Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson lead an all-star cast in a 6-hour HBO Films Event.

This jaw-dropping film adaptation of Tony Kushner's epic Pulitzer Prize-winning play has won wide acclaim and many awards, including 11 Emmys and 5 Golden Globes in 2004!

Awards

• 2004 Won 11 Emmy Awards:

Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special,
Mike Nichols (director)
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, Al Pacino
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, Meryl Streep
Outstanding Makeup for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Non-Prosthetic)
Outstanding Miniseries
Outstanding Single-Camera Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, Jeffrey Wright
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, Mary-Louise Parker
Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special, Tony Kushner (writer)

• 2004 Won 5 Golden Globe Awards:

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, Al Pacino
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, Jeffrey Wright
Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, Meryl Streep
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, Mary-Louise Parker

• 2004 Won – GLAAD Media Award, Outstanding Television Movie or Mini-Series
• 2004 Won Television Critics Association Awards – Outstanding Movie, Miniseries or Special Program of the Year
• 2004 Won – Art Directors Guild, Excellence in Production Design Award Television – Television Movie or Mini-Series
• 2004 Won – Banff Television Festival, NHK President's Prize
• 2004 Won – Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards Critics Choice Award Best Picture Made for Television
• 2004 Won – Directors Guild of America, USA, Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television Mike Nichols

---and many other awards and nominations!

Review

Tony Kushner's prize-winning play Angels in America became the defining theatrical event of the 1990s…this 2003 HBO adaptation, ably directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate), provides a time capsule of the ‘80s and reveals the deep emotional subcurrents that will give the play lasting power. The story centers around Prior Walter and Louis Ironson, a gay couple that falls apart when Prior grows ill as a result of AIDS. But cancer is not the only thing invading Prior’s life: He begins to have religious visions of an angel (Emma Thompson, Sense and Sensibility) announcing that he is a prophet. Louis, who doesn't cope well with disease and suggestions of mortality, leaves and starts a relationship with Joe Pitt, a closeted Mormon who works for Roy Cohn (Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon)–the real-life right-wing lawyer, notorious for his ruthless behind-the-scenes machinations. Add in Joe's depressed and hallucinating wife Harper, his determined but open-minded mother Hannah (Meryl Streep, Adaptation), a fierce drag queen/nurse named Belize (Jeffrey Wright, Basquiat, reprising his celebrated performance from the Broadway production), and you've still only begun to discover the wealth of characters and storylines in Kushner's ambitious work.
The powerhouse cast is uniformly superb. The script has its weaknesses–some of the fantastic elements, including Prior's journey to Heaven towards the end, fall flat–but even what doesn't work is bristling with ideas and a ferocious desire to capture human existence in this time and place. –Bret Fetzer