Producers: Scott Rudin, Robert Fox
Previous best film wins: Golden Globe (drama); National Board of Review
The story: Spanning various time periods in the 20th century, this drama revolves around three very different women, author Virginia Woolf and two women who have been profoundly affected by her work. All three are battling with issues of freedom, responsibility and identity. As the story unfolds, they are negotiating their way through different depressive states: Woolf (Nicole Kidman) struggles to write her novel Mrs. Dalloway in 1923 while recovering from depression; Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is a depressed and pregnant L.A. housewife who reads Woolf’s novel in 1949; and, the exasperated Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep) is a book editor in modern-day New York who is planning a farewell party for her AIDS-inflicted former lover, a famous author who nicknamed her Mrs. Dalloway.