Calendar Girls

This article is about the 2003 British film. For the play, see Calendar Girls (play). For the musical, see Calendar Girls (musical). For other uses, see Calendar Girls (disambiguation).

Calendar Girls
A nude woman holding a calendar to cover her body, and the calendar shows a picture of her and several other women
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNigel Cole
Written byTim Firth
Juliette Towhidi
Produced bySuzanne Mackie
Nick Barton
Starring
CinematographyAshley Rowe
Edited byMichael Parker
Music byPatrick Doyle
Production
companies
Touchstone Pictures
Harbour Pictures[1]
Distributed byBuena Vista International
Release date
  • 2 September 2003 (2003-09-02)
Running time
108 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10 million[2]
Box office$93.4 million[2]

Calendar Girls is a 2003 British comedy film directed by Nigel Cole. Produced by Touchstone Pictures, it features a screenplay by Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi, based on a true story of a group of middle-aged Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research (subsequently Blood Cancer UK) under the auspices of the Women's Institutes in April 1999 after the husband of one of their members dies from cancer.[3] The film stars an ensemble cast headed by Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, with Linda Bassett, Annette Crosbie, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Geraldine James, Harriet Thorpe and Philip Glenister playing key supporting roles.

Calendar Girls premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and was later shown at Filmfest Hamburg, the Dinard Festival of British Cinema in France, the Warsaw Film Festival, the Tokyo International Film Festival and the UK Film Festival in Hong Kong. It garnered generally positive reactions by film critics, who compared it with another British comedy film The Full Monty (1997). At a budget of $10 million it also became a major commercial success, eventually grossing $93.4 million worldwide following its theatrical release in the U.S.[2] In addition, the picture was awarded the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Film, and received ALFS Award, Empire Award and Satellite Award nominations for Mirren and Walters, and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Mirren.[4]

  1. ^ "Calendar Girls (2003)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 24 July 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "Calendar Girls (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  3. ^ Neal, Rome (24 December 2003). "Helen Mirren's Calendar Girls". CBS News. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  4. ^ "Awards for Calendar Girls". IMDb.com. Retrieved 14 February 2008.