Lionsgate® Shines With 8 Golden Globe® Nominations

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Dec. 14, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Lionsgate® (NYSE: LGF), the leading next generation entertainment studio, earned a combined 8 Golden Globe® Award nominations today across film and television categories.

Nicole Kidman was nominated for Best Actress- Drama for RABBIT HOLE, a poignant, critically beloved drama that the company acquired at the Toronto International Film festival earlier this year to release on December 17th with a Christmas day expansion. She was recognized for her portrayal of Becca Corbett, a woman who alongside her husband Howie (Aaron Eckhart) struggles to return to her everyday existence in the wake of a shocking, sudden loss.  David Lindsay-Abaire adapted the film from his Pulitzer Prize winning play.  The film was directed by John Cameron Mitchell, and also stars Dianne Wiest.

In addition to its nomination for RABBIT HOLE, Lionsgate is proud of the first nominations scored under Roadside Attractions' releasing banner.  Newcomer Jennifer Lawrence was honored with a Best Actress- Drama nomination for her memorable performance in the Sundance Grand Jury prize winning film WINTERS BONE.  Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's critically acclaimed drama BIUTIFUL, which will be in theaters on December 29th, was also nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category. 

The studio earned a total of 5 nominations for its critically acclaimed AMC drama MAD MEN and its Showtime comedy NURSE JACKIE, including nods for Best Television Series – Drama, and Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical, respectively.

MAD MEN, which has won three consecutive Golden Globe Awards® for Best Television Series – Drama, picked up its fourth nomination in the category.  Series star and Golden Globe® winner Jon Hamm also received his fourth consecutive nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in Television Series – Drama, and Elisabeth Moss picked up her first nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama.

NURSE JACKIE earned two nominations, including nods for Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical, and Golden Globe® winner Edie Falco for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical.

"The eight Golden Globe® nominations for our film and television operations and our sister company Roadside Attractions are a testament to the diversity of our business and the quality of our creative family.  We salute our nominees for their impressive contribution to the Lionsgate brand," said Lionsgate co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer.

"Our TV division has enjoyed the most successful year in its history," said Kevin Beggs, President of Lionsgate's Television Group.  "We owe a lot to the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association who continue to acknowledge the accomplishments of our gifted casts and creative teams, and we thank them for this recognition."

About The Nominated Properties

RABBIT HOLE is a vivid, hopeful, honest and unexpectedly witty portrait of a family searching for what remains possible in the most impossible of all situations. The cast, led by Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, includes Dianne Wiest, Tammy Blanchard, Miles Teller, Giancarlo Esposito, Jon Tenney and Sandra Oh. RABBIT HOLE is produced by Olympus Pictures, Blossom Films and OddLot Entertainment. Producers on the project are Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Nicole Kidman, Per Saari and Gigi Pritzker. The executive producers are Daniel Revers, Bill Lischak, Linda McDonough and Brian O'Shea. Lionsgate presents an Olympus Pictures Blossom Films OddLot Entertainment production.

In WINTERS BONE, Seventeen-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) sets out to track down her father, who put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she fails, Ree and her family will be turned out into the Ozark woods. Challenging her outlaw kin's code of silence and risking her life, Ree hacks through the lies, evasions and threats offered up by her relatives and begins to piece together the truth. The film is based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell.

Academy Award winner Javier Bardem plays a man on the wrong side of the law who struggles to provide for his children on the dangerous streets of Barcelona in BIUTIFUL. The latest film from Academy Award nominee Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (BABEL, AMORES PERROS), Bardem won the award for Best Actor at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and is sure to be one of the most talked-about films of the year.

MAD MEN, which recently concluded its fourth successful season on AMC, has been one of the most honored shows on television.  Last week, the series earned two Writers Guild Award nominations and on Sunday, was named one of AFI's Top 10 Outstanding Television Programs of 2010, marking the fourth time the series had won this annual award.  In addition to its three Golden Globe® Awards for Best Television Series – Drama, the show has won three Emmy Awards® for Outstanding Drama Series, a Peabody Award, two SAG Awards and three Writers Guild Awards, among many other honors.  Created by Matthew Weiner and executive produced by Weiner and Scott Hornbacher, MAD MEN is set in New York in the 1960's and follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising when the industry was at its height of glamour, power and prestige.  Produced by Lionsgate in association with Weiner Bros., the series stars Jon Hamm, January Jones, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks and John Slattery, and guest stars Robert Morse.

NURSE JACKIE, which is currently in production on its third season for Showtime, stars Edie Falco as a strong-willed and brilliant – but very flawed – emergency nurse in a complicated New York City hospital. Also starring are Eve Best, Peter Facinelli, Merritt Wever, Paul Schulze, Anna Deavere Smith, Dominic Fumusa, Ruby Jerins, Mackenzie Aldjem, Arjun Gupta and Stephen Wallem.  Co-produced by Showtime Networks and Lionsgate, the series is executive produced by Linda Wallem, Liz Brixius and Richie Jackson.   

About Lionsgate

Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) is the leading next generation studio with a strong and diversified presence in the production and distribution of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, worldwide channels, video-on-demand and digitally delivered content. The Company has built a strong television presence in production of prime time cable and broadcast network series, distribution and syndication of programming through Debmar-Mercury and an array of channel assets. Lionsgate currently has 15 shows on more than 10 networks spanning its prime time production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as "Mad Men", "Weeds" and "Nurse Jackie" along with newer series such as "Blue Mountain State" and "Running Wilde" and the syndication successes "Tyler Perry's House Of Payne", its spinoff "Meet The Browns," "The Wendy Williams Show" and "Are We There Yet?".

Its feature film business has generated such recent hits as THE EXPENDABLES, SAW 3D, THE LAST EXORCISM, TYLER PERRY'S WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO?, KICK ASS and the critically-acclaimed PRECIOUS, which won two Academy Awards(R) last year. The Company's home entertainment business has grown to more than 7% market share and is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD revenue conversion rate. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 12,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate brand remains synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.

About Roadside Attractions

Roadside Attractions is a film distribution company committed to championing independent films with a willingness to entertain. The company works with filmmakers to devise innovative marketing strategies that encourage audiences to see films that are not typical studio fare.  Roadside Attractions' 2009 release THE COVE captured the Academy Award for best feature documentary. Among its 2010 releases are Debra Granik's critically-hailed WINTER'S BONE, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's BIUTIFUL, for which Javier Bardem captured the Best Actor award at this year's Cannes Film Festival and the outrageous comedy I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. The company recently partnered with Lionsgate to acquire Robert Redford's THE CONSPIRATOR starring James McAvoy and Robin Wright, and  Dan Rush's EVERYTHING MUST GO starring Will Ferrell and Rebecca Hall.  Both will be released in 2011, along with the award-winning music documentary THUNDER SOUL, a nominee for Best Documentary at the upcoming Film Independent Spirit Awards.

SOURCE Lionsgate