göth to allow him to move his workers to a new munitions factory he plans to build in his town of Zwittau-Brinnlitz
26.
Field of Dreams
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Field of Dreams is a 1989 American fantasy-drama sports film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, who also wrote the screenplay, adapting W. P. Kinsellas novel Shoeless Joe. It stars Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta and it was nominated for three Academy Awards, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. Ray Kinsella is a novice Iowa farmer who lives with his wife, Annie, in the opening narration, he explains how he had a troubled relationship with his father, John Kinsella, who had been a devoted baseball fan. While walking through his cornfield one evening, he hears a voice whispering, If you build it and he continues hearing this before finally seeing a vision of a baseball diamond in his field. Annie is skeptical, but she allows him to plow the corn under in order to build a baseball field, as he builds, he tells Karin the story of the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Months pass and nothing happens, his family faces financial ruin until, one night, Ray recognizes him as Shoeless Joe Jackson, a deceased baseball player idolized by John. Thrilled to be able to play again, he asks to bring others to the field to play. He later returns with the seven players banned as a result of the 1919 scandal. Rays brother-in-law, Mark, cant see the players and warns him that he will go bankrupt unless he replants his corn, while in the field, Ray hears the voice again, this time urging him to ease his pain. Ray attends a PTA meeting at which the possible banning of books by radical author Terence Mann is discussed and he decides the voice was referring to Mann. He comes across a magazine dealing with Manns childhood dream of playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. After Ray and Annie both dream about him and Mann attending a game together at Fenway Park, he convinces her that he should seek out Mann. He heads to Boston and persuades a reluctant, embittered Mann to attend a game with him at Fenway Park, while there, he hears the voice again, this time urging him to go the distance. At the same time, the scoreboard shows statistics for a player named Archibald Moonlight Graham, who played one game for the New York Giants in 1905, after the game, Mann eventually admits that he, too, saw it. Ray and Mann then travel to Chisholm, Minnesota where they learn that Graham had become a doctor and had died sixteen years earlier. During a late night walk, Ray finds himself back in 1972 and encounters the then-living Graham and he also says that the greater disappointment would have been not having a medical career. He declines Rays invitation to fulfill his dream, however, during the back home. While Archie sleeps, Ray reveals to Mann that John had wanted him to live out his dream of being a baseball star and he stopped playing catch with him after reading one of Manns books at 14
27.
Born on the Fourth of July (film)
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Born on the Fourth of July is a 1989 American war drama film adaptation of the best-selling autobiography of the same name by Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic. Tom Cruise plays Ron Kovic, in a performance that earned him his first Academy Award nomination, Oliver Stone co-wrote the screenplay with Kovic, and also produced and directed the film. Stone wanted to film the movie in Vietnam, but because relations between the United States and Vietnam had not yet been normalized, it was filmed in the Philippines. The film is considered part of Stones trilogy of films about the Vietnam War—following Platoon and preceding Heaven & Earth. Born on the Fourth of July was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two, for Best Director and Best Film Editing, it won four Golden Globe Awards. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $161,001,698 worldwide, in the summer of 1956 in Massapequa, Long Island, New York, 10-year-old Ron Kovic plays soldier in the woods and attends a Fourth of July parade. After watching President John F. Kennedys inaugural address, it inspires him to enlist in the Marines, later, Kovic attends an impassioned lecture about the Marine Corps. He decides to enlist and misses his prom because he is unable to secure a date with his love interest and he confronts her at the prom and has a dance with her on his last night before leaving. Now a Marine sergeant and on patrol during his second Vietnam tour in October 1967, Kovics unit kills a number of Vietnamese civilians in a village, during the retreat, Kovic accidentally kills one of the new arrivals to his platoon, a younger private first class named Wilson. During a firefight in January 1968, Kovic is critically wounded, Kovic desperately tries to walk again with the use of crutches and braces, despite repeated warnings from his doctors. In 1969, Kovic returns home, permanently in a wheelchair, though he tries to maintain his dignity as a United States Marine, Kovic gradually becomes disillusioned, despite being paralyzed, and resorts to alcohol. In Kovics absence, his younger brother Tommy has already become staunchly anti-war, during an Independence Day parade, Kovic shows signs of post-traumatic stress when firecrackers explode. When he is asked to give a speech, a baby in the crowd starts crying. Later, Kovic goes to visit Donna at her college in Syracuse, New York and he and Donna are separated when she and her fellow students are taken away by the police at her college for demonstrating against the Vietnam War. Ron goes to a bar, almost gets into a fight with a fellow Marine, after Ron has a heated argument with his mother, his father decides to send him to Mexico. He arrives in The Village of the Sun, which seems to be a haven for paralyzed Vietnam veterans and he has his first sexual experience with a prostitute, whom he believes he loves, until he sees her with another customer. He hooks up with another veteran, Charlie, and the two travel to what they believe will be a friendlier village. After annoying their taxicab driver, they end up stranded on the side of the road and they are picked up by a man with a truck and driven back to the Village of the Sun
28.
Scent of a Woman (1992 film)
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The film stars Al Pacino and Chris ODonnell, with James Rebhorn, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Gabrielle Anwar. Pacino won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, the film won three major awards at the Golden Globe Awards, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Motion Picture – Drama. Charlie Simms is a student at an exclusive New England prep school, unlike most of his peers, Charlie was not born to a wealthy family. Charlie and George Willis, Jr. another student at the preparatory school, following the prank, Trask presses Charlie and George to divulge the names of the perpetrators. Trask offers Charlie a bribe, a letter of recommendation that would guarantee his acceptance to Harvard. Charlie continues to remain silent but appears conflicted, shortly after Charlie arrives, Slade unexpectedly whisks Charlie off on a trip to New York City. Slade reserves a room at the Waldorf-Astoria, during dinner at the Oak Room, Slade glibly states the goals of the trip, which involve enjoying luxurious accommodations in New York before committing suicide. Charlie is taken aback and does not know if Slade is serious and they pay an uninvited surprise visit to Slades brothers home in White Plains for Thanksgiving dinner. Slade is an unpleasant surprise for the family, as he deliberately provokes everyone, during this time, the cause of Slades blindness is also revealed as a drunken trainee mishap with a grenade. As they return to New York, Charlie tells Slade about his complications at school, Slade advises Charlie to inform on his classmates and go to Harvard, warning him that George will probably be pressured into not maintaining his silence. Later at a restaurant, Slade is aware of Donna, a woman waiting for her date. Although blind, Slade leads Donna in a spectacular tango on the dance floor and that night, he hires a female escort. Deeply despondent the next morning, Slade responds to Charlies suggestion that they test drive a Ferrari Mondial t, Charlie lets Slade drive the car and Slade begins speeding, attracting the attention of a police officer, whom Slade manages to appease without giving away his blindness. When they return to the hotel, Slade sends Charlie out on a list of errands, Charlie initially leaves the room but quickly becomes suspicious. Charlie intervenes and attempts to grab Slades gun, Slade, however, easily overpowers him, threatening to shoot Charlie before himself. They enter an argument, with both grappling for the gun, however, after Charlie bravely calms Slade, Slade backs down. The two return to New England, at school, Charlie and George are subjected to a formal inquiry in front of the entire student body and the student/faculty disciplinary committee. As headmaster Trask is opening the proceedings, Slade unexpectedly returns to the school, for his defense, George has enlisted the help of his wealthy father, using his poor vision as an excuse before being pressured by his father into naming all three of the perpetrators
29.
In the Name of the Father (film)
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In the Name of the Father is a 1993 Irish-British-American biographical courtroom drama film co-written and directed by Jim Sheridan. It is based on the life story of the Guildford Four, four people falsely convicted of the 1974 IRAs Guildford pub bombings, which killed four off-duty British soldiers. The screenplay was adapted by Terry George and Jim Sheridan from the autobiography Proved Innocent, Gerry Conlon is shown in Belfast stripping lead from roofs of houses when security forces home in on the district with armoured cars, and a riot breaks out. Gerrys father, Giuseppe Conlon, later saves him from IRA punishment, instead, he finds a squat, to explore, as he puts it, free love and dope. When Gerrys father travels from Belfast to England to help his son, in the subsequent trial, his aunts family are convicted of supporting the bombing on the basis of nitroglycerin traces, and the four, including Gerry, are sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. Gerrys time in shows an progression from a bitter son who rails at his father to an awakening when he discovers the real perpetrator of the bombing in the same facility. When this man leads a prison protest and then sets a hated prison guard on fire, Gerry takes over the fight for justice himself when his father dies in custody. His case becomes public, gaining support from Dublin, Belfast, a common slogan used by his supporters is Free The Four. Gareth Peirce, a lawyer who has been investigating the case on behalf of Giuseppe, has a breakthrough when she tries to access Giuseppes file and is able to look instead at Gerrys. She finds vital police documents in the file that are marked Not to be shown to the Defence and this leads to the overturning of the verdict and immediate release of the Guildford Four. The film ends with a triumphant Gerry revealing his story to the media, to prepare for the role of Gerry Conlon, Day-Lewis lost over 50 pounds in weight. To gain an insight into Conlons thoughts and feelings at the time and he would also insist that crew members throw cold water at him and verbally abuse him. He also kept his Northern Irish accent on and off set, Day-Lewis has stated in an interview that he went through all this as How could I understand how an innocent man could sign that confession and destroy his own life. The film received positive reviews from most critics. Upon its release the film proved controversial for some historical inaccuracies and for fictionalising parts of the story and Jim Sheridan was forced to defend his choices. In 2003, Sheridan stated, I was accused of lying in In the Name of the Father, in the film we see Gerry and his father Giuseppe sharing the same cell, but this never took place and they were usually kept in separate prisons. It also includes Voodoo Child performed by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, however, the Bob Dylan Song Like a Rolling Stone was not included on the album due to licensing restrictions
30.
Apollo 13 (film)
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Apollo 13 is a 1995 American docudrama space adventure film directed by Ron Howard. It stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, the film depicts astronauts Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise aboard Apollo 13 for Americas third Moon landing mission. Released to cinemas in the United States on June 30,1995, Apollo 13 was nominated for nine Academy Awards, in total, the film grossed over $355 million worldwide during its theatrical releases. The film was positively received by critics. Astronaut Jim Lovell hosts a party where guests watch Neil Armstrongs televised first human steps on the Moon. Afterwards Lovell, who had orbited the Moon on Apollo 8, three months later, as Lovell conducts a VIP tour of NASAs Vertical Assembly Building, his boss Deke Slayton informs him that his crew will fly Apollo 13 instead of 14. Lovell, Ken Mattingly, and Fred Haise train for their new mission, a few days before launch, Mattingly is exposed to the measles, and the flight surgeon demands his replacement with Mattinglys backup, Jack Swigert. Lovell resists breaking up his team, but relents when Slayton threatens to bump his crew to a later mission, as the launch date approaches, Marilyn has a nightmare about her husbands safety, but goes to the Kennedy Space Center the night before launch to see him off. On April 11,1970, Flight Director Gene Kranz gives the go-ahead from Houstons Mission Control Center for the Apollo 13 launch, as the Saturn V rocket climbs through the atmosphere, a second stage engine cuts off prematurely, but the craft reaches its Earth parking orbit. Three days into the mission, the crew makes a television transmission, after Swigert turns on the liquid oxygen tank stirring fans as requested, one of the tanks explodes, emptying its contents into space and sending the craft tumbling. The other tank is found to be leaking. In Houston, Kranz rallies his team to come up with a plan to bring the astronauts home safely, controller John Aaron recruits Mattingly to help him invent a procedure to restart Odyssey for the landing on Earth. As Swigert and Haise watch the Moon pass beneath them, Lovell laments his lost chance of walking on its surface, with Aquarius running on minimal electrical power, the crew suffers freezing conditions, and Haise contracts a urinary infection and a fever. Swigert suspects Mission Control is withholding their inability to get home, Haise angrily blames Swigerts inexperience for the accident. When carbon dioxide approaches dangerous levels, ground control must quickly invent a way to make the Command Modules square filters work in the Lunar Modules round receptacles. With the guidance systems on Aquarius shut down, the crew must make a difficult, when the crew jettisons the Service Module, they are surprised to see the extent of the damage. As they release Aquarius and re-enter the Earths atmosphere, no one is sure that Odysseys heat shield is intact, the tense period of radio silence due to ionization blackout is longer than normal, but the astronauts report all is well and splash down in the Pacific Ocean. He wonders if and when mankind will return to the Moon, however, by the time Howard acquired the directors position, Costners name never came up in serious discussion, and Hanks had already been interested in doing a film based on Apollo 13
31.
Babe (film)
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Babe is a 1995 Australian-American comedy-drama film directed by Chris Noonan, produced by George Miller, and written by both. It is an adaptation of Dick King-Smiths 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, also known as Babe, The Gallant Pig in the US, the main animal characters are played by a combination of real and animatronic pigs and Border Collies. After seven years of development, Babe was filmed in Robertson, New South Wales, the talking-animal visual effects were done by Rhythm & Hues Studios and Jim Hensons Creature Shop. The film was a box office success and grossed $36,776,544 at the box office in Australia and it has received considerable acclaim from critics, it was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, winning Best Visual Effects. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, in 1998, Miller directed a sequel, Babe, Pig in the City. Babe, a piglet, is chosen for a guess the weight contest at a county fair. The winning farmer, Arthur Hoggett, brings him home and allows him to stay with a Border Collie named Fly, her mate Rex and their puppies, in the barn. A duck named Ferdinand, who poses as a rooster to spare himself from being eaten, despite succeeding in this, they wake Duchess, the Hoggetts cat, and in the confusion accidentally destroy the living room. Rex sternly instructs Babe to stay away from Ferdinand and the house, sometime later, when Flys puppies are put up for sale, Babe asks if he can call her Mom. Christmas brings a visit from the Hoggetts relatives, Babe is almost chosen for Christmas dinner but a duck is picked instead after Hoggett remarks to his wife Esme that Babe may bring a prize for ham at the next county fair. On Christmas Day, Babe justifies his existence by alerting Hoggett to sheep rustlers stealing sheep from one of the fields, the next day, Hoggett sees Babe sort the hens, separating the brown from the white ones. Impressed, he takes him to the fields and allows him to try, encouraged by an elder ewe named Maa, the sheep cooperate, but Rex sees Babes actions as an insult to sheepdogs and confronts Fly in a vicious fight for encouraging Babe. He injures her leg and accidentally bites Hoggetts hand when he tries to intervene, Rex is then chained to the dog house, muzzled and sedated, leaving the sheep herding job to Babe. One morning, Babe is awakened by the cries and sees three dogs attacking them. Though he manages to scare them off, Maa is mortally injured, Hoggett arrives and, thinking that Babe killed her, prepares to shoot him. Fly is so anxious to find out whether he is guilty or innocent that, instead of barking orders at the sheep, when Esme leaves on a trip, Hoggett signs Babe up for a local sheepherding competition. As it is raining the night before, Hoggett lets him, however, Duchess scratches him when he tries to speak to her, so Hoggett immediately confines her outside. When she is let back in later, she gets revenge on Babe by revealing that humans eat pigs, horrified, he runs out to the barn and learns from Fly that this is true
32.
Ron Howard
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Ronald William Ron Howard is an American actor and filmmaker. Howard is best known for playing two roles in television sitcoms in his youth and directing a number of successful feature films later in his career. Howard first came to prominence playing young Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, in 1980, Howard left Happy Days to focus on directing. His films include, the science-fiction/fantasy film Cocoon, the historical docudrama Apollo 13, the biographical drama A Beautiful Mind, in 2002, Howard narrated the Fox comedy series, Arrested Development, on which he would also serve as producer and play a semi-fictionalized version of himself. In 2003, Howard was awarded the National Medal of Arts, asteroid 12561 Howard is named after him. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013, Howard has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions in the television and motion pictures industries. Howard was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, the son of Jean Speegle Howard, an actress, and Rance Howard, a director, a writer. He has German, English, Scottish, Irish, and Dutch ancestry and his father was born with the surname Beckenholdt, and had taken the stage name Howard by 1948, for his acting career. Rance Howard was serving three years in the United States Air Force at the time of Rons birth, the family moved to Hollywood in 1958, the year before the birth of his younger brother, Clint Howard. They rented a house on the south of the Desilu Studios. They lived in Hollywood for at least three years, before moving to Burbank, Howard was tutored at Desilu Studios in his younger years, and graduated from John Burroughs High School. He later attended the University of Southern Californias School of Cinematic Arts, Howard has said he knew from a young age he might want to go into directing thanks to his early experience as an actor. In 1959, Howard had his first credited role, in The Journey. Howard played Timmy in Counterfeit Gun, Season 4, Episode 2 of the TV series, in 1960, Howard was cast as Opie Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show. Credited as Ronny Howard, he portrayed the son of the character for all eight seasons of the show. He and Griffith remained close until Griffiths death nearly 45 years later, in the 1962 film version of The Music Man, Howard played Winthrop Paroo, the child with the lisp, the film starred Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. He also starred in the 1963 film The Courtship of Eddies Father and he appeared as Barry Stewart on The Eleventh Hour, in the episode Is Mr. Martian Coming Back. In the 1970s, he appeared in at least one episode of The Bold Ones, Howard appeared on the 1969 Disneyland Records album The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion
33.
Brian Grazer
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Brian Thomas Grazer is an American film and television producer. He co-founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986, with Ron Howard, the films they produced have grossed over $13 billion. The movies include four for which Grazer was personally nominated for an Academy Award, Splash, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind and his films and TV series have been nominated for 43 Academy Awards, and 131 Emmys. In 2002, Grazer won an Oscar for Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind, in 2007, he was named one of Times 100 Most Influential People in the World. Grazer was born in Los Angeles, California, to Arlene Becker Grazer and he is the older brother of Nora Beth Grazer and actor/director Gavin Grazer. He was raised in Sherman Oaks and Northridge, in Los Angeless San Fernando Valley, Grazers mother is Jewish and his father was Catholic, and he described himself in 2000 as half-Jewish. Subsequently, third-party reports conflicted as to whether he was Jewish or a practicing Christian and his parents divorced when he was in high school. Grazer said My best buddy, the most important person in my growing up, was my little 4-foot-10 Jewish grandmother, no ones going to get it for you, Brian. Grazer won a scholarship to the University of Southern California as a psychology major and he graduated from USCs School of Cinema-Television in 1974. He then attended USC Law School for one year, but quit in 1975 to pursue a life in Hollywood, Grazer began his career as a producer developing television projects. While executive-producing TV pilots at Paramount Pictures in the early 1980s, he met current long-time friend and he produced his first feature-film, Night Shift, in 1982, directed by Howard. Grazer and Howard teamed up again for Splash in 1984, which Grazer produced, Splash earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay of 1984. In 1986, Grazer and Howard co-founded Imagine Entertainment, which one of Hollywoods most prolific. Over the years, Grazers films and TV shows have been nominated for a total of 43 Academy Awards, at the same time, his movies have generated more than $13.5 billion in worldwide theatrical, music, and video grosses. Grazers early film successes include Parenthood and Backdraft and he produced Apollo 13, for which he won the Producers Guild of America’s Daryl F. Zanuck Motion Picture Producer of the Year Award, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Picture of 1995. In 1998, he earned two honors, he was given his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2001, Grazer won an Academy Award for Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind, which took home Oscars for Best Supporting Actress, Best Director. In 2002, Grazers 8 Mile was released and it proved not only to be a huge box office hit, but also the first film with a rap song to win a Best Original Song Oscar, for Eminems Lose Yourself
34.
Imagine Entertainment
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Imagine Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded in 1986 by director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard met in 1982 on Night Shift with Howard directing, then followed it up with working on 1984s Splash. Early on the company sealed a production and distribution deal with Universal Pictures expiring in November 1992, universals deal was to fund 50% of 30 films. The company had an IPO in 1986 at $8 for a package of one share, shares rose to $19.25 before falling in the stock market crash in 1987 to $2.25. A pay television broadcast agreement was made with Showtime, by May 1992, 48% of the stock was public traded and worth $9.375. The duo agreed to a new six deal with Universal while concurrently offering $9 a share to buy the companys public outstanding share to start a new company with its assets. If not they planned to leave the company at their contract expiration in November to start the new company anyway, Universal was providing the cash for the buy out for an equity stake in the new company. In 2000, the partnership partnered for TV series development with 20th Century Fox, in 2011, the company had three weak box office performers with The Dilemma, Cowboys & Aliens and Tower Heist. Because of their weak financial pact renewal with Universal in January 2012 and this also moves Imagine from exclusive to a first look deal. By 2013, Imagine was considering other funding methods for the films including crowdfunding for a Friday Night Lights movie. In November 2013, Michael Rosenberg was promoted to Co-chairman followed in December 2013 with Erica Huggins being promoted to his previous position of president. Industry insiders indicated in late January 2016 that a deal with Raine Group was in the works that would have Raine become a partner of the company while contributing $100 million. The feature-film division has participated in over sixty productions and is associated with Universal Pictures, Erica Huggins was hired as senior vice president of motion pictures and was elevated to exec vice president in 2006 then in 2010 to co-president of production. 2010 Robin Hood 2011 Take Me Home Tonight The Dilemma Cowboys & Aliens Restless Tower Heist J
35.
Ivan Reitman
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Ivan Reitman, OC is a Slovak-Canadian film producer and director, best known for his comedy work, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. He is the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 2000, Reitman was born in Komárno, Czechoslovakia, the son of Klara and Ladislav Leslie Reitman. Reitmans parents were Jewish, his mother survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and his family came to Canada as refugees in 1950. Reitman attended Oakwood Collegiate in Toronto and was a member of the Twintone Four singing group, Reitman attended McMaster University, receiving a Bachelor of Music in 1969. At McMaster he produced and directed short films. Reitmans first producing job was with the then-new station CITY-TV in Toronto, CITY was also the home of the first announcing job of his later friend and collaborator Dan Aykroyd. However, Reitmans tenure at CITY was short and he was fired during his first year by station owner Moses Znaimer, in Toronto, he produced the stage production Spellbound which evolved into Broadway production The Magic Show. Reitmans first commercial film ventures were as producer of two films for director David Cronenberg, Shivers and Rabid and his big break came when he produced National Lampoons Animal House in 1978 and directed Meatballs in 1979. In the early 1990s, Reitman began to direct fewer films, Reitman is a founder of the McMaster Film Board at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. In 2007, Reitman was inducted into Canadas Walk of Fame, Reitman founded The Montecito Picture Company, a film production company located just south of Santa Barbara, founded in 2000. He next produced the comedy I Love You, Man, starring Paul Rudd, also in 2009, he produced the Academy Award-nominated film, Up in the Air, directed by his son Jason Reitman. Later, Reitman had planned to direct the erotic thriller Chloe, Chloe has since enjoyed commercial success and became Egoyans biggest moneymaker ever. Reitman co-produced the biographical film Hitchcock, released on November 23,2012, Reitman also directed the 2014 sports drama Draft Day, starring Kevin Costner. In the early 1980s, Tom Mankiewicz wrote a script for a film entitled The Batman and he planned to cast Meatballs star Bill Murray as Batman, David Niven as Alfred Pennyworth, William Holden as Commissioner James Gordon, and singer David Bowie as The Joker. However, due to Holdens and Nivens death and the rewrites of the script, Reitman left the project and Gremlins director Joe Dante entered in the project, in April 1996, it was reported that Reitman was attached to produce, and possibly direct, a Wonder Woman film. However, three years later, he passed the project on to writer Jon Cohen and left for unknown reasons, in March 2012, it was reported that a sequel of Twins, entitled Triplets, was in the works, and that Reitman will co-produce the film. A release date wasnt given since the announcement, in 2013, it was revealed that Reitman had plans to make a sequel to Evolution, but plans for a sequel never materialized. In May 2016, Reitman revealed that he was in talks with Warner Bros. chairman Bob Daly about his involvement in Space Jam 2
36.
Martin Scorsese
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Martin Charles Scorsese is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and film historian, whose career spans more than 50 years. Scorseses body of work addresses such themes as Sicilian-American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, faith, machismo, modern crime, many of his films are also known for their depiction of violence and liberal use of profanity. Part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking, he is regarded as one of the most significant. In 1990, he founded The Film Foundation, an organization dedicated to film preservation. Their third film together, The Departed, won Scorsese the Academy Award for Best Director in addition to the winning the award for Best Picture. Their collaborations have resulted in numerous Academy Award nominations for both as well as winning several other prestigious awards. His work in television includes the episode of the HBO series Boardwalk Empire and Vinyl. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the crime drama The Departed, with eight Best Director nominations, he is the most nominated living director and is tied with Billy Wilder for the second most nominations overall. Scorsese was born in Queens, New York and his family moved to Little Italy, Manhattan before he started school. His father, Charles Scorsese, and mother, Catherine Scorsese and his father was a clothes presser and an actor, and his mother was a seamstress and an actress. His fathers parents emigrated from Polizzi Generosa, in the province of Palermo, Sicily, Scorsese was raised in a devoutly Catholic environment. As a teenager in the Bronx, Scorsese frequently rented Powell, Scorsese was one of only two people who regularly rented that reel. The other was future Night Of The Living Dead director George A. Romero, Scorsese has cited Sabu and Victor Mature as his favorite actors during his youth. He has also spoken of the influence of the 1947 Powell and Pressburger film Black Narcissus, whose innovative techniques later impacted his filmmaking. Enamored of historical epics in his adolescence, at least two films of the genre, Land of the Pharaohs and El Cid, appear to have had a deep, Scorsese also developed an admiration for neorealist cinema at this time. He acknowledges owing a debt to the French New Wave and has stated that the French New Wave has influenced all filmmakers who have worked since. He has also cited filmmakers including Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni and he went on to earn his M. F. A. from NYUs School of the Arts in 1966, a year after the school was founded. Scorsese attended New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts making the short films Whats a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This. and Its Not Just You, Murray
37.
Spike Lee
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Shelton Jackson Spike Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company,40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983, Lee has acted in ten of his own films. Lees movies have examined race relations, colorism in the community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty. Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Jacqueline Carroll, a teacher of arts and black literature, and William James Edward Lee III, a jazz musician and composer. Lee also had three younger siblings Joie, David, and Cinqué, who all worked in different positions in Lees films. Director Malcolm D. Lee is his cousin, when he was a child, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York. His mother nicknamed him Spike during his childhood and he attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyns Gravesend neighborhood. Lee enrolled in Morehouse College, a black college, where he made his first student film. He took film courses at Clark Atlanta University and graduated with a B. A. in mass communication from Morehouse and he did graduate work at New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in film & television. In 1991, Lee taught a course at Harvard about filmmaking and it was there that he received his Master of Fine Arts and was appointed Artistic Director in 2002. Lees independent film, Joes Bed-Stuy Barbershop, We Cut Heads, was the first student film to be showcased in Lincoln Centers New Directors/New Films Festival, in 1985, Lee began work on his first feature film, Shes Gotta Have It. With a budget of $175,000, he shot the film in two weeks, when the film was released in 1986, it grossed over $7,000,000 at the U. S. box office. Lees 1989 film Do the Right Thing was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989, many people, including Hollywoods Kim Basinger, believed that Do the Right Thing also deserved a Best Picture nomination. Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture that year, after the 1990 release of Mo Better Blues, Lee was accused of antisemitism by the Anti-Defamation League and several film critics. They criticized the characters of the club owners Josh and Moe Flatbush, Lee denied the charge, explaining that he wrote those characters in order to depict how black artists struggled against exploitation. Lee said that Lew Wasserman, Sidney Sheinberg or Tom Pollock and he said he could not make an antisemitic film because Jews run Hollywood, and thats a fact. His 1997 documentary 4 Little Girls, about the killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. On May 2,2007, the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival honored Spike Lee with the San Francisco Film Societys Directing Award and he received the 2008 Wexner Prize
38.
George Miller (director)
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George Miller AO is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is best known for his Mad Max franchise, with The Road Warrior, aside from the Mad Max films, Miller has been involved in a wide range of projects. These include the Academy Award-winning Babe and Happy Feet film series, Miller is co-founder of the production houses Kennedy Miller Mitchell, formerly known as Kennedy Miller, and Dr. D Studios. His younger brother Bill Miller and Doug Mitchell have been producers on almost all the films in Millers later career, in 2006, Miller won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Happy Feet. Miller was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to Greek immigrant parents, Dimitri Castrisios Miller, the couple married and settled in Chinchilla and had four sons, fraternal twins George and John, Chris, and Bill. George attended Ipswich Grammar School and later Sydney Boys High School, while in his final year at medical school, George and his younger brother Chris made a one-minute short film that won them first prize in a student competition. In 1972, Miller completed his residency at Sydneys St Vincents Hospital and that same year, Miller and Kennedy founded Kennedy Miller Productions. The pair subsequently collaborated on numerous works, after Kennedy died in 1983, Miller kept his name in the company. It was later renamed Kennedy Miller Mitchell in 2009 as a way to recognize producer Doug Mitchells role in the company, in 1979, Miller made his feature-length directorial debut with Mad Max. Based on a written by Miller and James McCausland in 1975. During the time between the second and third Mad Max films, Miller directed a remake of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet as a segment for the anthology film Twilight Zone and he also co-produced and co-directed many acclaimed miniseries for Australian television including The Dismissal and The Cowra Breakout. In 1987, Miller directed The Witches of Eastwick, starring Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Cher, the film, a black comedy, was centred around three women whose magical power is released after they meet a millionaire bachelor in a puritanical and wealthy New England town. The Witches of Eastwick proved to be an experience for Miller. I quit the film twice and Jack held me in there and he said just sit down, lose your emotion, and have a look at the work. If you think the work is good, stick with the film, I learnt more from him than anybody else I think I’d worked for – he was extraordinary. Following The Witches of Eastwick, Miller focused primarily on producing Australian projects and his role as producer of Flirting, Dead Calm and the TV miniseries Bangkok Hilton and Vietnam, all starring Nicole Kidman, was instrumental in the development of her career. Miller returned to directing with the release of Lorenzos Oil, which he co-wrote with Nick Enright, in 1993, Miller was hired to direct Contact based on the story by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. After working on the film for over a year, Warner Bros. and Miller mutually agreed to part ways, Miller also co-wrote the comedy-drama Babe and wrote and directed its sequel Babe, Pig in the City
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Jon Avnet
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Jonathan Michael Avnet, better known as Jon Avnet, is an American director, writer and producer. Avnet was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, the son of Joan Bertha and Lester Francis Avnet and he attended Great Neck North High School in Great Neck, New York. Avnet directed his first movie, Fried Green Tomatoes, in 1991, followed by The War in 1994, with Elijah Wood in the lead and he directed Up Close & Personal in 1996, which was loosely based on the life of Jessica Savitch. It was written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne and starred Robert Redford, Avnet addressed political issues with his fourth film Red Corner in 1997, a movie about the Chinese legal system, starring Richard Gere and Bai Ling. Because of Geres presence and support for Tibet and the Dalai Lama, they could not film in China, Avnet, however, did film a few scenes in Beijing and also put in some footage of actual Chinese executions. Avnet was also the producer of the 2010 movie Black Swan. Avnet has been married to the artist Barbara Brody since 1975
40.
Rob Cohen
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Rob Cohen is an American director of film and television, producer and screenwriter. He is the creator of The Fast and the Furious film franchise, Cohen was born in Cornwall, New York. He attended Harvard University and graduated cum laude in the class of ’71. His first endeavor in filmmaking was a recruiting film for Harvards Admissions Office in 1970. Upon graduation, Cohen immediately headed to Los Angeles to work as a screenwriter for Martin Jurow, after a six-month stint as a kennel boy at the Harvey Animal Hospital in West Hollywood to make ends meet, Cohen landed a job as a reader for then-agent Mike Medavoy. Six weeks into his tenure at International Famous Agency, he distinguished himself by discovering an unheralded script he found in a pile of neglected screenplays. Recognizing its quality, commerciality and uniqueness, Cohen wrote in his coverage that it was the great American screenplay and this will make an award-winning, major-cast, major-director film. He championed the piece relentlessly, with his own job at stake, as Medavoy said that he would try to sell it on that recommendation, universal bought it that afternoon for a record price, and it became the Academy Award winning movie The Sting. Cohen still keeps the coverage framed on the wall of his office, as this gave him his first identity in Hollywood, with a career in film and television spanning more than 40 years, Cohen has distinguished himself as a celebrated screenwriter, producer and director. In 1973, 20th Century Fox Television hired Cohen as ‘Head of Current Programming’ helping out with, among other shows, eager to push Fox into ‘long form’, Cohen cold called the head of ABC and introduced himself as ‘the head of television movies at Fox’. Barry Diller gave him a meeting where he sold two TV films on the spot, properties he had found in the books of Foxs unproduced properties. A week later, he duplicated the feat at CBS under Philip Barry, Fox president, William Edwin Self, was not happy that a junior employee had garnered these commitments without permission but grudgingly gave Cohen the title Vice President of TV Movies. Diller recommended Cohen to his impresario, songwriter, producer. He and Gordy connected in a deep and exciting way and he was hired to be the Executive Vice President and head of Motowns motion picture division. Cohen went to work and developed the first Motown movie from his own idea about the phenomenon of African American Super Models he felt was perfect for Motown star Diana Ross. He sold the package to Paramount and in 1974, the rolled on Mahogany in Chicago. At the same time, he developed a film from the Bill Brashler novel The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings starring Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones. To direct, he hired a then unknown TV director John Badham to make his feature debut, a critical hit set in the 1930s Negro National League
41.
Jim Sheridan
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Jim Sheridan is an Irish playwright, screenwriter, film director, and film producer. In the few years from 1989 to 1993, Sheridan made three acclaimed films set in Ireland that between them received 13 Academy Award nominations, Sheridan has personally received six Academy Award nominations. In addition to the films, he is also known for the films The Boxer. Jim Sheridan was born in Dublin, Ireland to Anna and Peter Sheridan Snr and he is the brother of playwright Peter Sheridan. The family ran a house, while Anna Sheridan worked at a hotel. Sheridans early education was at a Christian Brothers school, in 1969 he attended University College Dublin to study English and History. He became involved in student theater there, where he met Neil Jordan, after graduating from UCD in 1972, Sheridan and his brother began writing and staging plays, and together founded the Project Theatre Company. In 1981, Sheridan emigrated to Canada, but eventually settled in the Hells Kitchen section of New York City and he enrolled in NYUs Tisch School of the Arts and became the artistic director of the Irish Arts Center. Sheridan returned to Ireland in the late 1980s, in 1989, he directed My Left Foot, which became a critical and commercial success and won Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker Academy Awards. He followed that with The Field in 1990, then with In the Name of the Father in 1993, the film won the Golden Bear at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1996 he co-wrote Some Mothers Son with Terry George, the Boxer was nominated for a Golden Globe for best film drama in 1997. In 2003, he released the semi-autobiographical In America, which tells the story of a family of Irish immigrants trying to succeed in New York, the film received positive reviews and earned Samantha Morton and Djimon Hounsou Academy Award nominations. In 2005 he released Get Rich or Die Tryin, a film starring rap star 50 Cent and he is connected with the upcoming film adaptation of Artemis Fowl and is rumoured to have written the screenplay and been asked to direct it. Sheridan helmed the 2009 film Brothers, starring Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal and he also directed the thriller Dream House, which starred Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, and Rachel Weisz
42.
James Cameron
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James Francis Jim Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker, director, producer, screenwriter, inventor, engineer, philanthropist, and deep-sea explorer. He first found success with the science fiction action film The Terminator. He then became a popular Hollywood director and was hired to write and direct Aliens and he found further critical acclaim for his use of special effects in Terminator 2, Judgment Day. After his film True Lies Cameron took on his biggest film at the time, Titanic, despite Avatar being his only movie made to date in 3D, Cameron is the most successful 3D film-maker in terms of box-office revenue. In the time between making Titanic and Avatar, Cameron spent several years creating many documentary films and co-developed the digital 3D Fusion Camera System, described by a biographer as part scientist and part artist, Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies. On March 26,2012, Cameron reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench and he is the first person to do this in a solo descent, and is only the third person to do so ever. In total, Camerons directorial efforts have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America, not adjusted for inflation, Camerons Titanic and Avatar are the two highest-grossing films of all time at $2.19 billion and $2.78 billion respectively. Cameron also holds the achievement of having directed two of the three films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide, in March 2011, he was named Hollywoods top earner by Vanity Fair, with estimated 2010 earnings of $257 million. Cameron was born in 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, the son of Shirley, an artist and nurse, and Phillip Cameron and his paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron grew up in Chippawa, Ontario, and attended Stamford Collegiate School in Niagara Falls and his family moved to Brea, California in 1971, when Cameron was 17 years old. He dropped out of Sonora High School, then attended Brea Olinda High School to further his secondary education, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a two-year community college, in 1973 to study physics. He switched to English, then dropped out before the start of the fall 1974 semester, next, he worked several jobs, including as a truck driver, writing when he had time. That way I could sit down and read it, and if theyd let me photocopy it, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry after seeing Star Wars in 1977. When Cameron read Syd Fields book Screenplay, it occurred to him that science and art was possible. They raised money, rented camera, lenses, film stock and they dismantled the camera to understand how to operate it and spent the first half-day of the shoot trying to figure out how to get it running. He was the director, writer, producer, and production designer for Xenogenesis and he then became a production assistant on a film called Rock and Roll High School, though uncredited, in 1979. While continuing to educate himself in film-making techniques, Cameron started working as a miniature-model maker at Roger Corman Studios, making rapidly produced, low-budget productions taught Cameron to work efficiently and effectively. He soon found employment as an art director in the sci-fi movie Battle Beyond the Stars and he did special effects work design and direction on John Carpenters Escape from New York, acted as production designer on Galaxy of Terror, and consulted on the design of Android
43.
UCI Cinemas
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UCI Cinemas is a brand of cinema, currently operating in Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Brazil. All territories with the exception of Brazil are owned by Odeon Cinemas Group whose ultimate owner is AMC Theatres. UCI was formed in 1989 through a merger of AMC and CIC theatres, under chairman Tom McGrath, the group expanded to build and operate cinemas in Austria, Brazil, China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Taiwan, and the UK. In the UK, the company operated cinemas under the UCI and thefilmworks brands and this enabled them to download films via satellite, and also play digital media disks rather than film. The cinemas were, by and large, fairly simplistic in design, however, a later purchase by Terra Firma saw the chain merged with Odeon cinemas and henceforth adopting the far plusher Odeon style. In late 2004, the European division of UCI was bought by Terra Firma Capital Partners, the majority of UK UCI and thefilmworks cinemas were re-branded to use the Odeon name. As a condition of the merger with Odeon Cinemas, UCI Clydebank, UCI Poole, UCI Sutton, UCI Basildon, The Empire Leicester Square, the UCI, UCI/Kinowelt and Cinesa brands will remain in Ireland and the rest of Europe. UCI Hull was evicted at around this time due to redevelopment, as there was already an Odeon there, it was not replaced. Irish cinemas, although retaining the UCI name, are being managed as part of Odeon Cinemas and have introduced parts of their offer, such as Premier seating, advertising now also bears the Odeon logo font in many cases. In August 2007, UCI launched a new Irish website with a layout to odeon. co. uk. The Irish cinemas were sold to an Irish group, Entertainment Enterprises, in September 2006, uCIs Tallaght cinema, the first opened in the country, was closed on 8 March 2010 after the landlords gave the company notice that their lease would not be renewed. On 31 May 2011, Odeon announced that it had bought back the UCI chain in Ireland from Entertainment Enterprises, the ODEON in-house magazine Onscreen was re-branded and re-launched as ODEON magazine in 2012. UCI have invested heavily in the Customer Experience and this forms a focal point of the staff training all around the globe, and looks at impressions offered to the customer at all times throughout their visit to any one of their cinemas
44.
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
45.
Gramercy Pictures
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Gramercy Pictures is an American film production label of Universal Studios Focus Features division. It was originally launched as a distributor in May 1992 as a joint venture of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. Gramercy was the distributor of PolyGram movies in the United States and Canada, after Seagrams buyout on PolyGram, Gramercy, along with October Films, was merged by Barry Diller, to form USA Films in 1999. As of 2015, Focus Features revived the name as a label for action, horror, Gramercy Pictures was formed in 1992 as a joint venture of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Gramercy Pictures released its first film, the Mario Van Peebles western Posse, in January 1996, PolyGram brought the 50% stake owned by Universal, thus assuming full control of Gramercy. The distributor also had box office hits in 1994s Four Weddings, several Gramercy releases of the 1990s have grown in stature to become cult classics in the present day, The Big Lebowski, Dazed and Confused, Clay Pigeons and Mallrats. In addition, 1995s The Usual Suspects won two Oscars, for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor, in 1998 Seagram sold the bulk of its library of PolyGram films released up until March 31,1996 for to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. When Seagram acquired PolyGram in 1999, the merged with. It reacquired Gramercy as it controlled Universal, in turn, Seagram sold Gramercy and another specialty division, October Films, to Barry Dillers USA Networks, and merged both companies into USA Films. USA Films then transformed into Universal Focus and then Focus Features in 2002, in May 2015, Focus Features announced that the Gramercy label has been revived to release action, horror and sci-fi genre films. Its first outing was Insidious, Chapter 3 on June 5,2015, official website Gramercy Pictures at the Internet Movie Database
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Focus Features
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Focus Features is an American film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in the United States, Focus Features was formed from the 2002 divisional merger of USA Films, Universal Focus and Good Machine. USA Films was created by Barry Diller in 1999 when he purchased October Films and Gramercy Pictures from Seagram, Focus most successful release in North America to date is Brokeback Mountain, which earned $83 million at the North American box office. However, this is not counting the total of Traffic. Focus most successful release is Burn After Reading, which earned $163.7 million in worldwide gross revenue. The animated film Coraline was also highly profitable for the company and its DVD and movie rights revenues are boosted by cult classics including Wet Hot American Summer. In May 2015, Gramercy Pictures was revived by Focus as a label, that was on action, sci-fi. In February 2016, Focus merged with Universal Pictures International Productions as part of a new strategy to align the acquisition and production of specialty films in the global market. In August 2011, Focus Features launched Focus World, a label focusing on the video on demand market with plans to distribute 15 films per year. List of Focus Features films Rogue FilmDistrict Sony Pictures Entertainment Stage 6 Films Official website Focus Features at the Internet Movie Database
