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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Award winning actress Glenn Close plays a woman passing as a man in order to work and survive in 19th century Ireland. Some thirty years after donning men’s clothing, she finds herself trapped in a prison of her own making. Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Johnson and Brendan Gleeson join the prestigious, international cast that includes Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Janet McTeer, Brenda Fricker and Pauline Collins in ‘Albert Nobbs’, opening in cinemas all over the U.S. on January 27.

Rodrigo Garcia directs from a script that Glenn Close, along with Man Booker prize-winning novelist John Banville and Gabriella Prekop, adapted from a short story by Irish author George Moore.

Glenn Close’s connection to the character of Albert Nobbs stretches back almost three decades to her 1982 performance in Simone Benmussa’s theatrical interpretation of the short story, Albert Nobbs, by nineteenth century Irish author George Moore. ‘I think that Albert is one of the truly great characters, and the story, for all its basic simplicity, has a strange emotional power,’ begins Close, whose turn in the Off-Broadway production prompted rave reviews and garnered the actress an Obie Award.

Even as Close’s career skyrocketed the character remained with her. “There’s something deeply affecting about Albert’s life,” the actress continues, “She never stopped continuing to move me. I became very busy in my career, but always thought that Albert’s story would make a wonderful movie.”

Close has worked continuously on story ideas across the intervening years, developing a passionate attachment to the character of Nobbs; a woman living in 19^th century Britain, who has survived by disguising herself as a man and becoming a waiter. As the story begins, we find her working at Morrison’s, a reputable hotel in Dublin, where she has been for past 17 years.

“Albert doesn’t want to end up in the poorhouse,” explains Close. “At that time Ireland was extremely poor. Around the corner from the hotel was abject poverty. She knows that without her job that’s where she could end up. And she knows anyone can get fired at any moment. There is a sense of fear among all the hotel workers.”

When the audience meets Albert, the character has played her role as a male servant in Morrison’s Hotel for so long that she has lost her own, true identity. “She doesn’t even know her real name,” Close says. “She was an illegitimate child, raised by a woman who was paid to take care of her and who never revealed Albert’s true identity. I figure the woman was paid to not tell because family didn’t want the child to, one day, show up on their doorstep. So Albert, who already didn’t know who she really was, disappeared into the guise of a waiter when she was fourteen years old. When we meet her thirty years later, she is isolated and invisible, albeit an impeccable servant, having lived in hotels her whole life.”

Benmussa’s play adaptation of George Moore’s Albert Nobbs, was minimalist, with a considerable amount of mime used to tell the story, but, even so, Close believed that the tale’s poignancy, heartbreak and humour — the latter realized by a wonderful collection of characters who people Morrison’s Hotel — would fuel a film adaptation.

“The play was very austere,” concedes the actress, “The power of the story is like a simple glass of water,” she continues, “When light reflects in a glass of water, it creates something extremely complex. The story is simple and linear, but it touches on complex human issues that reflect on everyone’s own life and everyone’s own baggage, and gives them something to take away as well. I’m hoping it will be universally appealing.”

Certainly producers Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn agreed, with Curtis responding to Close’s passion for, and knowledge of, the character and the story. ‘One of the elements that interested me as a producer was Glenn’s hands-on, nightly experience in the theatre with the story,’ Curtis explains. ‘Making this movie with Glenn made a lot of business sense to me.’

Curtis met Close on the 2005 comic drama The Chumbscrubber. ‘It was day two of her time on set,’ recalls Curtis, ‘and Glenn walked up to me, gave me a script, and said, “I must play this part on the big screen before I die.” She was looking me right in the eye and I said we should do it right there and then.’ Curtis laughs, ‘She suggested I might want to read it first.’

The producer read the script that very night, ‘and it got inside me in ways I didn’t even understand,’ she says, ‘and I knew it would be right. When someone like Glenn says that they must play a part before they die, you figure it’s a good character and script. Albert has that struggle for identity and purpose and yet she hasn’t been equipped with the tools to get there. I think that it is a really universal life experience.’

Fellow producer Julie Lynn concurs. “The story is about a woman who is naïve, and is in her own bubble of loneliness because she’s lived with her face hidden from the outside world for decades, as a means of survival and self-protection. When we first meet her, she has been separated emotionally from the rest of the world.”

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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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