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2006 News Archives - January to February
Jasmine Women release news
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After nearly two years of waiting, it seems Ziyi's film Jasmine Women is now on its way to a worldwide release in 2006. According to Chinese news reports, the film is expected to be released in China and Hong Kong during April, in Japan and Korea during June, and will expand to other countries later in the year.
The international distribution rights were acquired by Australian-based distributor Arclight Films for a reported $600,000. Arclight has arranged for the film to be shown this Sunday, February 12, at the Berlin Film Festival's European Film Market.
Jasmine Women is a story of love and loss over three generations of life in a single family in Shanghai. It tells of the family's struggle to overcome its tragic history, as each daughter repeats the mistakes of her mother. Zhang Ziyi plays mother, daughter, and granddaughter as the film moves from the 1930's to the 1950's to the 1970's. Jasmine Women was first shown at the Shanghai Film Festival in 2004 where it won the Jury Prix Prize. Ziyi later won Best Actress at the prestigious Golden Rooster awards for her performance. Its theatrical release in China has been repeatedly delayed, although it has been shown to acclaim at numerous film festivals around the world.
02/10/06
Ziyi in Esquire and L'Officiel China
Here are scans from a couple of Chinese magazines that Zhang Ziyi has been in recently. Below is Ziyi in the February issue of Esquire China.
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Ziyi in the January issue of L'Officiel China.
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Thanks to Fanqiemeimei for finding these.
02/10/06
Ziyi at the Screen Actors Guild Awards
Ziyi attended the Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 29, 2006, where she had been nominated for Best Actress. Though she did not win, Z presented the award for Best Supporting Actor to Paul Giamatti for Cinderella Man. Her lavender dress seems inspired by Chinese landscape painting.
SAG Awards gallery - 15 pictures
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Thanks to Shadow for the pictures.
02/01/06
Zhang Ziyi runner up for International Cinephile Society's Best Supporting Actress
Some miscellaneous awards news:
- Ziyi was runner up for Best Supporting Actress in the International Cinephile Society awards, for her role in 2046. She came in second to Amy Adams of "Junebug."
2046 won for Best Non-English Language Film, Best Production Design, and Best Cinematography, and was runner up in the Best Picture and Best Ensemble categories.
- Ziyi has been nominated for Best Actress at the NAACP Image Awards, whose winners will be announced on February 26.
- The Oscars: While Ziyi did not receive an Oscar nomination, Memoirs of a Geisha racked up six total, for Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Music (Score), Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing
02/01/06
Ziyi at the Director's Guild of America Awards Dinner
Ziyi was a presenter at the 58th Annual DGA Awards Dinner held on January 28, 2006 in Los Angeles. She presented the award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Documentary to Werner Herzog for his film Grizzly Man. In addition, Ang Lee won the award for best directing in a feature film for Brokeback Mountain. This is the second time Lee has won the award, having previously won for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Ziyi at the DGA Awards gallery - 11 pics
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01/29/06
Summary Update
I haven't posted as much news to the front page over the past month as I usually do, to make up for that let me link to a bunch of interesting forum threads. Our forum threads are organized with the most recent posts on top, so you might need to scroll down to find the good stuff.
Beautiful Pictures - Scroll down for a gorgeous set of HQ pics, a must see.
The Banquet ends filming - video from the party celebrating the end of filming for The Banquet
Chinese interview - pictures and video from a recent Chinese interview
Milan - HQ pics from the European premiere of Memoirs of a Geisha
BAFTA tea party - pictures from a BAFTA related party
HoFD HD screens - screencaps from a 1080i HD broadcast of House of Flying Daggers
Ziyi on MTV Chi - video of Ziyi introducing MTV Chi
01/29/06
Memoirs of a Geisha video and pictures
A video clip from the Memoirs of a Geisha international TV special. It has a brief interview with Ziyi and focuses on the actresses' training, especially for the dances.
| Memoirs TV special - 8 MB wmv |
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And here's a new gallery with 35 more pictures.
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And finally, if you scroll down this forum thread you will find a special surprise.
1/23/06
Ziyi at the Golden Globes
Below is a gallery with 56 pictures of Zhang Ziyi attending the Golden Globes last Monday, where she had been nominated for Best Actress in a drama. While Z didn't win, Memoirs of a Geisha composer John Williams won the award for Best Original Score. In addition, Ang Lee, director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, won the Best Director award for Brokeback Mountain. He is pictured at right with Ziyi.
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About her dress, the New York Post wrote
The popular colors of the evening were red, white and blue, but it was young, foreign actresses who swiped the fashion awards at the Golden Globes. Pundits drooled over Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, in a strapless chartreuse Armani gown...
"She looked amazing," Style Network "Fashion Police" host Robert Verdi said of Ziyi. "I loved the brave color. Women are scared to wear that color. And it's a hard color to wear. It makes some people look shallow. She's a great example of how fashion can make you memorable."
"She looked wonderful," adds TV Guide comedienne Joan Rivers. "She's hard to communicate with, but she's very lovely, almost other-wordly."
Thanks to Shadow, Scorpius, and others for the pics.
01/23/06
Ziyi receives BAFTA nomination for Best Leading Actress
Today the British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) nominations were announced and Ziyi is included in the Best Actress in a Leading Role category. Overall, Memoirs of a Geisha received six nominations, the others being for music, cinematography, production design, costume design, and makeup. Congratulations to Z and the Memoirs team!
This is Ziyi's third BAFTA nomination, having previously been nommed last year for Best Actress for House of Flying Daggers, and for Supporting Actress in 2001 for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
1/19/06
Zhang Ziyi nominated for Screen Actors Guild Award
The nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Awards were announced yesterday and Ziyi was nominated for "Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role" for Memoirs of a Geisha. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on January 29, which will be broadcast on TNT and TBS. From the press release
Of the top industry accolades presented to performers, only the Screen Actors Guild Awards® are selected purely by actors’ peers. Two randomly selected panels--one for television and one for film--each comprised of 2,100 SAG members from across the United States, chose this year’s Actor® nominees
This is the third time Ziyi has been nominated for her performance in Memoirs, following the Golden Globes and Satellite Awards. Congratulations to Ziyi for her success!
01/06/06
Zhang Ziyi named Best Supporting Performer in IndieWIRE poll
Z was named Best Supporting Performer in IndieWIRE's 2005 foreign-language film survey, for her performance in 2046. She also finished 3rd in the voting for Best Actress because her votes were split across the two categories.
"In the best actress category, "Kings and Queen"'s Emmanuelle Devos was the definite winner, but Zhang Ziyi would have come an extremely close second -- for her icy, anguished beauty in "2046" -- if her votes hadn't split between best actress and best supporting performance."
2046 did very well in the poll, despite finishing second in the voting for for best film, it "was the highest vote-getter across all categories due to its high scores for best technical achievement."
The Village Voice also runs an annual film critics poll, where Ziyi finished second in the Best Supporting Performer voting.
01/06/06