Martin Charles Scorsese is an American and Italian film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Directors Guild of America Awards. He has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana and Frank Vincent. The film is an adaption of former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It follows the career of LaMotta, played by De Niro, his rise and fall in the boxing scene, and his turbulent personal life beset by rage and jealousy.
Goodfellas is a 1990 American biographical crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book Wiseguy by Pileggi. Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino, the film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980.
James Howard Woods is an American actor. He is known for fast-talking intense roles on stage and screen. He received various accolades including three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as nominations for two Academy Awards. He started his career in minor roles on and off-Broadway. He made his Broadway debut in The Penny Wars (1969). He returned to Broadway in Borstal Boy (1970), The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1971), Moonchildren (1972), and Finishing Touches (1973). He made his television breakthrough alongside Meryl Streep, playing her husband in the acclaimed NBC miniseries Holocaust (1978).
William R. Bright was an American evangelist. In 1951 at the University of California, Los Angeles, he founded Campus Crusade for Christ as a ministry for university students. In 1952 he wrote The Four Spiritual Laws. In 1979 he produced the film Jesus.
Joseph Frank Pesci is an American actor and musician. He is known for portraying tough, volatile characters in a variety of genres and for his collaborations with Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese in the films Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), and The Irishman (2019). He also appeared in Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Moonwalker (1988), JFK (1991), A Bronx Tale (1993), and The Good Shepherd (2006). Pesci's comedy roles include such films as the first two installments in the Home Alone franchise (1990–1992), My Cousin Vinny (1992), and the Lethal Weapon franchise (1989–1998).
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, is a non-profit civil liberties group founded in 1999 with the stated mission of protecting free speech rights on college campuses in the United States. FIRE was renamed in June 2022, with its focus broadened to speech rights in American society in general.
Raymond Allen Liotta was an American actor. He first gained attention for his role in the film Something Wild (1986), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination. He was best known for his portrayals of Shoeless Joe Jackson in the film Field of Dreams (1989) and Henry Hill in the film Goodfellas (1990). Liotta appeared in numerous other films, including Unlawful Entry (1992), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), John Q. (2002), Identity (2003), Killing Them Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), and Cocaine Bear (2023).
The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is both a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs and also loosely based on the real-life Boston Winter Hill Gang; the character Colin Sullivan is based on the corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, while the character Frank Costello is based on Irish-American gangster and crime boss Whitey Bulger. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, with Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Alec Baldwin, Anthony Anderson and James Badge Dale in supporting roles.
The Bedford Diaries is an American drama television series that premiered on March 29, 2006, on The WB and concluded its first season on May 10, 2006. The series was created by Tom Fontana and Julie Martin. This series was canceled on May 18, 2006, after one season.
The Stanford Review is a student-run right-wing newspaper that serves Stanford University in Stanford, California. It was founded in 1987 by Peter Thiel and Norman Book.
Rebecca Forstadt is an American voice actress, best known for playing young female roles in various animated series. After studying theater at Orange Coast College, in Costa Mesa, California, Forstadt began her acting career by working at Knott's Berry Farm's Bird Cage Theater, performing melodramas, often as the damsel in distress character. Later, she went to Hollywood where she worked as a wardrobe mistress on such television shows as The White Shadow and Hill Street Blues, as well as for the film S.O.B.. She also spent several years doing live theater in the Los Angeles area. Most notably, she won some recognition for her portrayal of the character Josette in the world premiere of Eugène Ionesco's Tales for People Under 3 Years of Age at the Stages Theatre Center in 1982. She starred in several low-budget movies such as Mugsy's Girls, with Ruth Gordon and Laura Branigan, and Round Numbers with Kate Mulgrew, Samantha Eggar, and Shani Wallis. She also appeared as a television actress in Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, and L.A. Law. Her voice acting breakthrough came when she landed the leading role of Lynn Minmei in the English version of Robotech, the popular anime series of the 1980s. Since then, she has voiced hundreds of other anime characters like Nunnally Lamperouge in Code Geass, Rika Furude in When They Cry, Monomi from Danganronpa 2 Goodbye Despair, and Tima from Metropolis and has branched into non-anime cartoons, live-action shows, commercials and radio work, and has performed background voices for movies such as Antz, Dr. Dolittle, and The Santa Clause.
Jonah Hill is an American actor, producer, writer and director. He is known for his comedic roles in films including Superbad (2007), Knocked Up (2007), Get Him to the Greek (2010), 21 Jump Street (2012), This Is the End (2013), and 22 Jump Street (2014). For his performances in Moneyball (2011) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Californication is an American comedy-drama television series, created by Tom Kapinos, which aired for seven seasons on Showtime from August 13, 2007, to June 29, 2014. The show follows New Yorker Hank Moody, a troubled novelist who moves to California and suffers from writer's block. His drinking, womanizing, and drug abuse complicate his relationships with his longtime lover, Karen, and their daughter, Becca . The show's other main characters are Hank's best friend and agent Charlie Runkle and Charlie's wife Marcy. Recurring themes are sex, drugs, and rock and roll, all of which are featured regularly, as well as the seedier side of Los Angeles. The show won several awards, including two Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe Award.
Mafia films—a version of gangster films—are a subgenre of crime films dealing with organized crime, often specifically with Mafia organizations. Especially in early mob films, there is considerable overlap with film noir. Popular regional variations of the genre include Italian Poliziotteschi, Chinese Triad films, Japanese Yakuza films, and Indian Mumbai underworld films.
Robert Anthony De Niro is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the most influential actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2009, De Niro received the Kennedy Center Honor, and earned a Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016.
The Detroit Film Critics Society is a film critic organization based in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 2007, and comprises a group of over twenty film critics. To become a member, the critic must have reviewed at least twelve films a year in an established publication, with no more than two different critics per publication admitted. It presents annual awards at the end of the year, for the best films of the preceding year.
The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 American epic biographical black comedy crime film co-produced and directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Terence Winter, based on Jordan Belfort's 2007 memoir of the same name. It recounts Belfort's career as a stockbroker in New York City and how his firm, Stratton Oakmont, engaged in rampant corruption and fraud on Wall Street, leading to his downfall. Leonardo DiCaprio, who was also a producer of the film, stars as Belfort in his fifth collaboration with Scorsese following Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006) and Shutter Island (2010). The film also stars Jonah Hill as his business partner and friend Donnie Azoff, Margot Robbie as his second wife, Naomi Lapaglia, and Kyle Chandler as FBI agent Patrick Denham.
Conor Marie Leslie is an American actress. Beginning her career in the late 2000s, her first major role was in the thriller film Chained (2012). She has worked frequently on television, including as a series regular on the Discovery Channel historical Western Klondike (2014), the Yahoo! Screen science fiction comedy Other Space (2015), and the Fox crime drama Shots Fired (2017). From 2015 to 2018, she also appeared on the first three seasons of the Amazon Prime Video alternate history thriller The Man in the High Castle. Leslie gained further prominence for portraying Donna Troy / Wonder Girl on the DC Universe / HBO Max superhero series Titans (2018–2021) and was part of the main cast during the second and third seasons.
Hocus Pocus 2 is a 2022 American fantasy comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher, written by Jen D'Angelo and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. A sequel to the 1993 film Hocus Pocus, it stars Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and Doug Jones reprising their roles, with Sam Richardson, Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, Tony Hale, and Hannah Waddingham joining the cast in new roles.
