For Your Consideration

The Academy Award nominations have been made and the speculations have begun. While you wait for the big night (February 25th), fill your time with some films starring and directed by this year's Academy Award nominees. DVDs are only $2 and VHS tapes just $1 so you can save up for that Balenciaga gown and Harry Winston diamond necklace you've been eying.

Helen Mirren Before she played Elizabeth Windsor in her Oscar nominated role, Mirren played Queen Bess in Elizabeth I. In 2003's Calendar Girls, Mirren took it all off for charity. Mirren played the thief's wife in Peter Greenaway's notorious 1989 and spectacular film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.
Meryl Streep In addition to her Oscar nominated role in The Devil Wears Prada, Streep also appeared in Robert Altman's last film A Prairie Home Companion. Streep starred in the TV miniseries of Angels in America as Ethel Rosenberg. In 2002, Adaptation earned Streep a Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Penelope Cruz A favorite of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, Cruz has also appeared in the movie adaptation of Louis de Bernières' novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. In the Halle Berry vehicle Gothika, Cruz plays a criminally insane murderer. Cruz stars as a runaway nun in 2000's Best Foreign Language Film Todo Sobre Mi Mama.
Kate Winslet Nominated for her role in Little Children, Winslet played a more responsible mother in 2004'sFinding Neverland. In Hideous Kinky, Winslet takes her young children from London to Morocco for freedom and adventure in the 1960s. Winslet's first major movie role was in 1994's wonderfully disturbing Heavenly Creatures.
Judi Dench In the past 10 Academy Award seasons, Judi Dench has been nominated six times, winning once in 1999. Dench has range and excels in any genre, from the psychological thriller Notes on a Scandal for which she is nominated, to historical romances (Pride and Prejudice), to Bond flicks (Die Another Day), to dramatic biopics (Iris).
Leonardo DiCaprio DiCaprio's nomination for Blood Diamond is his third-- in 2004 he got a nod for his portrayal of Howard Hughes in The Aviator. Films like Spielberg's 2002 Catch Me if You Can and Baz Luhrmann's hip Romeo + Juliet got critical applause and show off DiCaprio's box office appeal.
Forest Whitaker Nominated for his role as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, Whitaker can also be seen in some great, tense thrillers such as the 2003 film Phone Booth and 2002's Panic Room. He also co-stars alongside John Travolta and Kyra Sedgwick in the 1996 movie Phenomenon
Ryan Gosling A relative newcomer in this field of heavy-hitters, Gosling's acting chops can be seen in the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner The Believer where he plays a Jewish member of a skinhead gang. He also stars in the movie adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel The Notebook, and Murder by Numbers.
Will Smith Smith has come along way since "Girls Ain't Nothing but Trouble". Nominated for his role in the Pursuit of Happyness, Smith has recently been seen in the comedy Hitch, an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's sci-fi thriller I, Robot, and the critically acclaimed biopic Ali, the 2002 film which also garnered Smith an Oscar nomination.
Martin Scorsese Despite his stable of influential films, Scorsese has never won a directing Oscar. The Gangs of New York got 10 Oscar nominations, but was ultimately snubbed entirely. Scorsese was also nominated for his iconic film Raging Bull (which got DiNiro an award) and his controversial The Last Temptation of Christ.
Clint Eastwood Nominated this year for Letters from Iwo Jima, Eastwood won his first Best Director award for Unforgiven in 1993. In films like 1999's True Crime and the popular favorite The Bridges of Madison County, Eastwood starred as well as directed.
Alejandro González Iñárritu Having only directed six films in his life, Mexican director Iñárritu has been nominated for the critically acclaimed Babel. His name has become familiar with the successes of 2003's 21 Grams and 2000's Amores Perros.
Stephen Frears Despite a slew of stunning films, this nomination is only Frears' second-- his first was 17 years ago. Nevertheless, Frears has had critical success with films like Mrs. Henderson Presents, Dirty Pretty Things and High Fidelity.
Paul Greengrass A relative newcomer, Greengrass spent years directing TV before making his name and getting the Oscar nod for United 93. In 2004, Greengrass took up the Bourne series with the sequel The Bourne Supremacy.

Questions or requests? Contact:
Jennifer Kelley
Resident Librarian
kelleyj@cod.edu

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