Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Berkshire, Branagh trained at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and has served as its president since 2015. He has directed and starred in numerous projects on stage and screen. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs, two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Olivier Award. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours, and was given Freedom of the City in his native Belfast in 2018. In 2020, he was ranked in 20th place on The Irish Times' list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top directors in a career spanning 147 films between 1939 and 1997, and garnered many international honours including 2 BAFTA Awards, 2 Best Actor awards at the Venice and Cannes film festivals, 2 Golden Globes, and 3 Academy Award nominations.
Kathryn Ann Bigelow is an American filmmaker. Bigelow has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010.
Rachel Miner is an American actress. She played Michelle Bauer on the television soap opera Guiding Light (1990–95). She made her film debut in Woody Allen's Alice (1990), and later earned critical acclaim for her leading role in Bully (2001). Her other film credits include The Black Dahlia and Penny Dreadful. She is also known for her portrayal of the demon Meg on the television series Supernatural (2005–20).
Matthew Avery Modine is an American actor. He rose to prominence through his role as U.S. Marine Private/Sergeant J.T. "Joker" Davis in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). Other films include Birdy (1984), Vision Quest (1985), Married to the Mob (1988), Gross Anatomy (1989), Pacific Heights (1990), Short Cuts (1993), Cutthroat Island (1995), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Oppenheimer (2023). On television, he portrayed Dr. Don Francis in the HBO film And the Band Played On (1993), the oversexed Sullivan Groff on Weeds (2007), Ivan Turing in Proof (2015), and Dr. Martin Brenner in Netflix's Stranger Things (2016–2022).
Marc Evans is a Welsh director of film and television, whose credits include the films House of America, Resurrection Man and My Little Eye.
Dark City is a 1998 neo-noir science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas and starring Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O'Brien, and Ian Richardson. The screenplay was written by Proyas, Lem Dobbs, and David S. Goyer. In the film, Sewell plays an amnesiac man who, finding himself suspected of murder, attempts to discover his true identity and clear his name while on the run from the police and a mysterious group known as the "Strangers".
Junji Sakamoto is a Japanese film director.
The Kill-Off is a 1989 American crime drama film written and directed by Maggie Greenwald, based on a 1957 novel of the same name by Jim Thompson. It was an independent film, produced by Lydia Dean Pilcher and shot by Declan Quinn in his film debut.
The Dark Hours is a 2005 Canadian horror film directed by Paul Fox and written by Wil Zmak.
Bruce Paul Abbott is an American film, stage, and television actor. Originally beginning his career in theater, Abbott later gained notoriety for his role as Dan Cain in the cult sci-fi horror films Re-Animator (1985) and Bride of Re-Animator (1990).
Raphael Sbarge is an American actor and filmmaker. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Jake Straka on The Guardian (2001–04), Jiminy Cricket / Dr. Archibald Hopper on Once Upon a Time (2011–18) and Inspector David Molk on the TNT series Murder in the First (2014–16). He is also known for voicing Carth Onasi in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), RC-1262 / "Scorch" in Star Wars: Republic Commando (2005) and Kaidan Alenko in the Mass Effect trilogy (2007–12).
Joyce Chopra is an American director.
A Short Film About Killing is a 1988 drama film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski and starring Mirosław Baka, Krzysztof Globisz, and Jan Tesarz. Written by Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, the film was expanded from Dekalog: Five of the Polish television series Dekalog. Set in Warsaw, Poland, the film compares the senseless, violent murder of an individual to the cold, calculated execution by the state. A Short Film About Killing won both the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, as well as the European Film Award for Best Film.
After Dark Horrorfest was an annual horror film festival featuring eight independent horror movies, sometimes with "secret" bonus films, all distributed by After Dark Films in the USA. The first HorrorFest was held in 2006.
Suri Krishnamma is a British film director and writer best known for feature films A Man of No Importance, New Year's Day and Dark Tourist and television dramas A Respectable Trade and The Cazalets. He has a number of festival awards, including 3 BAFTA nominations.
Monsieur Hire is a 1989 French crime drama film directed by Patrice Leconte and starring Michel Blanc in the title role and Sandrine Bonnaire as the object of Hire's affection. The film received numerous accolades as well as a glowing review from the American film critic Roger Ebert, who later added the film to his list of "Great Movies." The screenplay of the film is based on the novel Les Fiançailles de M. Hire by Georges Simenon and has original music by Michael Nyman. Simenon's novel was previously filmed in 1947 by Julien Duvivier as Panic (Panique) starring Michel Simon.
Hassan Fathi is an Iranian film director and screenwriter. He's one of the most well known and successful Iranian directors. Fathi is best known for his popular historical TV series.
