Portal:Film

The Film Portal

Man working with a movie projector in a movie theater, 1958

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A film – also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick – is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and the art form that is the result of it. (Full article...)

Featured articles -

  Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

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Star Trek is a 2009 American science fiction action film directed by J. J. Abrams and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. It is the 11th film in the Star Trek franchise, and is also a reboot that features the main characters of the original Star Trek television series portrayed by a new cast, as the first in the rebooted film series. The film follows James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) aboard the USS Enterprise as they combat Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan from their future who threatens the United Federation of Planets. The story takes place in an alternate reality that features both an alternate birth location for James T. Kirk and further alterations in history stemming from the time travel of both Nero and the original series Spock (Leonard Nimoy). The alternate reality was created in an attempt to free the film and the franchise from established continuity constraints while simultaneously preserving original story elements.

The idea for a prequel film which would follow the Star Trek characters during their time in Starfleet Academy was discussed by series creator Gene Roddenberry in 1968. The concept resurfaced in the late 1980s, when it was postulated by Harve Bennett as a possible plotline for what would become Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, but it was rejected in favor of other projects by Roddenberry. Following the critical and commercial failure of Star Trek: Nemesis and the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise, the franchise's executive producer Rick Berman and screenwriter Erik Jendresen wrote an unproduced film titled Star Trek: The Beginning, which would take place after Enterprise. After the separation of Viacom and CBS Corporation in 2005, former Paramount Pictures president Gail Berman convinced CBS to allow Paramount to produce a new film in the franchise. Orci and Kurtzman were soon approached to write the film, and Abrams was approached to direct it. Kurtzman and Orci used inspiration from novels and graduate school dissertations, as well as the series itself. Principal photography commenced on November 7, 2007, and ended on March 27, 2008. The film was shot in locations around California and Utah. Abrams wanted to avoid using bluescreen and greenscreen, opting to use sets and locations instead. Heavy secrecy surrounded the film's production and was under the fake working title Corporate Headquarters. Industrial Light & Magic used digital ships for the film, as opposed to miniatures used in most of the previous films in the franchise. Production for the film concluded by the end of 2008. (Portal:Film/Featured content)

General images -

The following are images from various film-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  Flying pelican captured by Marey around 1882. He created a method of recording several phases of movement superimposed into one photograph (from History of film technology)
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  A production scene from the 1950 Hollywood film Julius Caesar starring Charlton Heston (from History of film)
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  Animated GIF of Prof. Stampfer's Stroboscopische Scheibe No. X (Trentsensky & Vieweg 1833) (from History of film technology)
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  London IMAX has the largest cinema screen in Britain with a total screen size of 520 m². (from Film industry)
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  Publicity still for the Egyptian film Yahya el hub (1938) (from Film industry)
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  Poster for the 1956 Egyptian film Wakeful Eyes starring Salah Zulfikar and Shadia (from History of film)
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  Don Juan is the first feature-length film to use the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, though it has no spoken dialogue. (from History of film)
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  An electrotachyscope
  American Scientific, 16/11/1889, p. 303

  (from History of film technology)
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  The Pathé Brothers, by Adrien Barrère.

  (from Film industry)
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  The first two shots of As Seen Through a Telescope (1900), with the telescope POV simulated by the circular mask (from History of film)
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  Charlie Chaplin (from History of film)
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  Insert shot in Old Wives for New (Cecil B. DeMille, 1918) (from History of film)
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  The Babelsberg Studio near Berlin was the first large-scale film studio in the world (founded 1912) and the forerunner to Hollywood. It still produces global blockbusters every year. (from Film industry)
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  Max Skladanowsky (right) in 1934 with his brother Eugen and the Bioscop (from History of film technology)
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  Poster for a Biograph Studios release from 1913 (from Film industry)
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  A frame from the Lumière brothers staged comedy film, L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895) (from History of film)
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  Off Plus Camera Film Festival in Kraków, 2012, with Andrzej Seweryn, Daniel Olbrychski, and Wojciech Pszoniak on stage. (from Film industry)
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  The Wizard of Oz (from History of film)
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  A still from The Story of the Kelly Gang (Australia, 1906; 80 min.) (from Film industry)
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  Complex vignette shot in die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess) (from History of film)
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  Eadweard Muybridge's The Horse in Motion cabinet cards utilized the technique of chronophotography to study motion. (from History of film)
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  William Friese-Greene (from Film industry)
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  The Babelsberg Studio near Berlin was the first large-scale film studio in the world (founded 1912) and the forerunner to Hollywood. It still produces global blockbusters every year. (from History of film)
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  The Hollywood Sign (from Film industry)
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  Edward Raymond Turner's three-color projector, 1902 (from History of film technology)
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  A scene from Raja Harishchandra (1913) – credited as the first full-length Indian motion picture. (from Film industry)
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  Frame from a c.1912 Chronochrome film (from History of film technology)
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  Film still from Dickson Greeting (from History of film technology)
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  Georges Méliès (left) painting a backdrop in his studio (from History of film)
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  A shot from Raja Harishchandra (1913), the first film of Bollywood. (from Film industry)
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  Publicity still for the Egyptian film My Wife, the Director General (1966) (from Film industry)
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  Mona Zaki, Egyptian film star (from Film industry)
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  Cinématographe Lumière at the Institut Lumière, France (from History of film technology)
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  A.E. Smith filming The Bargain Fiend in the Vitagraph Studios in 1907. Arc floodlights hang overhead. (from History of film)
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  Old Chinese Cinema in Qufu, Shandong (from Film industry)
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  The Cinématographe Lumière in projection mode (from History of film technology)
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  A surviving two-color-component image from the first Technicolor feature film, The Gulf Between (1917) (from History of film technology)
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  Czermak's 1855 Stereophoroskop (from History of film technology)
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  Bahiga Hafez (1901–1983) Egyptian filmmaker and actress in 1920s and 1930s (from Film industry)
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  GIF animation from retouched pictures of The Horse in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge (1879). (from History of film technology)
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  The Jazz Singer (1927), was the first full-length film with synchronized sound. (from History of film technology)
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  Italian neorealist movie Bicycle Thieves (1948) by Vittorio De Sica, considered part of the canon of classic cinema (from History of film)
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  Cinema admissions in 1995 (from History of film)
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  Nestor studio, 1911 (from Film industry)
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  Discounted DVD home video film releases sold in the Netherlands (from Film industry)
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  Salah Zulfikar and Nadia Lutfi in Saladin the Victorious (1963) (from History of film)
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  Louis Poyet's engraving of the mechanism of the "fusil photographique" as published in La Nature (april 1882) (from History of film technology)
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  Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director (from History of film)

Selected image

Buffalo galloping

American bison ("buffalo") galloping - set to motion using photos by Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge was an English-born photographer, known primarily for his early use of multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the celluloid film strip that is still used today.

Did you know...

• ... that as a teenager in a B'nai B'rith camp in Canada, Holocaust survivor and future Canadian ambassador Fred Bild learned English from his camp counselor, future actor William Shatner?
• ... that the British film Strippers vs Werewolves opens with a different band playing the song "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran?
• ... that the pro-adoption documentary I Lived on Parker Avenue premiered at the Louisiana Governor's Mansion in 2018 at the invitation of Governor John Bel Edwards?
• ... that during its run of screenings at the Whitney Museum, the 1979 film Asparagus was shown rear-projected onto a set that appears in the film itself?
• ... that the sound for the film A Rustling of Leaves: Inside the Philippine Revolution was recorded using a Walkman?

Selected biography -

1921 publicity photo

Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American actress. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th greatest female movie star of Classic Hollywood cinema.

Having acted on stage with her sister as a child, Gish was a prominent film star from 1912 into the 1920s, being particularly associated with the films of director D. W. Griffith. This included her leading role in the highest-grossing film of the silent era, Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915). Her other major films and performances from the silent era are: Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), La Bohème (1926), and The Wind (1928). (Full article...)

Featured lists -

  Per a review process, Featured lists are considered to be the best list articles on English Wikipedia.

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  David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, painter, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound design. Indeed, the surreal and in many cases violent elements to his films have earned them the reputation that they "disturb, offend or mystify" their audiences.
  
  Lynch's oeuvre encompasses work in both cinema and television. His films include The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, The Straight Story, and perhaps his most critically successful film, 2001's Mulholland Drive; whilst his television debut, Twin Peaks, earned five Emmy Award nominations for its first season. (Full article...)
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  Two submissions, Defenders of Riga (2007) and Blizzard of Souls (2019), are set during the Latvian War of Independence.

  
  
  The Republic of Latvia has submitted a variety of films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards. The award is given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue, and was first presented at the 29th Academy Awards.
  
  The academy selection committee reviews all submissions for this award, and votes the five candidates via secret ballot voting. For Latvia, the panel works on behalf of the National Film Centre of Latvia (NFCL). As of 2022, it consists of Latvian Filmmakers Union chairperson Ieva Romanova, Ministry of Culture secretary Dace Vilsone, critic Kristīne Simsone, filmmaker Dace Pūce, film producer Alise Ģelze, and animator Edmunds Jansons. Dita Rietuma, film historian and director of the NFCL, is head of the panel since 2020. They would hold a meeting to decide on the submission, and would often announce the reason for the final decision. Previous members include film historian Viktors Freibergs, director and Latvian Academy of Culture [lv] professor Dāvis Sīmanis, chairwoman of the Latvian Cinematographers Union Zane Balčus, chairman of the Baltic Sea Documentary Film Forum Zane Balčus and Dzintars Dreibergs, as well as film producer Uldis Cekulis. (Full article...)
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  Barrymore in the 1910s

  
  Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe; 1878–1954) was an American actor of stage, screen, and radio. He also directed several films, wrote scripts, created etchings, sketches, and composed music. He was the eldest child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgie Drew Barrymore, and his two siblings were John and Ethel; these and other family members were part of an acting dynasty. Reluctant to follow his parents' career, Barrymore appeared together with his grandmother Louisa Lane Drew in a stage production of The Rivals at the age of 15. He soon found success on stage in character roles. Although he took a break from acting in 1906–1909 to train in Paris as a painter, he was not successful as an artist, and returned to the US and acting. He also joined his family troupe, from 1910, in their vaudeville act.
  
  Barrymore began his film career in 1911, appearing in numerous silent films, many of which have subsequently been lost. In 1911, he signed a contract with the Biograph Company and appeared as a character actor in short films, many of them directed by D. W. Griffith, before moving into feature-length productions in 1914. He began writing scripts and directing films shortly afterwards, and for the next five years, he did not act on the legitimate stage. Although he had several successes on Broadway after the First World War, he encountered strongly negative criticism in a 1921 production of Macbeth, and in three productions in a row in 1925. Afterwards, he never again appeared on the New York stage. In 1925, he signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he became a close friend of Louis B. Mayer, for whom he made numerous films. He directed several films from 1929 to 1931, but concentrated on acting afterwards. (Full article...)
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  The 77th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on February 27, 2005, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as the Oscars) in 24 categories honoring films released in 2004. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and was directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Chris Rock hosted the show for the first time. Two weeks earlier in a ceremony at The Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena, California, held on February 12, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Scarlett Johansson.
  
  Million Dollar Baby won four awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included The Aviator with five awards, The Incredibles and Ray with two, and Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Mighty Times: The Children's March, The Motorcycle Diaries, Ryan, The Sea Inside, Sideways, Spider-Man 2, and Wasp with one. The telecast garnered over 42 million viewers in the United States alone. (Full article...)
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  Sim as the Laird in Geordie, 1955

  
  The Scottish actor Alastair Sim (1900–1976) performed in many media of light entertainment, including theatre, film and television. His career spanned from 1930 until his death. During that time he was a "memorable character player of faded Anglo-Scottish gentility, whimsically put-upon countenance, and sepulchral, sometimes minatory, laugh".
  
  After studying chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, he was employed, between 1925 and 1930, as a lecturer in elocution at New College, Edinburgh, and also established his own school of drama and speech training. In 1930 he made his professional stage debut as a messenger in Othello at the Savoy Theatre, London—with Paul Robeson and Peggy Ashcroft in the lead roles. During the next five years he appeared on stage in New York and the UK, and spent two years at the Old Vic. (Full article...)
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  Coldplay at the Rose Bowl in 2017

  
  
  British rock band Coldplay have released 64 music videos, five video albums and five films, appearing on numerous television shows throughout their career as well. They were formed in London by Chris Martin (vocals, piano), Jonny Buckland (lead guitar), Guy Berryman (bass guitar), Will Champion (drums, percussion) and Phil Harvey (management). Before their recording contract with Parlophone in 1999, a music video for "Bigger Stronger" was shot and directed by Mat Whitecross, who ultimately became one of the long-time collaborators of the band. It was followed by the singles "Shiver", "Yellow", "Trouble" and "Don't Panic" from Parachutes (2000), with the third earning a MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction.
  
  To promote A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002), Coldplay made "In My Place" and "The Scientist" available. The latter won three MTV Video Music Awards and ran for Best Short Form Music Video at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards. Publicity affairs were completed in the following year with "Clocks", "God Put a Smile upon Your Face" and Live 2003, their first video album. Released in 2005, X&Y spawned "Speed of Sound", "Fix You", "Talk" and "The Hardest Part". They were succeeded by "Violet Hill", which came out in anticipation for Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008). (Full article...)
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  Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez garnered many accolades for composing the song "Let It Go".

  
  Frozen is a 2013 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Produced by Peter Del Vecho, it was directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee from a screenplay by Lee. The directors co-wrote the story with Shane Morris, drawing inspiration by Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen (1844). The film stars the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff and Santino Fontana. Frozen follows Princess Anna as she teams up with Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf to find her estranged sister Elsa, whose icy powers have inadvertently trapped their kingdom in eternal winter.
  
  Frozen premiered in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on November 19, 2013, and was theatrically released on November 27. Produced on a budget of $150 million, it grossed $1.282 billion worldwide, finishing its theatrical run as the highest-grossing film of 2013 and the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time; it ranked as the highest-grossing animated film of all time from March 2014 until August 2019. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 251 reviews. (Full article...)
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  Michael Curtiz in a 1928 portrait

  
  Michael Curtiz (1886–1962) was a Hungarian-born American film director whose career spanned from 1912 to 1961. During this period, he directed 178 films. He began his cinematic career in Hungary, then moved to Austria, and, finally, to the United States. As his biographer, Alan K. Rode, notes, "A cinematic pioneer, Curtiz made a seamless transition from hand-cranking cameras in silent films to directing the first sound feature where the characters spoke their parts. He led the way in two- and three-color Technicolor, directed the first motion-picture produced in VistaVision, and worked extensively in CinemaScope." Rode also notes that "he helmed rousing adventures, westerns, musicals, war movies, romances, historical dramas, horror films, tearjerkers, melodramas, comedies, spectacles, and film noirs".
  
  Born in Budapest, Curtiz graduated from Hungary's Royal Academy of Theatre and Art in 1906. After six years as a stage actor and director, he joined the nascent Hungarian film industry. His first film credit was the 1912 drama, Maés Holnap ("Today and Tomorrow"). In 1913, after directing several films, Curtiz traveled to Denmark to hone his skills as an apprentice for director August Blom. Returning to Hungary, he became a freelance director for several film companies. In 1919, Curtiz immigrated to Vienna, and became one of Austria's top film directors. His first film there was Die Dame Mit Dem Schwarzen Handschuh ("The Lady with the Black Gloves", 1919), starring his wife, Lucy Doraine. Among his subsequent Austrian films were the two-part epic Sodom and Gomorrah (1922), and Die Sklavenkönigin ("The Slave Queen", 1924). The latter film was released in the United Kingdom as The Moon of Israel. Harry Warner, one of the founders of Warner Bros., instructed his brother, Jack, to view the film. After doing so, they were impressed enough to offer Curtiz a contract to direct in the United States. (Full article...)
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  Niven in the 1948 film Enchantment

  
  
  The British actor David Niven (1910–1983) performed in many genres of light entertainment, including film, radio and theatre. He was also the author of four books: two works of fiction and two autobiographies. Described by Brian McFarlane, writing for the British Film Institute (BFI), as being "of famously debonair manner", Niven's career spanned from 1932 until 1983.
  
  After brief spells as an army officer, whisky salesman and with a horse racing syndicate, he was an uncredited extra in his screen debut in There Goes the Bride; he went on to appear in nearly a hundred films, the last of which was in 1983: Curse of the Pink Panther. During his long film career, he was presented with a Golden Globe Award for his part in The Moon Is Blue (1953) and was nominated for a BAFTA for the titular lead in Carrington V.C. (1955). For his role as Major Pollock in the 1958 film Separate Tables, Niven was awarded the Academy and Golden Globe awards for a performance where "the pain behind the fake polish was moving to observe". According to Sheridan Morley, Niven's other notable works include The Charge of the Light Brigade (1938), The Way Ahead (1944), A Matter of Life and Death (1946)—judged by the BFI to be one of the top twenty British films of all time—The Guns of Navarone (1961) and the role of Sir Charles Litton in three Pink Panther films. (Full article...)

News

Wikinews film category

• September 2: Tributes paid to recently deceased US actor Chadwick Boseman
• October 7: Mockumentary Mister America has world premiere
• May 16: Actor Doris Day dies at 97
• January 22: Former U.S. intelligence agent Tony Mendez, architect of 'Argo' rescue, dies at 78

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