The Lionsgate family of companies earned six Academy Award nominations from the Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences as Summit Entertainment’s ‘A Better Life’ earned a Best Actor nomination for Demian Bichir, Lionsgate’s ‘Warrior’ earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Nick Nolte, Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions’ ‘Margin Call’ earned a Best Original Screenplay nomination, and Roadside Attractions’ ‘Albert Nobbs’ received three nominations for Glenn Close as Best Actress, Janet McTeer for Best Supporting Actress, and an Oscar nod for Best Makeup.

Legendary actor, Nick Nolte, was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for his heart wrenching performance in ‘Warrior’, the inspirational action/drama from acclaimed director Gavin O’Connor (‘Miracle’). The film also stars Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy as brothers facing the fight of a lifetime.

Summit Entertainment’s ‘A Better Life’, from filmmaker Chris Weitz, received a nomination for Best Actor for Demian Bichir. The film is a poignant, multi-generational story about a father’s love and everything a parent will sacrifice to build a better life for his child.

‘Margin Call’ is a Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions film that was released in theaters with its VOD premiere. The taut financial industry thriller, which stars Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, and Zachary Quinto, struck a resonant chord in the popular zeitgeist and is considered a game-changer in the world of release strategies after its success in each of its release formats. Writer-director, J.C. Chandor, was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for his film.

“We are thrilled that the Academy has acknowledged these four incredible films within the Lionsgate family,” said Co-Chairs of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger, adding, “Congratulations to the filmmakers.  We are incredibly proud of the respective teams at Lionsgate, Summit, and Roadside who made this happen.”

Glenn Close received a Best Actress nod for her performance as the titular character in ‘Albert Nobbs’, a woman passing as a man in order to work and survive in 19^th-century Ireland.  Janet McTeer was also acknowledged for her performance in the Best Supporting Actress category, with the film’s makeup also receiving a nomination.

“We couldn’t be prouder of ‘Albert Nobbs’ or happier that it was recognized by the Academy with its three well-deserved honors,” said Roadside Attractions co-presidents, Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff, continuing, “We were thrilled to collaborate with Lionsgate on the timely ‘Margin Call’, which clearly resonated with Academy voters like it did with theatrical and VOD audiences.”

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In the upcoming movie ‘Albert Nobbs’ the primary character, and the central point around which the story turns, is of course Albert Nobbs; a woman posing as a man to work as a servant in nineteenth century Ireland. Glenn Close who plays the title character notes that she’s able to carry off the role because of Albert’s position in the hotel.

“The key is that Albert is a very good servant,’ Close says. ‘Servants weren’t supposed to make eye contact so that was very much in her favour. There’s comportment, the way of moving, with pants that are a bit too long and shoes that are a bit too big, but I think the biggest challenge for me is lowering the voice and the accent.”

Alongside Albert is a clutch of workers at the hotel, many of whom find their lives affected by the quiet, withdrawn butler.

When looking for the right person with whom to share her life, Nobbs is drawn to the character of Helen in the movie, a maid working in the hotel, someone with whom Nobbs believes she can share a better a life, a partner to share dreams of running an independent business. Australian actress Mia Wasikowska, whom director Rodrigo Garcia cast in her first-ever American production, “In Treatment,” plays Helen.

“I opened up my email and there in the inbox was an email saying it was from Rodrigo Garcia saying “Albert Nobbs job offer”, and I just thought, “Yes, I’ll do it”,” says Wasikowska. “I didn’t even need to read the rest of the email! I knew I was going to do it straight away, but then I read it and it just got better and better, especially hearing that Glenn Close was so involved.”

“My character, Helen, is a young maid working in the hotel,” continues the actress. “She’s a spirited person and kind of cheeky but also there’s a soulfulness about her. She’s in her early 20s and has probably been working in the hotel for years. She definitely has aspirations to work up the ladder in the hotel.”

When Nobbs begins gently courting Helen, the young maid is encouraged to show interest by her boyfriend, Joe. “Helen goes on these dates with Albert with the idea or intention of helping her and Joe get out of the hotel,” says Wasikowska. “Albert and Helen’s arc really grows, however, and their relationship changes as they go on these dates. Albert wants to form a partnership with her that can be safe and secure; Albert is courting her, while Joe is encouraging her to go on these dates to get gifts like chocolate and whisky and money.”

“Helen reluctantly goes to please Joe. They get to know each other and Albert reveals himself the most to Helen, and he, or she, has never done that before to anyone, and Helen takes that on board. She’s doesn’t like the idea of conning someone but she is in love with Joe and wants to do the best by their relationship.”

The bond between Helen and Joe was a feature of Moore’s original story, but here the producers note that the relationship is ‘boosted a little.’ Julie Lynn explains, “Our ensemble is insanely good and we have such fantastic chemistry between the characters of Helen and Joe.”

“Joe’s youth is a real boon, too,” she says. “It means that despite some of the unpleasant things he does, you can understand him a little more and why he is making his mistakes. And it makes us much more likely to forgive him. And when you have an actor who is just 20 years old, it gives him a vulnerability and allows us to forgive him, in a way in which I’m not sure we could with an actor who’s way into his 30s.”

Joe, played by English actor Aaron Johnson, arrives at the hotel early in the piece. “Joe is going from job to job and stumbles across Morrison’s Hotel, blags his way into a job as a boiler man, and ends up taking a job there as a handyman,” explains Johnson. “Joe is ambitious and has high hopes and dreams that one day he’ll get out, go to America and make a life there. He’s not educated, can’t read and write but in his mind he thinks he can get to America and there might be an opportunity to do something great.”

As the story transpires, Joe is revealed as having suffered a troubled upbringing. “Joe has real ambition. He is a very clever boy, but is caught up in a cycle of abuse,” explains Johnson. “He was abused by his father and will become an abuser if he leaves it the way it is. He desperately tries to break that; he doesn’t want to become like his father. That’s what he’s fighting against. He can’t advance himself or his family.”

One of the most boisterous characters in the film is Doctor Holloran. Irish actor Brendan Gleeson takes on the role “Holloran, a medical doctor,” explains the actor. “He came down from Belfast where he’d been living his with wife and having an affair. He loved both women but they wanted exclusivity and so he bailed out. He reveals that part of his life to Albert at one point. He may be drinking himself to death. I have a feeling he’s someone quite bright and brilliant but never wanted to work too hard on anything, so had reached that place where he hadn’t achieved a lot.”

All the main characters in Albert Nobbs find their lives affected by the quiet, retiring butler, and while the film unfolds as a tragedy it plays with levity and lightness of touch. “The piece is not showy — Glenn’s not that way — and there’s an awful lot of fun going on,” says Gleeson. “You can knock quite a lot of laughs out of something that is supposed to be very poignant and sad and tragic.”

Close says that she recognized the humor in the story from the very outset. “Through all these years of working on Albert Nobbs I knew that there was humor in it, even if other people didn’t see it,” she says. “It’s not leaping off the page – it’s not that kind of humor – it comes through the character and nuance and situation. I knew when people saw all these characters together that it is really fun. There are some beautiful moments.”

Producer Bonnie Curtis agrees. “Nobbs is so endearing,” she says. “The piece is a witty drama, a human comedy, and it’s also a love story. As a producer you’re trained to keep the message simple and sell it as one thing, but with this it is so rich and complex.”

Close concludes: “I’ve always thought that, if I could do the Albert of my dreams, without major compromise, with an impeccable team, then I could retire! The fact that this particular group of people finally gathered together to tell this particular story is truly wonderful. For years I struggled to make it happen but the time was never right. Then it happened. It was just meant to be — the perfect time with the perfect team. We made it!”

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Glenn Close heads an enigmatic cast in the new movie Albert Nobbs, based on a story that the award-winning actress holds close to her heart. The drive behind the movie adaptation was very much fueled by Close’s personal interest and experience with the story and with the character and story resonating across the years, Close sought out the best people to help her realize her vision for a big-screen adaptation.

At the turn of the 1990s, when she was shooting Meeting Venus with Hungarian director Istvan Szabo, Close handed him the story and received in return her very first treatment. By 2001 the actress, turned writer and producer, had a draft with which she was satisfied, and arrived in Ireland to scout locations. Among the buildings she found was Cabinteely House in southeast Dublin. Now, ten years on, the house is finally transformed into Morrison’s Hotel.

Irish producer Alan Moloney explains, “Glenn suggested the main location. She had come here ten years ago and it’s a wonderful choice. We also shot at Portmarnock Beach, Dublin city centre, but most of the piece unfolds in Morrison’s. It really helps when Glenn Close is also your location scout!”

From her first scouting trip in 2001 through the start of production in 2011, Close refined and honed the script — most recently with input from acclaimed Irish writer John Banville — although it was only when shooting her second project with filmmaker Rodrigo Garcia, 2005’s Nine Lives, however, that she settled on her ideal director.

Close recalls, “I had a wonderful time on Rodrigo’s movies. He loves and understands women. (The pair also worked together on 1999’s Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her) It’s beautiful to be on a set with a director who truly loves women. He is also a masterful writer and has written great female parts.”

Colombian filmmaker Garcia is the son of iconic writer Gabriel García Márquez. “Rodrigo has that heritage,” says Close. “Not only is he the perfect director but he’s also deeply collaborative, and astoundingly open to my ideas.”

The director remembers his first discussions with Close. “I was a little nervous about reading it,” he concedes. “I love working with Glenn but what if I read it and felt as though I couldn’t do it, or it wasn’t my thing? I knew it was her passion. She’d done the play twenty years earlier and had scouted locations. So I went into it hoping that I could connect and I really did.”

Garcia responded to the piece the moment that he began reading Close’s script. “The themes are very contemporary although the story is very much of its time, late nineteenthcentury, and is very much about the inner life of a person and her problems with identity, erasing herself and living in hiding,” he says. “But the story is also about a lot of characters and is very rich and full of drama, which is rare nowadays.”

“Today in a lot of scripts characters talk about their problems. Instead of the audience being told a story, you hear characters bitching. This was the opposite. It had a very laid-out story that unfolded in a beautiful way and you were never ahead of it while you reading it. Five pages from the end, I still didn’t know what would happen. It seemed a great challenge.”

The director says that he found the themes of the story especially appealing. “One of the main themes is people’s dreams and what they want for themselves, their true ambitions and their hopes,” he explains. “Albert, like all the characters in the script, wants more for herself, and most of all, the characters want to be their best selves. A lot of them are trapped with low ceilings over their heads, masks and fake identities.”

“This is set in late nineteenthcentury Dublin where poverty and the threat of poverty had a huge impact,” he continues. “You could find yourself on the street within weeks of losing your job or losing a position. But it still feels contemporary: how can you find a way to be yourself? Living in secrecy and having to please others in order to survive, that has a universal connection for people.”

Producer Julie Lynn, who has worked with Garcia no fewer than seven times, believes that he is the perfect director for the film. “I cannot think of a bad thing to say about him,” she smiles. “He says that he does not know who the character is until the actor tells him. He used to be a DoP, and all his crew will tell you that he is their favourite because he’s such a collaborator. He’s always the smartest person in the room and was always so clearly in control of the vision for the piece.”

Garcia’s vision for Albert Nobbs is one that he shares with both Close and director of photography Michael McDonough. “I love period movies but I’ve never really thought about myself as a director of one,” says Garcia. “When Glenn showed me the script I thought that it had so many themes, was well dramatized and was funny, but we did think, “How are we going to shoot this so that it would have its own look and its own tone and is not just a period look? How would it have the ‘Albert Nobbs’ look, whatever that may be?”

“You want to try and shy away from something that is too stuffy, but on the other hand you don’t want to go too far the other way and make it too modern so that it becomes like a music video. One of the reasons I wanted to work with Michael McDonough was that he can find a new yet subtle way of looking at something.”

McDonough and Garcia opted for what the latter describes as “a contemporary feel but still believable for the period.” He explains, “You need to maximise your resources to make the piece as rich as possible. The movie is shot in a widescreen format and that does give you a bigger dimension. You put your money in a few key scenes that are larger scale, like the big party scene, and then our exteriors, which let the story breathe.”

“When you start thinking that you’ve been a while in the hotel and it’s all quite contained, you come in with bigger things that you can afford. That gives it some scope. The important thing for me though is that actors always take pressure away. People always say, “Do you feel pressure working with such accomplished actors?” But really the opposite is true, it takes pressure away from me. And alongside Glenn we have some really amazing characters and wonderful actors.”

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The full list of nominees for the 2012 Irish Film and Television Awards have been announced, with old favourites and emerging talents comprising this year’s selected actors, writers and other creative talents.

The 9th Annual Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTA), sponsored by Irish Film Board and RTÉ, will take place on Saturday February 11 at the Convention Centre in Dublin and will bring together the best in film and television that Ireland has to offer, as well as numerous international stars who will be competing in a handful of categories dedicated exclusively to honouring those from other countries around the globe.

Two-time IFTA winner Ciarán Hinds is back in competition thanks to his strong performances in ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’, which has already received multiple recognitions from other award bodies, and ‘The Debt’ in which he co-starred with Dame Helen Mirren. Hinds has been nominated in the fields of Best Actor in a Lead Role and Best Actor in a Supporting Role, respectively.

Brendan Gleeson is another Irish actor who has received double-recognition from the IFTA voters this year, as his roles in ‘The Guard’ and ‘Albert Nobbs’ earn him lead and supporting nominations as well, respectively. ’Albert Nobbs’ leads the field alongside ‘The Guard’ with each film receiving nine nominations apiece.

Gleeson’s co-stars in ‘Albert Nobbs’, Maria Doyle Kennedy and Brenda Fricker, are both nominated in the category of Best Actress in a Supporting Role, while the film itself has received acknowledgement in the Best Film, Best Script, Best Make-up & Hair, Best Original Score and Best Sound categories. American actress Glenn Close rounds off the film’s successful IFTA reception as she earned a spot in the Best International Actress.

Aine Moriarty, CEO of the Academy, released the following statement regarding this year’s festivities:

“The Irish Film & Television Awards is Ireland’s showcase to the world of what our small but outstanding film and television community has to offer: excellent and challenging feature films and dramas; entertaining television and engaging factual content. The Irish industry consistently delivers world-class standards of work that is watched by a global audience.

Ireland’s economic struggles have been well documented, but against this pressure it’s heartening to see how Ireland’s hard-working creative community continues to punch above its weight and really deliver.”

The Academy’s shortlist for the Best Film category would appear to be reflective of their endeavour to ‘showcase’ the best in Ireland’s original content, with the four nominated titles covering such topics as cross-dressing (‘Albert Nobbs’) and sociopaths (‘Charlie Casanova’), while delving into black comedy (‘The Guard’) and questions of religious faith (‘Stella Days’).

The final choices for Best International Actress are also of note considering the pairing of Kristen Wiig – for her role in ‘Bridesmaids’ – with Glenn Close, Meryl Streep and Tilda Swinton, each of whom represents a film with a much greater sense of gravitas (‘Albert Nobbs’, ‘The Iron Lady’ and ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’, respectively).

HBO’s fantasy series ‘Game of Thrones’ and Showtime historical drama ‘The Borgias’ were among those honoured in IFTA’s main television categories. The awards will be hosted by Simon Delaney and will be broadcast live on RTÉ One at 9.30pm on Saturday February 11.

For the full list of this year’s IFTA nominees, click here.

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