My Big Fat Greek Wedding
''My Big Fat Greek Wedding'' is a 2002 romantic comedy film directed by Joel Zwick and written by Nia Vardalos, who also stars in the film as Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos, a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Ian Miller. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and, at the 75th Academy Awards, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. A sleeper hit, the film became the highest-grossing romantic comedy domestically of all time, and grossed $241.4 million in North America, despite never reaching number one at the box office during its release. It was the highest-grossing film with that distinction for 14 years until the animated film ''Sing'' grossed $268 million in 2016. The film spawned a franchise, which inspired the short-lived 2003 CBS TV series ''My Big Fat Greek Life'' and a film sequel titled ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2'', which was released on March 25, 2016 by Universal Picture ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Joel Zwick
Joel Zwick (born January 11, 1942) is an American film director, television director, and theater director.Mann, Iris (June 1, 2016)"'Hillary and Monica': An Unlikely Meeting" '' Jewish Journal''. He worked on the television series '' Perfect Strangers'', ''Full House'', and ''Family Matters'', and directed the films ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding'', ''Second Sight'', and ''Fat Albert''. Biography Zwick was born in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family. His father was a cantor from an Orthodox background, and Zwick had his bar mitzvah at an Orthodox synagogue. He graduated from James Madison High School in 1958. Zwick then went to Brooklyn College ('62), where he taught in the School of Film. Zwick has directed 21 television pilots, all of which have continued on to successful runs as weekly series. He is married to Dr. Candice Zwick, a psychologist. They have three daughters, Hillary, Jodi and Lara, and one son, Jamie. Despite a popular misconception, he is not related to fello ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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IFC Films
IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its Sundance Selects label and genre films under its IFC Midnight label. It operates the IFC Center. History The IFC Films division has a predecessor film label, Next Wave Films, designed to release movies, which was in operation from 1997 to 2002, when it was shut down and folded into IFC themselves. IFC also launched a film company, IFC Productions, which set up operation in March 1997 to produce their own feature film projects. On January 18, 1999, IFC launched a film label Agenda 2000, which set up their own film projects, which have their world premiere on IFC. On September 26, 2000, IFC launched its own feature film unit, branded IFC Films, to be headed by Bob Berney, who went on to have jobs at Newmarket Films, and later founder of Pic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same fictional universe as an earlier work, usually chronologically following the events of that work. In many cases, the sequel continues elements of the original story, often with the same characters and settings. A sequel can lead to a series, in which key elements appear repeatedly. Although the difference between more than one sequel and a series is somewhat arbitrary, it is clear that some media franchises have enough sequels to become a series, whether originally planned as such or not. Sequels are attractive to creators and to publishers because there is less risk involved in returning to a story with known popularity rather than developing new and untested characters and settings. Audiences are sometimes eager for more stories about p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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My Big Fat Greek Life
''My Big Fat Greek Life'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on CBS from February 24 to April 13, 2003. The series is a continuation of the 2002 movie ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding'' and was produced by Sony Pictures Television and Tom Hanks's Playtone Productions for CBS. The two lead characters' names are changed, from Toula and Ian, to Nia and Thomas. Series star Nia Vardalos also oversaw the show as one of the co-executive producers, along with Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, who made a guest appearance in one episode as Nia's cousin. Premise The series, which is set in Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, follows the main character, Nia Portokalos, a Greek-American woman, as she deals with her family and her new non-Greek husband Thomas Miller, an English teacher who still does not seem to fit in with her family's Greek traditions. Despite the help and interference from her family and her husband, Nia tries her best to stay grounded in various situations. Besides her hus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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My Big Fat Greek Wedding (franchise)
The ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding'' franchise, consists of American romantic comedies, including two theatrical films, and a television series. The two films grossed $457.1 million worldwide against a $23 million combined budget. The first film received positive reviews from critics, while the second film received mostly negative reviews. A third film is in production at Universal Pictures' division Focus Features. Films ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding'' (2002) Everyone in the Portokalos family worries about Toula (Nia Vardalos). Still unmarried at 30 years old, she works at Dancing Zorba's, the Greek restaurant owned by her parents, Gus (Michael Constantine) and Maria (Lainie Kazan). After taking a job at her aunt's travel agency, she falls in love with Ian Miller (John Corbett), a teacher who is tall, handsome, and definitely not Greek. Toula isn't sure which will be more upsetting to her father, that Ian is a foreigner or that he's a vegetarian. The film was a sleeper hit, and the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sing (2016 American Film)
''Sing'' is a 2016 American computer-animated jukebox musical comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is the first film of the franchise of the same name. It was written and directed by Garth Jennings, co-directed by Christophe Lourdelet (in his feature directorial debut), and produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy. The film stars the ensemble voices of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, Tori Kelly, Taron Egerton and Nick Kroll. Set in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, the film focuses on a struggling theater owner who stages a singing competition in an effort to prevent his theater from entering foreclosure, as well as how the competition interferes with the personal lives of its contestants. The film features more than 60 songs from famous artists, mostly performed diegetically. It also has an original song by Stevie Wonder and Ariana Grande call ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sleeper Hit
In the entertainment industry, a sleeper hit is a film, television series, music release, video game, or some other entertainment product that was initially unsuccessful on release but became a success later on. A sleeper hit may have little promotion or lack a successful launch but gradually develops a fan following that garners it media attention, which in turn increases its public exposure and public interest in the product. In film Some sleeper hits in the film industry are strategically marketed for audiences subtly, such as with sneak previews a couple of weeks prior to release, without making them feel obliged to see a heavily promoted film. This alternative form of marketing strategy has been used in sleeper hits such as ''Sleepless in Seattle'' (1993), the Oscar winner ''Forrest Gump'' (1994), ''My Best Friend's Wedding'' (1997), ''There's Something About Mary'' (1998), and ''The Sixth Sense'' (1999). Screenings for these films are held in an area conducive to the film' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Academy Award For Best Original Screenplay
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Awards, Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the Oscars for 1957, the two categories were combined to honor only the screenplay. See also the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a similar award for screenplays that are adaptations of pre-existing material. Superlatives Woody Allen has the most nominations in this category with 16, and the most awards with 3 (for ''Annie Hall'', ''Hannah and Her Sisters'', and ''Midnight in Paris''). Paddy Chayefsky and Billy Wilder have also won three screenwriting Oscars: Chayefsky won two for Original Screenplay (''The Hospital'' and ''Network (1976 film), Network'') and one for Adapted Screenplay (''Marty (film), Marty''), while Wilder won one for Adapted Screenplay (''The Lost Weekend (film), The Lost Weekend'', shared with ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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75th Academy Awards
The 75th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) took place on March 23, 2003, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories honoring films released in 2002. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and was directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Steve Martin hosted for the second time, having previously presided over the 73rd ceremony held in 2001. Three weeks earlier in a ceremony at Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California held on March 1, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Kate Hudson. ''Chicago'' won six awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included '' The Pianist'' with three awards, ''Frida'' and '' The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' with two, and '' 8 Mile'', ''Adaptation'', ''Bowling for Columbine'', ''The Chub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or WASPs are an ethnoreligious group who are the white, upper-class, American Protestant historical elite, typically of British descent. WASPs dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of the history of the United States. From the 1950s, the New Left criticized the WASP hegemony and disparaged them as part of "The Establishment". Although the social influence of wealthy WASPs has declined since the 1940s, the group continues to play a central role in American finance, politics and philanthropy. ''Anglo-Saxon'' refers to people of British ancestry, but ''WASP'' is sometimes used more broadly by sociologists and others to include all Protestant Americans of Northern European or Northwestern European ancestry. ''WASP'' is also used for elites in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The 1998 ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' says the term is "sometimes disparaging and offensive". Naming The Angles and Saxons ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Greek Americans
Greek Americans ( el, Ελληνοαμερικανοί ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. The lowest estimate is that 1.2 million Americans are of Greek descent while the highest estimate suggests over 3 million. 350,000 people older than five spoke Greek at home in 2010. Greek Americans have the highest concentrations in the New York City, Boston, and Chicago regions, but have settled in major metropolitan areas across the United States. In 2000, Tarpon Springs, Florida, was home to the highest per capita representation of Greek Americans in the country (25%). The United States is home to the largest number of Greeks outside of Greece, followed by Cyprus and Australia. History Early history The first Greek known to have been to what is now the United States was Don Doroteo Teodoro, a sailor who landed in Boca Ciega Bay at the Jungle Prada site in present-day St. Petersburg, FL with the Narváez expedition in 152 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Middle Class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation's income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%. Theories like "Paradox of Interest" use decile groups and wealth distribution data to determine the size and wealth share of the middle class. From a Marxist standpoint, middle class initially referred to the 'bourgeoisie,' as distinct from nobility. With the development of capitalist societies and further inclusion of the bourgeoisie into the ruling class, middle class has been more closely identified by Marxist scholars with the term 'petite bourgeoisie.' There has been significant global middle-class growth over time. In February 2009, ''The Economist'' asserted that over half of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |