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The following is an overview of events in 2006, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths. Pixar celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2006 with the release of its 7th film, Cars.
Philip FrenchofThe Guardian described 2006 as "an outstanding year for British cinema". He went on to emphasize, "Six of our well-established directors have made highly individual films of real distinction: Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story, Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, Stephen Frears's The Queen, Paul Greengrass's United 93 and Nicholas Hytner's The History Boys. Two young directors made confident debuts, both offering a jaundiced view of contemporary Britain: Andrea Arnold's Red Road and Paul Andrew Williams's London to Brighton. In addition the gifted Mexican Alfonso Cuaron came here to make the dystopian thriller Children of Men." He also stated, "In the (United) States, M. Night ShyamalanofThe Sixth Sense fame fell flat on his over-confident face with Lady in the Water, but Martin Scorsese's The Departed was his best for years, and he was with Jack Nicholson at last. Apart from that, the best American films were political (Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, The New World) or very personal (Little Miss Sunshine, Little Children, The Squid and the Whale). Sadly, Oliver Stone's 9/11 picture World Trade Center was neither. Asian cinema produced a string of elegant thrillers and horror flicks. The best Eastern European movie was The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, a devastating look at the Romania Ceausescu left behind him. Most of the best Western European films came from France, with Michael Haneke's Caché, proving the most widely discussed art-house puzzle picture since Last Year at Marienbad. The award of 18 certificates by the BBFC to Shortbus and Destricted has brought close the abolition of censorship, but not of classification, and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain was a real step forward for the representation of homosexuals in mainstream cinema, though Gore Vidal claims that there's a gay subtext to every western. However, the year's most extraordinary event, or conjunction, was the almost simultaneous release of Tommy Lee Jones's directorial debut The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Who would have predicted in the Sixties, when they were roommates at Harvard and used by Erich Segal as joint models for Oliver Barrett IV in Love Story, that both Jones and Gore would end up as movie stars - if, in Gore's case, accidentally and temporarily?"[1]
The top 10 films released in 2006 by worldwide gross are as follows:[2]
| Rank | Title | Distributor(s) | Worldwide gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | Buena Vista | $1,066,179,725 |
| 2 | The Da Vinci Code | Sony | $760,006,945 |
| 3 | Ice Age: The Meltdown | 20th Century Fox | $660,998,756 |
| 4 | Casino Royale | Sony | $606,099,584 |
| 5 | Night at the Museum | 20th Century Fox | $574,480,841 |
| 6 | Cars | Buena Vista | $461,983,149 |
| 7 | X-Men: The Last Stand | 20th Century Fox | $460,435,291 |
| 8 | Mission: Impossible III | Paramount | $398,479,497 |
| 9 | Superman Returns | Warner Bros. | $391,081,192 |
| 10 | Happy Feet | $384,335,608 |
| Month | Day | Event |
| January | 4 | The Producers Guild of America nominates Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck and Walk the Line as contenders for their best-produced film award. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) nominate The 40-Year-Old Virgin, I Tried, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck and The Squid and the Whale for best original screenplay. The WGA nominees for best adapted screenplay are Brokeback Mountain, Capote, The Constant Gardener, A History of Violence and Syriana. |
| 5 | Jon Stewart is named host of the 78th Academy Awards. | |
| 9 | The Broadcast Film Critics Association present their Critics' Choice Awards for the best films of 2005 live on The WB network in the United States. Brokeback Mountain is named best picture, best director for Ang Lee and ties for best supporting actress for Michelle Williams. Philip Seymour Hoffman is named best actor for Capote and Reese Witherspoon is awarded best actress for Walk the Line. | |
| 16 | The winners of the 63rd Golden Globe Awards include Brokeback Mountain for best dramatic picture and best director. | |
| 19 | The 2006 Sundance Film Festival starts in Park City, Utah. | |
| 24 | Disney announces plans to acquire Pixar | |
| 28 | The Directors Guild of America names Ang Lee best film director of 2005 for Brokeback Mountain, best documentary goes to Werner Herzog for Grizzly Man and its Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Clint Eastwood. | |
| 29 | The Screen Actors Guild names Philip Seymour Hoffman outstanding male movie actor for Capote, Reese Witherspoon as outstanding female lead movie actor for Walk the Line, Rachel Weisz as outstanding female actor in a supporting role for The Constant Gardener, Paul Giamatti as outstanding male actor in a supporting role for Cinderella Man, the cast of Crash as outstanding ensemble in a theatrical motion picture, and Shirley Temple Black is given a life achievement award. | |
| 30 | The 26th Golden Raspberry Awards nominees include Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Dirty Love, The Dukes of Hazzard, House of Wax and Son of the Mask for worst film; Tom Cruise, Will Ferrell, Jamie Kennedy, The Rock and Rob Schneider for worst actor; and Jessica Alba, Hilary Duff, Jennifer Lopez, Jenny McCarthy and Tara Reid for worst actress. | |
| 31 | The Academy Awards for best film achievement in 2005 had nominated primarily independent films. Brokeback Mountain led the nominations with 8, followed by Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck and Memoirs of a Geisha all earning six. | |
| February | 5 | The 33rd annual Annie Award - Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit won the best animated feature, as well as all nine categories which it was nominated. Family Guy won the best voice acting and directing, Star Wars: Clone Wars II Chapters 21-25 won the best animated TV production, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch won the best home entertainment award, and Ultimate Spider-Man won the new "best video game award". |
| 6 | Disney re-acquires the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from NBCUniversal, in exchange for ABC letting commentator Al Michaels work on NBC Sunday Night Football. | |
| March | 4 | Dirty Love dominates the 26th Golden Raspberry Awards with 4 awards including Worst Picture and Worst Actress for Jenny McCarthy. Rob Schneider took home for Worst Actor for his performance in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. Other awards went to Hayden Christensen as Worst Supporting Actor for Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Paris Hilton as Worst Supporting Actress for House of Wax |
| 5 | 78th Academy Awards: Crash earns a win for Best Picture upsetting favorite Brokeback Mountain. No film, for the first time in 58 years, won a clear majority. Both films as well as Memoirs of a Geisha and King Kong win three Oscars each. Favorite March of the Penguins wins Oscar for Documentary Feature. South Africa wins its first motion picture Oscar with the Best Foreign Film award for Tsotsi. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit wins Oscar for Animated feature film.
Major awards as follows: | |
| 13 | 11th Empire Awards: Pride & Prejudice and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith win the most awards with two. | |
| April | 18 | Tom Cruise and fiancée Katie Holmes welcomed their newborn baby Suri. |
| 25 | The 5th annual Tribeca Film Festival opens with notable films such as Mission: Impossible III and United 93. | |
| 28 | TV double act Ant & Dec make their big screen debut with Alien Autopsy. | |
| May | 17 | The 2006 Cannes Film Festival began in Cannes, France. It continued until May 28. It was hosted by Vincent Cassel. Films in competition included BabelbyAlejandro González Iñárritu, Fast Food NationbyRichard Linklater, IklimlerbyNuri Bilge Ceylan, El Laberinto del FaunobyGuillermo del Toro, Marie AntoinettebySofia Coppola, Southland TalesbyRichard Kelly, VolverbyPedro Almodóvar, and The Wind That Shakes the BarleybyKen Loach |
| 27 | Brad Pitt and Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie give birth to daughter Shiloh in the African nation of Namibia. | |
| June | 3 | The 2006 MTV Movie Awards winners were announced. |
| 14 | The American Film Institute releases its ninth list of its AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers recognizing 100 films as the most "inspirational" in cinema history. Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life is named the most "inspirational" film of all time. | |
| July | 7 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opens later grossing $55.8 million on its opening day, setting records for the largest opening day, the largest single day gross, and the largest Friday gross of all time (the previous record was held by Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith with $50,013,859, the previous year). It also surpassed the opening weekend gross (at $135,634,554 between July 7–9) previously set by Spider-Man in 2002 with $114,844,116 between May 3–5. |
| 28 | Actor and Oscar-winning director producer Mel Gibson is arrested after speeding on Pacific Coast Highway due to a DUI. Police reports later reveal stinging anti-Semitic comments made to the officer (a Jew). Gibson checked into rehab and issued several statements apologizing for his rude comments. See Mel Gibson DUI incident for more details. | |
| September | 7 | Ellen DeGeneres is named host of the 79th Academy Awards. |
| 7-16 | The 2006 Toronto International Film Festival takes place. | |
| December | 7 | 64th Golden Globe Awards nominees are announced. Babel leads nominations with seven. |
