Best Actor Winners at the Algonquin Area Public Library District

Are you getting ready for the Academy Awards? 

Catch up on past award winners, like Academy Award winners for Best Actor.  All of these films can be found at the Algonquin Area Public Library District.

84th Academy Awards

Jean Dujardin, The Artist: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD ART

In 1927, George Valentin is a silent movie superstar. However, the advent of the talkies will kill his career and he will sink into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller, it seems the sky's the limit as major movie stardom awaits. Though their careers are taking different paths their destinies will become entwined.

83rd Academy Awards

Colin Firth, The King’s Speech: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD KIN

The story of King George VI of Britain, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it.

82nd Academy Awards

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD CRA

The powerful story of a country music star's rocky road to redemption. Bad Blake is a boozy, broken-down singer who reaches for salvation with the help of Jean, a journalist who discovers the real man behind the music. But will Bad's hard-livin' ways and crazy heart cost him his last chance at a comeback?

81st Academy Awards

Sean Penn, Milk: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD MIL

Based on the true story of Harvey Milk, a middle-aged New Yorker who, after moving to San Francisco, became a Gay Rights activist and city politician. He was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977 making him the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States. The following year, both he and the city's mayor were shot to death by a former city supervisor.

80th Academy Awards

Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD THE

A down-and-out silver miner raising a son, self-made oilman Daniel Plainview, whose voracious appetite for oil turns him into a California tycoon in the early years of the 20th century. Getting the oil from the ground is an intensely physical process that later broadens into Plainview's equally indomitable urge to control land and power. Along the way, Plainview deals with a mighty derrick fire, a visit from a long-lost brother, and the ongoing involvement of Plainview's poker-faced adoptive son.

79th Academy Awards

Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD LAS

Chronicles Idi Amin's rise and fall. Amin's despotic reign of terror is viewed through the eyes of Nicholas Garrigan, a Scottish doctor who arrives in Uganda in the early 1970s to serve as Amin's personal physician. His perspective as an outsider causes him to be initially impressed by Amin's calculated rise to power as he grows increasingly monstrous. A pointed examination of how independent Uganda became a breeding ground for Amin's genocidal tyranny.

78th Academy Awards

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD CAP

In 1959, Truman Capote was a popular writer for The New Yorker. He learns about the horrific and senseless murder of a family of four in Halcomb, Kansas. Inspired by the story, Capote and his partner, Harper Lee, travel to the town to do research for an article. However, as Capote digs deeper into the story, he is inspired to expand the project into what would be his greatest work, "In Cold Blood." He arranges extensive interviews with the prisoners, especially with Perry Smith. However, his feelings of compassion for Perry conflicts with his need for closure for his book which only an execution can provide.

77th Academy Awards

Jamie Fox, Ray: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD RAY

Ray Charles went blind at the age of seven. Inspired by his mother who insisted he make his own way, he found his calling at the keyboard. 'Ray' follows as he overcomes drug addiction while becoming one of the country's most beloved performers.

76th Academy Awards

Sean Penn, Mystic River: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD MYS

Boston childhood friends Jimmy, Sean and Dave are reunited after a brutal murder. Reformed convict Jimmy and his devoted wife Annabeth find out that their teenage daughter Katie has been beaten and killed. Jimmy's old friend Sean is the homicide detective assigned to the case. Jimmy gets his relatives, the Savage brothers to conduct their own investigation. Jimmy and Sean soon suspect their old pal Dave, who now lives a quiet life, but harbors some disturbing secrets of his own.

75th Academy Awards

Adrien Brody, The Pianist: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD PIA

Based on the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew, who was a brilliant pianist. He watched as his family was shipped off to Nazi labor camps. He managed to escape and lived for years in the ruins of Warsaw, hiding from the Nazis.

74th Academy Awards

Denzel Washington, Training Day: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD TRA

Jake Hoyt, a fresh-faced rookie in the Los Angeles Police Department, gets a chance to join the elite narcotics squad headed up by 13-year veteran Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris. Jake is to prove himself during a one-day ride-along. As the day wears on, it becomes increasingly clear that Detective Harris has blurred the line between right and wrong to an alarming degree, enforcing his own code of ethics and street justice. Eventually, Hoyt begins to suspect that he is, rather than having the opportunity to join the squad, being set up to take the fall. 

73rd Academy Awards

Russell Crowe, Gladiator: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD GLA

A Roman general refuses to transfer his loyalty to the new Emperor, Commodus. He becomes a slave and then a gladiator, fighting in the Roman Colosseum in defiance of the Emperor.

72nd Academy Awards

Kevin Spacey, American Beauty: Find it in the Library @ Call # DVD AME

An emotionally & spiritually comatose suburban man decides "to hell with it all" and reverts to living as he did when he was happiest--as a carefree teenager. His desperately uptight wife and sullen daughter can only look on as he quits his corporate job to become a burger flipper, starts getting high with a strange new neighbor and lusts after a pouty blonde teenager--his daughter's best friend.