Anna Kendrick has shot to fame during the awards season for her role in Up In The Air and looks set to bag her very first Oscar nomination.
And with Up In The Air released in the UK this week and the Golden Globes and Oscars on the horizon Anna Kendrick is one actress we should all be keeping an eye on over the next twelve months.
Kendrick made her move into acting with television series The Mayor before moving onto the big screen with Camp.
The independent movie, which was produced by Danny DeVito, brought the young actress her first taste of awards fever as she found herself nominated for Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance.
It was four years before we saw her on the big screen again as she returned in 2007 with Rocket Science.
Rocket Science is a coming of age movie set in New Jersey, the film follows Hal Hefner (Reese Thompson) in his attempts to go through high school unnoticed. This is made considerably harder by his obvious stutter and inability to verbalize even the most basic statements, not to mention his thoughts and feelings.
Bringing him no help are his strange and abusive older brother Earl (Vincent Piazza), his recently divorced parents, his mother's live-in boyfriend, and his school's inadequate speech therapist.
When the school's bossy, attractive debate champion Ginny Ryerson (Anna Kendrick) tries to recruit Hal as her debating partner, good sense tells him no but his hormones cry yes, and soon Hal finds himself confronted with growing feelings for Ginny as well as the looming humiliation of having to compete in the state finals.
There was more award recognition as she found herself nominated at the Independent Spirit Awards for a second time, this time for Best Actress.
In 2008 Kendrick found herself part of the Twilight saga as Jessica Stanley in the first of Stephenie Meyers’ novels to be adapted for the big screen.
But it was New Moon that really dominated the box office in late 2008 grossing over $694 million to be one of the most successful movies of the year.
However it’s Up In The Air that will really show off Kendrick’s acting credentials as she stars alongside George Clooney in Jason Reitman’s latest picture.
The movie follows corporate downsizer Ryan Bingham (Clooney) is the consummate modern business traveller, a man totally content with his unencumbered lifestyle of airports, hotels and rental cars.
A pampered and privileged elite member of every travel loyalty scheme in existence, he can carry all that he needs in one wheel-away case - and he's moving ever nearer to attaining his lifetime goal of 10 million frequent flier miles.
There's even romance in the air when Ryan meets the beautiful Alex (Farmiga), who shares his world-view. However Ryan's boss (Bateman), inspired by Natalie (Kendrick), a young, upstart efficiency expert, is threatening to permanently call Ryan in from the road.
Faced with the terrifying yet exhilarating prospect of being grounded, Ryan begins to contemplate what it might actually mean to have a home.
For her performance she has already won the National Board of Review Award, Houston Film critics Society Award, Austin Film Critics Award and the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She has also had a string of nominations including - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, Satellite Award, Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association and the Baftas.
She looks set to pick up an Oscar nomination for her role and is in contention to win the Golden Globe next weekend.
In the pipeline for the actress includes Scott Pilgrim vs. the World alongside Michael Cera before returning to the Twilight franchise for Eclipse this summer.
Up In The Air is released 15th January.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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