Marion Cotillard Best Actress GalleryMarion Cotillard (born September 30, 1975) is an Academy Award winning French actress who has appeared in almost 40 film and television productions since 1993. Born into an acting family, Cotillard started on the stage as a child and during her teens progressed from roles in television to cinema. By the end of the 1990s she had achieved notability as a French cinema actress in such films as Arnaud Desplechin's My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument (1996) and Taxi (1998), and was seen by a wider audience in such films as Big Fish (2003), A Very Long Engagement (2004), for which she received a César Award for Best Supporting Actress, and A Good Year (2006).
Her portrayal of Édith Piaf in La Vie en rose (2007) brought international acclaim, and multiple awards including a BAFTA, a César Award, and a Golden Globe. With this film, she became the first actress to win an Academy Award for a French language performance. Cotillard has expressed interest in environmental causes, and has served as a spokesperson for Greenpeace. She lives with her companion, actor/director Guillaume Canet.
After a few roles on television, her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s with small but noticeable roles in such films as Pierre Grimblat's Lisa alongside Jeanne Moreau, Swiss novel-adaptation drama War In The Highlands, Coline Serreau's comedy La Belle Verte, or Alexandre Aja's anticipation fantasy Furia among other participations in established directors' productions. She rose to prominence in the late 1990s when she was cast in the Luc Besson production Taxi (1998) as Lili Bertineau, a minor role that she reprised in two sequels. She then earned very good reviews and the attention of cinephiles via her portrayal of twins who exchange their lives after one of them dies in Les Jolies Choses/Pretty Things adapted from the work of novelist Virginie Despentes in which she sang live on stage a couple of songs she had co-written.
In 2003, she had a supporting role in Tim Burton's film, Big Fish, which introduced her to English-speaking audiences. She also played Sophie Kowalski in Yann Samuell's Jeux d'enfants (English title: Love Me If You Dare), in which she played the romantic lead. She appeared in two critically successful films in 2004: A Very Long Engagement, playing the murderous Tina Lombardi (garnering the César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role), and the drama mystery Innocence. In 2005, Abel Ferrara offered her a small role alongside Forest Whitaker in his religious movie Mary while she also played in Burnt Out, Fabienne Godet's study of social oppression and stresses of corporate culture.[9] In 2006, she appeared in Ridley Scott's A Good Year, the Belgian comedy Dikkenek and learned to play the cello for her role as a concertist in the satirical coming of age movie You and Me.
She was chosen by director Olivier Dahan to portray the French singer Édith Piaf in the biopic La Môme (English title: La Vie En Rose) before he had even met her, saying that he noticed a similarity between Piaf's and Cotillard's eyes. Producer Alain Goldman accepted and defended the choice even though distributors TFM reduced the money they gave to finance the film thinking Cotillard wasn't "bankable" enough an actress. Her portrayal was widely praised, including by the eminent theatre director Sir Trevor Nunn, who described it as "one of the greatest performances on film ever." It was dubbed "the most awaited film of 2007" in France, where some critics said that she had reincarnated Édith Piaf to sing one last time on stage.
Cotillard in 2008
On February 10, 2008, Cotillard became the first French actress to be awarded the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role since the BAFTAs in 1969 combined the Best British and Best Foreign actress award into one Best Actress category. She is also the first actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for a French language performance since Catherine Deneuve for Indochine in 1992. She is the first actress to win a Golden Globe for a foreign language performance since 1972, when Liv Ullmann won for The Emigrants. She is also the first person to win a (Comedy or Musical) Golden Globe for a foreign language performance. As La Vie En Rose was also a Czech production (as she mentioned in her César acceptance speech), Marion Cotillard was nominated for the Czech Lion for "Best Actress in a Leading Role" on February 21.
On February 22, 2008, she was awarded the César Award for Best Actress, becoming the first woman and second person (after Adrien Brody, The Pianist) to win both a Cesar and an Oscar for the same performance. Two days later, she received the Academy Award for Best Actress. After Simone Signoret in 1959, Marion Cotillard is the second French cinema actress to win this award, although French expatriate Claudette Colbert was given an Oscar in 1934. She is the first Best Actress winner in a non-English language performance since Sophia Loren's win in 1961. She is also the first and so far only winner of an Academy Award for a performance in the French language. In her Oscar acceptance speech, Cotillard proclaimed "thank you life, thank you love" and, speaking of Los Angeles, said "it is true, there is some angels in this city!"
Her portrayal of Édith Piaf in La Vie en rose (2007) brought international acclaim, and multiple awards including a BAFTA, a César Award, and a Golden Globe. With this film, she became the first actress to win an Academy Award for a French language performance. Cotillard has expressed interest in environmental causes, and has served as a spokesperson for Greenpeace. She lives with her companion, actor/director Guillaume Canet.
After a few roles on television, her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s with small but noticeable roles in such films as Pierre Grimblat's Lisa alongside Jeanne Moreau, Swiss novel-adaptation drama War In The Highlands, Coline Serreau's comedy La Belle Verte, or Alexandre Aja's anticipation fantasy Furia among other participations in established directors' productions. She rose to prominence in the late 1990s when she was cast in the Luc Besson production Taxi (1998) as Lili Bertineau, a minor role that she reprised in two sequels. She then earned very good reviews and the attention of cinephiles via her portrayal of twins who exchange their lives after one of them dies in Les Jolies Choses/Pretty Things adapted from the work of novelist Virginie Despentes in which she sang live on stage a couple of songs she had co-written.
In 2003, she had a supporting role in Tim Burton's film, Big Fish, which introduced her to English-speaking audiences. She also played Sophie Kowalski in Yann Samuell's Jeux d'enfants (English title: Love Me If You Dare), in which she played the romantic lead. She appeared in two critically successful films in 2004: A Very Long Engagement, playing the murderous Tina Lombardi (garnering the César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role), and the drama mystery Innocence. In 2005, Abel Ferrara offered her a small role alongside Forest Whitaker in his religious movie Mary while she also played in Burnt Out, Fabienne Godet's study of social oppression and stresses of corporate culture.[9] In 2006, she appeared in Ridley Scott's A Good Year, the Belgian comedy Dikkenek and learned to play the cello for her role as a concertist in the satirical coming of age movie You and Me.
She was chosen by director Olivier Dahan to portray the French singer Édith Piaf in the biopic La Môme (English title: La Vie En Rose) before he had even met her, saying that he noticed a similarity between Piaf's and Cotillard's eyes. Producer Alain Goldman accepted and defended the choice even though distributors TFM reduced the money they gave to finance the film thinking Cotillard wasn't "bankable" enough an actress. Her portrayal was widely praised, including by the eminent theatre director Sir Trevor Nunn, who described it as "one of the greatest performances on film ever." It was dubbed "the most awaited film of 2007" in France, where some critics said that she had reincarnated Édith Piaf to sing one last time on stage.
Cotillard in 2008
On February 10, 2008, Cotillard became the first French actress to be awarded the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role since the BAFTAs in 1969 combined the Best British and Best Foreign actress award into one Best Actress category. She is also the first actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for a French language performance since Catherine Deneuve for Indochine in 1992. She is the first actress to win a Golden Globe for a foreign language performance since 1972, when Liv Ullmann won for The Emigrants. She is also the first person to win a (Comedy or Musical) Golden Globe for a foreign language performance. As La Vie En Rose was also a Czech production (as she mentioned in her César acceptance speech), Marion Cotillard was nominated for the Czech Lion for "Best Actress in a Leading Role" on February 21.
On February 22, 2008, she was awarded the César Award for Best Actress, becoming the first woman and second person (after Adrien Brody, The Pianist) to win both a Cesar and an Oscar for the same performance. Two days later, she received the Academy Award for Best Actress. After Simone Signoret in 1959, Marion Cotillard is the second French cinema actress to win this award, although French expatriate Claudette Colbert was given an Oscar in 1934. She is the first Best Actress winner in a non-English language performance since Sophia Loren's win in 1961. She is also the first and so far only winner of an Academy Award for a performance in the French language. In her Oscar acceptance speech, Cotillard proclaimed "thank you life, thank you love" and, speaking of Los Angeles, said "it is true, there is some angels in this city!"
