Festival Awards
Strand Releasing, 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award
Strand Releasing was formed in 1989 and its goal has been to fuse quality art films with commercial product. Strand Releasing has produced or executive produced ten feature films, including Gregg Araki's THE LIVING END, Richard Glatzer's GRIEF, Tommy O'Haver's BILLY'S HOLLYWOOD SCREEN KISS, Todd Verow's FRISK, Robert Lee King's adaptation of Charles Busch's PSYCHO BEACH PARTY, Brian Sloan's I THINK I DO, the films of Bruce LaBruce and Paul Cox's INNOCENCE.
Strand has distributed the works of such renowned international artists as Manoel de Oliveira, Lino Brocka, Jon Jost, Terence Davies, Gaspar Noe, Lodge Kerrigan, Cindy Sherman, Nigel Finch, Raoul Ruiz, John Maybury, Ferzan Ozpetek, Jacques Audiard, Benoit Jacqout, Hal Hartley, Nina Menkes, Jon Moritsugu, John Duigan, Francois Ozon, Lou Ye, Marcelo Pineyro and John Curran.
This year, Strand Releasing celebrates its 20th anniversary with a slate including Terence Davies' OF TIME AND THE CITY, Pablo Trapero's LEONERA, Lucrecia Martel's THE HEADLESS WOMAN, Doris Dörrie's CHERRY BLOSSOMS, and Johan Renck's DOWNLOADING NANCY. Strand's recent hits include Fatih Akin's THE EDGE OF HEAVEN and Claude Miller's A SECRET.
2009 Excellence in Acting Award
Alessandro Nivola's first professional leading role earned him a Drama Desk Award Nomination for his performance opposite Helen Mirren on Broadway in Turgenev's A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY. The following year he drew critical acclaim and a Blockbuster Award Nomination for playing Nicolas Cage's paranoid genius younger brother in John Woo's FACE/OFF. A series of roles in English movies followed, establishing him as one of the few Americans capable of playing British characters from all regions and classes. He starred as a Hastings fisherman opposite Rachel Weisz in Michael Winterbottom's I WANT YOU, played Henry Crawford in the Patricia Rozema adaptation of Jane Austen's MANSFIELD PARK, and a singing/dancing King Ferdinand of Navarre in Kenneth Brannagh's musical film of Shakespeare's LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. Back in the U.S. he starred opposite Reese Witherspoon in BEST LAID PLANS, and played leading roles in JURASSIC PARK 3, and Mike Figgis' TIME CODE. He returned to the theater to play Orlando to Gwyneth Paltrow's Rosalind in AS YOU LIKE IT at Williamstown, before being reunited with Helen Mirren in the film THE CLEARING, this time playing her son rather than her lover as he had on stage. He earned an Independent Spirit Award Nomination for his performance as the rock singer Ian McNight in Lisa Cholodenko's LAUREL CANYON where he recorded the character's songs himself prompting Vogue magazine to write, "he sings Brit pop well enough to get a record deal." In 2006, he starred in JUNEBUG opposite Amy Adams, and in the Sundance audience award winner GRACE IS GONE opposite John Cusack, Recent films include Ridley Scott's mini-series THE COMPANY, the Lionsgate thriller THE EYE opposite Jessica Alba, and THE GIRL IN THE PARK opposite Sigourney Weaver and Kate Bosworth.
At the 2008 Toronto Film Festival, Alessandro headlined two upcoming films: FIVE DOLLARS A DAY, a father-son road movie opposite Christopher Walken, and WHO DO YOU LOVE?, a bio pic about the life of Chess Records founder Leonard Chess in which he plays Leonard.
Alessandro will next be seen as Boy Capel opposite Audrey Tautou in COCO AVANT CHANEL, a film about the early life of Coco Chanel, and in HOWL about the obscenity trial over the famous Alan Ginsberg poem of the same title.
He is a graduate of Yale University with a BA in English.
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