By Dan Hust
SULLIVAN COUNTY — January 28, 2011 — No less than three nominees in Tuesday’s announcement of those up for Academy Awards have ties to Sullivan County.
• “Gasland” is in the running for Best Documentary. Produced by Callicoon resident Trish Adlesic along with director Josh Fox (who hails from just over the Pennsylvania line in Milanville), the film has become a rallying cry against gas drilling involving hydraulic fracturing.
• Sullivan County resident and rising actress Michelle Williams earned a nomination for Best Actress for her starring role in “Blue Valentine,” filmed in and around neighboring Wayne County, PA. Williams is probably best known for her roles in TV’s “Dawson’s Creek” and the films “Brokeback Mountain” and “Shutter Island.”
• Callicoon resident Mark Ruffalo was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a lesbian couple’s sperm donor in “The Kids Are All Right” – which itself earned Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nominations, along with co-star Annette Bening’s nomination for Best Actress.
Ruffalo and company are not, however, Sullivan’s first contributions to the Academy Awards.
The county hosted many Oscar-winners and nominees who honed their skills at Borscht Belt hotels in decades past, but there are at least three Academy-lauded stars who currently call the county home:
• F. Murray Abraham – Best Actor winner for 1984’s “Amadeus”
• Debra Winger – Best Actress nominee for 1982’s “An Officer and a Gentleman,” 1983’s “Terms of Endearment” and 1994’s “Shadowlands” – plus an executive producer of “Gasland”
• Marcia Gay Harden – Best Actress winner for 2000’s “Pollock” and nominee for 2003’s “Mystic River.”
Most recently, Eldred native Corinne Marrinan earned a Best Short Subject Documentary statuette for her producing work on 2005’s “A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin.”
Marrinan spent most of the past decade as a staff writer for CBS’ enormously popular “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” TV series.