The arts are a vast subdivision of culture, composed of many creative endeavors and disciplines. It is a broader term than "''art''," which as a description of a field usually means only the visual arts. ''The arts'' encompasses visual arts, literary arts and the performing arts – music, theatre, dance and film, among others. This list is by no means comprehensive, but only meant to introduce the concept of the arts.

Definition

A good definition of ''the arts'' is given by the Free Dictionary as "imaginative, creative, and nonscientific branches of knowledge considered collectively, esp. as studied academically." The singular term ''art'' is defined by the Irish Art Encyclopedia as follows: "Art is created when an artist creates a beautiful object, or produces a stimulating experience that is considered by his audience to have artistic merit." So, one could conclude that ''art'' is the process that leads to a product (the artwork or piece of art), which is then examined and analyzed by experts in the field of ''the arts'' or simply enjoyed by those who appreciate ''the arts.'' The same source states:

Art is a global activity which encompasses a host of disciplines, as evidenced by the range of words and phrases which have been invented to describe its various forms. Examples of such phraseology include: ''Fine Arts'', ''Liberal Arts'', ''Visual Arts'', ''Decorative Arts'', ''Applied Arts'', ''Design'', ''Crafts'', ''Performing Arts'', and so on.

The term ''art'' commonly refers to the "Visual Arts," as an abbreviation of ''creative art'' or ''fine art''. For example, the ''History of art'' is described as "the history of the visual arts of painting, sculpture and architecture. It is the history of one of the fine arts, others of which are the performing arts and literature. It is also one of the humanities. The term sometimes encompasses theory of the visual arts, including aesthetics." In the article for ''Fine art'', we read:

Confusion often occurs when people mistakenly refer to the Fine Arts but mean the Performing Arts (Music, Dance, Drama, etc.). However, there is some disagreement here: e.g., at York University (Toronto, Canada) Fine Arts is a faculty that includes the [visual arts], design and the "Performing Arts". Furthermore, creative writing is frequently considered a fine art as well.

To illustrate the previous statements, the College of Fine Arts at Stephen F. Austin State University (Nacogdoches, TX) consists of the Schools of "Art, Music and Theatre," while one of the Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees at the University of British Columbia is attached to the Creative Writing Program.

More work will be required to standardize the use of the terms "art" and "fine art," but for the purpose of this article the definition of "the arts" is not problematic, because it includes all the arts. One artist has even suggested that "[it] would really simplify matters if we could all just stick with visual, auditory, performance or literary – when we speak of The Arts – and eliminate "Fine" altogether."

History

For all intents and purposes, the history of the arts begins with the ''history of art'', as dealt with elsewhere. Furthermore, the history of the Performing Arts and Literature have been described in other articles --(Please see: Outline of performing arts; History of literature). Some examples of creative art through the ages can be summarized here, as excerpted from the history of art.

Ancient Greek art saw the veneration of the animal form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty and anatomically correct proportions. Ancient Roman art depicted gods as idealized humans, shown with characteristic distinguishing features (i.e. Zeus' thunderbolt).

In Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages, the dominance of the church insisted on the expression of biblical and not material truths.

Eastern art has generally worked in a style akin to Western medieval art, namely a concentration on surface patterning and local colour (meaning the plain colour of an object, such as basic red for a red robe, rather than the modulations of that colour brought about by light, shade and reflection). A characteristic of this style is that the local colour is often defined by an outline (a contemporary equivalent is the cartoon). This is evident in, for example, the art of India, Tibet and Japan.

Religious Islamic art forbids iconography, and expresses religious ideas through geometry instead.

The physical and rational certainties depicted by the 19th-century Enlightenment were shattered not only by new discoveries of relativity by Einstein and of unseen psychology by Freud, but also by unprecedented technological development. Paradoxically the expressions of new technologies were greatly influenced by the ancient tribal arts of Africa and Oceania, through the works of Paul Gauguin and the Post-Impressionists, Pablo Picasso and the Cubists, as well as the Futurists and others.By Arun

The various arts

In the Middle Ages, ''Artes Liberales'' (liberal arts) taught in medieval universities as part of the Trivium: (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy), and the ''Artes Mechanicae'' (mechanical arts) such as metalworking, farming, cooking, business and the making of clothes or cloth. The modern distinctions between "artistic" and non-artistic skills did not develop until the Renaissance.

In modern academia, the arts are usually grouped with or a subset of the Humanities. Some subjects in the Humanities are history, linguistics, literature, and philosophy. Newspapers typically include a section on the arts.

Traditionally, the arts are classified as seven although the list has been expanded to nine. These being Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music, Poetry, Dance, Theater/Cinema, with the modern non-traditional additions of Photography and Comics.

Visual arts

Drawing

''Drawing'' is a means of making an image, using any of a wide variety of tools and techniques. It generally involves making marks on a surface by applying pressure from a tool, or moving a tool across a surface. Common tools are graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, pastels, and markers. Digital tools which simulate the effects of these are also used. The main techniques used in drawing are: line drawing, hatching, crosshatching, random hatching, scribbling, stippling, and blending. An artist who excels in drawing is referred to as a ''draftswoman'' or ''draughtsman''.

Gastronomy

''Gastronomy'' is the study of the relationship between culture and food. It is often thought erroneously that the term gastronomy refers exclusively to the art of cooking (see Culinary art), but this is only a small part of this discipline; it cannot always be said that a cook is also a gourmet. Gastronomy studies various cultural components with food as its central axis. Thus it is related to the Fine Arts and Social Sciences, and even to the Natural Sciences in terms of the digestive system of the human body.

Architecture

Architecture (from Latin, ''architectura'' and ultimately from Greek, ''αρχιτεκτων'', "a master builder", from ''αρχι-'' "chief, leader" and ''τεκτων'', "builder, carpenter") is the art and science of designing buildings and structures.

A wider definition would include within its scope the design of the total built environment, from the macrolevel of town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture to the microlevel of creating furniture. Architectural design usually must address both feasibility and cost for the builder, as well as function and aesthetics for the user.

In modern usage, architecture is the art and discipline of creating an actual, or inferring an implied or apparent plan of any complex object or system. The term can be used to connote the ''implied architecture'' of abstract things such as music or mathematics, the ''apparent architecture'' of natural things, such as geological formations or the structure of biological cells, or explicitly ''planned architectures'' of human-made things such as software, computers, enterprises, and databases, in addition to buildings. In every usage, an architecture may be seen as a ''subjective mapping'' from a human perspective (that of the ''user'' in the case of abstract or physical artifacts) to the elements or components of some kind of structure or system, which preserves the relationships among the elements or components.

Planned architecture manipulates space, volume, texture, light, shadow, or abstract elements in order to achieve pleasing aesthetics. This distinguishes it from applied science or engineering, which usually concentrate more on the functional and feasibility aspects of the design of constructions or structures.

In the field of building architecture, the skills demanded of an architect range from the more complex, such as for a hospital or a stadium, to the apparently simpler, such as planning residential houses. Many architectural works may be seen also as cultural and political symbols, and/or works of art. The role of the architect, though changing, has been central to the successful (and sometimes less than successful) design and implementation of pleasingly built environments in which people live.

Painting

Painting taken literally is the practice of applying pigment suspended in a vehicle (or medium) and a binding agent (a glue) to a surface (support) such as paper, canvas, wood panel or a wall. However, when used in an artistic sense it means the use of this activity in combination with drawing, composition and other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Painting is also used to express spiritual motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery to The Sistine Chapel to the human body itself.

Colour is the essence of painting as sound is of music. Colour is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but elsewhere white may be. Some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, Newton, have written their own colour theory. Moreover the use of language is only a generalization for a colour equivalent. The word "red", for example, can cover a wide range of variations on the pure red of the spectrum. There is not a formalized register of different colours in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music, such as C or C#, although the Pantone system is widely used in the printing and design industry for this purpose.

Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, for example, collage. This began with Cubism and is not painting in strict sense. Some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand, cement, straw or wood for their texture. Examples of this are the works of Jean Dubuffet or Anselm Kiefer.

Modern and contemporary art has moved away from the historic value of craft in favour of concept; this has led some to say that painting, as a serious art form, is dead, although this has not deterred the majority of artists from continuing to practise it either as whole or part of their work.

Conceptual art

Conceptual art is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. The inception of the term in the 1960s referred to a strict and focused practice of idea-based art that often defied traditional visual criteria associated with the visual arts in its presentation as text. However, through its association with the Young British Artists and the Turner Prize during the 1990s, its popular usage, particularly in the UK, developed as a synonym for all contemporary art that does not practise the traditional skills of painting and sculpture.

Video games

A debate exists in the fine arts and video game cultures over whether video games can be counted as an art form. Some cite games such as Shadow of the Colossus and Myst as prime examples of video games as an art form. Others, such as game designer Hideo Kojima, profess that video games are a type of service, not an art form.

In May of 2011, the National Endowment of the Arts included video games in its redefinition of what is considered a ''work of art''.

Literary arts

Literature is literally "acquaintance with letters" as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin ''littera'' meaning "an individual written character (letter)"). The term has generally come to identify a collection of writings, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction, drama and poetry. In much, if not all of the world, texts can be oral as well, and include such genres as epic, legend, myth, ballad, other forms of oral poetry, and as folktale.

Performing arts

The performing arts differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some art object.

Performing arts include acrobatics, busking, comedy, dance, magic, music, opera, operetta, film, juggling, martial arts, marching arts such as brass bands and theatre.

Artists who participate in these arts in front of an audience are called performers, including actors, comedians, dancers, musicians, and singers. Performing arts are also supported by workers in related fields, such as songwriting and stagecraft.

Performers often adapt their appearance, such as with costumes and stage makeup, etc.

There is also a specialized form of fine art in which the artists ''perform'' their work live to an audience. This is called Performance art. Dance was often referred to as a ''plastic art'' during the Modern dance era.

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. Within "the arts", music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art.

Theatre

Theatre or theater (Greek "theatron", ''θέατρον'') is the branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle — indeed any one or more elements of the other performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative dialogue style, theatre takes such forms as opera, ballet, mime, kabuki, classical Indian dance, Chinese opera and mummers' plays.

Dance

Dance (from Old French ''dancier'', perhaps from Frankish) generally refers to human movement either used as a form of expression or presented in a social, spiritual or performance setting.

''Dance'' is also used to describe methods of non-verbal communication (see body language) between humans or animals (bee dance, mating dance), motion in inanimate objects (''the leaves danced in the wind''), and certain musical forms or genres.

Choreography is the art of making dances, and the person who does this is called a choreographer. People danced to relieve stress.

Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic, artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as Folk dance) to codified, virtuoso techniques such as ballet. In sports, gymnastics, figure skating and synchronized swimming are ''dance'' disciplines while Martial arts 'kata' are often compared to dances.

Arts criticism

Architecture criticism

Visual art criticism

Dance criticism

Film criticism

Literary criticism

Music journalism

Television criticism

Theatre criticism

See also

Culinary art

Fine art

Martial arts

Performing arts

Art in odd places

References

''Does time fly?—Peter Galison's Empires of Time, a historical survey of Einstein and Poincare, intrigues Jon Turney''. Jon Turney. The Guardian, Saturday 6 September 2003

''Contradictions of the Enlightenment: Darwin, Freud, Einstein''

Notes

ceb:Arte sw:Sanaa lt:Menai new:कला no:Kunstart nn:Kunstart nrm:Arts nov:Artes ps:هنرونه sv:Konstarterna th:ศิลปกรรม ur:فنیات

:''"Net TV" redirects here. For other uses, see Net (disambiguation).''

Internet television (otherwise known as Internet TV, or Online TV, and not to be confused with Web television or Internet protocol television (IPTV), is a digital distribution television service distributed via the Internet. Some Internet television is known as catch-up TV. It has become very popular with services such as BBC iPlayer, 4oD, ITV Player (also STV Player and UTV Player) and Demand Five in the United Kingdom; Hulu and Revision3 in the United States; Nederland 24 in the Netherlands; ABC iview and Australia Live TV in Australia; SeeSaw; RTÉ Player in Ireland; and Tivibu in Turkey. ''See List of Internet television providers.''

History

Greek internet television Tvonline created by Film Director Angelos Diamantoulakis, is the first web TV in the world. It was built in 2005.

Concept

Internet television allows the users to choose the program or the television show they want to watch from an archive of programs or from a channel directory. The two forms of viewing Internet television are streaming the content directly to a media player or simply downloading the program to the user's computer. With the "TV on Demand" market growing, these on-demand websites or applications are essential for major television broadcasters. For example, the BBC iPlayer brings in users which stream more than one million videos per week, with one of the BBC's headline shows ''The Apprentice'' taking over three percent to five percent of the UK's internet traffic due to people watching the first episode on the BBC iPlayer. Availability of online TV content continues to grow. As an example, in Canada as of May 2011 there were more than 600 TV shows available for free streaming, including several major titles like Survivor, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Every night the use of on-demand television peaks at around 10 pm, Most providers of the service provide several different formats and quality controls so that the service can be viewed on many different devices. Some services now offer a HD service along side their SD, streaming is the same but offers the quality of HD to the device being used, as long as it is using a HD screen. During Peak times the BBC iPlayer transmits 12 GB (gigabytes) of information per second. Over the course of a month the iPlayer sends 7 PB (petabytes) of information.

Before 2006, most catch-up services used peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, in which users downloaded an application and data would be shared between the users rather than the service provider giving the now more commonly used streaming method. Now most service providers have moved away from the P2P systems and are now using the streaming media. The old P2P service was selected because the existing infrastructure could not handle the bandwidth necessary for centralized streaming distribution. Some consumers didn't like their upload bandwidth being consumed by their video player, which partially motivated the rollout of centralized streaming distribution.

Market competitors

Many providers of internet-television services exist including conventional television stations that have taken advantage of the internet as a way to continue showing programmes after they have been broadcast often advertised as "on-demand" and "catch-up" services. Today, almost every major broadcaster around the world is operating an internet-television platform. Examples include the BBC, which introduced the BBC iPlayer on 25 June 2008 as an extension to its "RadioPlayer" and already existing streamed video-clip content, and Channel 4 that launched 4oD ("4 on Demand") in November 2006 allowing users to watch recently shown content. Most internet-television services allow users to view content free of charge; however, some content is for a fee. Other internet-television providers include Been TVAustralia Live TV SeeSaw, ITV player, TVCatchup, Demand Five, Eurosport player, iSTATION TV and Sky Go.

Access/usability

The ability to access internet television is heavily dependent on internet-streaming speeds. This limits adoption in many countries, as broadband penetration is limited; in the European Union only twenty-five percent of consumers had access to Broadband internet in 2010. Using an Internet service provider, something which is common in many homes in the developed world, the user simply enters their chosen website address. For example, bbc.co.uk/iplayer or http://video.pbs.org . If the user has no select preference of streaming service, the name of a chosen television programme can be inputted into a search engine followed by a phrase such as "online streaming" or "watch on the net". Accessing television on the internet has never been so simple, due to this usability of streaming services has had to be improved to maintain the simplicity of the process. Upon selection of a programme and website, the user may have to wait a few seconds or minutes to allow their desired programme to stream. A process called buffering allows the programme to run in one smooth showing as opposed to stopping and starting to allow the programme to stream.

Control

Controlling content on the Internet presents a challenge for most providers; to try to ensure that a user is allowed to view content such as programmes with age certificates, providers use methods such as parental controls that allows restrictions to be placed upon the use and access of certificated material. The BBC iPlayer makes use of a parental control system giving parents the option to "lock" content, meaning that a password would have to be used to access it. Flagging systems can be used to warn a user that content may be certified or that it may be post watershed for a programme. Honor systems are also used where users are asked for their dates of birth or age to verify if they are able to view certain content.

Archives

An archive is a collection of information and media much like a library or interactive-storage facility. It is a necessity for an on-demand media service to maintain archives so that users can watch programmes that have already been aired on standard-broadcast television. However, these archives can vary from a few weeks to months to years, depending on the curator and what programme it is.

For example, the BBC iPlayer's programmes are in general available for up to seven days after their original broadcast. This so called "seven-day catch-up" model seems to become an industry standard for internet-television services in many countries around the world. However, some programmes may only be available for shorter periods. Others, such as Panorama are available for an extended period because it is a factual programme and is highly watched and so is worth the extra money needed to host it for longer.

In contrast, 4oD channel 4's on-demand service offers many of its much-older programmes as well that were originally aired years ago. An example of this is the comedy ''The IT Crowd'' where users can view the full series on the internet player. The same is true for other hit channel 4 comedies such as ''The Inbetweeners'' and ''Black Books''.

Having an extensive archive, however, can bring problems along with benefits. Large archives are expensive to maintain, server farms and mass storage is needed along with ample bandwidth to transmit it all. Vast archives can be hard to catalogue and sort so that it is accessible to users.

The benefits in most cases outweigh these problems. This is because large archives bring in far more users who, in turn, watch more media, leading to a wider audience base and more advertising revenue. Large archives will also mean the user will spend more time on that website rather than a competitors, leading to starvation of demand for the competitors.

Broadcasting rights

Broadcasting rights vary from country to country and even within provinces of countries. These rights govern the distribution of copyrighted content and media and allow the sole distribution of that content at any one time.

An example of programmes only being aired in certain countries is BBC iPlayer. Users can only stream content from the BBC iPlayer from Britain because the BBC only allows free use of their product for users within the UK because those users pay a television license to fund part of the BBC.

Broadcasting rights can also be restricted to allowing a broadcaster rights to distribute that content for a limited time. Channel 4's online service 4oD can only stream shows created in the US by companies such as HBO for thirty days after they are aired on one of the Channel 4 group channels. This is to boost DVD sales for the companies who produce that media.

Some companies pay very large amounts for broadcasting rights with sports and US sitcoms usually fetching the highest price from UK-based broadcasters.

Profits and costs

With the exception of Internet-connectivity costs many online-television channels or sites are free. These sites maintain this free-television policy through the use of video advertising, short commercials and banner advertisements may show up before a video is played. An example of this is on the abc.com catch-up website; in place of the advertisement breaks on normal television, a short thirty-second advertisement is played. This short advertising time means that the user does not get fed up and money can be made on advertising, to allow web designers to offer quality content which would otherwise cost. This is how online television makes a profit.

Technologies used for Internet television

The Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) consortium of industry companies (such as SES Astra, Humax, Philips, and ANT Software) is currently promoting and establishing an open European standard (called HbbTV) for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast and broadband digital television and multimedia applications with a single-user interface.

Current providers of internet television use various technologies to provide a service such as peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies, VoD systems, and live streaming. BBC iPlayer makes use of the Adobe Flash Player to provide streaming-video clips and other software provided by Adobe for its download service. CNBC, Bloomberg Television and Showtime use live-streaming services from BitGravity to stream live television to paid subscribers using a standard http protocol. DRM (digital rights management) software is also incorporated into many internet-television services. Sky Go has software that is provided by Microsoft to prevent content being copied. Internet television is also cross platform, the Sky Player service has been expanded to the Xbox 360 on October 27 and to Windows Media Center and then to Windows 7 PCs on November 19. The BBC iPlayer is also available through Virgin Media's on-demand service and other platforms such as FetchTV and games consoles including the Wii and the PlayStation 3. Other Internet-television platforms include mobile platforms such as the iPhone and iPod Touch, Nokia N96, Sony Ericsson C905 and many other mobile devices.

Samsung TV has also announced their plans to provide streaming options including 3D Video on Demand through their Explore 3D service.

Website vs. applications

The main problem with on-demand video services that are applications on desktop computers is getting users to download them and register. It is far easier for a user to simply log onto a webpage without registering than to have to spend time registering and downloading often large programs.

However, applications are more powerful in that they can manage the downloading of content far better and these programs can usually be watched offline for thirty days after downloading.

Stream quality

Stream quality refers to the quality of the image and audio transferred from the servers of the distributor to the home screen on a user.

Higher-quality video such as video in high definition (720p+) requires higher bandwidth and faster connection speeds. The general accepted kbit/s download rate needed to stream high-definition video that has been encoded with H.264 is 3500, where as standard-definition television can range from 500 to 1500 kbit/s depending on the resolution on screen.

In the UK, the BBC iPlayer deals with the largest amount of traffic yet it offers HD content along with SD content. As more people get internet connections which can deal with streaming HD video over the internet, the BBC iPlayer has tried to keep up with demand and pace. However, as streaming HD video takes around 1.5 gb of data per hour of video it took a lot of investment by the BBC to implement this on such a large scale.

For users which do not have the bandwidth to stream HD video or even high-SD video which requires 1500 kbit/s, the BBC iPlayer offers lower bitrate streams which in turn leads to lower video quality. This makes use of an adaptive bitrate stream so that if the users bandwidth suddenly drops, iPlayer will lower its streaming rate to compensate for this.

This diagnostic tool offered on the BBC iPlayer site measures a user's streaming capabilities and bandwidth for free.

Although competitors in the UK such as 4oD, ITV Player and Demand Five have not yet offered HD streaming, the technology to support it is fairly new and widespread HD streaming is not an impossibility. The availability of Channel 4 and Five programs on YouTube is predicted to prove incredibly popular as series such as ''Skins'', ''Green Wing'', ''The X Factor'' and others become available in a simple, straightforward format on a website which already attracts millions of people every day.

Overview of Platforms and availability

US

Service !! Supporting company/companies !! Regional availability !! Website-based !! Windows application !! Mac application !! Linux application !! iOS (Apple)	iOS application !! Android application !! Console application !! TV set application !! Set Top Box application	*
! BBC iPlayer	BBC	UK	|						Wii, PS3	Samsung, Sony	Virgin Media On Demand, Freesat
Tivibu	Argela	TR	|					Argela Android Player	Pending	None	Ttnet on Demand
Sky Go	Sky	UK & Ireland	|						Xbox 360
ITV Player	ITV	UK	|						PS3		Virgin Media On Demand
VuNow	Verismo Networks	World	|								VuNow Service
ABC iview	Australian Broadcasting Corporation	Australia	|				iPad			Samsung, Sony
4OD	Channel 4	UK & Ireland	|						PS3		Virgin Media On Demand
SeeSaw (Internet television)	SeeSaw	Arqiva	UK	|
!Hulu	FOX, NBC Universal, ABC,..	|							PS3, XBOX360	Samsung, Vizio
RTÉ Player	RTÉ	Ireland	|						PS3
TG4	TG4 Beo	TG4	Ireland/Worldwide	|
TV3 (Ireland)	TV3 Catch Up	TV3	Ireland	|

See also

Comparison of streaming media systems

Comparison of video services

Content delivery network

Digital television

Grid casting

Interactive television

Internet radio

IPTV

Home theater PC

List of Internet television providers

List of streaming media systems

Multicast

P2PTV

Protection of Broadcasts and Broadcasting Organizations Treaty

Push technology

Smart TV

Software as a service

Streaming media

Television network

Video advertising

Web television

Web-to-TV

Webcast

References

External links

"Overview of internet connected TV platforms in the UK" The Connected Set (Feb 2011)

IPTV future ''The Register'' 2006-05-05

As Internet TV Aims at Niche Audiences, the Slivercast Is Born ''New York Times'' 2006-03-12

IPTV vs Internet Video

TV's future stars will come from the web''The Guardian'' 2008-09-11

Your top web TV''The Telegraph'' 2007-08-03

International TV Explorer Industry project identifying internet TV services around the world (2010)

Category:Digital television Category:Film and video technology Category:Internet broadcasting Category:Internet television Category:Internet television channels Category:Multimedia Category:Peercasting Category:Streaming media systems Category:Video hosting Category:Video on demand services Video services

ar:التلفاز عبر الإنترنيت bg:Интернет телевизия de:Internet-TV es:Televisión por Internet fr:Télévision par ADSL hi:इंटरनेट टीवी id:Televisi Internet he:שידורי טלוויזיה באינטרנט hu:Internettelevízió mk:Интернет телевизија nl:Internettelevisie ja:インターネットテレビ no:Nett-TV pl:Telewizja internetowa pt:Televisão via Internet ru:Интернет-телевидение sv:Webb-TV zh:网络电视

Name	Heath Ledger
Alt	Close up of a man's face with brown eyes, tousled brown hair and scraggly beard growth. He is looking toward his left. He is wearing a grey jumper with an orange stripe near his left shoulder and upper left arm. The background is blue with out of focus writing.
Birth name	Heath Andrew Ledger
Birth date	April 04, 1979
Birth place	Perth, Australia
Death date	January 22, 2008
Death place	New York City, United States
Death cause	Accidental prescription drug overdose
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1992–2008
Domesticpartner	Michelle Williams (2004–2007) }}

Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career. His work encompassed nineteen films, including ''10 Things I Hate About You'' (1999), ''The Patriot'' (2000), ''Monster's Ball'' (2001), ''A Knight's Tale'' (2001), ''Brokeback Mountain'' (2005), and ''The Dark Knight'' (2008). In addition to acting, he produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.

For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in ''Brokeback Mountain'', Ledger won the 2005 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the 2006 "Best Actor" award from the Australian Film Institute and was nominated for the 2005 Academy Award for Best Actor as well as the 2006 BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Posthumously he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the ensemble cast, the director, and the casting director for the film ''I'm Not There'', which was inspired by the life and songs of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In the film, Ledger portrayed a fictional actor named Robbie Clark, one of six characters embodying aspects of Dylan's life and persona. Ledger received numerous accolades for his critically acclaimed portrayal of the Joker in ''The Dark Knight'', including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a Best Actor International Award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards, for which he became the first actor to win an award posthumously, the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Ledger died in January 2008, from an accidental "toxic combination of prescription drugs". A few months before his death, Ledger had finished filming his penultimate performance, as the Joker in ''The Dark Knight'', his death coming during editing of the film and casting a shadow over the subsequent promotion of the $180 million production. At the time of his death, on 22 January 2008, he had completed about half of his work performing the role of Tony in Terry Gilliam's film ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus''.

Early life

Heath Ledger was born in Perth, Western Australia, the son of Sally Ledger (née Ramshaw), a French teacher, and Kim Ledger, a racing-car driver and mining engineer, whose family established and owned the Ledger Engineering Foundry. The Sir Frank Ledger Charitable Trust is named after his great-grandfather. Ledger attended Mary's Mount Primary School, in Gooseberry Hill, and later Guildford Grammar School, where he had his first acting experiences, starring in a school production as Peter Pan at age 10. His parents separated when he was 10 and divorced when he was 11. Ledger's older sister Kate, an actress and later a publicist, to whom he was very close, inspired his acting on stage, and his love of Gene Kelly inspired his successful choreography, leading to Guildford Grammar's 60-member team's "first all-boy victory" at the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge. Heath's and Kate's other siblings include two half-sisters, Ashleigh Bell (b. 1989), his mother's daughter with her second husband and his stepfather Roger Bell, and Olivia Ledger (b. 1997), his father's daughter with second wife and his stepmother Emma Brown.

Career

1990s

After sitting for early graduation exams at 16, Ledger left school to pursue an acting career. With Trevor DiCarlo, his best friend since he was three years old, Ledger drove across Australia from Perth to Sydney, returning to Perth to take a small role in ''Clowning Around'' (1992), the first part of a two-part television series, and to work on the TV series ''Sweat'' (1996), in which he played a gay cyclist. From 1993 to 1997, Ledger also had parts in the Perth television series ''Ship to Shore'' (1993); in the short-lived Fox Broadcasting Company fantasy-drama ''Roar'' (1997); in ''Home and Away'' (1997), one of Australia's most successful television shows; and in the Australian film ''Blackrock'' (1997), his feature film debut. In 1999, he starred in the teen comedy ''10 Things I Hate About You'' and in the acclaimed Australian crime film ''Two Hands'', directed by Gregor Jordan.

2000s

From 2000 to 2005, he starred in supporting roles as Gabriel Martin, the eldest son of Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), in ''The Patriot'' (2000), and as Sonny Grotowski, the son of Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton), in ''Monster's Ball'' (2000); and in leading or title roles in ''A Knight's Tale'' (2001), ''The Four Feathers'' (2002), ''The Order'' (2003), ''Ned Kelly'' (2003), ''Casanova'' (2005), ''The Brothers Grimm'' (2005), and ''Lords of Dogtown'' (2005). In 2001, he won a ShoWest Award as "Male Star of Tomorrow".

Ledger received "Best Actor of 2005" awards from both the New York Film Critics Circle and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle for his performance in ''Brokeback Mountain'', in which he plays Wyoming ranch hand Ennis Del Mar, who has a love affair with aspiring rodeo rider Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. He also received a nomination for Golden Globe Best Actor in a Drama and a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor for this performance, making him, at age 26, the ninth-youngest nominee for a Best Actor Oscar. In ''The New York Times'' review of the film, critic Stephen Holden writes: "Both Mr. Ledger and Mr. Gyllenhaal make this anguished love story physically palpable. Mr. Ledger magically and mysteriously disappears beneath the skin of his lean, sinewy character. It is a great screen performance, as good as the best of Marlon Brando and Sean Penn." In a review in ''Rolling Stone'', Peter Travers states: "Ledger's magnificent performance is an acting miracle. He seems to tear it from his insides. Ledger doesn't just know how Ennis moves, speaks and listens; he knows how he breathes. To see him inhale the scent of a shirt hanging in Jack's closet is to take measure of the pain of love lost."

After ''Brokeback Mountain,'' Ledger costarred with fellow Australian Abbie Cornish in the 2006 Australian film ''Candy,'' an adaptation of the 1998 novel ''Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction,'' as young heroin addicts in love attempting to break free of their addiction, whose mentor is played by Geoffrey Rush; for his performance as sometime poet Dan, Ledger was nominated for three "Best Actor" awards, including one of the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, which both Cornish and Rush won in their categories. Shortly after the release of ''Candy,'' Ledger was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As one of six actors embodying different aspects of the life of Bob Dylan in the 2007 film ''I'm Not There,'' directed by Todd Haynes, Ledger "won praise for his portrayal of 'Robbie [Clark],' a moody, counter-culture actor who represents the romanticist side of Dylan, but says accolades are never his motivation." Posthumously, on 23 February 2008, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the film's ensemble cast, its director, and its casting director.

In his next to last film performance, Ledger played the Joker in ''The Dark Knight'', directed by Christopher Nolan, first released, in Australia, on 16 July 2008, nearly six months after his death. While still working on the film, in London, Ledger told Sarah Lyall, in their interview published in the ''New York Times'' on 4 November 2007, that he viewed ''The Dark Knight'''s Joker as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."

To prepare for the role, Ledger told ''Empire'', "I sat around in a hotel room in London for about a month, locked myself away, formed a little diary and experimented with voices – it was important to try to find a somewhat iconic voice and laugh. I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath – someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts"; after reiterating his view of the character as "just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown", he added that Nolan had given him "free rein" to create the role, which he found "fun, because there are no real boundaries to what the Joker would say or do. Nothing intimidates him, and everything is a big joke." For his work in ''The Dark Knight,'' Ledger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, his family accepting it on his behalf, as well as numerous other posthumous awards including the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, which Christopher Nolan accepted for him.

At the time of his death, on 22 January 2008, Ledger had completed about half of the work for his final film performance as Tony in ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.''

Directorial work

Ledger had aspirations to become a film director and had made some music videos, which director Todd Haynes praised highly in his tribute to Ledger upon accepting the ISP Robert Altman Award, which Ledger posthumously shared, on 23 February 2008. In 2006 Ledger directed music videos for the title track on Australian hip-hop artist N'fa's CD debut solo album ''Cause An Effect'' and for the single "Seduction Is Evil (She's Hot)". Later that year, Ledger inaugurated a new record label, Masses Music, with singer Ben Harper and also directed a music video for Harper's song "Morning Yearning".

At a news conference at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, Ledger spoke of his desire to make a documentary film about the British singer-songwriter Nick Drake, who died in 1974, at the age of 26, from an overdose of an antidepressant. Ledger created and acted in a music video set to Drake's recording of the singer's 1974 song about depression "Black Eyed Dog"—a title "inspired by Winston Churchill’s descriptive term for depression" (''black dog''); it was shown publicly only twice, first at the Bumbershoot Festival, in Seattle, held from 1 to 3 September 2007; and secondly as part of "A Place To Be: A Celebration of Nick Drake", with its screening of ''Their Place: Reflections On Nick Drake,'' "a series of short filmed homages to Nick Drake" (including Ledger's), sponsored by American Cinematheque, at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, in Hollywood, on 5 October 2007. After Ledger's death, his music video for "Black Eyed Dog" was shown on the Internet and excerpted in news clips distributed via YouTube.

He was working with Scottish screenwriter and producer Allan Scott on an adaptation of the 1983 novel ''The Queen's Gambit'' by Walter Tevis, for which he was planning both to act and to direct, which would have been his first feature film as a director. Ledger's final directorial work, in which he shot two music videos before his death, premiered in 2009. The music videos, completed for Modest Mouse and Grace Woodroofe, include an animated feature for Modest Mouse's song, "King Rat", and the Woodroofe video for her cover of David Bowie's "Quicksand". The "King Rat" video premiered on 4 August 2009.

Personal life

Ledger was an avid chess player, winning Western Australia's junior chess championship at the age of 10. As an adult, he often played with other chess enthusiasts at Washington Square Park. Allan Scott's film adaptation of the chess-related 1983 novel ''The Queen's Gambit'', by Walter Tevis, which at the time of his death he was planning to both perform in and direct, would have been Ledger's first feature film as a director.

Among his most notable romantic relationships, Ledger dated actress Heather Graham for several months in 2000 to 2001, and he had a serious on-and-off-again long-term relationship with actress Naomi Watts, whom he met during the filming of ''Ned Kelly'' and with whom he lived at times from 2002 to 2004. According to the 10th Anniversary commentary by his co-stars for "10 Things I Hate About You", he and Julia Stiles began dating during the film and dated for several years. In the summer of 2004, he met and began dating actress Michelle Williams on the set of ''Brokeback Mountain'', and their daughter, Matilda Rose, was born on 28 October 2005 in New York City. Matilda Rose's godparents are Ledger's ''Brokeback'' co-star Jake Gyllenhaal and Williams's ''Dawson's Creek'' castmate Busy Philipps. Ledger sold his residence in Bronte, New South Wales, and moved to the United States, where he shared an apartment with Williams, in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, from 2005 to 2007. In September 2007, Williams' father confirmed to Sydney's ''Daily Telegraph'' that Ledger and Williams had ended their relationship. After his break-up with Williams, in late 2007 and early 2008, the tabloid press and other public media linked Ledger romantically with supermodels Helena Christensen and Gemma Ward and with former child star, actress Mary-Kate Olsen.

Press controversies

Ledger's relationship with the press in Australia was sometimes turbulent, and it led to his relocating to New York City. In 2004 he strongly denied press reports alleging that "he spat at journalists on the Sydney set of the film ''Candy''," or that one of his relatives had done so later, outside Ledger's Sydney home. On 13 January 2006, "Several members of the paparazzi retaliated ... squirting Ledger and Williams with water pistols on the red carpet at the Sydney premiere of ''Brokeback Mountain.''"

After his performance on stage at the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards, when he had giggled in presenting ''Brokeback Mountain'' as a nominee for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, the ''Los Angeles Times'' referred to his presentation as an "apparent gay spoof." Ledger called the ''Times'' later and explained that his levity resulted from stage fright, saying that he had been told that he would be presenting the award only minutes earlier; he stated: "I am so sorry and I apologise for my nervousness. I would be absolutely horrified if my stage fright was misinterpreted as a lack of respect for the film, the topic and for the amazing filmmakers."

Ledger was quoted in January 2006 in Melbourne's ''Herald Sun'' as saying that he heard that West Virginia had banned ''Brokeback Mountain'', which it had not; actually, a cinema in Utah had banned the film. He had also referred mistakenly to West Virginia's having had lynchings as recently as the 1980s, but state scholars disputed his statement, observing that, whereas lynchings did occur in Alabama as recently as 1981, according to "the director of state archives and history" quoted in ''The Charleston Gazette'', "The last documented lynching in West Virginia took place in Lewisburg in 1931."

Sleep difficulties and other work-related health issues

In their ''New York Times'' interview, published on 4 November 2007, Ledger told Sarah Lyall that his recently completed roles in ''I'm Not There'' (2007) and ''The Dark Knight'' (2008) had taken a toll on his ability to sleep: "Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. ... I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." At that time, he told Lyall that he had taken two Ambien pills, after taking just one had not sufficed, and those left him in "a stupor, only to wake up an hour later, his mind still racing."

Prior to his return to New York from his last film assignment, in London, in January 2008, while he was apparently suffering from some kind of respiratory illness, he reportedly complained to his co-star Christopher Plummer that he was continuing to have difficulty sleeping and taking pills to help with that problem: "Confirming earlier reports that Ledger hadn't been feeling well on set, Plummer says, 'we all caught colds because we were shooting outside on horrible, damp nights. But Heath's went on and I don't think he dealt with it immediately with the antibiotics.... I think what he did have was the walking pneumonia.' [...] On top of that, 'He was saying all the time, "dammit, I can't sleep"... and he was taking all these pills to help him.' "

In talking with ''Interview'' magazine after his death, Ledger's former fiancée Michelle Williams "also confirmed reports the actor had experienced trouble sleeping. "For as long as I'd known him, he had bouts with insomnia. He had too much energy. His mind was turning, turning turning – always turning."

Death

At about 2:45 p.m. (EST), on 22 January 2008, Ledger was found unconscious in his bed by his housekeeper, Teresa Solomon, and his masseuse, Diana Wolozin, in his fourth-floor loft apartment at 421 Broome Street in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan.

According to the police, Wolozin, who had arrived early for a 3:00 pm appointment with Ledger, called Ledger's friend, actress Mary-Kate Olsen, for help. Olsen, who was in California, directed a New York City private security guard to go to the scene. At 3:26 pm, "[fewer] than 15 minutes after Wolozin first saw him in bed and only a few moments" after first calling Olsen and then calling her a second time to express her fears that Ledger was dead, Wolozin telephoned 9-1-1 "to say that Mr. Ledger was not breathing." At the urging of the 9-1-1 operator, Wolozin administered CPR, which was unsuccessful in reviving him.

Emergency medical technicians (EMT) arrived seven minutes later, at 3:33 pm ("at almost exactly the same moment as a private security guard summoned by Ms. Olsen"), but were also unable to revive him. At 3:36 pm, Ledger was pronounced dead and his body removed from the apartment.

Memorial tributes and services

As the news of Ledger's death became public, throughout the night of 22 January 2008, and the next day, media crews, mourners, fans, and other onlookers began gathering outside his apartment building, with some leaving flowers or other memorial tributes.

The next day, at 10:50 a.m., Australian time, Ledger's parents and sister appeared outside his mother's house in Applecross, a riverside suburb of Perth, and read a short statement to the media expressing their grief and desire for privacy. Within the next few days, memorial tributes were communicated by family members, Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd, Deputy Premier of Western Australia Eric Ripper, Warner Bros. (distributor of ''The Dark Knight''), and thousands of Ledger's fans around the world.

Several actors made statements expressing their sorrow at Ledger's death, including Daniel Day-Lewis, who dedicated his Screen Actors Guild Award to Ledger, saying that he was inspired by Ledger's acting; Day-Lewis praised Ledger's performances in ''Monster's Ball'' and ''Brokeback Mountain'', describing the latter as "unique, perfect." Verne Troyer, who was working with Ledger on ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' at the time of his death, had a heart shape, an exact duplicate of a symbol that Ledger scrawled on a piece of paper with his email address, tattooed on his hand in remembrance of Ledger because Ledger "had made such an impression on [him]."

On 1 February, in her first public statement after Ledger's death, Michelle Williams expressed her heartbreak and described Ledger's spirit as surviving in their daughter.

After attending private memorial ceremonies in Los Angeles, Ledger's family members returned with his body to Perth.

On 9 February, a memorial service attended by several hundred invited guests was held at Penrhos College, garnering considerable press attention; afterward Ledger's body was cremated at Fremantle Cemetery, followed by a private service attended by only 10 closest family members, with his ashes to be interred later in a family plot at Karrakatta Cemetery, next to two of his grandparents. Later that night, his family and friends gathered for a wake on Cottesloe Beach.

Autopsy and toxicological analysis

After two weeks of intense media speculation about possible causes of Ledger's death, on 6 February 2008, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York released its conclusions, based on an initial autopsy of 23 January 2008, and a subsequent complete toxicological analysis. The report concludes, in part, "Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine." It states definitively: "We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications." The medications found in the toxicological analysis are commonly prescribed in the United States for insomnia, anxiety, depression, pain, and/or common cold symptoms. Although the Associated Press and other media reported that "police estimate Ledger's time of death between 1 pm and 2:45 pm" (on 22 January 2008), the Medical Examiner's Office announced that it would not be publicly disclosing the official estimated time of death. The official announcement of the cause and manner of Ledger's death heightened concerns about the growing problems of prescription drug abuse or misuse and Combined Drug Intoxication (CDI).

Federal investigation

Late in February 2008, a DEA investigation of medical professionals relating to Ledger's death exonerated two American physicians, who practice in Los Angeles and Houston, of any wrongdoing, determining that "the doctors in question had prescribed Ledger other medications – not the pills that killed him."

On 4 August 2008, citing unnamed sources, Murray Weiss, of the ''New York Post'', first reported that Mary-Kate Olsen had "refused [through her attorney, Michael C. Miller] to be interviewed by federal investigators probing the accidental drug death of her close friend Heath Ledger ... [without] ... immunity from prosecution," and that, when asked about the matter, Miller at first declined further comment. Later that day, after the police confirmed the gist of Weiss's account to the Associated Press, Miller issued a statement denying that Olsen supplied Ledger with the drugs causing his death and asserting that she did not know their source." In his statement, Miller said specifically: "Despite tabloid speculation, Mary-Kate Olsen had nothing whatsoever to do with the drugs found in Heath Ledger's home or his body, and she does not know where he obtained them," emphasizing that media "descriptions [attributed to an unidentified source] are incomplete and inaccurate."

After a flurry of further media speculation, on 6 August 2008, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan closed its investigation into Ledger's death without filing any charges and rendering moot its subpoena of Olsen. With the clearing of the two doctors and Olsen, and the closing of the investigation because the prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office "don't believe there's a viable target," it is still not known how Ledger obtained the oxycodone and hydrocodone in the lethal drug combination that killed him.

Eleven months after Ledger's death, on 23 December 2008, Jake Coyle, writing for the Associated Press, announced that "Heath Ledger's death was voted 2008's top entertainment story by U.S. newspaper and broadcast editors surveyed by The Associated Press," as it resulted in: "shock and confusion" about "the circumstances", the ruling of the death as an accident caused by "a toxic combination of prescription drugs", and the continuation of "his legacy... [i]n a roundly acclaimed performance as the Joker in the year's biggest box office hit ''The Dark Knight''."

Controversy over will

After Ledger's death, in response to some press reports about his will, filed in New York City on 28 February 2008, and his daughter's access to his financial legacy, his father, Kim Ledger, said that he considered the financial well-being of his granddaughter Matilda Rose the Ledger family's "absolute priority" and her mother, Michelle Williams, "an integral part of our family", adding "They will be taken care of and that's how Heath would want it to be". Some of Ledger's relatives may be challenging the legal status of his will signed in 2003, prior to his involvement with Williams and the birth of their daughter and not updated to include them, which divides half of his estate between his parents and half among his siblings; they claim that there is a second, unsigned will, which leaves most of that estate to Matilda Rose. Williams' father, Larry Williams, has also joined the controversy about Ledger's will as it was filed in New York City soon after his death.

On 31 March 2008, stimulating another controversy pertaining to Ledger's estate, Gemma Jones and Janet Fife-Yeomans published an "Exclusive" report, in ''The Daily Telegraph'', citing Ledger's uncle Haydn Ledger and other family members, who "believe the late actor may have fathered a secret love child" when he was 17, and stating that "If it is confirmed that Ledger is the girl's biological father, it could split his multi-million dollar estate between ... Matilda Rose ... and his secret love child." A few days later, reports citing telephone interviews with Ledger's uncles Haydn and Mike Ledger and the family of the other little girl, published in ''OK!'' and ''Us Weekly'', "denied" those "claims", with Ledger's uncles and the little girl's mother and stepfather describing them as unfounded "rumors" distorted and exaggerated by the media.

On 15 July 2008, Fife-Yeomans reported further, via Australian ''News Limited,'' that "While Ledger left everything to his parents and three sisters, it is understood they have legal advice that under WA law, Matilda Rose is entitled to the lion's share" of his estate; its executors, Kim Ledger's former business colleague Robert John Collins and Geraldton accountant William Mark Dyson, "have applied for probate in the West Australian Supreme Court in Perth, advertising "for 'creditors and other persons' having claims on the estate to lodge them by 11 August 2008 ... to ensure all debts are paid before the estate is distributed...." According to this report by Fife-Yeomans, earlier reports citing Ledger's uncles, and subsequent reports citing Ledger's father, which do not include his actual posthumous earnings, "his entire fortune, mostly held in Australian trusts, is likely to be worth up to [A]$20 million."

On 27 September 2008, Ledger's father Kim stated that "the family has agreed to leave the [US]US$16.3 million fortune to Matilda," adding: "There is no claim. Our family has gifted everything to Matilda." In October 2008, ''Forbes.com'' estimated Ledger's annual earnings from October 2007 through October 2008 – including his posthumous share of ''The Dark Knight'''s gross income of "[US]US$991 million in box office revenue worldwide" –– as "[US]US$20 million."

Posthumous films and awards

Ledger's death affected the marketing campaign for Christopher Nolan's ''The Dark Knight'' (2008) and also both the production and marketing of Terry Gilliam's film ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'', with both directors intending to celebrate and pay tribute to his work in these films. Although Gilliam temporarily suspended production on the latter film, he expressed determination to "salvage" it, perhaps using computer-generated imagery (CGI), and dedicated it to Ledger. In February 2008, as a "memorial tribute to the man many have called one of the best actors of his generation," Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell signed on to take over Ledger's role, becoming multiple incarnations of his character, Tony, transformed in this "magical re-telling of the Faust story," and the three actors have donated their fees for the film to Ledger's and Williams' daughter.

Speaking of editing ''The Dark Knight,'' on which Ledger had completed his work in October 2007, Nolan recalled, "It was tremendously emotional, right when he passed, having to go back in and look at him every day. ... But the truth is, I feel very lucky to have something productive to do, to have a performance that he was very, very proud of, and that he had entrusted to me to finish." All of Ledger's scenes appear as he completed them in the filming; in editing the film, Nolan added no "digital effects" to alter Ledger's actual performance posthumously. Nolan dedicated the film in part to Ledger's memory, as well as to the memory of technician Conway Wickliffe, who was killed during a car accident while preparing one of the film's stunts.

Released in July 2008, ''The Dark Knight'' broke several box office records and received both popular and critical accolades, especially with regard to Ledger's performance as the Joker. Even film critic David Denby, who does not praise the film overall in his pre-release review in ''The New Yorker'', evaluates Ledger's work highly, describing his performance as both "sinister and frightening" and Ledger as "mesmerising in every scene", concluding: "His performance is a heroic, unsettling final act: this young actor looked into the abyss." Attempting to dispel widespread speculations that Ledger's performance as the Joker had in any way led to his death (as Denby and others suggest), Ledger's co-star and friend Christian Bale, who played opposite him as Batman, has stressed that, as an actor, Ledger greatly enjoyed meeting the challenges of creating that role, an experience that Ledger himself described as "the most fun I’ve ever had, or probably ever will have, playing a character."

Ledger received numerous awards for his Joker role in ''The Dark Knight''. On 10 November 2008, he was nominated for two People's Choice Awards related to his work on the film, "Best Ensemble Cast" and "Best Onscreen Match-Up" (shared with Christian Bale), and Ledger won an award for "Match-Up" in the ceremony aired live on CBS in January 2009.

On 11 December 2008, it was announced that Ledger had been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his performance as the Joker in ''The Dark Knight''; he subsequently won the award at the 66th Golden Globe Awards ceremony telecast on NBC on 11 January 2009 with ''Dark Knight'' director Christopher Nolan accepting on his behalf.

Film critics, co-stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael Caine and many of Ledger's colleagues in the film community joined Bale in calling for and predicting a nomination for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in recognition of Ledger's achievement in ''The Dark Knight.'' Ledger's subsequent nomination was announced on 22 January 2009, the anniversary of his death; Ledger went on to win the award, becoming the second person to win a posthumous Academy Award for acting, after fellow Australian actor Peter Finch, who won for 1976's ''Network''. The award was accepted by Ledger's family.

Filmography

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1993	''Ship to Shore''	Cyclist
1996		Snowy Bowles	Series regular
	''Home and Away''	Scott Irwin	Guest
	Conor	Leading role

Film

! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1992	''Clowning Around''	Orphan clown	Uncredited
1997		Toby
1997		Oberon
1999		Jimmy
1999	''10 Things I Hate About You''
2000		Gabriel Martin	Blockbuster Entertainment Awards – Favorite Male – Newcomer
2001	''Monster's Ball''	Sonny Grotowski
2001	''''	Sir William Thatcher / Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein of Gelderland
2002	''''	Harry Faversham
2003	''''	Alex Bernier
2003		Ned Kelly
2005		Giacomo Casanova
2005	''''	Jacob Grimm
2005	''Lords of Dogtown''	Skip Engblom
2005	''Brokeback Mountain''	Ennis Del Mar	|New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor|Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor|San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor|Santa Barbara International Film Festival Performance of the Year Award|Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actor|Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role|Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor|Nominated – Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor|Nominated – Chlotrudis Award for Best Actor|Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead|Nominated – Inside Film Award for Best Actor|Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama|Nominated – London Film Critics' Circle Award for Actor of the Year|Nominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor|Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role|Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture|Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama|Nominated – Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor}}
2006		Dan
2007	''I'm Not There''
2008			|Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor|San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor|Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor|Scream Award for Best Fantasy Actor|Scream Award for Best Villain|Scream Award for Best Line |Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role|Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor|Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor|Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor|Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast|Nominated – London Film Critics' Circle Award for Actor of the Year|Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture|Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Fight }}
2009	''''	Tony

Music videos

(2006) "Cause an Effect" and "Seduction is Evil (She's Hot)", songs by N'fa, videos directed by Ledger.

(2006) "Morning Yearning," song by Ben Harper, video directed by Ledger.

(2007) "Black Eyed Dog," song written by Nick Drake (1948–1974), video directed by and featuring Ledger. (2009) "King Rat", song by Modest Mouse and conceived by Ledger.

See also

List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees

List of posthumous Academy Award winners and nominees

References

Additional resources

Adler, Shawn."Heath Ledger Said He Hoped to Evolve as an Actor and Person in 2005 Interview: Late Actor Was Intelligent, Self-Aware during 'Brokeback Mountain' Chat." ''MTV.com'', 22 January 2008. Accessed 18 March 2008. (Excerpts from transcript of interview with Heath Ledger conducted by John Norris in 2005.)

Arango, Tim. "Esquire Publishes a Diary That Isn't". ''The New York Times'', ''nytimes.com'', 6 March 2008, Books. Accessed 25 July 2008. (Rev. of Taddeo.)

"Death of a Star: Unsolved Mysteries". ''Newsweek'', 4 February 2008: 62, Newsmakers. Both Web and print versions. Accessed 5 August 2008.

''The Joker vs. The Real Heath: Entertainment Tonight Looks Back at the Career of Heath Ledger'', ''etonline.com'' (CBS Studios Inc.), July 2008. Accessed 8 August 2008. ("ET takes a look back at Heath Ledger's career amid the hugely successful launch of 'The Dark Knight,' which features the late actor portraying the Joker"; includes photo album.)

McShane John. ''Heath Ledger: His Beautiful Life and Mysterious Death''. London: John Blake, 2008. ISBN 1844546330 (10). ISBN 978-1844546336 (13). (Excerpt listed below.)

–––. "Loves of Heath Ledger's Life". ''The Courier-Mail'', ''news.com.au'', 20 April 2008. Accessed 21 April 2008. (Book excerpt.)

Nolan, Christopher. "Transition: Charisma as Natural as Gravity: Heath Ledger, 28, Actor". ''Newsweek'', 4 February 2008: 9, Periscope. Both Web (updated 26 January 2008) and print versions. Accessed 5 August 2008. (Eulogy.)

Norris, Chris. "(Untitled Heath Ledger Project): In Which the Protagonist Dies Mysteriously, and the Audience Analyzes His Final Days for Clues to His Real Character". ''New York'', ''nymag.com'', 18 February 2008. Accessed 21 April 2008.

Park, Michael Y. "Christian Bale on 'Kindred Spirit' Heath Ledger". Web. ''People'', 25 June 2008. Accessed 5 August 2008. (See Wolf below.)

Robb, Brian J. ''Heath Ledger: Hollywood's Dark Star''. London: Plexus Publishing Ltd, 2008. ISBN 0859654273 (10). ISBN 978-0859654272 (13).

Scott, A. O. "An Appraisal: Prince of Intensity with a Lightness of Touch". ''The New York Times'', ''nytimes.com'', 24 January 2008, Movies. Accessed 27 April 2008.

Sessums, Kevin, with photographs by Bruce Weber. "We're Having a Heath Wave". ''Vanity Fair'', August 2000, ''vanityfair.com'', August 2008. Web. (4 pages.) Accessed 21 April 2008. (Interview with Heath Ledger; illustrations in "Perth Album", by Bruce Weber.)

Taddeo, Lisa. "The Last Days of Heath Ledger". ''Esquire'' (April 2008), ''esquire.com'', 5 March 2008. (Updated 21 July 2008.) Accessed 25 July 2008. (Fictional account; cf. rev. by Arango.)

Travers, Peter."Sundance: Shock". ''The Travers Take: News and Reviews from Rolling Stone's Movie Critic'', ''Rolling Stone'' (Blog), ''rollingstone.com'', 22 January 2008. Includes hyperlinked feature: ''Video Review: A Look at Heath Ledger's Best Performances'' (video by Jennifer Hsu, with audio commentary provided by Travers), 1 February 2008. Accessed 21 April 2008.

Wolf, Jeanne. "Christian Bale: 'Life Should Never Be Boring' ". ''Parade'', 29 June 2008: 8–9. Both Web and print formats. Accessed 3 August 2008. (See Park above.)

External links

Heath Ledger at BBC In Pictures

Heath Ledger at CNN Topics

Heath Ledger at ''The Huffington Post''

Heath Ledger at MSN Movies

Heath Ledger at MTV Movies

Heath Ledger at ''New York Times Topics''

Heath Ledger at ''The Daily Telegraph'' obituary

Ledger, Heath (1979–2008) National Library of Australia, ''Trove, People and Organisation'' record for Heath Ledger

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name	Ang Lee
tradchinesename	李安
simpchinesename	李安
pinyinchinesename	Lǐ Ān
birth date	October 23, 1954
birth place	Chaochou, Pingtung, Taiwan)
spouse	Jane Lin (1983–)
children	Haan Lee (b.1984)Mason Lee (b.1990)
yearsactive	1992 – present
Goldenbauhiniaawards	Best Director2001 ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
Goldenhorseawards	Best Film1993 ''The Wedding Banquet''2000 ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' Best Director1993 ''The Wedding Banquet''2007 ''Lust, Caution'' Best Original Screenplay1993 ''The Wedding Banquet''
Hongkongfilmwards	Best Director2001 ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' }}

Ang Lee (Chinese: 李安; Pinyin: Lǐ Ān; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese American film director. Lee has directed a diverse set of films such as ''Eat Drink Man Woman'' (1994), ''Sense and Sensibility'' (1995), ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' (2000), ''Hulk'' (2003), and ''Brokeback Mountain'' (2005), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.

Early life

Education

Ang Lee was born in the town of Chaochou in Pingtung, a southern agricultural county in Taiwan. He grew up in a household that put heavy emphasis on education and the Chinese classics. Both of Lee's parents moved to Taiwan from mainland China following the Chinese Nationalists' defeat in the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Lee's father, a native of Kiangsi Province in southern China, imbued his children with studying Chinese culture and art, especially calligraphy.

Lee studied in the National Tainan First Senior High School where his father was the principal. He was expected to pass the annual Joint College/University Entrance Examination, the only route to a university education in Taiwan. But after failing the Exam twice, to the disappointment of his father, he entered a three-year college, National Arts School (now reorganized and expanded as National Taiwan University of Arts) and graduated in 1975. His father had wanted him to become a professor, but he had become interested in drama and the arts at college. This early frustration set his career on the path of performance art. Seeing Ingmar Bergman's film ''The Virgin Spring'' (1960) was a formative experience for him.

After finishing the Republic of China's mandatory military service, Lee went to the U.S. in 1979 to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he completed his bachelor's degree in theater in 1980. Thereupon, he enrolled at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University, where he received his MFA. He was a classmate of Spike Lee and worked on the crew of his thesis film, ''Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.'' During graduate school, Lee finished a 16mm short film, ''Shades of the Lake'' (1982), which won the Best Drama Award in Short Film in Taiwan. His own thesis work, a 43-minute drama, ''Fine Line'' (1984), won NYU's Wasserman Award for Outstanding Direction and was later selected for the Public Broadcasting Service.

Life after graduation

Lee's NYU thesis drew attention from the William Morris Agency, the famous talent and literary agency that later represented Lee. At first, though, WMA found Lee few opportunities, and Lee remained unemployed for six years. During this time, he was a full-time house-husband, while his wife Jane Lin (), a molecular biologist, was the sole breadwinner for the family of four. This arrangement, usually an embarrassment in Taiwanese culture, put enormous pressure on the couple, but with Lin's support and understanding, Lee did not abandon his career in films but continued to generate new ideas from movies and performances. He also wrote several screenplays during this time.

In 1990, Lee submitted two screenplays, ''Pushing Hands'' and ''The Wedding Banquet'', to a competition sponsored by the Republic of China's Government Information Office, and they came in first and second respectively. The winning screenplays brought Lee to the attention of Li-Kong Hsu (), a recently promoted senior manager in a major studio who had strong interests in Lee's unique style and freshness. Hsu, a first-time producer, invited Lee to direct ''Pushing Hands'', a full-length feature that debuted in 1991.

Career

In the 2007 book ''The Cinema of Ang Lee: The Other Side of the Screen'', Whitney Crothers Dilley has analyzed in detail the striking diversity of Lee's films, as well as Lee's recurring themes of alienation, marginalization, and repression. Many of Lee's films, particularly his early Chinese trilogy, have also focused on the interactions between modernity and tradition. Some of his films have also had a light-hearted comic tone which marks a break from the tragic historical realism which characterized Taiwanese filmmaking after the end of the martial law period in 1987. While ''The Wedding Banquet'' (1993) became a break-out hit for Lee as the most proportionately profitable film of 1993, it was ''Sense and Sensibility'' (1995) that brought Lee his first true international acclaim. Following that, both ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' (2000) (nominated for Academy Award for Best Director) and ''Brokeback Mountain'' (2005) (which won the Academy Award for Best Director) became cultural touchstones, sweeping awards ceremonies and, in the case of ''Brokeback Mountain'', sparking intense critical debates. When asked by a TV interviewer how he found his films, Lee is said to have replied: "I don't find my films, my films find me."

Lee's film ''Brokeback Mountain'' (2005) won the Golden Lion (best film) award at the Venice International Film Festival and was named 2005's best film by the Los Angeles, New York, Boston, and London film critics. It also won best picture at the 2005 Broadcast Film Critics Association, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America (Adapted Screenplay), Producers Guild of America and the Independent Spirit Awards as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, with Lee winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Director. Brokeback also won Best Film and Best Director at the 2006 British Academy Awards (BAFTA). In January 2006, Brokeback scored a leading eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director, which Lee won. He is the first Asian and non-Caucasian director to do so.

In 2007, Lee's film ''Lust, Caution'' earned him a second Golden Lion.

Debut from Taiwan

''Pushing Hands'' (1992) was a success in Taiwan both among critics and at the box office. It received eight nominations in the Golden Horse Film Festival, Taiwan's premier film festival. Inspired by the success, Hsu collaborated with Lee in their second film, ''The Wedding Banquet'' (1993), which won the Golden Bear at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated as the Best Foreign Language Film in both the Golden Globe and the Academy Awards. In all, this film collected eleven Taiwanese and international awards and made Lee a rising star.

Lee's first two movies were based on stories of Chinese Americans, and both were filmed in the US. In 1995, Hsu invited Lee to return to Taiwan to make ''Eat Drink Man Woman'', a film that depicts traditional values, modern relationships, and family conflicts in Taipei. The film was once again a box office hit and was critically acclaimed. For a second consecutive year, Lee's film received the Best Foreign Language Film nomination in both the Golden Globe and Academy Awards, as well as in the British Academy Award. ''Eat Drink Man Woman'' won five awards in Taiwan and internationally, including the Best Director from Independent Spirit. Hollywood optioned the film rights and remade it into ''Tortilla Soup'' (2001, dir. María Ripoll). This is one of the rare occasions in which a Taiwanese film was remade outside the country.

Arrival in Hollywood

''Sense and Sensibility''

Lee's three acclaimed first dramas opened the door to Hollywood for him. In 1995, Lee directed Columbia TriStar's British classic ''Sense and Sensibility''. The switch from Taiwanese to British films did not prevent Lee's work from garnering awards: ''Sense and Sensibility'' made Lee a second-time winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. It was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, and won Best Adapted Screenplay for screenwriter Emma Thompson, who also starred in the movie alongside Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet. ''Sense and Sensibility'' also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama.

After this, Lee directed two more Hollywood movies: ''The Ice Storm'' (1997), a drama set in 1970s suburban America, and ''Ride with the Devil'', an American Civil War drama (1999). Although the critics still highly praised these latter two films, their box office was not impressive, and for a time this interrupted Lee's unbroken popularity – from both general audiences and arthouse aficionados – since his first full-length movie. However, in the late 1990s and 2000s, ''The Ice Storm'' has had high VHS and DVD sales and rentals and repeated screenings on cable television, which has increased the film's popularity among audiences.

1999 onward

''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''

In 1999, Li-Kong Hsu, Lee's old partner and supporter, invited him to make a movie based on the traditional Chinese “wuxia” (martial arts and chivalry) genre. Excited about the opportunity to fulfill his childhood dream, Lee assembled a team from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China for ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' (2000). The film was a surprising success worldwide. With Chinese dialogue and English subtitles, the film became the highest grossing foreign film in many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Director at the Academy Awards. It ended up winning Best Foreign Language Film and three technical awards. The success of ''Crouching Tiger'' demonstrated that Lee's artistry had a general appeal; it also inspired such established directors as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige to explore wuxia films for Western audience.

''Hulk''

In 2003, Lee returned to Hollywood to direct ''Hulk'', his first big-budget movie. The film received mixed reviews and became a moderate success, grossing over $245 million at the box office. After the setback, Lee considered retiring early, but his father encouraged him to continue making movies.

''Brokeback Mountain''

Lee decided to take on a small-budget, low-profile independent film based on Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-finalist short story, ''Brokeback Mountain''. In a 2005 article by Robert K. Elder, Lee was quoted as saying, "What do I know about gay ranch hands in Wyoming?" In spite of the director's removal from the subject at hand, ''Brokeback Mountain'' showcased Lee's skills in probing depths of the human heart. The 2005 movie about the forbidden love between two Wyoming sheepherders immediately caught public attention and became a cultural phenomenon, initiating intense debates and becoming a box office hit.

The film was critically acclaimed at major international film festivals and won Lee numerous Best Director and Best Picture awards worldwide. Brokeback Mountain was the most acclaimed film of 2005, winning 71 awards and an additional 52 nominations. It was declared Best Picture by such organizations as the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, the Independent Spirit Awards, the 2005 Biennale Venice Film Festival, and the Producers Guild of America. Ang Lee also received his second Best Director award from the Directors Guild of America. ''Brokeback Mountain'' was nominated for a leading eight Oscars and was the front runner for Best Picture heading into the March 5 ceremony, but lost out to ''Crash'', a story about race relations in Los Angeles, in a controversial upset. There was some speculation that ''Brokeback Mountain'''s homosexual theme was the reason for that upset. Lee said he was disappointed that his film did not win Best Picture, but was honored to win an Academy Award for Best Director, becoming the first person of Asian heritage and the first non-white to ever win the award.

''Lust, Caution''

After ''Brokeback Mountain'', Lee returned to a Chinese topic. His next film was ''Lust, Caution'', which was adapted from a short novel by the Chinese author Eileen Chang. The story was written in 1950, and was loosely based on an actual event that took place in 1939–1940 in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, China, during World War II. Similar to ''Brokeback Mountain'', Ang Lee adapted and expanded a short, simple story into a feature film in a way that allows individual figures to develop sophisticated layers of reserved emotions, without being sidetracked by complicated plots or overstuffed materials.

''Lust, Caution'' is distributed by Focus Features and premiered at international film festivals in the summer and early fall of 2007. In the US, the movie received a NC-17 rating (no one 17 and under admitted) from the MPAA mainly due to several strongly explicit sex scenes. This was a challenge to the film's distribution because many theater chains in the United States refuse to show NC-17 films. The director and film studio have decided not to appeal the decision. In order to be permitted to show ''Lust, Caution'' in mainland China, however, Lee removed 9 minutes from the film to make the content suitable for minor audiences.

''Lust, Caution'' captured the Golden Lion from the 2007 Biennale Venice Film Festival, making Lee the winner of the highest prize for the second time in three years. The critics in the United States, however, were not all positive. When ''Lust, Caution'' was played in Lee's native Taiwan in its original full-length edition, it was very well received. Staying in Taiwan to promote the film and to participate in a traditional Chinese holiday, Lee got emotional when he found that his work was widely applauded by fellow Taiwanese. Lee admitted that he had low expectations for this film from the U.S. audience since "its pace, its film language – it's all very Chinese."

Lee has been chosen as president of the jury for the 2009 edition of the Venice Film Festival, set to take place from September 2 to 12, 2009.

Collaborations with James Schamus

Ang Lee has had a career-long collaboration with producer and screenwriter James Schamus.

Schamus produced or co-produced the following Ang Lee movies:

	*''Pushing Hands''	*''The Wedding Banquet''	*''Eat Drink Man Woman''	*''Sense and Sensibility''	*''The Ice Storm''		*''Ride with the Devil''	*''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''	*''Hulk''	*''Brokeback Mountain''	*''Lust, Caution''

Schamus co-wrote the following Ang Lee movies:

	*''Pushing Hands''	*''The Wedding Banquet''	*''Eat Drink Man Woman''	*''The Ice Storm''			*''Ride with the Devil''	*''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''	*''Hulk''	*''Lust, Caution''

Personal life

Lee lives in Larchmont, New York with his wife Jane Lin, a microbiologist, whom he married in 1983. They have two sons, Haan Lee (born 1984), and Mason Lee (born 1990). Lee is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Filmography

Lee has been involved in the process of filmmaking in various capacities, though the highlight of his career and legacy is his directorial work. The following are Lee's various credits.

As Director:

推手 ''The Wedding Banquet'' ''Eat Drink Man Woman'' ''Sense and Sensibility (film) ''The Ice Storm (film) ''Ride with the Devil (film) ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' ''The Hire'' ''Hulk (film) ''Brokeback Mountain'' ''Lust, Caution (film) ''Taking Woodstock'' ''Life of Pi (film)

rowspan=2	Year	> Film	> Chinese Title	! colspan=2	BAFTA		! colspan=2
Nominations	Wins			Nominations	Wins	Nominations	Wins
1992	Pushing Hands (film)>Pushing Hands''	|
1993	|	喜宴	1				1
1994	|	飲食男女	1		1		1
1995	Sense and Sensibility'' ||	理性與感性	7	1	12	3	6	2
1997	The Ice Storm'' ||	冰風暴			2	1	1
1999	Ride with the Devil'' ||	與魔鬼共騎
2000	|	臥虎藏龍	10	4	14	4	3	2
2002	|
2003	Hulk'' ||	綠巨人浩克
2005	|	斷背山	8	3	9	4	7	4
2007	Lust, Caution'' ||	色，戒			2		1
2009	|	胡士托風波
2012	Life of Pi'' ||	少年PI的奇幻旅程

''See also:'' Films directed by Ang Lee

As Writer:

''Pushing Hands'' (1992)

''The Wedding Banquet'' (1993)

''Eat Drink Man Woman'' (1994)

''Siao Yu'' (1995)

As Actor:

''The Wedding Banquet'' (1993)

''Hulk'' (2003)

''Hollywood Chinese'' (2007) – himself

As Editor:

''Pushing Hands'' (1992)

''Eat Drink Man Woman'' (1994)

As Producer:

''Siao Yu'' (1995)

''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' (2000)

Accolades

! Year	! Award	! Category	! Title	! Result
2001	Academy Awards		''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
2001	Academy Awards		''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
2006	Academy Awards		''Brokeback Mountain''
1993			''The Wedding Banquet''
1996	Berlin International Film Festival
1995	British Academy Film Awards		''Eat Drink Man Woman''
1996	British Academy Film Awards
1996	British Academy Film Awards
2001	British Academy Film Awards		''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
2001	British Academy Film Awards		''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
2001	British Academy Film Awards		''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
2006	British Academy Film Awards		''Brokeback Mountain''
2008	British Academy Film Awards
1997	Cannes Film Festival
2009	Cannes Film Festival		''Taking Woodstock''
2006			''Brokeback Mountain''
1996	Directors Guild of America Award
2001	Directors Guild of America Award		''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
2006	Directors Guild of America Award		''Brokeback Mountain''
1996	Golden Globe Award
2001	Golden Globe Award		''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
2006	Golden Globe Award		''Brokeback Mountain''
1994	Independent Spirit Awards		''The Wedding Banquet''
1994	Independent Spirit Awards		''The Wedding Banquet''
1994	Independent Spirit Awards		''The Wedding Banquet''
1995	Independent Spirit Awards		''Eat Drink Man Woman''
1995	Independent Spirit Awards		''Eat Drink Man Woman''
2001	Independent Spirit Awards		''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
2001	Independent Spirit Awards		''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
2006	Independent Spirit Awards		''Brokeback Mountain''
1995
2005			''Brokeback Mountain''
2001	Producers Guild of America Award		''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
2001	Saturn Award		''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''
2005	Venice Film Festival	Golden Lion	''Brokeback Mountain''
2007	Venice Film Festival	Golden Lion

Notes

References

Dilley, Whitney Crothers. ''The Cinema of Ang Lee: The Other Side of the Screen.'' London: Wallflower Press, 2007.

"Taking Stock of 'Taking Woodstock'" Rushprnews October 5, 2008

"Ang Lee's movie has a backstory of pure serendipity" by Dan Bloom, ''Taipei Times''. October 11, 2008

Cheshire, Ellen. Ang Lee. London: Pocket Essentials, 2001.

External links

Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database

Ang Lee (Chinese)

Ang Lee 64th Venice Film Festival press conference

''DGA Quarterly'' interview

Category:1954 births Category:American film directors Category:American people of Taiwanese descent Category:American film directors of Asian descent Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Director Academy Award winners Category:Best Director Golden Globe winners Category:Best Director HKFA Category:English-language film directors Category:Independent Spirit Award for Best Director winners Category:Living people Category:People from Westchester County, New York Category:Taiwanese expatriates in the United States Category:Taiwanese film directors Category:Tisch School of the Arts alumni Category:University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign alumni Category:People from Pingtung County

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