VOLVER (2006)

Directed by Pedro Almodovar

Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) lives in Madrid with her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) and her husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre), who is always drunk. Her sister, Sole (Lola Dueńas), is separated and works clandestinely as a hairstylist for women. The two sisters lost their parents in a fire in La Mancha, their birth village, years ago. Their aunt, Paula (Chus Lampreave), still lives in the village and continues to speak about her sister Irene (Carmen Maura), mother of the two sisters, as if she were still alive. When the old aunt dies the situation changes and the past returns(volver) in a twist of mystery and suspense

Nominated for 1 Academy Award, Best Actress

DVD Special Features:

None

MAR ADENTRO (2004) (THE SEA INSIDE)

Directed by Alejandro Amenábar

In Spain, the former sailor Ramón Sampedro (Javier Bardem) has been quadriplegic for twenty-eight years and is fighting in court for his right of practicing euthanasia through an association that defends the freedom of choice and leaded by his friend Géne (Clara Segura). Ramón is introduced to the lawyer that is defending his cause, Julia (Belén Rueda), who has a degenerative fatal disease; and meets Rosa (Lola Dueñas), a lonely worker that has been abused by men. Their relationship changes the behavior and viewpoint of life of Rosa and Julia.

Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Best Foreign Film and Best Achievement in Makeup

Won 1, Best Foreign Film

DVD Special Features:

None

HISTORIA OFICIAL, LA (1985) (THE OFFICIAL STORY)

Directed by Luis Puenzo

This story, based on real events that took place in Argentina, looks at a married couple torn apart by the campaign of killings and torture that sent thousands of accused political leftists to unmarked graves in the mid 1970s known as the Dirty War.
The story begins when Alicia (Norma Aleandro), a high school teacher and, Roberto (Hector Alterio), a wealthy businessman, adopt a little girl named Gaby (Analia Castro). After five years Alicia wonders about the parents of Gaby, a topic her husband has told her to forget as it was a condition of the adoption. Yet, he knows the ugly story of his daughter's adoption.
While hard to believe, Alicia, and others in Argentina, is not aware of how much killing and suffering has gone on in the country until the students where she teaches begin to complain that the "government approved" history books they read were written by government "assassins."
At this time she also has a long conversation with Ana (Chunchuna Villafane), an old friend, who had been in exile in Europe after she was tortured by paramilitary forces loyal to the brutal Argentine government. Alicia begins to do some serious political and personal research on her own.
She discovers the identity of Gaby's dead parents and finds out that her husband had a hand in the government nasty repression and has intensive dealings with foreign business interests. Alicia also learns the identity of the girl's grandmother (Chela Ruiz)

Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Best Foreign Film and Best Writing (Written directly for the Screen)

Won Best Foreign Film

DVD Special Features:

None

NOTES ON A SCANDAL (2006)

Directed by Richard Eyre

Film based on Zoe Heller's novel in which Barbara Covett, (Dame Judi Dench) is a veteran and cynical schoolteacher who is close to retirement. She is barely tolerated by her less brilliant and acerbic colleagues who know nothing about her private life which consists mainly of taking care of Portia, her aging cat, and spending countless hours alone. The only means she has found to take the edge off her desperate loneliness is writing in her journal. When Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett), a younger, attractive woman, joins the faculty as an art teacher, Barbara watches her from afar and has nothing but caustic things to say in her diary about her clothing and her care-free manner. Mayhem ensues when Barbara cynically tells a bessotted fellow teacher that Sheba is had a sexual liaison with an underage student, Andrew Connolly (Andrew Simpson)

Nominated for 4 Academy Awards, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score

DVD Special Features:

None

LEBEN DER ANDEREN, DAS (2006)
(THE LIVES OF OTHERS)

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Film focuses on the horrifying, sometimes unintentionally funny system of observation in the former East Germany. In the early 1980s, the successful dramatist Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) and his longtime companion Christa-Maria Sieland (Marina Gedeck), a popular actress, are big intellectual stars in the socialist state, although they secretly don't always think loyal to the party line. One day, the Minister of Culture becomes interested in Christa, so the secret service agent Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is instructed to observe and sound out the couple, but their life fascinates him more and more

Won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film

DVD Special Features:

None

THE DEPARTED (2006)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Martin Scorcese


In South Boston, the state police force is waging war on Irish-American organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leodardo Dicaprio) is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). While Billy quickly gains Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there's a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy-and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself.

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing

Won 4, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing

After 5 Nominations for Directing and 2 for Writing, Martin Scorcese finally received the long denied Academy Award for Best Director.

It was also the first time a Scorcese directed film will win the Academy Award for Best Picture

DVD Special Features:


Two Documentaries:

Crossing Criminal Cultures

Stranger Than Fiction:

Additional Scenes Cut from the Movie

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)

Directed by Elia Kazan

Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans during the restless years following World War Two, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is the story of Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), a fragile and neurotic woman on a desperate prowl for someplace in the world to call her own. After being exiled from her hometown of Auriol, Mississippi for seducing a seventeen-year-old boy at the school where she taught English, Blanche explains her unexpected appearance on Stanley (marlon Brando) and Stella's (Kim Hunter), Blanche's sister doorstep as nervous exhaustion. This, she claims, is the result of a series of financial calamities which have recently claimed the family plantation, Belle Reve. Suspicious, Stanley points out that "under Louisiana's Napoleonic code what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband." Stanley, a sinewy and brutish man, is as territorial as a panther. He tells Blanche he doesn't like to be swindled and demands to see the bill of sale. This encounter defines Stanley and Blanche's relationship. They are opposing camps and Stella is caught in no-man's-land. But Stanley and Stella are deeply in love. Blanche's efforts to impose herself between them only enrages the animal inside Stanley. When Mitch -- a card-playing buddy of Stanley's -- arrives on the scene, Blanche begins to see a way out of her predicament. Mitch, himself alone in the world, reveres Blanche as a beautiful and refined woman. Yet, as rumors of Blanche's past in Auriol begin to catch up to her, her circumstances become unbearable

Nominated for 12 Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing (Screenplay), Best Cinematography (Black and White), Best Art/ Set Decoration (Black and White), Best Costume Design (Black and White), Best Scoring of a Comedy or Dramatic Picture and Best Sound Recording

Won 4, Best Actress, Best Supprting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Art/Set decoration (Black and White)

Created Oscar history winning three of the four acting nominations, the only film to have done since

Widely tipped to sweep the board at the Academy Awards that year, Streetcar lost its nominations for Best Director and Picture, the former was won by George Stevens for A PLACE IN THE SUN and the latter by the musical, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

DVD Special Features:

Feature Length Commentary by Karl Malden and Film Historians, Rudy Behlmer and Jeff Young

Marlon Brando Screen Test

Profile on Director, Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey

Five Documentaries:

A Streetcar on Broadway,
A Streetcar in Hollywood,
Censorship and Desire,
North and the Music of the South
An Actor Named Brando

TWO WOMEN (LA CIOCIARA) (1960)

Directed by Vittorio De Sica

Cesira (Sophia Loren) and her 13-year-old daughter, Rosetta (Eleonara Brown), flee from the allied bombs in Rome during the second world war. They travel to the village where Cesira was born. During their journey and in the village, the mother does everything to protect Rosetta. However, on one occasion they both get raped by soldiers hiding in a church. This cruel event is too much for the always powerful fighting Cesira and she suffers from a breakdown. During their stay in the village, a young intellectual, Michele (Jean Paul Belmondo) falls in love with Cesira who does not know how to reply to the advances of such a gentleman

Nominated/Won for 1 Academy Award, Best Actress

Sophia Loren made Academy history as the first perfomer to win an Oscar for a none english speaking part.

To date there have only been two others, Robert De Niro won Best Supporting Actor for THE GODFATHER PART 2 in 1974 and Roberto Benigni won Best Actor for 1998's LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

DVD Special Features:

None

A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Ron Howard

At Princeton University, John Nash (Russell Crowe) struggles to make a worthwhile contribution to serve as his legacy to the world of mathematics. He finally makes a revolutionary breakthrough that will eventually earn him the Nobel Prize. After graduate school he turns to teaching, becoming romantically involved with his student Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). Meanwhile the government asks his help with breaking Soviet codes, which soon gets him involved in a terrifying conspiracy plot. Nash grows more and more paranoid until a discovery that turns his entire world upside down. Now it is only with Alicia's help that he will be able to recover his mental strength and regain his status as the great mathematician we know him as today.

Nominated for 8 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Makeup and Best Original Score

Won 4, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay

DVD Special Features:

Feature Length Commentary by Director, Ron Howard

Feature Length Commentary by Screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman

GASLIGHT (1944)

Directed by George Cukor

In London, at Thorton Square 9, the prima donna Alice Alquist is strangled and her famous jewels miss. Her young niece Paula (Ingrid Bergman) is sent to Italy to study music and the house stays empty. Ten years later, Paula decides to get married with the older pianist Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), who convinces her to move back to the old address in London. When they arrive, Paula finds a letter from a mysterious and unknown Sergis Bauer, making Gregory upset. He psychologically begins to torture Paula and she has a nervous breakdown, insecurity and memory problems. When the Scotland Yard policeman Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten) sees Gregory Anton [the couple] in a tourist place, he immediately recognizes Gregory [he see Paula who reminds him of her aunt; he does not know Gregory] and decides to investigate and find evidences to connect Gregory with the unsolved murder, while Paula is being driven mad and menaced of being interned in an asylum by her husband.

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing (Screenplay) and Best Art/Set Decoration (Black and White)

Won 2, Best Actress and Best Art/Set Decoration (Black and White)

DVD Special Features:

None

ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN (1976)

Direted by Alan J. Pakula

In the run-up to the 1972 elections, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward(Robert Redford) covers what seems to be a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. He is surprised to find top lawyers already on the defence case, and the discovery of names and addresses of Republican fund organisers on the accused further arouses his suspicions. The editor of the Post is prepared to run with the story and assigns Woodward and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) to it. They find the trail leading higher and higher in the Republican Party, and eventually into the White House itself.

Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Art/ Set Decoration and Best Sound

Won 4, Best Supporting Actor, best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art/ Set Decoration and Best Sound

DVD Special Features:

THE WINGS OF THE DOVE (1997)

Directed by Ian Softley

In the early years of this century, an impoverished British woman, Kate Croy (Helena Bonham- Carter), seems trapped by and dependent upon her wealthy aunt (Charlotte Rampling). Befriending a fatally ill, rich American woman(Alison Elliott) provides Kate with not only a trip to Venice, but an opportunity to break free of her aunt and her poverty.

Nominated for 4 Academy Awards, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design and Best Cinematography

DVD Special Features:

None

THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Peter Jackson

Special Extended Edition Disc 1 and 2

The former Fellowship of the Ring prepare for the final battle for Middle Earth.

They divide to conquer as Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin), with the help and hindrance of Gollum/Smeagol (Andy Serkis), continue their way to Mount Doom. Gandalf (Ian Mckellan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) ride to Minas Tirith to help defend Gondor while Merry (Dominic Monaghan) remains with Eowyn (Miranda Otto) and the other Rohan fighters. Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlandon Bloom), and Gimli (Jonathan Rhys-Davies) seek aid from those that live in the Cursed Mountains. All these battles have one goal in mind: distract the Eye of Sauron and buy Frodo a little more time to destroy the ring

The third and final installment was nominated for another record 11 Academy Awards and swept the board, winning for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound and Best Art/Set Decoration


Academy Awards Trivia:

The Lord of The Rings trilogy became the most nominated film series
in Academy Award history with 30 nominations, surpassing both the
Godfather trilogy (28) and the Star Wars franchise (21).

The movie marks the second time in history that the third movie in a
trilogy was nominated for Best Picture, by the Academy Awards and
Golden Globes, after The Godfather: Part III (1990) and the only time
that a third movie has won the Best Picture Oscar.

The movie tied with Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997) to win the
most Oscars (11) in a single year.

It broke another record by winning all the Oscars for which it was
nominated (11 out of 11). The previous record was nine out of nine by
The Last Emperor (1987) and nine out of nine by Gigi (1958).

None of the Academy Awards won by the trilogy was for acting


DVD Special Features:

Disc 1 and 2 : Feature Length Audio Commentary with Cast and Director/Writers

Disc 3 : The Appendices Part 1 - From Book to Vision

Disc 4 : The Appendices part 2 - From Vision to Reality

THE TWO TOWERS (2002)

Directed by Peter Jackson

Special Extended Edition - Disc 1 and 2

The Fellowship has been broken. Boromir (Sean Bean) is dead, Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) have gone to Mordor alone to destroy the One Ring, Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) have been captured by the Uruk-hai, and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) have made friends of the Rohan, a race of humans that are in the path of the upcoming war, led by its aging king, Théoden (Bernard Hill). The two towers between Mordor and Isengard, Barad-dúr and Orthanc, have united in their lust for destruction. The corrupt wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee), under the power of the Dark Lord Sauron, and his slimy assistant, Gríma Wormtongue (Brad Dourif), have created a grand Uruk-hai army bent on the destruction of Man and Middle-earth. The rebellion against Sauron is building up and will be led by Gandalf the White (Sir Ian McKellen), who was thought to be dead after the Balrog captured him. One of the Ring's original bearers, the creature Gollum (Andy Serkis), has tracked Frodo and Sam down in search of his 'precious', but is captured by the Hobbits and used as a way to lead them to Mt. Doom.

The War of the Ring has now begun...

The Second installment was nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Art/Set Decoration, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing

Won 2, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing

DVD Special Features:

Disc 1 and 2 : Feature Length Audio Commentary with Cast and Director/Writers

Disc 3 : The Appendices Part 1 - From Book to Vision

Disc 4 : The Appendices part 2 - From Vision to Reality

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING(2001)

Directed by Peter Jackson

Special Extended Edition - Disc 1 and 2

An Ancient Ring thought lost for centuries has been found, and through a strange twist in fate has been given to a small Hobbit named Frodo (Elijah Wood). When Gandalf discovers the Ring is in fact the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron. Frodo must make an epic quest to the Cracks of Doom in order to destroy it. However he does not go alone. He is joined by Gandalf (Ian Mckellan), Legolas the elf (Orlando Bloom), Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Boromir (Sean Bean), his three Hobbit friends Merry (Dominic Monaghan), Pippin (Billy Boyd), Sam Gamgee (Sean Astin) and Gimli the Dwarf (Jonathan Rhys-Davies). Through mountains, snow, darkness, forests, rivers and plains, facing evil and danger at every corner the Fellowship of the Ring must go.

Their quest to destroy the One Ring is the only hope for the end of the Dark Lords reign......

The First installment of the Trilogy was nominated for a record 13 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art/Set Decoration, Best (Visual) Effects, Best Original Score, Best Makeup, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Original Song and Best Sound

Won 4, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best (Visual) Effects and Best Makeup

DVD Special Features:

Disc 1 and 2 : Feature Length Audio Commentary with Cast and Director/Writers

Disc 3 : The Appendices Part 1 - From Book to Vision

Disc 4 : The Appendices part 2 - From Vision to Reality

CIMARRON (1931)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Wesley Riggles

When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) claims a plot of the free land for himself and moves his family there from Wichita. A newspaperman, lawyer, and just about everything else, Cravat soon becomes a leading citizen of the boom town of Osage. Once the town is established, however, he begins to feel confined once again, and heads for the Cherokee Strip, leaving his family behind. During this and other absences, his wife Sabra (Irene Dunne) must learn to take care of herself and soon becomes prominent in her own right.

Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Writing (Adaptation), Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction

Won 3, Best Picture, Best Writing (Adaptation) and Best Art Direction

The only internally-produced RKO film to ever win the Best Picture Oscar

DVD Special Features:

Warner Bros Cartoon Shorts

JEZEBEL(1938)

Directed by William Wyler

Film set in antebellum New Orleans during the early 1850's, this film follows Julie Marsden (Bette Davies), beautiful and free spirited, rapacious Southern belle who is sure of herself and controlling of her fiancé Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda), a successful young banker. Julie's sensitive but domineering personality--she does not want so much to hurt as to assert her independence--forces a wedge between Preston and herself. To win him back, she plays North against South amid a deadly epidemic of yellow fever which claims a surprising victim.

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Music Score

Won 2, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress

DVD Special Features:

Audio commentary by film historian, Jeanine Basinger

Featurette, Jezebel: Legend of the South

EAST OF EDEN (1955)

Directed by Elia Kazan

In the Salinas Valley, in and around World War I, Cal Trask(James Dean) feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother Aron(Richard Davalos) for the love of their father Adam(Raymond Massey). Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, to how to get ahead in business and in life, to how to relate to their estranged mother.

Nominated for 4 Academy Awards, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Writing (Screenplay)

This was the first of two posthumous acting nominations received consecutively by James Dean

Won 1, Best Supporting Actress

DVD Special Features:

Audio length commentary by film historian, Richard Schickel

Two feature length documentaries: Forever Dean and East of Eden, Art in the search of life

PATTON (1970)

WINNER OF THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

"Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton (George C Scott), famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with patton's career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Germany and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton's numerous faults such his temper and habit towards insubordination. Faults which would, eventually, lead to his being relieved as Occupation Commander of Germany

Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects and Best Art/Set Decoration

Won 7, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Art/ Set Decoration and Best Sound

George C. Scott refused to accept the nomination and subsequent award

DVD Special Features:

Audio Commentary on the historical Patton

Documentary - The Making of Patton

MARIA FULL OF GRACE (2004)

Joshua Marston

In a small village in Colombia, the pregnant seventeen years old Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) supports her family with her salary working in a floriculture. She is fired and with a total lack of perspective of finding a new job, she decides to accept the offer to work as a drug mule, flying to USA with sixty-two pellets of cocaine in her stomach. Once in New York, things do not happen as planned.

Nominated for 1 Academy Award, Best Actress

DVD Special Features:

Feature Length Audio Commentary by Director, Joshua Marston