The following is an overview of events in 2006, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies and festivals, a list of films released and notable deaths. Pixar celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2006 with the release of its 7th film, Cars.

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Evaluation of the year

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Philip French of The Guardian described 2006 as "an outstanding year for British cinema". He went on to emphasize, "Six of our well-established directors have made highly individual films of real distinction: Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story, Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, Stephen Frears's The Queen, Paul Greengrass's United 93 and Nicholas Hytner's The History Boys. Two young directors made confident debuts, both offering a jaundiced view of contemporary Britain: Andrea Arnold's Red Road and Paul Andrew Williams's London to Brighton. In addition the gifted Mexican Alfonso Cuaron came here to make the dystopian thriller Children of Men." He also stated, "In the (United) States, M. Night Shyamalan of The Sixth Sense fame fell flat on his over-confident face with Lady in the Water, but Martin Scorsese's The Departed was his best for years, and he was with Jack Nicholson at last. Apart from that, the best American films were political (Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, The New World) or very personal (Little Miss Sunshine, Little Children, The Squid and the Whale). Sadly, Oliver Stone's 9/11 picture World Trade Center was neither. Asian cinema produced a string of elegant thrillers and horror flicks. The best Eastern European movie was The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, a devastating look at the Romania Ceausescu left behind him. Most of the best Western European films came from France, with Michael Haneke's Caché, proving the most widely discussed art-house puzzle picture since Last Year at Marienbad. The award of 18 certificates by the BBFC to Shortbus and Destricted has brought close the abolition of censorship, but not of classification, and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain was a real step forward for the representation of homosexuals in mainstream cinema, though Gore Vidal claims that there's a gay subtext to every western. However, the year's most extraordinary event, or conjunction, was the almost simultaneous release of Tommy Lee Jones's directorial debut The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Who would have predicted in the Sixties, when they were roommates at Harvard and used by Erich Segal as joint models for Oliver Barrett IV in Love Story, that both Jones and Gore would end up as movie stars - if, in Gore's case, accidentally and temporarily?"[1]

Highest-grossing films

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The top 10 films released in 2006 by worldwide gross are as follows:[2]

Highest-grossing films of 2006
Rank Title Distributor(s) Worldwide gross
1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Buena Vista $1,066,179,725
2 The Da Vinci Code Sony $760,006,945
3 Ice Age: The Meltdown 20th Century Fox $660,998,756
4 Casino Royale Sony $606,099,584
5 Night at the Museum 20th Century Fox $574,480,841
6 Cars Buena Vista $461,983,149
7 X-Men: The Last Stand 20th Century Fox $460,435,291
8 Mission: Impossible III Paramount $398,479,497
9 Superman Returns Warner Bros. $391,081,192
10 Happy Feet $384,335,608

Box office records

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Events

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Month Day Event
January 4 The Producers Guild of America nominates Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck and Walk the Line as contenders for their best-produced film award. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) nominate The 40-Year-Old Virgin, I Tried, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck and The Squid and the Whale for best original screenplay. The WGA nominees for best adapted screenplay are Brokeback Mountain, Capote, The Constant Gardener, A History of Violence and Syriana.
5 Jon Stewart is named host of the 78th Academy Awards.
9 The Broadcast Film Critics Association present their Critics' Choice Awards for the best films of 2005 live on The WB network in the United States. Brokeback Mountain is named best picture, best director for Ang Lee and ties for best supporting actress for Michelle Williams. Philip Seymour Hoffman is named best actor for Capote and Reese Witherspoon is awarded best actress for Walk the Line.
16 The winners of the 63rd Golden Globe Awards include Brokeback Mountain for best dramatic picture and best director.
19 The 2006 Sundance Film Festival starts in Park City, Utah.
24 Disney announces plans to acquire Pixar
28 The Directors Guild of America names Ang Lee best film director of 2005 for Brokeback Mountain, best documentary goes to Werner Herzog for Grizzly Man and its Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Clint Eastwood.
29 The Screen Actors Guild names Philip Seymour Hoffman outstanding male movie actor for Capote, Reese Witherspoon as outstanding female lead movie actor for Walk the Line, Rachel Weisz as outstanding female actor in a supporting role for The Constant Gardener, Paul Giamatti as outstanding male actor in a supporting role for Cinderella Man, the cast of Crash as outstanding ensemble in a theatrical motion picture, and Shirley Temple Black is given a life achievement award.
30 The 26th Golden Raspberry Awards nominees include Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Dirty Love, The Dukes of Hazzard, House of Wax and Son of the Mask for worst film; Tom Cruise, Will Ferrell, Jamie Kennedy, The Rock and Rob Schneider for worst actor; and Jessica Alba, Hilary Duff, Jennifer Lopez, Jenny McCarthy and Tara Reid for worst actress.
31 The Academy Awards for best film achievement in 2005 had nominated primarily independent films. Brokeback Mountain led the nominations with 8, followed by Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck and Memoirs of a Geisha all earning six.
February 5 The 33rd annual Annie Award - Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit won the best animated feature, as well as all nine categories which it was nominated. Family Guy won the best voice acting and directing, Star Wars: Clone Wars II Chapters 21-25 won the best animated TV production, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch won the best home entertainment award, and Ultimate Spider-Man won the new "best video game award".
6 Disney re-acquires the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from NBCUniversal, in exchange for ABC letting commentator Al Michaels work on NBC Sunday Night Football.
March 4 Dirty Love dominates the 26th Golden Raspberry Awards with 4 awards including Worst Picture and Worst Actress for Jenny McCarthy. Rob Schneider took home for Worst Actor for his performance in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. Other awards went to Hayden Christensen as Worst Supporting Actor for Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Paris Hilton as Worst Supporting Actress for House of Wax
5 78th Academy Awards: Crash earns a win for Best Picture upsetting favorite Brokeback Mountain. No film, for the first time in 58 years, won a clear majority. Both films as well as Memoirs of a Geisha and King Kong win three Oscars each. Favorite March of the Penguins wins Oscar for Documentary Feature. South Africa wins its first motion picture Oscar with the Best Foreign Film award for Tsotsi. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit wins Oscar for Animated feature film.

Major awards as follows:

13 11th Empire Awards: Pride & Prejudice and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith win the most awards with two.
April 18 Tom Cruise and fiancée Katie Holmes welcomed their newborn baby Suri.
25 The 5th annual Tribeca Film Festival opens with notable films such as Mission: Impossible III and United 93.
28 TV double act Ant & Dec make their big screen debut with Alien Autopsy.
May 17 The 2006 Cannes Film Festival began in Cannes, France. It continued until May 28. It was hosted by Vincent Cassel. Films in competition included Babel by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Fast Food Nation by Richard Linklater, Iklimler by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, El Laberinto del Fauno by Guillermo del Toro, Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola, Southland Tales by Richard Kelly, Volver by Pedro Almodóvar, and The Wind That Shakes the Barley by Ken Loach
27 Brad Pitt and Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie give birth to daughter Shiloh in the African nation of Namibia.
June 3 The 2006 MTV Movie Awards winners were announced.
14 The American Film Institute releases its ninth list of its AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers recognizing 100 films as the most "inspirational" in cinema history. Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life is named the most "inspirational" film of all time.
July 7 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opens later grossing $55.8 million on its opening day, setting records for the largest opening day, the largest single day gross, and the largest Friday gross of all time (the previous record was held by Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith with $50,013,859, the previous year). It also surpassed the opening weekend gross (at $135,634,554 between July 7–9) previously set by Spider-Man in 2002 with $114,844,116 between May 3–5.
28 Actor and Oscar-winning director producer Mel Gibson is arrested after speeding on Pacific Coast Highway due to a DUI. Police reports later reveal stinging anti-Semitic comments made to the officer (a Jew). Gibson checked into rehab and issued several statements apologizing for his rude comments. See Mel Gibson DUI incident for more details.
September 7 Ellen DeGeneres is named host of the 79th Academy Awards.
7-16 The 2006 Toronto International Film Festival takes place.
December 7 64th Golden Globe Awards nominees are announced. Babel leads nominations with seven.

Awards

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Category/Organization 64th Golden Globe Awards
January 15, 2007
12th Critics' Choice Awards
January 14, 2007
Producers, Directors, Screen Actors, and Writers Guild Awards
January 20-February 11, 2007
60th BAFTA Awards
February 11, 2007
79th Academy Awards
February 25, 2007
Drama Musical or Comedy
Best Film Babel Dreamgirls The Departed Little Miss Sunshine The Queen The Departed
Best Director Martin Scorsese
The Departed
Paul Greengrass
United 93
Martin Scorsese
The Departed
Best Actor Forest Whitaker
The Last King of Scotland
Sacha Baron Cohen
Borat
Forest Whitaker
The Last King of Scotland
Best Actress Helen Mirren
The Queen
Meryl Streep
The Devil Wears Prada
Helen Mirren
The Queen
Best Supporting Actor Eddie Murphy
Dreamgirls
Alan Arkin
Little Miss Sunshine
Best Supporting Actress Jennifer Hudson
Dreamgirls
Best Screenplay, Adapted Peter Morgan
The Queen
Michael Arndt
Little Miss Sunshine
William Monahan
The Departed
Jeremy Brock and Peter Morgan
The Last King of Scotland
William Monahan
The Departed
Best Screenplay, Original Michael Arndt
Little Miss Sunshine
Best Animated Film Cars Happy Feet
Best Original Score The Painted Veil
Alexandre Desplat
The Illusionist
Philip Glass
N/A Babel
Gustavo Santaolalla
Best Original Song "The Song of the Heart"
Happy Feet
"Listen"
Dreamgirls
N/A N/A "I Need to Wake Up"
An Inconvenient Truth
Best Foreign Language Film Letters from Iwo Jima N/A Pan's Labyrinth The Lives of Others

2006 films

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By country/region

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By genre/medium

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Births

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Deaths

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Month Date Name Age Country Profession Notable films
January 2 Osa Massen 91 Denmark Actress
2 John Woodnutt 81 UK Actor
5 Mark Roberts 84 US Actor
7 Jim Zulevic 40 US Actor
12 Stu Linder 74 US Film Editor
12 Norris Spencer 62 UK Production Designer
14 Shelley Winters 85 US Actress
19 Anthony Franciosa 77 US Actor
21 Robert Knudson 80 US Sound Engineer
23 Joseph M. Newman 96 US Director
24 Fayard Nicholas 91 US Actor, Dancer, Choreographer
24 Chris Penn 40 US Actor
25 Moss Mabry 87 US Costume Designer
27 Paul Valentine 86 US Actor
28 Henry McGee 77 UK Actor
31 Moira Shearer 80 UK Actress, Dancer
February 1 Roy Alon 63 UK Stuntman
3 Walerian Borowczyk 82 Poland Director, Screenwriter
3 Jean Byron 80 US Actress
3 Al Lewis 82 US Actor
5 Franklin Cover 77 US Actor
6 Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez 80 US Actor
8 Akira Ifukube 91 Japan Composer
9 Phil Brown 89 US Actor
13 Andreas Katsulas 59 US Actor
14 Darry Cowl 80 France Actor
18 Richard Bright 64 US Actor
19 Erna Lazarus 102 US Screenwriter
21 Richard Snell 50 US Makeup Artist
24 Don Knotts 81 US Actor
24 Dennis Weaver 81 US Actor
25 Darren McGavin 83 US Actor
March 1 Peter Sykes 66 Australia Director
1 Jack Wild 53 UK Actor
2 Phyllis Huffman 61 US Casting Director
7 John Junkin 76 UK Actor
7 Gordon Parks 93 US Director
12 Joseph Bova 81 US Actor
13 Maureen Stapleton 80 US Actress
16 Moira Redmond 77 UK Actress
17 Bob Papenbrook 50 US Voice Actor
18 Michael Attwell 63 UK Actor
25 Richard Fleischer 89 US Director
29 Henry Farrell 85 US Screenwriter
29 Gretchen Rau 66 US Set Decorator, Art Director
31 Candice Rialson 54 US Actress
April 4 Gary Gray 69 US Actor
9 Vilgot Sjöman 82 Sweden Director
13 Jacques Maumont 81 France Sound Engineer
17 Henderson Forsythe 88 US Actor
22 Alida Valli 84 Italy Actress
23 Susan Browning 65 US Actress
23 Jennifer Jayne 74 UK Actress, Screenwriter
29 Alberta Nelson 68 US Actress
May 1 Jay Presson Allen 84 US Screenwriter
1 Betsy Jones-Moreland 76 US Actress
4 Michael Taliferro 44 US Actor
7 Tanis Chandler 81 France Actress
10 Val Guest 94 UK Director, Screenwriter
14 Paul Marco 78 US Actor
21 Katherine Dunham 96 US Dancer
24 Henry Bumstead 91 US Art Director, Production Designer
27 Barbara Cohen 53 US Casting Director
27 Paul Gleason 67 US Actor
29 Katarína Kolníková 85 Slovakia Actress
30 Shōhei Imamura 79 Japan Director, Screenwriter
30 Robert Sterling 88 US Actor
June 8 Robert Donner 75 US Actor
10 Gerald James 88 UK Actor
12 Hugh Latimer 75 UK Actor
10 Monty Berman 92 UK Producer, Director, Cinematographer
16 Arthur Franz 86 US Actor
18 Vincent Sherman 99 US Director
18 Richard Stahl 74 US Actor
23 Aaron Spelling 83 US Producer, Actor
25 Kenneth Griffith 84 UK Actor
July 2 Jan Murray 89 US Actor
3 Jack Smith 92 US Actor
5 Amzie Strickland 87 US Actress
6 Kasey Rogers 80 US Actress
8 June Allyson 88 US Actress
9 Chris Drake 82 US Actor
11 Barnard Hughes 90 US Actor
12 Kurt Kreuger 89 Germany Actor
12 Loredana Nusciak 64 Italy Actress
13 Red Buttons 87 US Actor
19 Pascal Renwick [fr] 51 FR French voice actor
19 Jack Warden 85 US Actor
20 Robert Cornthwaite 89 US Actor
21 Mako 72 Japan Actor
27 Johnny Weissmuller Jr. 65 US Actor
28 Patrick Allen 79 Malawi Actor
August 4 John Alderson 90 UK Actor
7 Lois January 92 US Actress
13 Tony Jay 73 UK Voice Actor, Actor
14 Bruno Kirby 57 US Actor
16 Alan Vint 61 US Actor
19 Sig Shore 87 US Producer, Director
25 Ann Richards 88 Australia Actress
25 Joseph Stefano 84 US Screenwriter
29 Bill Stewart 63 UK Actor
30 Glenn Ford 90 Canada Actor
31 William Aldrich 61 US Producer, Actor
September 4 Steve Irwin 44 Australia Wildlife Expert, Actor
4 Fernando Siro 74 Argentina Actor, Director
5 Hilary Mason 89 UK Actress
7 Robert Earl Jones 96 US Actor
8 Frank Middlemass 87 UK Actor
9 Gérard Brach 79 France Director, Screenwriter
9 Herbert Rudley 96 US Actor
11 Pat Corley 76 US Actor
14 Mickey Hargitay 80 Hungary Actor
14 Johnny Sekka 72 Senegal Actor
14 Virginia Vale 86 US Actress
19 Elizabeth Allen 77 US Actress
20 Sven Nykvist 83 Sweden Cinematographer
22 Edward Albert 55 US Actor
23 Malcolm Arnold 84 UK Composer
24 Sally Gray 91 UK Actress
24 Tetsurō Tamba 84 Japan Actor
26 Lionel Murton 91 UK Actor
28 Hy Pyke 70 US Actor
October 2 Frances Bergen 84 US Actress
2 Tamara Dobson 59 US Actress
4 Tom Bell 73 UK Actor
9 Danièle Huillet 70 France Director
10 Jerry Belson 68 US Screenwriter, Producer
12 Gillo Pontecorvo 86 Italy Director, Screenwriter
15 Derek Bond 86 UK Actor
16 Jack DeLeon 81 US Actor
16 Tommy Johnson 71 US Musician
19 James Glennon 64 US Cinematographer
19 Phyllis Kirk 79 US Actress
20 Jane Wyatt 96 US Actress
21 Peter Barkworth 77 UK Actor
21 Daryl Duke 77 Canada Director
21 Milton Selzer 87 US Actor
22 Arthur Hill 84 Canada Actor
22 Richard Mayes 83 UK Actor
29 Roy Barnes 70 US Set Designer, Art Director
29 Nigel Kneale 84 UK Screenwriter
31 William Franklyn 81 UK Actor
November 1 Adrienne Shelly 40 US Actress, Director
2 Leonard Schrader 62 US Screenwriter
2 Milly Vitale 73 Italy Actress
8 Basil Poledouris 61 US Composer
9 Wayne Artman 69 US Sound Engineer
9 Marian Marsh 93 Trinidad Actress
10 Diana Coupland 74 UK Actress
10 Jack Palance 87 US Actor
11 Ronnie Stevens 81 UK Actor
14 John Hallam 65 UK Actor
16 Ernest Day 79 UK Cinematographer, Director
16 Eustace Lycett 91 UK Special Effects Artist
19 Jeremy Slate 80 US Actor
20 Robert Altman 81 US Director, Screenwriter
20 Kevin McClory 80 Ireland Producer
23 Betty Comden 89 US Screenwriter, Lyricist
23 Philippe Noiret 76 France Actor
24 Phyllis Cerf 90 US Actress
27 Alan Freeman 79 Australia Actor
30 Shirley Walker 61 US Composer, Orchestrator
December 1 Sid Raymond 97 US Actor, Voice Actor
4 Adam Williams 84 US Actor
5 Michael Gilden 44 US Actor
5 Gerry Humphreys 74 UK Sound Engineer
5 Van Smith 61 US Costume Designer, Makeup Artist
8 Martha Tilton 91 US Singer, Actress
9 Russell Wade 89 US Actor
12 Ivor Barry 87 UK Actor
12 Peter Boyle 71 US Actor
14 Hallie D'Amore 64 US Makeup Artist
18 Joseph Barbera 95 US Animator, Director, Producer
20 John Bishop 77 US Screenwriter
21 Lois Hall 80 US Actress
22 Philip Pine 86 US Actor
23 Charlie Drake 81 UK Actor
25 James Brown 73 US Singer, Actor
30 Frank Campanella 87 US Actor

Film debuts

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References

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  1. ^ Critics' Review of 2006
  2. ^ "2006 Worldwide Box Office". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  3. ^ "Sony Pictures Entertainment Reaches $3 Billion at Worldwide Box Office for the First Time". Sony.com. Sony. 2006-12-07. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
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