Movies on incredible life stories

Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Julia Ormond

1994 Oscar® winner: Best Cinematography. Based on the novella by Jim Harrison, this sweeping romantic epic is about the Ludlow brothers--two men (Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn) in love with the same woman (Julia Ormond). Also starring Anthony Hopkins. Directed by Edward Zwick (The Siege). Screenplay by Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff.

Actors: Christopher Lambert, Ralph Richardson, Andie MacDowell

An infant raised to manhood among savage apes, living by his wits and the law of the jungle, returns to society to claim his inheritance of humanity and privilege. This collision of "wild" and "civilized" worlds is the extraordinary saga of Tarzan, chronicled in Edgar Rice Burroughs' popular book series.

Actors: Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Robin Wright

Tom Hanks gives an astonishing performance as Forrest, an everyman whose simple innocence comes to embody a generation. Alongside his mamma (Sally Field), his best friend Bubba (Mykelti Williamson), and his favorite girl Jenny (Robin Wright), Forrest has a ringside seat for the most memorable events of the second half of the 20th century. Winner of six Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Zemeckis), and Best Actor (Tom Hanks), FORREST GUMP remains one of the great movie triumphs of all time.

Actors: Mia Drake, Imran Hasnee, Faezeh Jalali

When a penniless, eighteen year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai comes within one question of winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, a police investigation reveals his amazing story. Slumdog Millionaire is the winner of 8 Academy Awards®, including Best Picture of the Year and Best Director, Danny Boyle.

Actors: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett

"I was born under unusual circumstances." And so begins "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story, set in New Orleans, from the end of World War I in 1918 into the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any man's life can be. Directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett with Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Julia Ormond, "Benjamin Button," is a grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.

Actors: Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy

Academy Award winners Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy star with Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker in this inspiring drama adapted from Fannie Flagg's best-selling novel. When an unhappy housewife (Bates) befriends a lady in a nursing home (Tandy), she hears a remarkable tale of laughter, devotion and a special friendship that defies all obstacles in this heartwarming film from acclaimed director Jon Avnet.

Actors: Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt, Tom Skerritt

Academy Award®-winner Robert Redford (Best Director, Ordinary People, 1980) captures the majesty of the Montana wilderness and the strength of the American family in this acclaimed adaptation of Norman Maclean's classic memoir. Craig Sheffer stars as the young Norman, and Brad Pitt stars as his brother Paul, an irresistible daredevil driven to challenge the world. Growing up, both boys rebel against their stern minister father. While Norman channels his rebellion into writing, Paul descends a slippery path to self-destruction. Co-starring Tom Skerritt as the Reverend Maclean and Emily Lloyd as wild-hearted Jessie Burns.

Actors: Brad Pitt, David Thewlis

Brad Pitt stars in this epic spiritual drama about the great Austrian mountain climber, Heinrich Harrer. After escaping from a World War II British prisoner-of-war camp in Kashmir, Herrer finds refuge in the sacred land of Tibet where he unexpectedly becomes both tutor and student of the young Dalai Lama.

Actors: Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon

Winner of 3 Academy Awards including Best Picture, "Crash" takes place in the diverse metropolis of Los Angeles and challenges audiences to confront their prejudices. Lives combust when a Brentwood housewife and her district attorney husband, a Persian shopkeeper, two cops, a pair of carjackers and a Korean couple all converge.

Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, Anton Yelchin

Based on the best-selling Stephen King novel. This coming-of-age story, set during the Vietnam war, centers around a brilliant but fatherless boy and his mother, whose lives are forever changed by a mysterious man, Academy Award-winner Anthony Hopkins ("Bad Company," "Hannibal") who enlists the aid of the young boy to save his life. Also starring David Morse ("Bait," "Proof of Life"), Anton Yelchin ("Along Came a Spider," "15 Minutes") and Hope Davis ("Arlington Road," "Joe Gould's Secret").

Actors: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Dominique Pinon

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay, this magical comedy met overwhelming acclaim nationwide. A painfully shy waitress working at a tiny Paris café, Amelie makes a surprising discovery and sees her life drastically changed for the better! From then on, Amelie dedicates herself to helping others find happiness...in the most delightfully unexpected ways! But will she have the courage to do for herself what she has done for others?

Actors: Michael Caine, Charlize Theron, Tobey Maguire

Honored with two Academy Awards - Best Supporting Actor, Michael Caine, and Best Adapted Screenplay, John Irving - "The Cider House Rules" tells a compelling and heartwarming story about how far a young man must travel to find the place where he truly belongs. Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire - Pleasantville, The Ice Storm) has lived nearly his entire life within the walls of St. Cloud's Orphanage in rural Maine. Though groomed by his proprietor, Dr. Larch (Caine), to be his successor, Homer nonetheless feels the need to strike out on his own and experience the world outside. While working at an apple orchard, Homer falls for the beautiful Candy (Charlize Theron - Reindeer Games, The Devil's Advocate), and learns some powerfully indelible lessons about life, love, and home. Based on John Irving's best-selling American classic and featuring a sensational all-star cast including Delroy Lindo and newcomer Erykah Badu, this entertaining motion picture earned raves from critics and moviegoers everywhere.

Actors: Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley

Ben Kingsley plays Massoud Amir Behrani, an Iranian immigrant living the United States. Even though he was a high-ranking official in Iran, he works several menial jobs in order to provide his wife, Nadi (Shohreh Aghdashloo), and his son, Esmail (Jonathan Ahdout), with an apartment in California. He buys a California bungalow, thinking he can fix it up, sell it again, and make enough money to send Esmail to college. However, the house is the legal property of former drug addict Kathy (Jennifer Connelly). After losing the house in an unfair legal dispute with the county, she is left with nowhere to go. Wanting her house back, she hires a lawyer (Frances Fisher) and befriends a police officer (Ron Eldard). Neither Kathy nor Behrani have broken the law, so they find themselves involved in a difficult moral dilemma.

Actors: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson

Academy Award® nominee Will Smith (2006, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, The Pursuit of Happyness) stars as Ben Thomas, a man at a crossroads searching for a way to redeem his heavy conscience. He discovers he has the power to change the circumstances of seven strangers who deserve a second chance. But when one of them captures his heart, he must decide if he should reveal his secret -- even if it means giving up on his plan.

Actors: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal

In Babel, a tragic incident involving an American couple in Morocco sparks a chain of events for four families in different countries throughout the world. In the struggle to overcome isolation, fear, and displacement, each character discovers that it is family that ultimately provides solace. In the remote sands of the Moroccan desert, a rifle shot rings out - detonating a chain of events that will link an American tourist couple's frantic struggle to survive, two Moroccan boys involved in an accidental crime, a nanny illegally crossing into Mexico with two American children and a Japanese teen rebel whose father is sought by the police in Tokyo. Separated by clashing cultures and sprawling distances, each of these four disparate groups of people are nevertheless hurtling towards a shared destiny of isolation and grief. In the course of just a few days, they will each face the dizzying sensation of becoming profoundly lost - lost in the desert, lost to the world, lost to themselves - as they are pushed to the farthest edges of confusion and fear as well as to the very depths of connection and love.