top celebrity photos: Marion Cotillard-Midnight in Paris

Midnight in Paris is an upcoming American romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen, scheduled to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2011.It is being produced by Mediapro and Allen's Gravier Productions, and stars Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Carla Bruni and Adrien Brody.

Midnight in Paris - Allen, Wilson, Cotillard, Brody, McAdams - Tyrone Rubin Film Show

Marion Cotillard (born 30 September 1975) is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants. She has also appeared in such films as Big Fish, A Very Long Engagement (for which she received a César Award for Best Supporting Actress), A Good Year, Public Enemies, Nine, Inception and La Vie en Rose.

She won the Academy Award for Best Actress, BAFTA Award for Best Actress, César for Best Actress and the Golden Globe for Best Actress in Musical or a Comedy for her portrayal of French singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. She made film history by becoming the first person to win an Academy Award for a French language performance. In 2010 she received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the musical Nine.
Cotillard was born in Paris and grew up around Orléans, Loiret, in an artistically inclined, "bustling, creative household". Her father, Jean-Claude Cotillard, is an actor, teacher, former mime, and 2006 Molière Award-winning director of Breton descent(his mother, Léontine Cotillard, was born in March 1909 and lived in Plémet, Brittany until her death in February of 2011).Cotillard's mother, Niseema Theillaud, is also an actress and drama teacher.She has two younger twin brothers, Quentin and Guillaume. Quentin Cotillard is a sculptor and painter living in San Francisco, United States,with his wife, Elaine O'Malley Cotillard, "a former Dutch National Ballet dancer who grew up in Marin County, and is now a San Francisco fashion designer".Guillaume Cotillard is a screenwriter and director.Cotillard began acting during her childhood, appearing on stage in one of her father's plays.

After small appearances and performances in theater, Cotillard had occasional and minor roles in television series such as Highlander, but her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s with small but noticeable roles in such films as Arnaud Desplechin's My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument. Cotillard appeared in the comedy film La belle verte, directed by Coline Serreau. Then came her breakthrough out of cinephiles' circles when she starred in Gérard Pirès's action comedy Taxi. In the film, she plays Lili Bertineau who becomes Daniel's girlfriend. Cotillard reprised the role in two sequels. She then ventured into anticipation science fiction with Alexandre Aja's Furia (1999).

Cotillard appeared in Pierre Grimblat's film Lisa as Young Lisa, alongside Jeanne Moreau, Swiss novel-adaptation War drama In The Highlands. She starred in Gilles Paquet-Brenner's film Les jolies choses, adapted from the work of subversive feminist writer Virginie Despentes. In the drama, Cotillard portrayed the characters of two twins of completely opposite characters, Lucie and Marie. She was nominated for a César Award for her performance. In Guillaume Nicloux's thriller Une affaire privée she appeared as Clarisse, friend of the disappeared.

On February 22, 2008, she was awarded the César Award for Best Actress for her role in La Vie en Rose, becoming the first woman and second person (after Adrien Brody, The Pianist) to win both a Cesar and an Oscar for the same performance. Cotillard is the second French cinema actress to win this award and the third overall to receive an Academy Award. She is the first Best Actress winner in a non-English language performance since Sophia Loren's win in 1961. She is also the first and so far only winner of an Academy Award for a performance in the French language. In her Oscar acceptance speech, Cotillard proclaimed "thank you life, thank you love" and, speaking of Los Angeles, said "it is true, there is some angels (sic) in this city!"On March 15, 2010 Cotillard was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of the Arts and Letters) by the French government for her "contribution to the enrichment of French culture".

Cotillard, in addition to her film work, is interested in environmental activism and participated in campaigns for environmental protection. Cotillard used her high public profile to bring attention to the aims of Greenpeace, working for the environmental organization as a spokesperson, allowing the organization to use her apartment to test products. In 2005, she also contributed to Dessins pour le climat ("Drawings for the Climate"), a book of drawings published by Greenpeace to raise funds for the group.

In 2009, Cotillard was chosen as the face for Dior's "Lady Dior" advertising campaign and was featured in an online mini-movie directed by John Cameron Mitchell about the fictional character created by John Galliano. This campaign has also resulted in a musical collaboration with British indie rock band Franz Ferdinand, where Cotillard has provided the vocals for a composition performed by the group, entitled "The Eyes of Mars". Cotillard appeared on the cover of the November 2009 issue of Vogue with Nine co-stars Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Penélope Cruz, Kate Hudson and Fergie, and on the July 2010 cover by herself.

Cotillard currently lives with French actor and director Guillaume Canet. Many reports say the couple prefer to live a simple lifestyle, and they are often spotted in cafes and shopping together in Paris. Neither star discusses their relationship with the media, although photos of the couple being affectionate regularly surface in the European tabloids. On January 10, 2011, Cotillard announced the couple is expecting their first child together in spring 2011.She is a fan of Radiohead and Canadian singer Hawksley Workman; she has appeared in two of the latter's music videos, most notably "No Reason to Cry Out your Eyes (On the Highway Tonight)".Workman even revealed in interviews about his last album Between the Beautifuls that he worked and wrote songs with Cotillard while they both were in Los Angeles during the movie awards season.She is a supporter of the English football club Leeds United, a passion she developed after her compatriot Eric Cantona's spell at the club in the early 1990s.