Meryl Streep

List of awards and nominations received by Meryl Streep

This is a list of awards and nominations for Meryl Streep, whose acting career in motion pictures, television, and on stage spans over 30 years. As of 2009, Streep holds the record for the most acting Academy Award nominations received by any actor with 15; she has won twice (Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer in 1979 and Best Actress for Sophie's Choice in 1982). She also holds the record for the most Golden Globe Award nominations with 23, and along with Angela Lansbury and Jack Nicholson, she holds the record for the most Golden Globe wins with six.

Meryl Streep received an Honorary César at the 2003 César Awards and a Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 2004. In addition to her acting awards, Streep was named Woman of the Year by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals in 1980 and was the recipient of the Crystal Award from Women in Film in 1998. She was given a Gala Tribute by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2008.

Streep has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7020 Hollywood Boulevard.

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Academy Award for Best Actress

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Prior to the 49th Academy Awards ceremony (1977), this award was simply known as the Academy Award of Merit for Performance by an Actress. Since its inception, however, the award has commonly been referred to as the Oscar for Best Actress. While actresses are nominated for this award by Academy members who are actors and actresses themselves, winners are selected by the Academy membership as a whole.

Throughout the past 81 years, accounting for ties and repeat winners, AMPAS has presented a total of 82 Best Actress awards to 68 different people. Winners of this Academy Award of Merit receive the familiar Oscar statuette, depicting a gold-plated knight holding a crusader's sword and standing on a reel of film. The first recipient was Janet Gaynor, who was honored at the 1st Academy Awards ceremony (1929) for her performances in Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise. The most recent recipient was Kate Winslet, who was honored at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony (2009) for her performance in The Reader. In the first three years of the Academy Awards, individuals such as actors and directors were nominated as the best in their categories. Then all of their work during the qualifying period (as many as three films, in some cases) was listed after the award. However, during the 3rd Academy Awards ceremony (1930), only one of those films was cited in each winner's final award, even though each of the acting winners had had two films following their names on the ballots. For the 4th Academy Awards ceremony (1931), this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actress is nominated for a specific performance in a single film. Such nominations are limited to five per year. Until the 8th Academy Awards ceremony (1936), nominations for the Best Actress award were intended to include all actresses, whether the performance was in either a leading or supporting role. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony (1937), however, the Best Supporting Actress category was specifically introduced as a distinct award following complaints that the single Best Actress category necessarily favored leading performers with the most screen time. Nonetheless, May Robson had received a Best Actress nomination (Lady for a Day, 1933) for her performance in a clear supporting role. Currently, Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, and Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role constitute the four Academy Awards of Merit for acting annually presented by AMPAS.

Katharine Hepburn, with four wins, has more Best Actress Awards than any other actress. Eleven women have won two Best Actress Awards; in chronological order, they are Luise Rainer, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor, Glenda Jackson, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Jodie Foster, and Hilary Swank.

Only two actresses have won this award in consecutive years: Luise Rainer (1937 and 1938) and Katharine Hepburn (1967 and 1968).

Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Maggie Smith, Meryl Streep, and Jessica Lange have each won both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress awards.

Emma Thompson won a Best Actress Award for Howards End (1992) and a Best Adapted Screenplay Award for Sense and Sensibility (1995).

Katharine Hepburn and Meryl Streep hold the record of 12 nominations in the Best Actress category. Streep has been nominated 15 times (12 for Best Actress and 3 for Best Supporting Actress), which makes her the overall most-nominated performer in all acting categories.

There has been only one tie in the history of this category. This occurred in 1969 when Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand were both given the award. Unlike the earlier 1932 tie for Best Actor, however, Hepburn and Streisand each received the exact same number of votes. In a rare move the Academy extended an invitation (prior to the nomination process) to Steisand to become a member. Thus, presumably, it was her own vote that the tie is owed to.

Only twice have siblings been nominated for the Best Actress award during the same year: Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine in 1942; and Lynn Redgrave and Vanessa Redgrave in 1967.

Only two pairs of actresses have been nominated for Best Actress for the same role: Jeanne Eagels and Bette Davis as Leslie Crosbie in The Letter (1929 and 1940), and Janet Gaynor and Judy Garland as Vicki Lester in A Star is Born (1937 and 1954). In addition, Judi Dench and Kate Winslet both received nominations (Dench for Best Actress and Winslet for Best Supporting Actress) for their portrayals of Iris Murdoch at different ages in 2001's Iris. Winslet and Gloria Stuart were also both nominated (Winslet for Best Actress and Stuart for Best Supporting Actress) for their portrayals of Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic (1997).

The 71st Academy Awards (1999) presented the unique case of actresses being nominated in the same year for the same character in different films. Cate Blanchett was nominated for Best Actress for playing Queen Elizabeth I of England in Elizabeth, while Judi Dench was nominated for (and won) Best Supporting Actress for playing the same character in Shakespeare in Love.

Cate Blanchett is the only actress to be nominated twice for the same role (Queen Elizabeth I), first for 1998's Elizabeth and then again for 2007's Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

Halle Berry, who won in 2002 for her role in Monster's Ball, is the only woman of African-American descent to win the Best Actress award. six other black actresses have been nominated: Dorothy Dandridge, Diana Ross, Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Whoopi Goldberg, and Angela Bassett.

Charlize Theron is the only South-African actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her role in Monster (2003).

The only Asian actress to win is Vivien Leigh, whose mother has both an Irish and Indian background, while Merle Oberon, born to an Anglo-Sri Lankan mother and father of unknown origin, was nominated..

Only five actresses of Hispanic or Latin American descent have been nominated for the Best Actress award but as of 2008 none has yet won: Helena Bonham Carter (1997; her mother is Spanish), Fernanda Montenegro, Brazilian, (1998; the first Latin American actress ever nominated), Salma Hayek, Mexican, (2002), Catalina Sandino Moreno, Columbian, (2004), and Penélope Cruz, Spanish (2006). However, Cruz has won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Nicole Kidman is the only Australian actress to win the Best Actress award (The Hours, 2003); other Australian nominees include May Robson for "Lady for a Day" (1933), Judy Davis for A Passage to India (1984), Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), and Naomi Watts for 21 Grams (2004).

Sophia Loren and Marion Cotillard are the only actresses to win this award for a foreign-language performance: Loren for her Italian-language performance in Two Women (1961) and Cotillard for her French-language performance in La Vie en Rose (2007).

Jane Wyman, Marlee Matlin and Holly Hunter are the only actresses in the post-silent era to receive Academy Awards for non-speaking, in Wymans case, and predominently non-speaking, in Matlin and Hunters case, roles. Wyman, playing a deaf-mute rape victim in Johnny Belinda (1948), was the first person in the sound era to win an acting Oscar without speaking a line of dialogue. Matlin, who speaks just once when she argues with Actor William Hurt, won the award for her American sign language performance in Children of a Lesser God (1986), and Hunter, who narrates several scenes and speaks on camera in the last scene, (although her face is covered) for her British sign language role in The Piano (1993). Unlike Matlin, who is almost completely deaf in real life, Hunter and Wyman can hear.

No Best Actress winning or nominated performance is lost, although Sadie Thompson (1928) is incomplete and missing portions have been reconstructed with stills.

There have been no posthumous winners of the award. The only posthumous nomination of a woman for any acting award was Jeanne Eagels, who was nominated for Best Actress in 1929 for The Letter. She was the first woman to be posthumously nominated for an Oscar in any category.

The earliest nominee in this category who is still alive is Luise Rainer (1936 and 1937) followed by Joan Fontaine (1941). The earliest winner in this category who is still alive is Luise Rainer (1936 and 1937) followed by Joan Fontaine (1941).

In 1984, three of the five nominees: Sally Field in Places in the Heart, Jessica Lange in Country and Sissy Spacek in The River were all nominated for playing similar roles, farmers struggling to keep their farms running against the odds, a relatively rare role for female actors. Field took home the Oscar for her performance.

Following the Academy's practice, the films below are listed by year of their Los Angeles qualifying run, which is usually (but not always) the film's year of release. For example, the Oscar for Best Actress of 1999 was announced during the award ceremony held in 2000. Winners are listed first in bold, followed by the other nominees.

As the Academy Awards are based in the United States and are centered on the Hollywood film industry, the majority of Academy Award winners have been Americans. Nonetheless, there is significant international presence at the awards, as evidenced by the following list of winners of the Academy Award for Best Actress.

At the 37th Academy Awards (1965), all four of the top acting honors were awarded to non-Americans for the first time: Rex Harrison (British), Julie Andrews (British), Peter Ustinov (British), and Lila Kedrova (Russian-born French). This occurred for a second time at the 80th Academy Awards (2008), when the awards went to: Daniel Day-Lewis (Irish/British), Marion Cotillard (French), Javier Bardem (Spanish), and Tilda Swinton (British).

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Mamma Mia! (film)

Mamma Mia! (promoted as Mamma Mia! The Movie) is a 2008 stage-to-film adaptation of the 1999 West End musical of the same name, based on the songs of successful pop group ABBA, with additional music composed by ABBA member Benny Andersson. Produced by Universal Pictures in partnership with Playtone and Littlestar, it became the highest-grossing film musical of all time. The title originates from ABBA's 1975 chart-topper "Mamma Mia".

Meryl Streep heads the cast, playing the role of single mother Donna Sheridan. Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgård play the three possible fathers to Donna's daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried).

On August 29, 2008, Mamma Mia!: The Sing-Along Edition, with lyrics to the songs highlighted on the screen, was released in selected theaters.

On December 15, 2008, it was announced that Mamma Mia! had become the highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom of all time. The previous record was held by Titanic, which was released in the UK in 1998.

On the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi, 20-year-old bride-to-be Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried) nervously posts three wedding invitations ("I Have a Dream") to three different men. In response, from across the globe, they set off on their respective journeys.

Sophie's bridesmaids and best friends Ali and Lisa (Ashley Lilley and Rachel McDowall) arrive and she shares with them a secret. Sophie has found her mother's diary and learned she has three possible dads: New York-based Irish architect Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan), Swedish adventurer and writer Bill Andersson (Stellan Skarsgård), and British banker Harry Bright (Colin Firth). She sent their invites without telling her mother, believing that after she spends time with them, she will at last know who her real father is ("Honey, Honey").

Villa Donna owner Donna Sheridan (Meryl Streep) is ecstatic to reunite with old friends and former Donna and The Dynamos bandmates, wisecracking author Rosie (Julie Walters) and wealthy multiple divorcee Tanya (Christine Baranski), and reveals her mystification at her daughter's desire to get married. At the Villa, Sophie introduces Tanya and Rosie to true love Sky (Dominic Cooper), and tells them about their idea of designing a website to attract tourists to the island. Donna explains her precarious finances ("Money, Money, Money").

The three men arrive, and Sophie smuggles them to their quarters and explains that she, not her mother, sent the invitations. She begs the men to hide so Donna will have a surprise at the wedding: seeing the old friends of whom she "so often" favorably speaks. They overhear Donna working (humming "Fernando" to herself) in the storeroom below and the men swear to Sophie they will not reveal her secret.

However, Donna spies them and is dumbfounded to find herself face to face with the three former lovers she could never forget ("Mamma Mia"), and is adamant that they cannot stay. She confides in Tanya and Rosie ("Chiquitita") a secret she has kept from everyone — she is uncertain which of the three men is actually Sophie's father. Tanya and Rosie rally her spirits by getting Donna to join in with the female staff and islanders accompanying a musical number ("Dancing Queen").

Sophie finds the men aboard Bill's yacht, and they sail around the island of Skopelos ("Our Last Summer") and tell her stories of Donna as a carefree girl. Upon their return, Sophie musters up the courage to speak with Sky about her ploy, but loses her nerve. Sky and Sophie sing passionately to each other ("Lay All Your Love on Me"), but are interrupted by the bachelor party that has descended upon Sky to kidnap him for his last night of freedom.

At Sophie's bachelorette party, Donna, Tanya, and Rosie perform in a surprise one-night-only event as Donna and The Dynamos ("Super Trouper"). Sophie is delighted to see her mother rock out, but becomes nervous when the festivities are interrupted by the arrival of Sam, Bill and Harry. She decides to get each of her three prospective dads alone to talk.

While her girlfriends dance with the men ("Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)"), Sophie achieves her aim, finally learning from Bill that the old woman who gave Donna the money to invest in her Villa was his Great Aunt Sofia. Sophie guesses she must be her namesake and that Bill must be her father. She asks him to give her away and to keep their secret from Donna until the wedding.

Over the moon, Sophie returns to the party. But her happiness is short-lived as Sam and Harry each tell her they must be her dad and will give her away ("Voulez-Vous"). A shocked Sophie can't tell them the truth and, overwhelmed by the consequences of her action, faints on the dance floor.

In the morning, Rosie and Tanya reassure a frantic Donna they will take care of the men. Donna confronts Sophie in the courtyard, mistakenly believing Sophie wants the wedding stopped. Sophie angrily says that all she wants is to avoid her mother's mistakes and storms off. An upset Donna is accosted by Sam, full of fatherly concern at Sophie getting married so young. Donna dresses him down, and both realize they still have feelings for each other ("SOS").

Meanwhile, on Bill's boat, Bill and Harry are about to confide in each other, but are interrupted by Rosie. Similarly, down on the beach, Tanya and young Pepper (Philip Michael) continue their flirtations from the previous night ("Does Your Mother Know").

With her plans falling apart and wedding in jeopardy, Sophie knows it is time to come clean to Sky and ask for his help. He reacts angrily to his fiancée's deception and Sophie must turn to her mother for support. As Donna helps her daughter dress for their wedding, the rift is quickly healed and Donna reminisces about Sophie's childhood and how quickly she's grown ("Slipping Through My Fingers"). Then and there, Sophie decides the only parent she's ever known is the only one who should give her away. As the staff and bridesmaids accompany Donna and Sophie to the chapel, Sam intercepts Donna and begs her to talk. She reveals the deep pain she felt over losing him ("The Winner Takes It All").

After the ceremony begins ("Knowing Me, Knowing You" during the wedding march), Donna confesses to Sophie that her father is present but he could be any of the three candidates, whom Sophie now admits to having invited. The three men concur that they would be quite happy to be one-third of a father for such a girl as Sophie. She then tells Sky that they should postpone their wedding and travel the world, as they have always wanted. It appears that preparations have been in vain until Sam steps in and proposes to Donna. She accepts ("I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do") and the couple go through an impromptu ceremony. In this scene, it is revealed that Harry has also partnered up with one of the Greek background men. Harry's sexual orientation is hinted at in a few other places throughout the movie.

At the wedding reception, Sam sings to Donna ("When All Is Said and Done"), which prompts Rosie to make a play for Bill ("Take a Chance on Me"). All the couples present proclaim their love and, magically, water from Aphrodite's fountain of love bursts through the crack in the courtyard at Villa Donna ("Mamma Mia" reprise).

The story concludes as Sophie and Sky bid farewell to Skopelos island and sail away to a new life together ("I Have a Dream" reprise).

During the principal credits, Donna, Tanya, and Rosie reprise "Dancing Queen", followed by "Waterloo" with the rest of the cast. Finally, Amanda Seyfried sings "Thank You for the Music" over the end credits.

The soundtrack album was released July 8, 2008 by Decca. Because the film is based on a stage musical, the songs are new renditions, not performances by ABBA. Many of the songs have been changed, with some words altered to better fit the plot, or have sections spoken as dialogue, or were rearranged for orchestral backing, with guitar and Greek bouzouki (as in the final performance of "I Have a Dream").

The prologue of "I Have a Dream", "Chiquitita", "Waterloo", the reprises of "Mamma Mia" and "Dancing Queen" and "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" were filmed, but are not included on the soundtrack. Sophie and Bill's song "The Name of the Game" was cut from the final version of the film. The scene is included in the deleted scenes of the DVD release and the song remains on the soundtrack. "Thank You for the Music" appears as a hidden track, 38 seconds after "I Have a Dream" finishes (4:53).

Amanda Seyfried (Sophie) recorded a music video for the song "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" that was released in Europe and elsewhere. It is available on the 2-disc special edition DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

Most of the filming was done on the small Greek island of Skopelos (during August/September 2007), and the seaside hamlet of Damouchari in the Pelion area of Greece. On Skopelos, Kastani beach on the south west coast was the film's main location site. The producers built a beach bar and jetty along the beach, but removed them both when they left.

Other parts of the film were produced on the 007 stage at Pinewood Studios, where lighting and temperature could be controlled. Production offices for the film were based at Pinewood Studios.

The part of the film where two of the characters miss the last ferry to the island was filmed at the old port of Skiathos.

Both composers, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, appear in minor, uncredited roles in the film. Andersson, dressed as a fisherman, plays the piano in "Dancing Queen" as the cast dances; Ulvaeus is a Greek god (with lyre) showering the girls with gold dust during the closing credits.

Actress Meryl Streep had taken opera singing lessons as a child, and as an adult, she had previously sung in several movies, including Postcards from the Edge, Silkwood, Death Becomes Her, and A Prairie Home Companion.

The Mamma Mia! trailer was released the week of December 10, 2007 first on Entertainment Tonight, then released to the internet. A high quality version can be found on the film's official site.

Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog joined Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson at the Swedish premiere of the film, held at the Rival Theatre in Mariatorget, Stockholm, owned by Andersson, on July 4, 2008. It was the first time all four members of ABBA had been photographed together since 1986.

On September 8, 2008, at the National Movie Awards, Mamma Mia! won Best Musical and Best Actress (Meryl Streep) and was nominated for Best Actor (Pierce Brosnan). On December 11, nominations for the Golden Globe Awards were announced: Mamma Mia! was nominated for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy, and Meryl Streep for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. At the awards ceremony on January 11, 2009, the film won neither category. The film also received an American Music Award nomination for Best Soundtrack. The cast of the movie was nominated for Favorite Cast at the 35th People's Choice Awards but lost to The Dark Knight. In addition, the song "Mamma Mia", as performed by Meryl Streep, won the award for Favorite Song from a Soundtrack and the movie itself was nominated for Favorite Comedy Movie but lost to 27 Dresses. For the 62nd British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) Mamma Mia! received nominations for Outstanding British Film, Best Music and Judy Craymer was nominated as producer for the Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer for their First Feature Film. Pierce Brosnan's performance was nominated for and won Worst Supporting Actor at the 2009 Razzie Awards.

As of March 22, 2009, Mamma Mia! has grossed a worldwide total of $602,228,088 and is the fifth highest grossing film of 2008 as well as being the 42nd highest grossing film of all time. As of October 26 2008, it became the highest-grossing movie musical of all time worldwide . It is also the most successful British-made film of all time, as well as being the highest grossing film of all time at the UK box office, eclipsing the record previously held by Titanic on the December 16, 2008, some 20 weeks after the film's original release. This is not adjusted for inflation.

It is the third highest-grossing film of 2008 internationally (i.e. - outside of North America) with an international total of $457,521,736 and the twelfth highest gross of 2008 in North America (the US and Canada) with $144,130,063.

In the United Kingdom, Mamma Mia! has grossed £69,166,087 as of January 23, 2009, and is the highest grossing film of all time at the UK box office. The film opened at #1 in the U.K, taking £6,594,058 on 496 screens. It managed to hold onto the top spot for 2 weeks, narrowly keeping Pixar's WALL-E from reaching #1 in its second week.

When released on July 3 in Greece, the film grossed $1,602,646 in its opening weekend, ranking #1 at the Greek box office.

The film made $9,627,000 in its opening day in the United States and Canada, and $27,605,376 in its opening weekend, ranking #2 at the box office, behind The Dark Knight. At the time, it made Mamma Mia! the record-holder for the highest grossing opening weekend for a movie musical, surpassing Hairspray's box office record in 2007. On October 26, 2008, High School Musical 3: Senior Year took a weekend total $42 million, surpassing the record made by Mamma Mia!.

Because of Mamma Mia!'s financial success, Hollywood studio chief David Linde, the co-chairman of Universal Studios told The Daily Mail that it would take a while, but there could be a sequel. He stated that he would be delighted if Judy Craymer, Catherine Johnson, Phyllida Lloyd, Benny Andersson, and Björn Ulvaeus agreed to the project, noting that there are still plenty of ABBA songs to use. Also some recent reports have stated that if the sequel goes through that they may use some of the songs they cut from the first one. Also one song that they would love to have in the second one to be sung by Donna would be The Day Before You Came. Another than that details are being kept on the low, but they plan to keep the entertainment world up to date on any updates.

Mamma Mia! was released in Australia and New Zealand on DVD on November 6, 2008, and was released on Blu-ray on December 3. It was released on both DVD and Blu-ray in the UK and Norway on November 24 and November 26 respectively. It was released in US on December 16.

On November 24, Mamma Mia! became the fastest-selling DVD of all time in the UK, according to Official UK Charts Company figures. It sold 1,669,084 copies on its first day of release, breaking the previous record (held by Titanic) by 560,000 copies. By the end of 2008, The Official UK Charts Company declared it had become the biggest selling DVD ever in the UK, with one in every four households owning a copy (over 5 million copies sold). The record was previously held by Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl with sales of 4.7 million copies.

On November 26, 2008, Mamma Mia! became the best-selling DVD in Finland, by selling 110,000 copies and is the first DVD to earn a platinum award in that country.

In the United States the DVD made over $30 million on its first day of release.

By December 31, 2008, Mamma Mia! had become the best-selling DVD of all time in Sweden with 545,000 copies sold.

The DVD was released as a single-disc edition and a two-disc special edition.

Some 2-disc special editions come with a bonus soundtrack.

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Kramer vs. Kramer

Kramer vs. Kramer is a 1979 courtroom drama film adapted by Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman, and directed by Benton. The film tells the story of a married couple's divorce and its impact on everyone involved, including the couple's young son. It received the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1979. Music for the film features New York guitarist Frederic Hand.

Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman), a workaholic advertising executive is just given his agency's biggest new account. After spending the evening drinking with his boss, he returns home to find his wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) in the process of leaving him.

Ted is left to raise their son Billy (Justin Henry) by himself. Ted and Billy resent each other as Ted no longer has time to carry his increased workload, and Billy misses the love and attention he received from his mother. After many months of unrest, Ted and Billy begin to cope with the situation and eventually grow to deeply love and care for one another.

Ted befriends his neighbor Margaret (Jane Alexander), who at the beginning had counseled Joanna to leave. Margaret is a fellow single parent and the two become kindred spirits. One day as the two sit in the park watching their children play, Billy falls off the jungle gym and severely cuts his face. Picking him up, Ted sprints several blocks through oncoming traffic to the hospital.

About a year after she walked out, Joanna returns to New York in order to claim Billy, and a custody battle ensues. During the custody hearing, both Ted and Joanna are unprepared for the brutal character assassinations that their lawyers unleash on the other. Eventually, the courts awards custody to Joanna.

On the morning that Billy is to move in with Joanna, she comes to the apartment and tells Ted that, while she loves Billy and wants him with her, she knows that his true home is with Ted. The movie ends with the elevator doors closing on the emotional Joanna, as she heads upstairs to talk to Billy.

Kramer vs. Kramer reflected a cultural shift which occurred during the 1970s and the period of second-wave feminism, when ideas about "motherhood" and "fatherhood" were changing. The film was widely praised for the way in which it gave equal weight and importance to both Joanna and Ted's points of view .

The film also addresses the predisposition to awarding child custody to the mother.

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Postcards from the Edge (film)

Postcards from the Edge is a 1990 film based on a semi-autobiographical novel of the same title by Carrie Fisher, first published in 1987. The screenplay was adapted by Fisher herself, and the film was directed by Mike Nichols and released by Columbia Pictures.

The film starred Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine, with Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Reiner, Mary Wickes, Conrad Bain, Annette Bening, Simon Callow, Gary Morton, and CCH Pounder.

Postcards from the Edge received Academy Award nominations for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Meryl Streep) and Best Music, Original Song (Shel Silverstein for "I'm Checkin' Out").

As in the book, Suzanne (played by Streep) is a recovering drug addict trying to pick up the pieces of her career and get on with her life. After completing a project with director Lowell Korshack (played by Hackman), she overdosed and was rushed to the hospital by Jack (played by Quaid), where her stomach was pumped by Dr. Frankenthal (played by Dreyfuss).

After being discharged from a rehab center, she returns to work. According to her agent, she can only be cleared by the insurance people if she lives with "a responsible party", such as her famous mother, Doris Mann (played by MacLaine), a bright star of the past whose wine consumption seems alcoholic to Vale. This is not easy for Vale, as she struggled for years to get away from her mother. Things are not made any better when Mann, a brassy, upstaging, competitive woman, who continuously changes the subject to herself, gives her daughter loaded advice and insinuating value judgments while treating her like a child.

Vale's maternal grandpa (played by Bain) is a quiet man, while her down-to-earth, plainspoken grandma (played by Wickes) is a wisecracking and crotchety old woman. It occurs to Vale that not only do daughters have mothers, mothers do too.

Vale also reenters the world of moviemaking, including visits from the head of the studio, Joe Pierce (played by Reiner) about drug testing. She also deals with comments on her imperfect body and her performance onscreen.

Eventually, Jack Faulkner (played by Dennis Quaid) re-enters Suzanne's life. At first she does not realize that Jack is the one who drove her to the hospital during her overdose. She reluctantly agrees to go out with Jack. When Jack arrives at Doris' home to pick Suzanne, Doris' flirtation almost goes a bit too far, which sets up the idea that Suzanne constantly feel as though she is in competition with her own mother.

Jack and Suzanne share a passionate first date where Jack professes eternal and intense love for her and Suzanne falls for it. After a very late evening out, Suzanne returns home to find Doris waiting up for her. "What if you had been doing drugs or something?," Doris asks. Suzanne actually questions Doris' own drinking. The two have a quiet, but pointed exchange.

When she gets home from Jack's, Suzanne is informed by Doris that her business manager has run off with all her money. A bigger fight ensues between mother and daughter and Suzanne storms out. Doris misses that Suzanne merely said she was going to a looping session. The looping session proves fruitful for Suzanne, when her director (Gene Hackman) tells her that as soon as she gets clean, he has another job for her.

Suzanne arrives home to discover that Mann tore off looking for her and, due to too much alcohol, crashed her car into a tree. When Suzanne greets her mother at the hospital, Doris is not wearing her wig and practically bald. Suzanne's grandparents are in the room as well, and Grandma is being pretty bossy with daughter Doris. Suzanne pushes Grandma out of the room and mother and daughter have a calmer heart to heart while Suzanne does Doris' makeup and adds a scarf to her head.

Once properly made up ("We're designed more for public than for private," Suzanne quips), Doris musters her courage and faces the press over her accident. Vale then sees Dr. Frankenthal (Dreyfuss), who pumped her stomach. He asks if she will go out with him to a movie. Vale replies, "Sure, we could go see Valley of the Dolls." In seriousness, Vale tells the good doctor that she is not ready to date yet and needs more time for her recovery. The doc says he'll wait.

The film ends on the set of Lowell Korshack's new project, with Suzanne performing "I'm Checkin' Out", as her mother watches from above the set.

Postcards from the Edge gives a reasonable perspective of life behind the glamour, as the two powerful lead actresses explore their relationship as mother and daughter together. Vale admits to feeling inferior to her mother and explains how Mann's behavior affected her childhood, while Mann admits to feeling old and a bit jealous of her daughter's success.

In Fisher's DVD commentary, she notes that Debbie Reynolds wanted to play the part of Doris Mann, but Nichols cast MacLaine instead.

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The Manchurian Candidate (2004 film)

The Manchurian Candidate is a 2004 American film based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Richard Condon, and a reimagining of the previous 1962 film. The film stars Denzel Washington as Bennett Marco, a tenacious, virtuous soldier, Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw, a U.S. Representative from New York, manipulated into becoming a vice-presidential candidate, Jon Voight as Tom Jordan, a U.S. Senator and challenger for vice president and Meryl Streep as Eleanor Shaw, also a senator and the manipulative, ruthless mother of Raymond Shaw.

Maj. Ben Marco (Denzel Washington), is a war veteran who begins to doubt what is commonly known about his famous army unit. During Operation Desert Storm, Sergeant First Class Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) supposedly rescued all but two members in his unit, of which Marco was the commanding officer. While this made Shaw a war hero, gained him the Medal of Honor, and launched him into a career in politics, Marco and other members of the troop feel that while they remember that Shaw did rescue them, they do not actually remember him doing it.

The members begin to come together in the dystopic near-future of 2008 after Shaw, now a United States Congressman, becomes his party's candidate for Vice-President. He is an unexpected candidate, as Connecticut Senator Tom Jordan (Jon Voight) was the leading choice for some time. Jordan is pushed aside by Shaw's mother, Virginia Senator Eleanor Shaw (Meryl Streep), who blackmails the party leaders into nominating her son. An obvious rivalry exists between Eleanor Shaw and Tom Jordan, partly due to a past relationship between Raymond Shaw and Jordan's daughter Jocelyne (Vera Farmiga).

After Shaw is nominated, Marco begins investigating what really happened during the war. Allied with a female FBI agent named Rosie (Kimberly Elise) he links the mystery of his lost platoon to Manchurian Global, an international weapons manufacturer with major political connections, including the Shaw family. Soon Marco discovers Manchurian Global's brainwashing of his "lost" platoon, and their plans to take over the White House with Shaw, under the power of the company and Eleanor Shaw, who is even more power hungry than she appears.

Soon Eleanor Shaw begins to take matters into her own hands, trusting Manchurian Global less and less. Her ruthlessness is shown when she uses her own brainwashed son to assassinate Senator Jordan, who had been contacted by Marco and had begun to support his investigation in an attempt to expose her plan. As she becomes more and more controlling, it is soon revealed that the Vice-Presidential spot is not what she has in mind for her son, but the presidency. On election night, the newly elected president will be assassinated, and the planned assassin of Shaw's running mate is none other than Marco himself, who was also brainwashed in the war. With the help of the FBI, Marco arranges a private meeting with Shaw in a school which he was to cast his vote in. Marco tries once again to convince Shaw of what is happening to him. Shaw seems to agree, and gives Marco his Medal of Honor, which he says he does not deserve. Marco takes it, and Shaw receives a phone call from his mother, who wants to talk to Marco. Marco answers it, and is soon "activated" by her.

Shaw and Marco begin to regain a conscious state even while under Manchurian Global's control. At the election night celebration party, the newly elected Shaw and Major Marco realize what must be done. Shaw leads his mother onto the stage with him, and Marco fires one shot, killing both of them as they hug. Just before Marco can kill himself (which had been part of Eleanor Shaw's plan), Rosie stops him by shooting him in the shoulder. The FBI covers up Marco's involvement, pinning a Manchurian Global conspirator with the shooting. In the last scene, Rosie takes Marco to the compound he was brainwashed in, apparently in conjunction with the FBI investigating. Marco realizes what has happened, and lets the sea take away a picture of the "lost platoon" along with Shaw's medal of honor as if erasing what happened in that compound.

Due to the fact that the film takes place during a presidential campaign Al Franken makes a cameo appearance as himself, while Sidney Lumet, Anna Deavere Smith, Roy Blount, Jr. and Fab 5 Freddy make short appearances as political pundits. Roger Corman also cameos as the Secretary of State. Beau Sia can be seen briefly on a TV-screen, as the presenter of a late-night comedy show while Gayle King can be seen on TV-screens several times as the presenter of a political chat show.

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