Norman Frederick Jewison was a Canadian filmmaker. He was known for directing films which addressed topical social and political issues, often making controversial or complicated subjects accessible to mainstream audiences. Among numerous other accolades, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director three times in three separate decades, for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and Moonstruck (1987). He was nominated for an additional four Oscars, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award, and won a BAFTA Award. He received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1999.
Agnes of God is a 1979 play by American playwright John Pielmeier which tells the story of a novice nun who gives birth but does not believe she has. After the child is found dead, a psychiatrist and the mother superior of the convent clash during the resulting investigation. The title is a pun on the Latin phrase Agnus Dei.
The Monk: A Romance is a Gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis, published in 1796 across three volumes. Written early in Lewis's career, it was published before he turned twenty, and he withheld his name from the first edition. It tells the story of a virtuous monk who gives into his lustful urges, setting off a chain of events that leave him damned. It is a prime example of the type of Gothic that specializes in horror.
Meg Tilly is an American-Canadian actress and writer.
Quiet as a Nun is a thriller novel, written by Antonia Fraser. First published in 1977, it features Fraser's sleuthing heroine Jemima Shore as she revisits the convent school where she was educated following the mysterious death of one of the nuns. A six-part television dramatisation of the book was part of ITV's anthology series Armchair Thriller in 1978.
The Sands of Time is a 1988 action novel by author Sidney Sheldon. The novel follows the adventures of four women who are forced to leave their Spanish convent for the outside world of threat, violence and passions; and two men who are pitted against each other in a fight to the death.
Sven Vilhem Nykvist was a Swedish cinematographer and filmmaker.
Jessica is a historical novel based on a true story by Bryce Courtenay. It was published in 1998 and like other works from Courtenay covers several years in the life of the main character: Jessica Bergman. It was adapted into a mini-series starring Leeanna Walsman and Sam Neill which aired on Australian television in 2004. Jessica was voted Best Mini Series at the 2004 Chicago International Film Festival. It twice won the APA Who Weekly Reader's Choice Award, in 1999 and 2000.
Clara Allegra Byron was the illegitimate daughter of the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, and Claire Clairmont.
Nunsense (1985) is a musical comedy with a book, music, and lyrics by Dan Goggin. Originating as a line of greeting cards, Goggin expanded the concept into a cabaret show that ran for 38 weeks, and eventually into a full-length musical. The original Off-Broadway production opened December 12, 1985, running for 3,672 performances and becoming the second-longest-running Off-Broadway show in history. The show has since been adapted for television, starring Rue McClanahan, and has spawned six sequels and three spin-offs.
Erentrude was a saint and abbess, born during the end of the 7th century, probably in present-day Germany or Austria. She was born into a Franconian-Merovingian royal house, and was the niece of Rupert of Salzburg. She left her home country to assist Rupert in establishing religious communities in Salzburg; in about 700, he built a convent, Nonnberg Abbey, and installed her as its first abbess. She and the nuns at Nonnberg served the poor, needy, and ill, striking a balance between living as cloistered nuns and engaging in charitable works. Erentrude died on 30 June 718. Her fame for healing miracles and intercession grew after her death, and many legends have arisen throughout the centuries since her death. In 2006, Erentrude's image appeared on the Austrian Nonnberg Abbey commemorative coin. Her feast day is celebrated on 30 June.
Sister Act is a musical based on the hit 1992 film of the same name with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater, book by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner, and additional material by Douglas Carter Beane. After having a regional premiere in 2006 in Pasadena, California, the original West End production opened on June 2, 2009, at the London Palladium, starring Patina Miller and produced by Stage Entertainment and Whoopi Goldberg. Subsequent productions have been seen on Broadway and in many countries around the world.
The Girl in a Swing is a 1988 American supernatural erotic drama film directed by Gordon Hessler and starring Meg Tilly, Rupert Frazer, Nicholas Le Prevost, and Elspet Gray. Based on the 1980 novel The Girl in a Swing by Richard Adams, the film is about an English antique dealer who travels to Copenhagen where he meets and falls in love with a mysterious German-born secretary, whom he marries. Knowing nothing about her family or background, he soon discovers a darker side to his new bride.
Her Life's Story is a 1914 American silent supernatural drama film directed by Joe De Grasse and featuring Lon Chaney and Pauline Bush. It was written by James Dayton, based on a poem called "The Cross" by Miriam Bade Rasmus. The film is now considered to be lost.
Philomena is a 2013 drama film directed by Stephen Frears, based on the 2009 book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by journalist Martin Sixsmith. The film stars Judi Dench as Philomena Lee, an elderly woman who has been searching for her son for 50 years, and Sixsmith's efforts to help her find him.
I, the Worst of All is an Argentine film directed by María Luisa Bemberg. The film was released in 1990 and is a biopic on the life of Juana Inés de la Cruz. It was based on Octavio Paz's Sor Juana: Or, the Traps of Faith. The film premiered at the 47th Venice International Film Festival where it received the OCIC Award - Honorable Mention. The film was selected as the Argentine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 63rd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
The Innocents, also known as Agnus Dei, is a 2016 drama film directed by Anne Fontaine, which features Lou de Laâge, Agata Kulesza, Agata Buzek and Vincent Macaigne in its cast. The script is by Sabrina B. Karine, Pascal Bonitzer, Anne Fontaine and Alice Vial, after an original idea by Philippe Maynial. Maynial took inspiration from the experiences of his aunt, Madeleine Pauliac, a French Red Cross doctor who worked in Poland after World War II.
Novitiate is a 2017 American drama film written and directed by Maggie Betts in her feature directorial debut. Starring Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo, Morgan Saylor, Dianna Agron, Julianne Nicholson, Liana Liberato, Denis O'Hare, and Maddie Hasson, the film follows a young woman (Qualley) who starts to question her faith as she trains to become a nun.
St. Agatha is a 2018 American horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and starring Sabrina Kern and Carolyn Hennesy. It premiered at the Overlook Film Festival on April 20, 2018.
Future Home of the Living God is a dystopian novel and work of speculative fiction by Louise Erdrich first published on November 14, 2017, by HarperCollins. The novel follows 26-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, an Ojibwe woman raised by white parents, who visits her birth mother's reservation just as the United States becomes increasingly totalitarian following a reversal of evolution.
