Portal:Film

The Film Portal

Man working with a movie projector in a movie theater, 1958

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A film (British English) – also called a movie (American English), motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick – is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and the art form that is the result of it. (Full article...)

Featured articles -

  Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

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One Chance is a 2013 British biographical film about opera singer and Britain's Got Talent winner Paul Potts, directed by David Frankel and written by Justin Zackham. It was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. (Portal:Film/Featured content)

General images -

The following are images from various film-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  Frame from a c.1912 Chronochrome film (from History of film technology)
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  The Hollywood Sign (from Film industry)
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  Poster for a Biograph Studios release from 1913 (from Film industry)
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  Nestor studio, 1911 (from Film industry)
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  Cinématographe Lumière at the Institut Lumière, France (from History of film technology)
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  A surviving two-color-component image from the first Technicolor feature film, The Gulf Between (1917) (from History of film technology)
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  Off Plus Camera Film Festival in Kraków, 2012, with Andrzej Seweryn, Daniel Olbrychski, and Wojciech Pszoniak on stage. (from Film industry)
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  Publicity still for the Egyptian film My Wife, the Director General (1966) (from Film industry)
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  GIF animation from retouched pictures of The Horse in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge (1879). (from History of film technology)
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  Poster for the 1956 Egyptian film Wakeful Eyes starring Salah Zulfikar and Shadia (from History of film)
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  Louis Poyet's engraving of the mechanism of the "fusil photographique" as published in La Nature (april 1882) (from History of film technology)
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  The Pathé Brothers, by Adrien Barrère.

  (from Film industry)
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  The Babelsberg Studio near Berlin was the first large-scale film studio in the world (founded 1912) and the forerunner to Hollywood. It still produces global blockbusters every year. (from Film industry)
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  London IMAX has the largest cinema screen in Britain with a total screen size of 520 m². (from Film industry)
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  Discounted DVD home video film releases sold in the Netherlands (from Film industry)
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  Georges Méliès (left) painting a backdrop in his studio (from History of film)
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  Original script from the 1989 film Batman (from History of film)
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  Charlie Chaplin (from History of film)
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  William Friese-Greene (from Film industry)
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  A shot from Raja Harishchandra (1913), the first film of Bollywood. (from Film industry)
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  Maria Germanova in Anna Karenina (1914) (from Film industry)
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  The Cinématographe Lumière in projection mode (from History of film technology)
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  Cinema admissions in 1995 (from History of film)
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  Old Chinese Cinema in Qufu, Shandong (from Film industry)
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  Film still from Dickson Greeting (from History of film technology)
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  A.E. Smith filming The Bargain Fiend in the Vitagraph Studios in 1907. Arc floodlights hang overhead. (from History of film)
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  The first two shots of As Seen Through a Telescope (1900), with the telescope POV simulated by the circular mask (from History of film)
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  An electrotachyscope
  American Scientific, 16/11/1889, p. 303

  (from History of film technology)
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  A still from The Story of the Kelly Gang (Australia, 1906; 80 min.) (from Film industry)
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  Salah Zulfikar and Nadia Lutfi in Saladin the Victorious (1963) (from History of film)
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  Publicity still for the Egyptian film Yahya el hub (1938) (from Film industry)
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  Animated GIF of Prof. Stampfer's Stroboscopische Scheibe No. X (Trentsensky & Vieweg 1833) (from History of film technology)
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  The Wizard of Oz (from History of film)
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  A frame from the Lumière brothers staged comedy film, L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895) (from History of film)
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  Edward Raymond Turner's three-color projector, 1902 (from History of film technology)
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  Insert shot in Old Wives for New (Cecil B. DeMille, 1918) (from History of film)
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  Italian neorealist movie Bicycle Thieves (1948) by Vittorio De Sica, considered part of the canon of classic cinema (from History of film)
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  Max Skladanowsky (right) in 1934 with his brother Eugen and the Bioscop (from History of film technology)
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  Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director (from History of film)
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  The Babelsberg Studio near Berlin was the first large-scale film studio in the world (founded 1912) and the forerunner to Hollywood. It still produces global blockbusters every year. (from History of film)
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  Flying pelican captured by Marey around 1882. He created a method of recording several phases of movement superimposed into one photograph (from History of film technology)
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  The Jazz Singer (1927), was the first full-length film with synchronized sound. (from History of film technology)
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  Czermak's 1855 Stereophoroskop (from History of film technology)
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  Don Juan is the first feature-length film to use the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronized musical score and sound effects, though it has no spoken dialogue. (from History of film)
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  A production scene from the 1950 Hollywood film Julius Caesar starring Charlton Heston (from History of film)
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  Complex vignette shot in die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess) (from History of film)
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  A scene from Raja Harishchandra (1913) – credited as the first full-length Indian motion picture. (from Film industry)

Selected image

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in the state of Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the U.S.

Did you know...

• ... that Golden Horse Awards–winning film composer Luming Lu worked as a cram-school tutor before pursuing a career in music?
• ... that 24 Hour Psycho slows down Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho to two frames per second, stretching its duration to a full 24 hours?
• ... that although the 1950 Mexican film Un día de vida (pamphlet pictured) bombed with domestic audiences, it became a classic in Yugoslavia?
• ... that despite having roles in more than 170 films, Josef Somr preferred acting in theatre?
• ... that Fred Rogers created and hosted a television documentary series titled Old Friends ... New Friends due to his concern that older generations were getting more isolated from younger generations?

Selected biography -

1921 publicity photo

Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American actress. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th greatest female movie star of Classic Hollywood cinema.

Having acted on stage with her sister as a child, Gish was a prominent film star from 1912 into the 1920s, being particularly associated with the films of director D. W. Griffith. This included her leading role in the highest-grossing film of the silent era, Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915). Her other major films and performances from the silent era are: Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), La Bohème (1926), and The Wind (1928). (Full article...)

Featured lists -

  Per a review process, Featured lists are considered to be the best list articles on English Wikipedia.

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  Hayao Miyazaki received several awards and nominations for his direction and screenplay.

  The Boy and the Heron (Japanese: 君たちはどう生きるか, Hepburn: Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, lit. 'How Do You Live?') is a 2023 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Produced by Studio Ghibli, the Japanese title references Genzaburō Yoshino's 1937 novel of the same name. The Japanese voice cast includes Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Ko Shibasaki, Aimyon, Yoshino Kimura, Takuya Kimura, Kaoru Kobayashi, and Shinobu Otake. The film follows a boy named Mahito Maki during the Pacific War who discovers an abandoned tower in his new town after his mother's death and enters a fantastical world with a talking gray heron.
  
  The film was released in Japanese theaters on July 14, 2023, by Toho. It had its international premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, and after preview screenings on November 22, it was released theatrically in the United States on December 8, 2023. It was generally acclaimed by critics; on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% from 250 critics, with an average rating of 8.5 out of 10. , the film has grossed US$294.2 million internationally, making it the fifth highest-grossing Japanese film of all time. (Full article...)
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  Peter Sellers was one of the best known comedians of his generation.

  
  The British actor and comedian Peter Sellers (1925–1980) performed in many genres of light entertainment, including film, radio and theatre. He appeared in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show, recorded a number of hit comic songs and became known internationally through his many film characterisations, among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series. The filmmakers John and Roy Boulting described him as "the greatest comic genius [Britain] has produced since Charles Chaplin".
  
  Sellers's career on radio, film, television and record spanned from 1948 until his death. He made his radio debut on ShowTime in 1948, followed by appearances in Ray's a Laugh, Starlight Hour, The Gang Show, Henry Hall's Guest Night and It's Fine to Be Young. Along with Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine, he took part in the radio series The Goon Show (1951–60). Throughout his career, Sellers made a number of television appearances, in character roles and for interviews and advertisements. His stage appearances were few, largely because he had been unhappy with the touring he had done as a child with his family. During his career, he also released a number of albums containing sketches and comic songs; the songs were undertaken in a variety of comic characters. (Full article...)
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  Veer-Zaara is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by Yash Chopra and written by Aditya Chopra. The film stars Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, and Rani Mukerji, while Manoj Bajpayee, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Boman Irani, Kirron Kher, Divya Dutta, and Anupam Kher form the supporting cast. Set against the background of India–Pakistan relations, it focuses on the titular star-crossed lovers—Veer Pratap Singh (Khan), an Indian Air Force pilot, and Zaara Hayaat Khan (Zinta), a Pakistani woman—whose love story spans across two decades amid trials and tribulations and the young lawyer Saamiya Siddiqui (Mukerji) who tries to help the couple. The soundtrack of Veer-Zaara is based on music by Madan Mohan, which was later revised by his son Sanjeev Kohli. The film was shot by Anil Mehta on sets that were designed by Sharmishta Roy and was edited by Ritesh Soni.
  
  Filmed on a production cost of ₹180 million (US$2.2 million), it premiered on 12 November 2004 and received widespread critical acclaim. A major commercial success, the film emerged as India's highest-grossing film of the year, earning ₹976.4 million (US$12 million) in both India and abroad. The British academic Rachel Dwyer of the British Film Institute included the film in her "10 Great Bollywood Romance Films" listing. The film won 34 awards out of 92 nominations; the story, screenplay direction, performances of the cast, soundtrack, and the lyrical composition garnered the most attention from various award groups. (Full article...)
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  The 73rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best of 2000 in film and took place on March 25, 2001, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 23 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and was directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Steve Martin hosted the show for the first time. Three weeks earlier in a ceremony at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California held on March 3, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Renée Zellweger.
  
  Gladiator won five awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Traffic with four awards and Almost Famous, Big Mama, Erin Brockovich, Father and Daughter, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, Pollock, Quiero Ser, U-571, and Wonder Boys with one. The telecast garnered almost 43 million viewers in the United States. (Full article...)
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  Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (English: You Live Only Once) is a 2011 Indian coming-of-age film directed by Zoya Akhtar, who also co-wrote the film along with Reema Kagti. It is produced by Excel Entertainment. The film stars an ensemble cast of Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol and Farhan Akhtar, with Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin in supporting roles. The musical score for the film was composed by the trio Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy. Its cinematography was provided by Carlos Catalan. The film narrates the story of three friends on a bachelor trip and how each of them discover themselves and overcome their problems and insecurities.
  
  Made on a budget of ₹550 million (US$6.6 million), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was released on 5 July 2011 and grossed over ₹1.53 billion (US$18 million) worldwide. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, surveyed 7 reviews and judged 100 percent to be positive. The film garnered awards and nominations in several categories, with particular praise for its direction, screenplay, and the performances of its cast. As of 2015, the film has won 33 awards from 66 nominations. (Full article...)
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  Advertisement, 1916.

  
  
  Mary Pickford (1892–1979) was a Canadian-American motion picture actress, producer, and writer. During the silent film era she became one of the first great celebrities of the cinema and a popular icon known to the public as "America's Sweetheart".
  
  Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto and began acting on stage in 1900. She started her film career in the United States in 1909. Initially with the Biograph film company, she moved to the Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP) in 1911, then briefly to the Majestic Film Company later that same year, followed by a return to Biograph in 1912. After appearing in over 150 short films during her years with these studios she began working in features with Zukor's Famous Players Film Company, a studio which eventually became part of Paramount Pictures. By 1916 Pickford's popularity had climbed to the point that she was awarded a contract that made her a partner with Zukor and allowed her to produce her own films. In 1919 Pickford teamed with D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks to create United Artists, an organization designed to distribute their own films. Following the release of Secrets (1933) Pickford retired from acting in motion pictures. However, she remained active as a producer for several years afterwards. She sold her stock in United Artists in 1956. (Full article...)
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  Producer and star Ryan Reynolds received the most nominations for Deadpool with a total of sixteen.

  
  Deadpool is a 2016 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the eighth installment of the X-Men film series. The film was directed by Tim Miller from a screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and stars Ryan Reynolds in the title role alongside Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T.J. Miller, Gina Carano, Leslie Uggams, Brianna Hildebrand, and Stefan Kapičić. In Deadpool, Wade Wilson hunts the man who gave him mutant abilities, but also a scarred physical appearance, as the wisecracking, fourth wall-breaking antihero Deadpool.
  
  After spending ten years in "development hell", Deadpool received a green light from Fox with a much smaller budget than is usually given to a big superhero film, $58 million. This gave the production team—including Miller in his directorial debut— the freedom to create the film that they desired, after Reynolds' portrayal of the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was not well received. Focus was placed on reproducing the tone, humor, and violence of the comics. Deadpool premiered at the Grand Rex in Paris on February 8, 2016, and was released in the United States on February 12, 2016. The film became a financial and critical success, grossing over $783 million and receiving an 85% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (Full article...)
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  Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a 2003 adventure film directed by Peter Weir. He and screenwriter John Collee based the film on several novels in the Aubrey–Maturin series written by Patrick O'Brian. Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany starred in the film, alongside a large ensemble cast. A Samuel Goldwyn Films production, Master and Commander had three American distributors, 20th Century Fox, Miramax Films, and Universal Studios. Fox released the adaptation in North America, while Miramax and Universal served as its distributors overseas. It was released in US theaters on 14 November 2003, where it earned $25.7 million on its opening weekend, debuting in second place behind Elf. Since then, Master and Commander reached a US box office total of more than $93.9 million and after its release in foreign countries over the following few months, its worldwide gross ended at around $212 million. The movie was well received by film critics, with an approval rating of 85 percent on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.
  
  Master and Commander garnered various awards and nominations following its release, ranging from recognition of the film itself to its direction, screenwriting, cinematography, and other technical categories. Performances by the cast were also honored, mainly Crowe for Best Actor, Bettany for Best Supporting Actor, and Max Pirkis for Best Young Actor. The adaptation received ten Academy Award nominations but only won in two categories for Best Cinematography and Best Sound Editing; in a ceremony otherwise dominated by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (which won every award it received a nomination for), these were the only two of the ten Master and Commander categories where Return of the King failed to earn a nomination. At the 57th British Academy Film Awards, Master and Commander received eight nominations, ultimately winning in four of them, including the David Lean Award for Achievement in Directing. Weir's direction received a total of eleven nominations, while he and Collee's screenwriting earned four. The overall film received twelve nominations, coming away with accolades at the American Film Institute Awards, London Film Critics Circle Awards, and National Board of Review Awards. The Golden Globes Awards and Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards each saw the movie earn three nominations but leave empty-handed. (Full article...)
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  Her is a 2013 American science-fiction romantic drama film written, directed, and produced by Spike Jonze. The film's musical score was composed by Arcade Fire, with the cinematography provided by Hoyte van Hoytema. It marks Jonze's solo screenwriting debut. The film follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a man who develops a relationship with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), a female voice produced by an intelligent computer operating system. The film also stars Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, and Olivia Wilde.
  
  The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 12, 2013. Warner Bros. Pictures initially provided a limited release for Her at six theaters on December 18. It was later given a wide release at over 1,700 theaters in the United States and Canada on January 10, 2014. The film grossed a worldwide total of over $47 million on a production budget of $23 million. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, surveyed 270 reviews and judged 94 percent to be positive. (Full article...)
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  Aniston in 2011

  
  
  American actress Jennifer Aniston made her film debut in the 1988 comic science fiction film Mac and Me in an uncredited role of a dancer. Two years later, she made her television debut in the series Molloy (1990) followed that year by a starring role in Ferris Bueller, a television adaptation of the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off; both series were cancelled in their first seasons. In 1993, she had her first major film role in the horror comedy Leprechaun. She was offered a spot as a featured player on Saturday Night Live but turned this down to accept a starring role on the NBC television sitcom Friends (1994–2004).
  
  Aniston gained worldwide recognition for portraying Rachel Green on Friends, a role which earned her five Primetime Emmy Award nominations (two for Supporting Actress, three for Lead Actress), winning one for Lead Actress and also a Golden Globe. During its ninth and tenth seasons, Aniston became one of the highest-paid television actors of all time, earning $1 million for each episode. In 2003, Aniston appeared in the comedy Bruce Almighty, opposite Jim Carrey. The film grossed $484 million worldwide, making it Aniston's biggest commercial success in film. In 2004, she starred in the romantic comedy Along Came Polly alongside Ben Stiller, and in 2006, she appeared in the romantic comedy The Break-Up, opposite Vince Vaughn. (Full article...)

News

Wikinews film category

• September 2: Tributes paid to recently deceased US actor Chadwick Boseman
• October 7: Mockumentary Mister America has world premiere
• May 16: Actor Doris Day dies at 97
• January 22: Former U.S. intelligence agent Tony Mendez, architect of 'Argo' rescue, dies at 78

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