2004 in film

2004 in film is an overview of events, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies, festivals, a list of country-specific lists of films released, notable deaths and film debuts. Shrek 2 was the year's top-grossing film, and Million Dollar Baby won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Evaluation of the year
American film critic and professor Emanuel Levy described 2004 as "a banner year for actors, particularly men." He went on to emphasize, "I can't think of another year in which there were so many good performances, in every genre. It was a year in which we saw the entire spectrum of demographics displayed on the big screen, from vet actors such as Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, to seniors such as Pacino, De Niro, and Hoffman, to newcomers such as Topher Grace. As always, though, the center of the male acting pyramid is occupied by actors in their forties and fifties, such as Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Liam Neeson, Kevin Kline, Don Cheadle, Jim Carrey. In terms of film genres, Levy stated, "The year's most prominent genre was the biopicture, a genre that in the past has suffered from lack of prestige and abundance of clichés. There were a dozen worthy biopictures, including Alexander, The Aviator, Beyond the Sea, Finding Neverland, Hotel Rwanda, Kinsey, Motorcycle Diaries, and Ray. Celebrating entrepreneurs, playwrights, singers, sex researchers, composers, and politicians, they continued to show one alarming bias: They were all about men. You don't have to be a feminist critic or a sociologist to deduct that, as far as real or reel heroes are concerned, women matter less in Hollywood and American society at large. Can't anyone come up with a strong part for a femme-driven bio a la British film Vera Drake, without relegating women to showbiz personae." Levy also stated, "Classic Hollywood cinema, which reached its height during the golden age of studio system and has been in decline, is kept alive by one major force: Clint Eastwood. The "Man With No Name" has become the "Man With the Best Name", a director who's experiencing an unparallel artistic height with “Million Dollar Baby,” a follow-up to the equally sublime Mystic River."

Highest-grossing films
The top 10 films released in 2004 by worldwide gross are as follows:

Shrek 2 set a new record for total gross by an animated film making it the highest-grossing animated film of all time. The record was later surpassed by Toy Story 3 in 2010. It also remained the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film until it was surpassed by Despicable Me 2 in 2013. It remains to this day the highest-grossing animated film not distributed by Disney or Universal. On July 7, Spider-Man 2 reached a $200 million domestic gross in a record time of eight days. On July 18, after 19 days in release, Spider-Man 2 reached $300 million domestically in another record time. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has the highest international revenue of $546 million compared to Shrek 2's $487.5 million.

The Passion of the Christ, directed by Mel Gibson, became the first blockbuster motion picture of 2004 and also the highest grossing R-rated film domestically. Meet the Fockers beat 2003's Bruce Almighty record for the highest-grossing comedy film; both were released by Universal.

Awards

 * Palme d'Or (Cannes Film Festival):
 * Fahrenheit 9/11, directed by Michael Moore, United States


 * Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival):
 * Vera Drake, directed by Mike Leigh, United Kingdom


 * Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival):
 * Head-On, directed by Fatih Akın, Germany & Turkey

By country/region

 * List of American films of 2004
 * List of Argentine films of 2004
 * List of Australian films of 2004
 * List of Bangladeshi films of 2004
 * List of Brazilian films of 2004
 * List of British films of 2004
 * List of Chinese films of 2004
 * List of Hong Kong films of 2004
 * List of French films of 2004
 * List of Indian films of 2004
 * List of Bengali films of 2004
 * List of Bollywood films of 2004
 * List of Kannada films of 2004
 * List of Tamil films of 2004
 * List of Telugu films of 2004
 * List of Malayalam films of 2004
 * List of Italian films of 2004
 * List of Japanese films of 2004
 * List of Mexican films of 2004
 * List of Pakistani films of 2004
 * List of Russian films of 2004
 * List of South Korean films of 2004
 * List of Spanish films of 2004

By genre/medium

 * List of action films of 2004
 * List of animated feature films of 2004
 * List of avant-garde films of 2004
 * List of crime films of 2004
 * List of comedy films of 2004
 * List of drama films of 2004
 * List of horror films of 2004
 * List of science fiction films of 2004
 * List of thriller films of 2004
 * List of western films of 2004

Births

 * January 10 – Kaitlyn Maher, American singer and actress
 * January 16 – Harry Collett, English actor
 * January 25 – Rohan Chand, American actor
 * February 19 – Millie Bobby Brown, English actress and producer
 * March 5 – Kit Connor, English actor
 * April 21 – Emma Tremblay, Canadian actress
 * April 23 – Teagan Croft, Australian actress
 * May 3 – Mel Maia, Brazilian actress
 * May 13 – Ava Acres, American actress
 * May 22 – Peyton Elizabeth Lee, American actress
 * June 8 - Francesca Capaldi, American actress
 * June 19 – Louis Ashbourne Serkis, English actor
 * July 2 – Caitlin Carmichael, American actress
 * July 4 – Alex R. Hibbert, American actor
 * July 6 – Dylan Kingwell, Canadian actor
 * July 16
 * Ruby Barnhill, English actress
 * Amiah Miller, American actress
 * July 17
 * Logan Allen, American actor
 * Shamon Brown Jr., American actor
 * August 5 – Albert Tsai, American actor
 * August 14 – Marsai Martin, American actress
 * August 19 – Siena Agudong, American actress
 * August 24 – Ivy Wolk, American actress, comedian, and Internet personality
 * September 10 – Gabriel Bateman, American actor
 * September 12 – Ellis Rubin, American actor
 * September 23 – Anthony Gonzalez, American actor
 * October 3 – Noah Schnapp, American actor
 * October 10 – Zain Al Rafeea, Syrian-born Norwegian actor
 * November 1
 * Jayden Bartels, American YouTuber, singer and actress
 * November 11 – Oakes Fegley, American actor
 * November 16
 * Marlon Kazadi, Canadian actor
 * Jack Champion, American actor
 * November 27 – Jet Jurgensmeyer, American actor
 * December 5 – Jules LeBlanc, American YouTuber, singer and actress
 * December 9 – Nico Parker, English actress
 * December 22 – Bryce Gheisar, American actor
 * December 30 – Lyliana Wray, American actress

Film debuts

 * Marian Álvarez – Swindled
 * Ivana Baquero – Romasanta
 * Emily Blunt – My Summer of Love
 * Yvette Nicole Brown – Little Black Book
 * Eddie Cahill – Miracle
 * Eva Ceja – Owenstory
 * Josh Duhamel – The Picture of Dorian Gray
 * Brian F. Durkin – Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius
 * Alice Eve – Stage Beauty
 * Will Forte – Around the World in 80 Days
 * Rupert Friend – The Libertine
 * Nick Frost – Shaun of the Dead
 * David Harbour – Kinsey
 * Amber Heard – Friday Night Lights
 * Jon Heder – Napoleon Dynamite
 * Ed Helms – Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story
 * Jonah Hill – I Heart Huckabees
 * Cheryl Hines – Along Came Polly
 * Arielle Kebbel – Soul Plane
 * Toby Kebbell – Dead Man's Shoes
 * Rebekah Kochan – Eating Out
 * Riki Lindhome – Seeing Other People
 * Jason Mantzoukas – Terrorists
 * Joel McHale – Spider-Man 2
 * Denis Ménochet – Automne
 * Mircea Monroe – Cellular
 * Chris Pine – The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
 * Alba Rohrwacher – An Italian Romance
 * Belén Rueda – The Sea Inside
 * Catalina Sandino Moreno – Maria Full of Grace
 * Amanda Seyfried – Mean Girls
 * Claudia Traisac – The 7th Day
 * Olivia Wilde – The Girl Next Door
 * Patrick Wilson – The Alamo