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Curated playlist

Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners

  • Vivien LeighWhen Vivien Leigh died in 1967, every central London theater went dark for an hour.
  • Penélope CruzPenélope Cruz was fifteen years old in 1989 when she won an audition against more than 300 other girls. Only a short time earlier, an agent had sent her away three times because she was too young. Cruz kept coming back anyway, and she says…
  • Katharine HepburnKatharine Hepburn bought out her own studio contract after theater owners called her box office poison.
  • Nicole KidmanNicole Kidman was born on the 20th of June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was given the Hawaiian name Hōkūlani, which means heavenly star. The inspiration for the name was a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo. Since…
  • Cate BlanchettCate Blanchett once played thirteen different characters in a single artwork. The piece was Manifesto, a multi-screen video installation by Julian Rosefeldt. Twelve artist manifestos are performed in it, and every voice belongs to her.…
  • Olivia ColmanOlivia Colman was born Sarah Caroline Colman, and she had to give up that first name before her career properly began. The actors' union Equity already had a Sarah Colman on its books, so the newcomer needed another. She took the name of a…
  • Bette DavisBette Davis's tombstone reads, "She did it the hard way." A director suggested the epitaph after All About Eve.
  • Emma StoneEmma Stone, born Emily Jean Stone, once built a PowerPoint presentation for an audience of her parents. Its title was "Project Hollywood," and its purpose was to persuade them to let a teenager from Arizona pursue acting in California. The…
  • Vanessa KirbyVanessa Nuala Kirby was turned down by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, known as LAMDA, when she applied to train as an actress. Years later, the same woman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Even her birth…
  • Helen MirrenDame Helen Mirren was born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff on the 26th of July 1945, at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London. Neither the first name nor the surname on that record would last. The woman who…
  • Rose ByrneRose Byrne was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2026. She is the eighth Australian ever to earn a nomination in that category. The nomination was for If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, released in 2025. By then she had worked…

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