The Kids Are All Right

ABOUT THE CAST

ANNETTE BENING (Nic)
Annette Bening has been nominated three times for an Academy Award, for her performances in Stephen Frears’ The Grifters, István Szabó’s Being Julia, and Sam Mendes’ American Beauty. Her work in the latter also earned her a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award nomination, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards (one for her portrayal, and one as part of the ensemble).

Her work in Being Julia additionally earned her a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and the National Board of Review’s award for Best Actress. Her performance in The Grifters additionally brought her the Best Supporting Actress award from the National Society of Film Critics and her first BAFTA Award nomination. Ms. Bening’s performance in Phyllis Nagy’s telefilm Mrs. Harris earned her Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Emmy Award nominations. She has also received Golden Globe Award nominations for her performances in James Toback’s Bugsy, Rob Reiner’s The American President, and Ryan Murphy’s Running with Scissors.

Her other films include Rodrigo Garcia’s Mother and Child; Mike Nichols’ Postcards from the Edge, What Planet Are You From?, and Regarding Henry; Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks!; Glenn Gordon Caron’s Love Affair; Milos Forman’s Valmont; Richard Loncraine’s Richard III; Irwin Winkler’s Guilty by Suspicion; and Edward Zwick’s The Siege. Ms. Bening has been honored at the Boston, Palm Springs, and Chicago Film Festivals with Lifetime Achievement Awards; and has received the Donostia Prize at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. She won the Actress of the Year award at the Hollywood Film Festival; and received the Montecito Award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Her Los Angeles theater credits include the Anton Chekhov play The Cherry Orchard, at the Mark Taper Forum; and Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, at the Tiffany Theatre. She also played the title role in Medea at UCLA. She most recently starred in Joanna Murray- Smith’s play The Female of the Species, staged by Randall Arney at the Geffen Playhouse, where Ms. Bening had earlier starred in the title role of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.

Born in Kansas and raised in San Diego, Ms. Bening was enrolled at a local college when she got a job as a dancer in a pre-show presented outside of San Diego’s famed Old Globe Theatre. This led to a walk-on in a Shakespearean production and then two plays with the San Diego Repertory Theatre. She later graduated from San Francisco State University and was accepted by the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where she trained until she joined the acting company. After appearing in summer 15 Shakespearean festivals and regional productions, her career took her to New York. There, she received a Tony Award nomination and won the Clarence Derwent Award for most outstanding female debut performance of the season for her role in Tina Howe’s play Coastal Disturbances, staged by Carole Rothman (originally off-Broadway at the Second Stage and then on Broadway).

Julianne Moore (Jules)
Julianne Moore is one of only eleven people in Academy Awards history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the same year; she was nominated for her performances in two 2002 films, Todd Haynes’ Far from Heaven (also for Focus Features) and Stephen Daldry’s The Hours. Far from Heaven earned her Best Actress citations from the Independent Spirit Awards, National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Broadcast Film Critics Association, among others; she also was a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominee for her portrayal. Her work in The Hours additionally brought her two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, for her performance and as part of the ensemble.

She has been nominated for the Academy Award twice more, for her performances in Neil Jordan’s The End of the Affair and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights. These performances each also garnered her Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Ms. Moore was recently again a Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award nominee for her performance in Tom Ford’s A Single Man.

Her many additional film credits include Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, for which she was a Screen Actors Guild Award nominee; Todd Haynes’ Safe, for which she was an Independent Spirit Award nominee, and I’m Not There; Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination and for which she shared a Golden Globe Award with the ensemble, and Cookie’s Fortune; Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness, with Mark Ruffalo of The Kids Are All Right; Atom Egoyan’s Chloe; RebeccaMiller’s The Private Lives of Pippa Lee; Tom Kalin’s Savage Grace; Joe Roth’s Freedomland; Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men; Jane Anderson’s The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio; Ridley Scott’s Hannibal; Oliver Parker’s An Ideal Husband, for which she was a Golden Globe Award nominee; Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Big Lebowski; Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park; Merchant Ivory’s Surviving Picasso; Louis Malle’s Vanya on 42nd Street; Curtis Hanson’s The Hand That Rocks the Cradle; and Bart Freundlich’s The Myth of Fingerprints, World Traveler, and Trust the Man. She is currently at work starring opposite Steve Carell and Kevin Bacon in a new movie directed by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra.

Ms. Moore has additionally been honored with the Excellence in Media Award at the 2004 GLAAD Media Awards; the Actor Award at the 2002 Gotham Awards; and the Tribute to Independent Vision Award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. 16 After earning her B.F.A. from Boston University for the Performing Arts, she starred in a number of off-Broadway productions, including stagings of Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money and Ice Cream/Hot Fudge at the Public Theater. Among her other stage credits are William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, directed by Garland Wright, at Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater; and David Hare’s The Vertical Hour, directed by Sam Mendes, which marked Ms. Moore’s Broadway debut.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

LISA CHOLODENKO (Director; Screenplay)
Lisa Cholodenko truly discovered film while working as an assistant editor on Boyz N the Hood with the film’s writer/director, double Academy Award nominee John Singleton; and on Used People with director Beeban Kidron. These projects spurred her to pursue a film career. She soon enrolled at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where she received her M.F.A. in screenwriting and directing.

There, under the auspices of her mentor Milos Forman, Ms. Cholodenko wrote and directed a number of acclaimed short films, including Souvenir (1994), which screened at over two dozen international film festivals; and Dinner Party (1997), which aired on U.K., French, and Swiss television, and was a winner of the British Film Institute’s Channel 4 TX prize. Also at Columbia, Focus Features CEO James Schamus was one of her professors.