By Josh Abraham
Our selected actress to be our “2011 Hollywood Actress of the Year” is Michelle Williams. Her performances have established her as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after and respected actors earning her two Academy Award® nominations.
As 2011 winds to a close and the announcement of Oscar nominations approaches, I thought it might be interesting to catch up with some of the films many thought, at one time or another, would factor into this year’s awards race but never did.
Some screened at festivals in search of a distributor but didn’t find one; others found a distributor, but the distributor decided it lacked the money, manpower or time to mount a campaign this year. Some had distributors before they were in the can and simply were not completed in time to be released this year; others were completed in time to be released this year, but their distributors had their hands full with other contenders and decided to hold them until next year.
It is important to remember that just because a film is not part of this year’s awards race doesn’t mean it won’t be part of next year’s. True, some of these titles will never be heard from again — but others could follow in the footsteps of, say:
Without further ado, here is the class of 2011:
By Josh Abraham
This year’s winner of the Hollywood Fashion Awards – Best Dressed at Gala Ceremony: actress Michelle Williams.
The 15th annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment, will honor Academy Award nominee Bennett Miller with its 2011 Hollywood Director Award.
Miller is being recognized for his work on the critically acclaimed blockbusterMoneyball, which was adapted fromMichael Lewis’s best-selling novel and stars Brad Pitt as Oakland A’s general managerBilly Beane. Miller will collect his statuette at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony, which will take place at the Beverly Hilton on Oct. 24.
The 15th annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment, will honor Academy Award winner George Clooney with its 2011 Hollywood Actor Award.
The 15th annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment, will honor Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan with its 2011 Hollywood Supporting Actress Award. Mulligan is being recognized for her performance as an emotionally disturbed young woman who moves in with her sex-addicted brother in Shame, as well as for her portrayal of a young mother in need of protection in Drive. Additionally, Bérénice Bejo (The Artist), Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Elle Fanning (Super 8), Amber Heard (The Rum Diary), Andrea Riseborough (W.E), Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), and Anton Yelchin (Like Crazy) will be the recipients of this year’s Hollywood Spotlight Award, which recognizes young up-and-comers for breakthrough performances. All of the aforementioned honorees will collect their statuettes at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony, which will take place at the Beverly Hilton on Oct. 24, 2011.
The 15th annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards has disclosed its 10 nominees for the 2011 Hollywood Movie Award, a category that celebrates the most popular film of the year as determined by the general public through voting on the Yahoo! Movies website. The winner will be honored at the Hollywood Film Awards gala ceremony, which will take place at the Beverly Hilton on Oct. 24, 2011.
The 15th annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment, will honor Golden Globe winner Letty Aronson with its Hollywood Producer Award for Midnight in Paris, Michel Hazanavicius with its Hollywood Breakthrough Director Award for The Artist, Oscar winner Diablo Cody with its Hollywood Screenwriter Award for Young Adult and two-time Oscar nominee Alberto Iglesias with its Hollywood Film Composer Award for both Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Skin I Live In. All four individuals will collect their statuettes at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony, which will take place at the Beverly Hilton on Oct. 24.
Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of spending about 45-minutes on the telephone with Michelle Williams, who is not only one of America’s finest actresses — and, at 30, will probably remain one of them for decades to come — but who is also a deeply intelligent woman; a devoted single mother; and a real survivor. (She’s also not bad on the eyes!)
Williams became a star at the tender age of 17 on the hit TV show “Dawson’s Creek” (1998-2003) — I remember when it happened because I’m about the same age as her and often tuned in. She proved that she had the acting chops to match her looks in a number of early films, but especially “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), for which she received a best supporting actress Oscar nod. She attracted the interest of the tabloids when she first began dating her “Brokeback” co-star Heath Ledger, with whom she would eventually have a daughter, Matilda — and again in early 2008, when Ledger died suddenly. After a period of mourning and seclusion, Williams reemerged in a series of roles that brought her widespread acclaim — from the bare-bones indie “Wendy and Lucy” (2008) to the eccentric ensemble piece “Synecdoche, New York” (2008) to the Martin Scorsese-mystery “Shutter Island” (2010) — and, before long, she’ll be seen portraying another movie star who died far too young, Marilyn Monroe, in a biopic entitled “My Week with Marilyn.” Things have never looked better for her in terms of her career, but she’s not ruling out the possibility that she might wake up one day, decide that she’s had enough of it all, and call it quits. There’s more to life than being a movie star, she has learned.
Over the course of our conversation — a full transcript of which follows — Williams and I discussed virtually all of the above. We focused particularly, however, on the pinnacle achievement of her career up to this point: her remarkable performance in Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine” (The Weinstein Company, 12/31, NC-17, trailer), a gritty, honest, adult drama about the complexities of a relationship. (To me, at least, it’s somewhat reminiscent of a play and film that preceded it by half a century, “A Streetcar Named Desire.”) To play the part of a woman who falls in — and, six years later, out of — love with the same man (Ryan Gosling), a lot was asked of Williams — extensive emotional and physical nakedness, a quick weight gain, and even some tap-dancing — and, as anyone who has seen the film can attest, she certainly rose to the occasion.