Naomi Watts received her first Academy Award(R) nomination for Best Actress for her role in Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu's "21 Grams," in which she starred alongside Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro. Her performance also garnered Best Actress Awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Southeastern Film Critics Association, Washington Area Film Critics and San Diego Film Critics, as well as Best Actress nominations from the SAG Awards, BAFTAs, Broadcast Film Critics and Golden Satellites. At the film's premiere at the 2003 Venice International Film Festival, she received the Audience Award (Lion of the Public) for Best Actress, and she was also honored by the Palm Springs Film Festival.
Watts earned widespread acclaim for her work in David Lynch's controversial drama "Mullholland Drive," which premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and which brought her Best Actress Awards from a number of critics' organizations, including the National Society of Film Critics. In addition, she was named the Female Star of Tomorrow at the 2002 ShoWest Convention, and received the Breakthrough Acting Award at the 2002 Hollywood Film Festival.
Watts has been filming non-stop and has an extensive list of upcoming releases: "We Don't Live Here Anymore," opposite Laura Dern, Peter Krause and Mark Ruffalo -- for which she is also a producer; "The Assassination of Richard Nixon," opposite Sean Penn and Don Cheadle; David O. Russell's "I (Heart) Huckabee's," with Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman; "Stay" for Mark Forster, opposite Ewan McGregor and Ryan Gosling; and "The Ring 2" -- the sequel to the 2001 blockbuster, "The Ring."
Last year, Watts starred in the Merchant-Ivory production "Le Divorce," in which she joins an ensemble cast, including Kate Hudson, Glenn Close and Stockard Channing, and starred in Gore Verbinski's box office hit "The Ring." Other film credits include "Undertaking Betty" and "Ned Kelly."
Born in England, Watts moved to Australia at the age of 14 and began studying acting. Her first major film role came in John Duigan's "Flirting." Watts also produced and starred in the short film "Ellie Parker," which screened in competition at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and for which she received the Best Actress in a Short Film Award from the Method Fest.
Jack Black has appeared in many motion pictures, but it was his scene-stealing performance as John Cusack's sarcastic music store employee in Stephen Frears' critically-acclaimed comedy "High Fidelity" that cemented his place in the hearts of audiences. That breakout role in 2000 garnered him a Blockbuster Entertainment Award in the supporting actor category and a nomination for an American Comedy Award. Black then co-hosted the 2002 MTV Movie Awards with Sarah Michelle Gellar; the program was the highest rated MTV Movie Awards show ever and was the top-rated cable program of the year.
This past October, Black proved his box-office draw with the #1 opening box office hit "School of Rock," from producer Scott Rudin, director Richard Linklater and writer Mike White. In the film, for which Black received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, he plays a failed rock musician who, in order to get some quick rent money, pretends to be a substitute teacher in an uptight private school.
Black most recently appeared in the film "Envy," in which he starred opposite Ben Stiller for director Barry Levinson. Black has also finished the voice work for the animated feature "Shark Tale." Alongside Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Renee Zellweger and Martin Scorsese, Black will voice the young character Lenny in a tale about an undersea mob and the trouble they get in to.
Fans also know Black as the lead singer of the rock-folk comedy group Tenacious D, which he created with friend Kyle Gass. Their self-titled album was released in the fall of 2001 on Epic Records and was quickly certified at gold-selling status. The band had a 1999 variety series on HBO and the duo has completed the script for their semi-autobiographical feature Tenacious D in: "The Pick of Destiny," with an anticipated start of production later this year.
