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Vanessa Redgrave is the Oscar, Emmy and Tony award-winning actress who has starred in dozens of films over several decades, but how many of those titles are classics? Let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest movies, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1937, Redgrave was almost destined to become a performer: her parents were Sir Michael Redgrave and Lady Redgrave (Rachel Kempson), her siblings were Lynn Redgrave and Corin Redgrave, her daughters are Joely Richardson and the late Natasha Richardson, and her son-in-law is Liam Neeson. So when it comes to the Redgraves, acting definitely runs in the family.

Redgrave earned her first Oscar nomination in 1966: Best Actress for “Morgan! A Suitable Case for Treatment.” She won 11 years later as Best Supporting Actress for “Julia” (1977) and competed four more times.

Unfortunately, her Oscar victory is best remembered for her controversial acceptance speech than for the performance itself:...

Out with the old, in with the new. Stream The Pitt, Harley Quinn, Fast Friends, and more on Max this January. Here’s the list of every movie and TV show coming to Max in January 2025:

Originals & featured: January 2: Isadora Moon (Max Original Series)

Based on the globally best-selling beloved book series by Harriet Muncaster, Isadora Moon follows the delightful adventures of a half-vampire, half-fairy girl, her friends at human school, and her wider magical family.

January 3: The Front Room (A24 Film)

Everything goes to hell for newly pregnant Belinda (Brandy) after her mother-in-law (Kathryn Hunter) moves in. As the diabolical guest tries to get her claws on the child, Belinda must draw the line somewhere…

January 9: The Pitt (Max Original Drama Series)

The Pitt is a realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the...

Warner Bros. Discovery has announced the movies, TV shows and live sports that will be available on the Max streaming service in January. The Max January 2025 lineup includes All Elite Wrestling (Aew) and Max Originals Harley Quinn Season 5, Isadora Moon, Mermicorno: Starfall, The Pitt, and the documentary Sons of Ecstasy.

The schedule includes HBO’s C.B. Strike: The Ink Black Heart, the documentary series An Update on Our Family, Real Time with Bill Maher Season 23, the comedy special Bill Maher: Is Anyone Else Seeing This?, and A24’s The Front Room, Look Into My Eyes, and A Different Man.

You can also tune into Max’s Workplace Watchlist, which highlights series, movies, and reality inspired by the premiere of the Max Original series The Pitt.

The Pitt Featured Programming

Isadora Moon (Max Original Series)

The 12-episode series debuts on January 2.

Based on the globally best-selling beloved book series by Harriet Muncaster,...

Another season of Bad Sisters from creator Sharon Horgan, based on Malin-Sarah Gozin’s 2012 Belgian television series Clan, is underway on Apple TV+ with all five Garvey sisters returning alongside newcomers Fiona Shaw and Thaddea Graham.

Following the wild pattern of events that unfolded in the first season, a murder mystery still haunts Eva (Horgan), Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), Ursula (Eva Birthistle), Bibi (Sarah Greene) and Becka (Eve Hewson) Garvey. The suspense and — at times — silliness as well as sisterhood continues with the first two episodes arriving Nov. 13 followed by one per week through December 23.

Read on for what to remember from Bad Sisters Season 1 ahead of Season 2.

The Prick, aka Grace’s Husband, Is Dead

Season 1 of Bad Sisters builds up to the death of John Paul (Jp) Williams (Claes Bang), husband of Grace (Anne-Marie Duff) one of the five Garvey sisters. The story weaves a back and forth narrative...

Thurston Moore is back, and limitless. The Sonic Youth founding guitarist has officially announced his ninth solo album, Flow Critical Lucidity. It marks his first full length album since 2021’s instrumental meditation Screen Time.

Along with the official album announcement, Moore has shared new single “Sans Limites” featuring Stereolab’s Lætitia Sadier. The track is a slow burn with electronic touches that swirl around a guitar and piano motif until Moore’s voice cuts in more than halfway through the five minute song.

Lyrically, “Sans Limites” is true to its title and explores many topics.

Thurston Moore has announced a new album titled Flow Critical Lucidity, which will arrive on September 20th via The Daydream Library Series. Today, along with the announcement, Moore released the single “Sans Limites,” featuring Stereolab’s Lætitia Sadier.

Flow Critical Lucidity will be Moore’s ninth studio album, and will feature the previously-released singles “Isadora,” “Hypnogram,” and “Rewilding.” The lyrics include references “inspired by nature, lucid dreaming, modern dance, and Isadora Duncan,” according to a press release.

Upon arrival on September 20th, Flow Critical Lucidity will be available on streaming, as well as on vinyl, CD, and cassette formats. Physical editions will include bonus songs. Pre-orders are ongoing.

The new single, “Sans Limites,” is out today, and features backing vocals by Sadier. Speaking about the song in a statement, Moore said, “‘Sans Limites’ begins with a cyclic guitar and piano figure which expands further and further with each revolution before...

Thurston Moore returns today to celebrate Earth Day with “Rewilding,” an ode to the UK’s land restoration and renewal program.

With a hypnotic, percussive-groove at the song’s center, Moore enters a nature-induced dream state. “This terrain is changing/ Rewilding, rearranging/ So I’m singing for animals/ Outside here just grazing,” Moore mutters at the song’s opening, with My Bloody Valentine bassist Deb Googe laying a thick, repetitive bassline beneath him.

“Don’t you dare wake me/ A butterfly just kissed me,” he sings. Though there are traces of menace and doubt in the song’s trance-like, psychedelic aura, the environmental renewal that Moore describes lends itself to flourishing peace. Stream “Rewilding” below.

“Rewilding” isn’t just a Thurston Moore x Earth Day special, it’s the latest offering from his forthcoming album Samurai Walkman: Flow Critical Lucidity. He previously shared album cuts “Hypnogram” and “Isadora,” which arrived...

On August 12, 2012, 750 million sets of eyes were entranced by the closing ceremony of the London Olympics, a spectacle celebrating the host city and nation. From under the stage emerged Eric Idle, surrounded by nuns on roller skates and Roman soldiers. Idle led the audience in a rendition of his hit comedy anthem “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. The live crowd joined in on every word, even thirty years after the song’s initial release.

Since the 1960s, Eric Idle has reminded us to “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. More than that, he has made doing so a lot easier with his unique brand of comedy and creativity. Idle rose to prominence with his fellow Pythons in the late 1960s and was a staple of screens big and small in the decades to follow. He has largely stepped away from the spotlight in recent years,...

Thurston Moore has opened up on the possibility of a Sonic Youth reunion, stating that it’s “something that’s always going to be on the table.”

The revelation comes in a new interview from Moore with The New York Times, regarding his forthcoming memoir, Sonic Life. When asked about the possibility of Sonic Youth getting back together, he didn’t seem thrilled with the prospect, but didn’t discount it entirely either.

“Everybody wants us to get back together,” he said. “I don’t foresee it happening because I think maybe it’s a little too unwieldy at this point.” Continuing, he explained that he’d “rather be like the Beatles and never get back together,” as he sees reunions as “a really typical and expected thing to do… that goes against the nature of what the band was.”

Nonetheless, he balanced out the potential cons with the possible pros,...

Vanessa Redgrave To Be Feted At European Film Awards

Vanessa Redgrave will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 36th European Film Awards this December. Across six decades, the actress has ratcheted up more than 150 film and TV credits. Having first achieved fame as Rosalind in a 1961 a televized Royal Shakespeare Company performance of As You Like It, she broke out in cinema in Karel Reisz’s 1966 comedy Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment. Redgrave won Best Actress in Cannes for the role and was also Bafta and Oscar nominated. Other key early credits include Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up, Reisz’s Isadora, Charles Jarrott’s Mary, Queen Of Scots, for which she won a Special David at the Italian David di Donatello Awards; Fred Zinnemann’s Julia, for which she won an Oscar and James Ivory’s The Bostonians and Howards End and James Gray’s Little Odessa.

Award

British actor Vanessa Redgrave will receive the European Lifetime Achievement award for her outstanding body of work at the European Film Awards.

Hailing from an illustrious family of actors, Redgrave’s first lead in “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment” (1966), by Karel Reisz, won her best actress at Cannes and scored BAFTA and Oscar nominations. She returned to Cannes in the following year as Jane, the mysterious woman in the park in “Blow Up” by Michelangelo Antonioni.

More Oscar nominations followed – in 1969 for her performance as Isadora Duncan in “Isadora” by Reisz, which again won her best actress at Cannes, and in 1972 for “Mary, Queen of Scots, by Charles Jarrott – which won her a special David at Italy’s David di Donatello Awards. Her performance in Fred Zinnemann’s “Julia” (1978) won her an Oscar, and she scored further nominations for James Ivory’s “The Bostonians” (1985) and “Howards End” (1993). In...

Award will be presented at European Film Awards in Berlin on December 9.

The European Film Academy is to present Dame Vanessa Redgrave with its European Lifetime Achievement Award at the 36th European Film Awards in Berlin on December 9.

Redgrave’s first lead film role was in Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966) by Karel Reisz which won her the best actress award in Cannes saw her nominated both the BAFTAs and the Oscars.

Redgrave returned to Cannes the following year as Jane, the mysterious woman in the park in Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni.

She won best actress again at...

Oscar-winning actress and longtime activist Vanessa Redgrave will be honored this year with the European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Redgrave will receive the honor at the 36th European Film Awards in Berlin on Dec. 9.

An acting icon who has deftly straddled theater, film and television in a career that has spanned more than six decades, Redgrave first made her name on the stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, before breaking into film work in 1966 with Karel Reisz’ Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment. The role, which won her the best actress prize in Cannes, launched her international career. A multitude of acting prizes have followed since including another best actress prize in Cannes, two Emmys, a Tony, two Golden Globes and two BAFTAs.

She has been nominated for an Academy Award six times — for performances in Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966), Isadora (1968), Mary, Queen of Scots...

As we approach O-Day and the 95th Academy Awards on March 12, it’s always fun to go back and look at the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories and revel in some of the trivia and shockers that have gone down on the awards season’s biggest stage. This is the rare year when Meryl Streep isn’t in the running, as her 21 overall nominations in the acting categories are nearly double the number of her closest female pursuer, Katherine Hepburn, who has 12. However, Hepburn still holds the all-time Oscar record with four acting wins. Streep has a mere three.

Here are some other actress category factoids to chew on:

Should Cate Blanchett win Best Actress this year for her role in “Tar,” she would tie Streep, Ingrid Bergman and Frances McDormand for second place behind Hepburn among actresses with three triumphs apiece. All four of Hepburn’s wins...

Cynthia Harris, who appeared in numerous Broadway and Off Broadway productions and is most widely known for playing the mother of star Paul Reiser’s character on the sitcom Mad About You, died October 3 in New York. She was 87.

Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery

Her death was announced by her family.

Harris, a co-founder in 1993 of Off Broadway’s The Actors Company Theatre, for which she had served as a both an actor and co-artistic director, also starred in the 1979 TV miniseries Edward & Mrs. Simpson, playing Wallis Simpson. She was nominated for a BAFTA Award for the performance.

Harris replaced Barbara Barrie in the original 1970 Broadway production of the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical Company, playing the character Sarah. She would return to Broadway in 1974 in Terrence McNally’s Bad Habits, opposite F. Murray Abraham, Doris Roberts and Paul Benedict.

Harris made her film debut in Isadora (1968) starring Vanessa Redgrave,...

Exclusive: UniFrance and Film at Lincoln Center have set the lineup for the 25th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema (March 5–15), the annual New York mini-festival dedicated to French filmmaking. The event will open with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s drama The Truth, starring Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve and Ethan Hawke.

For the first time, the festival is introducing an Audience Award. Additionally, the festival is expanding its industry-facing events with a day-long networking event to bring together French sales agents, French producers, and American industry on Friday, March 6.

Highlights of the 22-film lineup include Christophe Honoré’s On a Magical Night, for which Chiara Mastroianni won an award in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section; Quentin Dupieux’s satire Deerskin, starring Oscar winner Jean Dujardin and Adèle Haenel; Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc, which received a Cannes Special Jury Mention; Mounia Meddour’s Papicha, the story of young women’s resistance...

Though the cinematic landscape has changed over the past five decades, one thing has remained the same: the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, New York Film Critics Circle and National Society Film Critics have agreed to disagree on many of their choices of the best of the year. So, let’s travel back to awards season 50 years ago and see what these groups selected as the finest in filmmaker in 1969.

Best Picture

Academy Awards: The year of 1969 was truly a watershed for cinema and the Oscars reflected the numerous changes taking place in Hollywood and internationally. The Academy had one foot in tradition and one foot in contemporary cinema. But in terms of best film, “X” marked the spot as “Midnight Cowboy,” the then-x-rated gritty and poignant drama took home the best picture honor. It was the only time in Oscar history, the Academy...

Film editor Terry Rawlings, who earned BAFTA nominations for his work on Alien and Blade Runner as well as an Academy Award nomination for Chariots of Fire died Tuesday at his home in Hertfordshire, England. He was in his mid-80s.

Early in his career, he worked in the sound department in numerous films. His first credit as an editor was in 1977 with Michael Winner’s supernatural horror The Sentinel. Based on the novel of the same name by Jeffrey Konvitz, the film starred Cristina Raines, Chris Sarandon, Ava Gardner, and Burgess Meredith.

In addition to culturally relevant films such as Alien, Blade Runner, and Chariots of Fire, Rawlings is known for an extensive list of films including Watership Down (1978), Yentl (1983), Legend (1985), F/X (1986), Not Without My Daughter (1991), Alien 3 (1992), GoldenEye (1995), The Saint (1997), Entrapment (1999) and The Phantom of the Opera (2004).

He received his first BAFTA nomination for Best Soundtrack for the films Isadora and women in Love.

Hollywood has been rewarding portrayals of real people ever since George Arliss won the best actor Oscar for 1929’s “Disraeli,” but lately, it has been handing out the statuettes like swag bags.

In the 18 years since the clock struck 2000, 18 actors and actresses have won Oscars for portraying real people. In the preceding seven decades, the Academy Awards for lead performances in biographical films went to a total of just 25 actors — 17 men and eight women. The math underscores the contrast: 50 percent of Academy Awards for leading roles in this century have gone to actors for biographical portrayals compared to just 17 percent in all of the last one.

The gender gap has closed dramatically, too, with 10 wins for men and eight for women, with solid opportunities for more this year. Certainly, there will be many nominees, as many as four on the Best Actor ballot and three among women.

The Screen Actors...

Much like the Best Actress category, the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the 1970s went to some true living legends. This decade included the youngest acting winner in history, the shortest performance to win an Oscar in history, and the start for a woman who would go on to become the all-time nomination leader. So which Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner of the 1970s is your favorite? Look back on each and vote in our poll below.

Helen Hayes, “Airport” (1970)— Hayes won her second Oscar thanks to her role in “Airport” as Ada Quonsett, an older woman who makes a habit of being a stowaway on airplanes. She previously won an Oscar in Best Actress for “The Sin of Madelon Claudet” (1931). Hayes became the first woman to “Egot,” winning the grand slam of major awards: the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

SEEJessica Lange (‘Tootsie’) named top Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner of 1980s,...

The Oscar ceremonies have had their share of controversial moments over the years, from Marlon Brando sending a Native American surrogate to refuse his Best Actor Oscar for “The Godfather” to Michael Moore being booed off the stage when he tried to get political while accepting the Best Documentary trophy for “Bowling for Columbine.” No controversy was as big and dramatic though as the Best Supporting Actress category at the 1978 Oscar ceremony, which was awarded to Vanessa Redgrave for “Julia” (1977). On this the 40th anniversary of her win Gold Derby takes a look back at an incredibly memorable Oscar night.

Vanessa Redgrave was a popular and frequent nominee with academy members in her early years in film. She received three Best Actress nominations in quick succession for “Morgan” (1966), “Isadora” (1968) and “Mary, Queen of Scotts” (1971). For 1977 she received her first Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in “Julia.” That film...

This article marks Part 3 of the 21-part Gold Derby series Meryl Streep at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at Meryl Streep’s nominations, the performances that competed with her, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the contenders.

After a remarkable year in film in 1979, including her Academy Awards win for “Kramer vs. Kramer,” Meryl Streep took 1980 off from the big screen, instead focusing her energies on a stage musical of “Alice in Wonderland” that premiered at New York’s Public Theater in December 1980. While the production garnered middling notices, Streep received raves.

The following year, Streep not only returned to the screen but took on her first leading role in a screen adaptation of John Fowles‘ acclaimed 1969 novel “The French Lieutenant’s Woman.” Playwright Harold Pinter adapted the book for the screen and British filmmaker Karel Reisz, who worked wonders with Vanessa Redgrave...

Following a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, the first trailer has been released for Stéphanie Di Giusto‘s The Dancer (La Danseuse), half in English, half in French. However, it features some striking imagery to combat any loss of comprehension in its latter half for U.S. viewers not fluent in French. The film follows dancer Loïe Fuller (Soko) and her complex relationship with her protègè and rival (Gaspard Ulliel). Fuller was an inspiration for the Lumière Brothers, among others, and was the toast of the Folies Bergères at the turn of the 20th century.

We said in our review: “The cast is solid all-around. In the lead role, Soko has both the willful masculinity and a feminine vulnerability down. Playing Louis, Ulliel is his usual charismatic self, exuding an effortless, pansexual allure that enriches a rather underwritten character infinitely. And though she only appears later in the film,...

On this day in history as it relates to the movies...

1828 Feral teenager Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering Nuremberg, claiming to have been raised in total isolation. Theories abound and the story inspires many artists down the road including Werner Herzog in the film The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974).

1877 Influential dancer Isadora Duncan is born. Vanessa Redgrave gets an Oscar nomination playing her in Isadora! (1968)

1886 Al Jolson is born. Will later star in the first "talkie" The Jazz Singer (1927)

1894 Silent film star Norma Talmadge is born

1897 Bram Stoker's epistolary novel "Dracula" is published. Never stops being adapted for film and television but our hearts will always belong to Francis Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) despite the aggravating double possessive

1907 John Wayne was born. Did he always talk like that?

1913 Peter Cushing is born in England. Later stars in Hammer Horror films with his irl best friend Christopher Lee, the Dracula to his Van Helsing.

★★★★☆ British director Ken Russell passed away in 2011 leaving behind a life's work devoted to filmmaking at its most exuberant and vital. Russell made a number of films in the early part of his career which depicted artists brimming with the same enthusiasm of expression as the director himself. The Great Passions is one of two collections which the BFI are releasing to honour his distinctive approach to the biographical form. The three films collected here are dedicated to Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Dante's Inferno), Isadora Duncan (Isadora) and Henri Rousseau (Always On Sunday) - three artists whose eccentricity provide a perfect foil to Russell's own bravura style.

Read Robert McFadden's excellent New York Times obit of the British hero who died at 106, "one man who just decided to do the right thing," wrote Michael Phillips in the Wall Street Journal. A stock broker in the 1930s, Winton deferred a ski vacation to organize the rescue of hundreds of mostly Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, just before World War II began.  Among the 669 Jewish children who Winton sent via train to England before the arrival of the Nazis were filmmaker Karel Reisz ("Isadora," "The French Lieutenant's Woman," "Who'll Stop the Rain") as well as the mother of The Hollywood Reporter and Kcrw's Masters, who interviewed Winton in London for NPR some years ago. She spoke to Kcrw about Winton, below. ...

Editor behind Alien, Blade Runner, Chariots of Fire and Goldeneye to receive tribute event.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced that editor Terry Rawlings will be the subject of a BAFTA Tribute on Dec 7 at the organisation’s Piccadilly headquarters in London.

‘A BAFTA Tribute: Terry Rawlings’ will honour his contribution to picture and sound editing, and will celebrate a career spanning 50 years.

Nik Powell, chair of BAFTA’s Film Committee, said: “Terry Rawlings is one of the great editors of both sound and picture.

“For more than half a century his work has been admired by all – not least the huge audiences who have, maybe unknowingly, experienced his influence on films like The L Shaped Room, Women in Love and Bedazzled in the 1960s, The Duellists, The Great Gatsby and The Devils in the 1970s, through to classics such as Watership Down, Alien, Chariots of Fire, Yentl, [link...

(Brian De Palma, 15, Arrow, 1974)

In 1974, after a decade making low-budget, semi-underground movies, Brian De Palma thought he was about to enter the big time when 20th Century Fox paid $2m for this wild satire on indulgent rock musicians and the corrupt industry that exploited them. Basically it's a transposition of The Phantom of the Opera to the modern pop world, where an evil impresario, Swan (the diminutive, baby-faced composer Paul Williams,, who also wrote the songs), steals a pretentious rock cantata from Winslow Leach, its naive author, and frames him on drugs charge.

After he's been disfigured by a record-pressing machine, Winslow returns to seek revenge by haunting Swan's theatre, the Paradise. The piece also draws on Goethe's Faust, Wilde's Dorian Gray and Edgar Allan Poe, and refers to movies ranging from Psycho (the shower scene is reprised using a plunger) and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.

But De Palma...

Special From Next Avenue

By John Stark

Every movie I go to now stars people my age and older who are suffering. I can't take it anymore.

For a long time there weren’t very many movies about people over 50. Mature filmgoers, like me, were always kvetching: “Why don’t they make movies for grown-ups?”

Be careful what you wish for. Today, it seems, that’s all they’re making.

Personally, I’ve had enough of them.

I can’t stand seeing what their characters are going through. I know that their sufferings will soon be mine, if they aren’t already.

Over the weekend I saw "Quartet," which is set in a home for aging musicians in the English countryside. It stars Maggie Smith, Pauline Collins, Tom Courtenay and Billy Connolly -- all in their 70s. They play opera stars who once worked together. Their vocal talents have faded...

The second part of the first Reel Ink round-up of recent books on film includes the biography of a sometime Hollywood rebel, the history of a now forgotten British studio, a look at a film that remains one of the most controversial ever made in the UK, and a hugely compelling history of cinema by the great David Thomson.

Time was against me so I haven’t been able to get through all the reading goodness I’ve acquired in the past eight weeks or so, but I’ll catch up in January. Happy New Year!

It’s official: Dennis Hopper was an unrepentant douchebag off screen as well as on. The predominant impression that Peter L. Winkler’s Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of A Hollywood Rebel (The Robson Press) leaves one with is that Hopper was a deluded, misogynistic gasbag, a moderate talent who likely suffered from...

Political Animals, USA Network’s upcoming series by Greg Berlanti, has invited Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave to play an openly lesbian Supreme Court Justice. Political Animals stars three-time Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver as Elaine Barrish, who, like Hilary Clinton, is a former American First Lady turned Secretary of State. Now, how did an openly lesbian judge join the Supreme Court of the early 21st-century United States, a country where most Republican politicians (and their millions of supporters) continue to take a strong stance against gay rights? Or is Political Animals set in 2030 or whereabouts? And will Vanessa Redgrave’s lesbian Supreme Court Justice vote on the constitutionality of anti-marriage equality (aka "anti-gay marriage") laws in states such as Arizona and North Carolina? Stay tuned. In addition to Sigourney Weaver and Vanessa Redgrave, who won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her titular performance in Fred Zinnemann’s Julia (and...

They have a right to be pissed.

It's the most important morning of the year. Hollywood is temporarily jolted from its stupor for a ten-minute rollercoaster of natural highs and shattered dreams. Nothing but ... shattered dreams.

It's those shattered dreams that immediately become the focus after the Oscar nominations are announced. With only five slots per category, deserving actors are excluded, and that's when the fun begins, as the discussion about the "snubs" commences.

That was especially true this year, as a flurry of serious contenders were nowhere to be found. Charlize Theron, Tilda Swinton, Leonardo Dicaprio, and Albert Brooks were the names most bandied about, along with Andy Serkis (and they should really either nominate him, or give him a special Oscar for his unique contributions to film.)

Of course, Oscar has a history of overlooking interesting and memorable performances. Let's take a look at a few notable Oscar omissions.

Jessica Chastain, The Help 2012 Oscar Predictions – Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Albert Brooks, Kenneth Branagh, Nick Nolte, Viggo Mortensen The list of potential Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominees is nearly as long as the list of female cast members in Tate Taylor's socially conscious comedy-drama The Help. In fact, several The Help actresses are either likely or possible Oscar contenders. Much like in the Best Supporting Actor category, in which only Christopher Plummer is a true shoo-in for his role in Mike Mills' Beginners, the only shoo-in in the Best Supporting Actress category is The Help's Octavia Spencer, winner of a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award and BAFTA nominee. Now, how could North American critics' fave Jessica Chastain not be a shoo-in? Well, Chastain is a near shoo-in. Though not a strong probability, it's certainly possible that she won't get enough first/second place votes...

Pictured: Vanessa Redgrave in a scene from Isadora, 1968. Courtesy of A.M.P.A.S

Beverly Hills, CA . The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate the career of Oscar®-winner Vanessa Redgrave with its first-ever European tribute to an actor, on Sunday, November 13, in London. The event, hosted by David Hare, will include special guests Meryl Streep, Ralph Fiennes, Joely Richardson, James Earl Jones and Eileen Atkins. Past Academy President Sid Ganis will introduce the evening.

The salute will explore Redgrave’s dramatic range and exquisite skill. Hare has created three film sequences, each with its own narrative, showing the depth and array of characters that Redgrave has inhabited.

A member of the distinguished Redgrave acting family, Vanessa rose to prominence in 1961, playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Since then, she has made dozens of stage appearances and has appeared in more than 70 films.

Vanessa Redgrave Academy Salute: From Pariah to Honoree [Photo: Vanessa Redgrave, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Natasha Richardson, as ballerina Isadora Duncan in Isadora.] Later on, at the behest of producer Daniel Melnick (Straw Dogs, Making Love) screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (The Goddess, Network) prefaced his announcement of the Best Screenwriting Oscar with the following (also via Inside Oscar): Before I get on to the writing awards, there's a little matter I'd like to tidy up … at least if I expect to live with myself tomorrow morning. I would like to say, personal opinion, of course, that I'm sick and tired of people exploiting the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own personal propaganda. I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple "Thank you" would have sufficed. Chayefsky's use of the Academy Awards to make that particular political statement — that no political statements should...

Vanessa Redgrave The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate the career of Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave, one of the most distinguished performers of the second half of the 20th century, with its "first-ever European tribute to an actor." The Redgrave salute will take place on Sunday, November 13, in London. Hosted by two-time Oscar nominee David Hare (The Hours, The Reader), the event will feature special guests Meryl Streep, Ralph Fiennes, James Earl Jones, Eileen Atkins, and Redgrave's daughter Joely Richardson. Past Academy President Sid Ganis will introduce the evening. Who would have thought … Vanessa Redgrave, who has been reviled by many because of both her left-wing political stance and her support for the Palestinian cause. Back in March 1978, Redgrave used her Oscar victory (as Best Supporting Actress for Julia) to thank Academy members for voting for her despite pressure from "Zionist hoodlums." Some booed her speech and...

Hollywoodnews.com: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate the career of Oscar®-winner Vanessa Redgrave with its first-ever European tribute to an actor, on Sunday, November 13, in London. The event, hosted by David Hare, will include special guests Meryl Streep, Ralph Fiennes, Joely Richardson, James Earl Jones and Eileen Atkins. Past Academy President Sid Ganis will introduce the evening.

The salute will explore Redgrave’s dramatic range and exquisite skill. Hare has created three film sequences, each with its own narrative, showing the depth and array of characters that Redgrave has inhabited.

A member of the distinguished Redgrave acting family, Vanessa rose to prominence in 1961, playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Since then, she has made dozens of stage appearances and has appeared in more than 70 films. In addition to the Oscar she received for her supporting performance in “Julia” (1977), and her nominations for “Morgan!

Rebecca Hall is full of promise at 28 – but can she find the burning sense of need or danger required to take over an entire movie?

It's tricky being an actress. Think of it this way: any young actress would like to be in the movie Frost/Nixon. But she can see that most of the chewy parts are for men. However, that very clever writer Peter Morgan has written in a scene in which David Frost, on his way to America, meets an attractive young woman on the plane (let's call her Caroline Cushing), and thereafter carries her along with him as eye-catching back-up and ego masseuse in the whole Nixon enterprise. She goes out for food when he's doing research; she wears a series of moderately revealing summer clothes; and she evidently provides the opportunity for what Nixon regards gloomily and enviously as "fornicating".

It happens that the role...

London -- British screen doyenne Vanessa Redgrave is to receive the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Fellowship, the organization said Thursday.

Redgrave is scheduled to pick up the plaudit during this year's Orange British Academy Film Awards, dished out by BAFTA on Feb. 21.

The annual Fellowship award is the highest accolade given to an individual in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film.

Previous Fellows include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Christie, John Barry, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench. Last year's recipient was Terry Gilliam.

BAFTA chairman David Parfitt said: "She [Redgrave] is a hugely talented and respected actress who has served as an inspiration to the British film industry."

Added Redgrave: "Looking through the list of past recipients shows what a wonderful accolade this is, and the fact that Alfred Hitchcock was the very first recipient makes it even more special,...

Maurice Jarre, who wrote the hauntingly lovely "Lara's Theme" for "Dr. Zhivago" as well as the sweeping score for the epic "Lawrence of Arabia," has died. He was 84.

Jarre died in his home in Las Angeles, where he had lived for decades, Bernard Miyet, a friend of the composer and leader of the French musicians guild Sacem, said Monday. No cause of death was given.

"The world of film music is mourning one of its last great figures," Miyet said. "As well as his talent, Maurice Jarre cultivated an eternal good nature, a way of living and a simplicity that became legendary."

Jarre won three Academy Awards for best score for his work on the David Lean films "Lawrence of Arabia," "Dr. Zhivago" and "Passage to India." He also earned six other Oscar nominations for best score for "Sundays and Cybele," "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean," "Messenger of God,...

Czech-born The French Lieutenant's Woman director Karel Reisz has died in London at the age of 76. The acclaimed film-maker died on Monday, but the cause of his death has not yet been revealed. Reisz played a key role in championing the populist Free Cinema movement, along with Tony Richardson and Lindsay Anderson, starting with his 1960 debut working-class drama Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, which introduced audiences to Albert Finney. That was followed by a remake of thriller Night Must Fall, the dark comedy Morgan, which showcased David Warner and gave Vanessa Redgrave her first starring role, and the biopic Isadora, also with Redgrave. His first US film was 1974's The Gambler, starring James Caan, followed by others including The French Lieutenant's Woman, which brought Meryl Streep her first Best Actress Oscar nomination in 1981. Screenwriter James Toback says, "His films always had a look of both propriety and elegance. But it was as a superb director of actors - and a creator of stars - on which Karel's esteem rested." For the past decade, Reisz concentrated on directing plays in London, Dublin and Paris. He is survived by his wife, actress Betsy Blair, and three sons, Toby, Matthew and Barney.