Natalie Hershlag, known professionally as Natalie Portman, is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career from her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving multiple accolades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Darren Aronofsky is an American filmmaker. His films are noted for their surreal, melodramatic, and often disturbing elements, frequently in the form of psychological fiction.
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and former actress. She has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Golden Lion, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Todd Haynes is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender roles.
Shirin Neshat is an Iranian photographer and visual artist who lives in New York City, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Her artwork centers on the contrasts between Islam and the West, femininity and masculinity, public life and private life, antiquity and modernity, and bridging the spaces between these subjects.
Shabnam Tolouei is an Iranian actress, theatre director and playwright. She is currently forbidden from working in Iran by the government because of her religion, the Baháʼí Faith, which is subject to state sanctioned persecution. Since December 2004 she is living in Paris, France. and became naturalized French citizen in 2019.
Brady James Monson Corbet is an American actor and filmmaker. Corbet started his career acting in films such as Thirteen (2003), Mysterious Skin (2004), Funny Games (2007), Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), Melancholia (2011), and Clouds of Sils Maria (2014). He also acted in the fifth season of the action series 24 (2006) and the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2015).
Benjamin Millepied is a French dancer and choreographer, who has lived and worked in the United States since joining the New York City Ballet in 1995, where he became a soloist in 1998 and a principal in 2002. He has also created choreography for the company, and choreographed pieces for other major companies. He retired from the NYCB in 2011.
Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco, California was founded in 1996 by Todd Hosfelt to exhibit contemporary international artists working in all media.
Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological horror film directed by Darren Aronofsky from a screenplay by Mark Heyman, John McLaughlin, and Andres Heinz, based on a story by Heinz. The film stars Natalie Portman in the lead role, with Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder in supporting roles. The plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake by the company of New York City Ballet. The production requires a ballerina to play the innocent and fragile White Swan, for which the committed dancer Nina Sayers (Portman) is a perfect fit, as well as the dark and sensual Black Swan, which are qualities better embodied by the new rival Lily (Kunis). Nina is overwhelmed by a feeling of immense pressure when she finds herself competing for the role, causing her to lose her tenuous grip on reality and descend into madness.
The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize or Gish Prize is given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." It is among the most prestigious and one of the richest prizes in the American arts. The 2019 winner Walter Hood received $250,000. The founders Dorothy Gish (1898–1968) and Lillian Gish (1893–1993) were sisters, famous as actresses from the silent era of film and mid-century theatre. About the prize, established in Lillian Gish's will, she said: "It is my desire, by establishing this prize, to give recipients of the prize the recognition they deserve, to bring attention to their contributions to society and encourage others to follow in their path." It was established in 1994 by the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize Trust and is administered by JPMorgan Chase Bank.
Pablo Larraín Matte is a Chilean filmmaker. He is known for directing films such as No (2012), Neruda (2016), Jackie (2016), Spencer (2021), El Conde (2023), and Maria (2024). Larraín and his brother Juan de Dios co-produced Sebastián Lelio's A Fantastic Woman (2017), which was the first Chilean film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2021, Larrain directed the Apple TV+ psychological romance horror miniseries Lisey's Story.
The 63rd annual Berlin International Film Festival took place in Berlin, Germany, between 7 and 17 February 2013. Chinese film director Wong Kar-wai was announced as the president of the jury and his film The Grandmaster was the opening film of the festival.
Jane Got a Gun is a 2015 American Western film directed by Gavin O'Connor and written by Brian Duffield, Joel Edgerton, and Anthony Tambakis. The film stars Natalie Portman, Edgerton, Noah Emmerich, Rodrigo Santoro, Boyd Holbrook and Ewan McGregor.
Natalie Portman is an Israeli-American actress and filmmaker. She made her film debut in Luc Besson's action thriller Léon: The Professional, which starred her as the young protégée of a hitman. She followed this by appearing in Michael Mann's crime thriller Heat (1995), Ted Demme's romantic comedy Beautiful Girls (1996), and Tim Burton's science fiction comedy Mars Attacks! (1996). Three years later, her supporting role as the precocious, responsible daughter of a narcissistic mother played by Susan Sarandon in the drama Anywhere but Here earned Portman her first Golden Globe Award nomination. In the same year, she played Padmé Amidala in the first of the Star Wars prequel trilogyStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which brought her international recognition. She reprised the role in its sequels Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005).
Shoja Azari is an Iranian-born visual artist and filmmaker based in New York City. He is known for his films and multimedia installations.
The Death & Life of John F. Donovan is a 2018 Canadian drama film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Xavier Dolan, in his English-language debut. The film stars Kit Harington, Jacob Tremblay, Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Thandiwe Newton, Ben Schnetzer, and Jared Keeso. It deals with themes of celebrity, tabloid media in Hollywood, mother-son relationships, and homosexuality.
Performa is an American nonprofit arts organization known for its Performa Biennial, a festival of performance art that happens every two years in various venues and institutions in New York City. Performa was founded in 2004 by art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg. Since its inception 2005, Performa curators have included Defne Ayas, Tairone Bastien, Mark Beasley, Adrienne Edwards, Laura McLean-Ferris, Kathy Noble, Charles Aubin, Job Piston, and Lana Wilson. The organization commissions new works and tours performances premiered at the biennial. It also manages the work of choreographer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer.
The Voice of a Woman (VOW) is an organization founded by Maureen A. Bryan in 2009, as a platform for the works of women filmmakers, artists and thought leaders internationally. The Voice of a Woman Festival, Awards, Talks and Masterclasses are presented each year in London, New York and Cannes.
Amei Wallach is an American filmmaker, art critic journalist, and author from New York. Her documentaries profiling artists include: Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, The Mistress and the Tangerine (2008), Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here (2013), and Taking Venice. Her writings have appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian, Vanity Fair, and Art in America, and numerous publications. From 2000 to 2005, Wallach served as president of the U.S. Section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA/USA).
