Throughout his career, Alan Ladd Jr. has distinguished himself as one of the film industry's most groundbreaking, respected executives and producers. His reputation precedes him. His films have grossed billions of dollars, garnered over 150 Oscar nominations, 50 Oscar wins, and a seemingly endless array of other accolades. Ladd began his career in 1963 as a talent agent with clients including Judy Garland, Warren Beatty, and Robert Redford. Five years later, he moved to London, producing his first nine films, working with such actors as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Marlon Brando. In 1973, Twentieth Century Fox persuaded Ladd to return to Los Angeles and three years later, was named President. Ladd soon commissioned George Lucas to write “Star Wars.” The resulting franchise grossed billions of dollars, became a worldwide phenomenon, and, in introducing the blockbuster to the world, forever changed the face of moviemaking. In addition to the wild success of “Star Wars” and “Empire Strikes Back,” Ladd ushered through such films as “Norma Rae,” “All That Jazz,” “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Alien,” and Mel Brooks' “Young Frankenstein.” In 1979, Ladd formed The Ladd Company, producing successes including “The Right Stuff,“ “Police Academy,” “Night Shift,” and “Blade Runner.” Under this banner, Ladd also won his first Best Picture Academy Award for “Chariots of Fire.” In 1985, Ladd dissolved The Ladd Company to run MGM/UA. As Chairman/CEO, Ladd was responsible for hits including “A Fish Called Wanda,” “Moonstruck,” “Spaceballs,” “Willow,” and “Thelma and Louise.” In 1993, Ladd reestablished The Ladd Company and soon won his second Best Picture Academy Award for “Braveheart.” Ladd followed this smash with the “Brady Bunch” movies, “Man In The Iron Mask,” “An Unfinished Life, “ and will soon release Ben Affleck's directorial debut, “Gone, Baby, Gone,” starring Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris. Ladd's career, already spanning five decades, is still going strong.
Canadian from Montréal (Quebec)
*Introduced the first cinema classes in a university in Canada.
*Co-founded the Cinematheque canadienne.
*Founded and directed the Conservatory of Cinematographic Art of Montréal from 1968 to 1995.
*Wrote and produced the feature film "No More Words."
*Founded the Canadian Student Festival (the oldest film festival in Canada).
*Founded the Quebec International Film Festival.
*Is President of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
*"Histoire(s) du cinema" (1977-1981) by Jean-Luc Godard is the result of his work with Serge Losique.
*Is the president of the Montreal World Film Festival, which he founded in 1977.
*Co-founded INIS (Institut National de l'Image et du Son).
*Wrote, directed and produced "East meets West on the Silk Road" a 6-hour docudrama. (2006)
Nicola Piovani, born in Rome, is a pianist, composer, and orchestra conductor, pupil of the Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis, began his career as a film music composer with "N.P" by Silvano Agosti and “In the Name of the Fatherby” Bellocchio. He has collaborated with many Italian directors, such as Monicelli, Moretti, Tornatore, Giuseppe Bertolucci, the Taviani brothers, Fellini; and with foreign directors such as Ben Von Verbong, Bernard Favre, Pal Gabor, George Sluizer, Bigas Luna, John Irvin, Philip Lioret, Eric-Emmanuel Smith; writing more than 130 soundtracks, has created soundtracks for many successful Italian TV shows, wrote incidental music for many plays by well-known authors for the most important Italian directors. He created the music for many theatre musicals. He is often on tour in Italy and abroad, with his Orchestra Aracoeli and Compagnia della Luna, which he founded together with Vincenzo Cerami. He also actively works as a composer of songs (also for Fabrizio De Andre and Roberto Benigni) and chamber music. Awards and recognitions: David di Donatello in 1986 and 1994 for "Ginger and Fredand Dear Diary," Nastro d'argento for Best Music in 1991; Ciak d'oro in 1986; four editions of the Colonna Sonora Award (Soundtrack Award) ; SIAE Career Award and the Rota Award in 1997; an Oscar in 1999 and a Grammy Award nomination in 2000 for “Life is Beautiful” by Roberto Benigni; Ciak d'Oro and David di Donatello in 2001 for The Son's Room soundtrack; Nastro d'Argento for “Pinocchio” in 2003; Cesar Award nomination for "L'Equipier."
Wu started writing short stories for newspapers in 1975, when he was still an accounting major in college. After penning his first screenplay in 1978, Wu entered Central Motion Picture Corporation as a creative supervisor and worked with several leading Taiwanese New Wave directors such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang. Wu has since written more than 80 screenplays that were made into films, and has become one of the leading artists of the Taiwanese Cinema of the 1980s. Nien-Jen Wu made his directorial debut in 1994 with "A Borrowed Life" (Dou-sang). The award winning movie commemorates Wu's Japanese-educated, hard-working coal-miner father. The film won the Grand Prize at The Torino Film Festival in Italy, and Best Actor and The International Critics Award in The Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece. Martin Scorsese also has cited A Borrowed Life as one of his favorite films, and picked the film as the one of the best films of the 1990s. In 1996, Wu wrote and directed his second film "Buddha Bless America" (Tai-pin-tien-guo 1996), a political satire set in the 1960s. Besides his directing and writing career, Wu appears in film cameos from time-to-time. But it was not until he acted in several commercials that his true acting talent was discovered. He played the lead ("NJ") in Edward Yang's film, "Yi Yi" (2000), which was critically acclaimed and won several international awards (including Best Director for Yang at Cannes). Currently, Nien-Jen Wu runs his own production company "Wu's Productions" now, and actively writes, directs, produces and performs in both commercials and television programs.
Born in Tokyo. After graduating from Municipal 10th Women's High School, Tokyo (currently named Toshima High School), she joined Shin-Toho Studio. She made her film debut in 1950 with "Mado kara tobidasedirected" by Koji Shima. Since then, she has appeared in many films including "Okasan" (Mikio Naruse, 1952), "The Tower of Lilies" (Tadashi Imai, 1953), "Tokyo Story" (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953), "A Story from Chikamatsu; The Tale of the Crucified Lovers" (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954), "Deep River" (Kei Kumai, 1995) and Akira Kurosawa's films – "The Lower Depth" (1957), "Red Beard" (1965) and "Not Yet" (1993). In 1990, she received the Best Supporting Actress award of Kinema Junpo Awards and the Japan Movie Critics Award for "Mt. Aso's Passions" directed by Kei Kumai, and also won the Kinuyo Tanaka Award and the Best Supporting Actress prize of Japan Academy Prize for "Not Yet." She also has a long career in stage and TV. Her main TV credits include NHK's TV series "Kura" in 1996, based on the original story by Tomiko Miyao, and NHK's TV series "Futarikko" (1996-1997). Recent film credits include "Letter from the Mountain," "Blue Stokings," and "Red Whale and White Snake" (Released in Nov. 2006). She was presented with the Medal with Purple Ribbon in autumn 1998 and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette in autumn 2004. She published a book, "Himeyuri tachi no Inori" (1992, The Asahi Shimbun Company).
Born on August 19 in 1934 in Nagano Prefecture. After graduating from Tokyo University, French literature department in 1957, he joined Toei, Tokyo film studio. In the same year, as an assistant director, he firstly met with Ken Takakura for "Aoi Unabara" directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi. He made his directorial debut with "Hiko shojo Yoko" in 1966. Since then, starting with "Zigoku no okite ni asu wa nai" in 1966, he created many masterpieces with Ken Takakura including six films from "Abashiri Bangaichi" series, "Winter's Flower" in 1978, "Station" in 1981, "Izakaya Choji" in 1983, "Demon" in 1985, "A-UN" in 1989. Recent works include "Railroad Man" in 1999, "The Firefly" in 2001, "Akai tsuki" in 2003 and "The Haunted Samurai" in 2007.
