title: Love Is Blind (TV series)

text: After getting engaged in the pods, Baer and Skipper continued to date for three months before breaking up. Newbrough and Drouin took a week-long trip to Miami together after getting engaged. They broke up after returning from the trip and Drouin decided to pursue a relationship with another participant on the show, Matt Thomas. Thomas and Drouin later split as well.


title: Love Is Blind (TV series)

text: In July 2022, Jeremy Hartwell, a contestant on the second season, filed a lawsuit over what he claims were “inhumane working conditions.”


title: Love Is Blind (TV series)

text: During the week of the finale, "Love Is Blind" became Netflix's number-one trending program, likely due to large scale stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Netflix recorded that "Love Is Blind" had delivered 1.5 million viewers for the first five episodes, 1.3 million for the next four episodes, and 829,000 for the finale episode in its first full week. As of , the reunion episode had been viewed by over 1.9 million viewers on YouTube alone. At their Q1 meeting in April 2020, Netflix reported 30 million households had watched the series.


title: Love Is Blind (TV series)

text: The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 74% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 5.75/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Addictive, but problematic, "Love Is Blind" is undoubtedly an intoxicating binge, but its version of romance often comes off more toxic than aspirational." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 62 out of 100 based on nine critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Love Is Blind (TV series)

text: Tricia Crimmins of "Mashable" reviewed the first five episodes of "Love Is Blind" following their initial release on February 13. Comparing it to "The Bachelor", Crimmins called the series "the bizarre reality TV experiment you've been craving". She comments that you never know what the couples will do next, even down to the altar at the wedding, making the series "harmless, entertaining, and satisfying."


title: Love Is Blind (TV series)

text: Lucy Mangan of "The Guardian" gave "Love Is Blind" a rating of 2 out of 5 stars, calling it toxic, revolting, but extremely addictive. She says that "Love Is Blind" is the final nail in the coffin of humanity; however, in terms of reality television, she states that it is good because it "exploits emotional frailties, profaning the sacred, making the private and precious public and worthless and turning it into voyeuristic ratings-bait." Despite all of this, she recommends the show as a casual reality television binge, similar to "The Bachelor".


title: Love Is Blind (TV series)

text: Kristen Baldwin of "Entertainment Weekly" called the series "intensely tragic yet riveting." She criticized the series, saying that the first four episodes in the pods feel new and fresh, but once the engaged couples enter the real world, it feels like just another bad dating reality television show. Baldwin also called it depressing, citing the contestants always saying, "If I don't get married now, I never will." Overall, Baldwin gave "Love Is Blind" a C+ rating.


title: Love Is Blind (TV series)

text: Writing in "Skeptical Inquirer" Craig Foster and Minjung Park raised concerns about the way in which the program poses hypotheses and then conducts experiments with small sample sizes of participants who are not assigned to either an experimental or a control group. This does not allow a genuine examination of the independent variable and poses a problem if social scientists want to test the suppositions because they would be constrained by ethical considerations if they attempted to recreate anything like the show. The article concluded that while the show can be enjoyed as reality television that dramatises relationships, it is "important to recognize that real science involves a careful and ethical process conducted by experts who scrutinize each other’s work."


title: District 9

text: District 9 is a 2009 science fiction mockumentary film directed by Neill Blomkamp in his feature film debut, written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. It is a co-production of New Zealand, the United States, and South Africa. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James, and was adapted from Blomkamp's 2006 short film "Alive in Joburg".


title: District 9

text: The film is partially presented in a found footage format by featuring fictional interviews, news footage, and video from surveillance cameras. The story, which explores themes of humanity, xenophobia and social segregation, begins in an alternate 1982, when an alien spaceship appears over Johannesburg, South Africa. When a population of sick and malnourished insectoid aliens is discovered on the ship, the South African government confines them to an internment camp called District 9. Twenty years later, during the government's relocation of the aliens to another camp, one of the confined aliens named Christopher Johnson, who is about to try to escape from Earth with his son and return home, crosses paths with a bureaucrat named Wikus van de Merwe leading the relocation. The title and premise of "District 9" were inspired by events in Cape Town's District Six, during the apartheid era.


title: District 9

text: A viral marketing campaign for the film began in 2008 at San Diego Comic-Con, while the theatrical trailer debuted in July 2009. "District 9" was released by TriStar Pictures on 14 August 2009, in North America and became a financial success, earning over $210 million at the box office. It also received acclaim from critics, with some calling it one of the best science fiction films of the 2000s, and garnered numerous awards and nominations, including four Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing.


title: District 9

text: In an alternate 1982, a giant extraterrestrial spaceship arrives on Earth and hovers over the South African city of Johannesburg. After three months of inactivity, human investigators find over one million malnourished aliens (called "prawns") inside, and the South African government relocates them to a terrestrial camp called District 9. However, over the years, it has turned into a slum, and locals from Earth often complain that the aliens are filthy, ignorant lawbreakers who bleed resources from humans.


title: District 9

text: Following unrest between the aliens and locals, the government hires Multinational United (MNU), a huge weapons manufacturer, to relocate the aliens to a new camp outside the city. Piet Smit, an MNU executive, appoints MNU employee and his son-in-law Wikus van de Merwe to lead the relocation. Meanwhile, three aliens, Christopher Johnson, his young son CJ, and Christopher's friend Paul, search a District 9 garbage dump for alien fuel in Prawn technology, which Christopher has had them spend the last twenty years synthesizing enough of to enact his plan. They finally finish in Paul's shack, but when Wikus comes to the shack to serve Paul a relocation notice, Wikus finds the hidden container with the fuel and accidentally sprays some of it in his face while confiscating it. Paul is killed by Koobus Venter, a cruel leader of the MNU mercenaries.


title: District 9

text: Wikus begins mutating into a Prawn, starting with his left arm, which was injured after the fuel exposure and hidden under a large bandage. After playing down his symptoms (vomiting, nosebleed, headache, and fingernail loss), he passes out during a party celebrating his promotion. He is taken to a hospital, where his left hand is now discovered to have become a prawn claw, and transferred to the MNU lab, where researchers perform brutal experiments. They find out his chimeric DNA grants him the ability to operate Prawn weaponry, which only works with the aliens' biology. Wanting to capture this human/alien hybrid before Wikus fully transforms, Smit orders Wikus's body to be vivisected and harvested for its properties. Wikus overpowers the lab personnel and escapes. While Koobus Venter's forces hunt for him, a smear story is broadcast on television, one that reaches Tania, Wikus' wife and Smit's daughter, claiming Wikus is a wanted fugitive who has contracted a contagious disease from copulating with aliens.


title: District 9

text: Wikus takes refuge in District 9, accidentally finding Christopher and the mother spaceship's concealed command module dropship underneath his slumhouse. Christopher explains to Wikus that the confiscated fuel is crucial to his plan of reactivating the dropship. If he can get them in the dropship to the mothership, he can cure Wikus and reverse his physical transformation. Wikus attempts to acquire weapons from the District 9 Nigerian arms dealer Obesandjo, who wants to eat Wikus's alien arm because he believes it will grant him alien abilities. Wikus, however, seizes an alien weapon and, able to use it, escapes with a collection of weapons he and Christopher can use to attempt the retrieval of the alien fuel.


title: District 9

text: Wikus and Christopher then force their way through MNU to the lab and retrieve the fuel. However, after seeing the barbaric experiments MNU has performed on his people in the lab (including a dissected Paul), Christopher tells Wikus he must return home as fast as possible for help and cannot undo Wikus' mutation until he returns in three years, due to the limited supply of the fuel. Enraged, Wikus knocks Christopher down and attempts to fly the dropship module to the mothership himself, but Koobus Venter's forces shoot it down. Venter captures Wikus and Christopher, but Obesandjo's gang ambushes the MNU convoy, seizes Wikus, and brings him to Obesandjo, who prepares to chop off Wikus' prawn arm.


title: District 9

text: Meanwhile, remaining hidden in the dropship, CJ remotely activates the mothership and a large mechanized battle suit located in Obesandjo's base. The suit guns down the Nigerians, and Wikus enters the suit and rescues Christopher from the mercenaries. Heading to the dropship, the two come under heavy human weapons fire, and Wikus stays behind to fend off the mercenaries, buying time for Christopher, who promises to return after three years and heal Wikus, to leave. After all of the other mercenaries are killed, Venter finally cripples the suit and is about to execute Wikus when slum aliens attack and dismember him alive. Christopher makes it into the dropship with CJ, and the dropship is levitated via a tractor beam back into the mothership, which Christopher then uses to leave Earth.


title: District 9

text: Humanity is left to speculate whether or not Christopher will return to take all the remaining aliens back to their home world, or whether he will return to declare war on Earth. MNU's experiments on the alien population are exposed by Wikus' former trainee Fundiswa, and the aliens are moved to the new camp, named District 10. Tania finds a metal flower on her doorstep, giving her hope that Wikus is still alive, and a now fully-transformed Wikus is shown in a junkyard crafting the flower for his wife.


title: District 9

text: Like "Alive in Joburg", the short film on which the feature film is based, the setting of "District 9" is inspired by historical events during the apartheid era, particularly alluding to District Six, an inner-city residential area in Cape Town, declared a "whites only" area by the government in 1966, with 60,000 people forcibly removed to Cape Flats, away. The film also refers to contemporary evictions and forced removals to suburban ghettos in post-apartheid South Africa, as well as the resistance of its residents. This includes the high-profile attempted forced removal of the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Cape Town to temporary relocation areas in Delft, plus evictions in the shack settlement Chiawelo, where the film was actually shot. Blikkiesdorp, a temporary relocation area in Cape Town, has also been compared with the "District 9" camp, earning a front-page spread in the "Daily Voice".


title: District 9

text: The film emphasizes the irony of Wikus and the impact of his experiences on his personality, which show him becoming more humane as he becomes less biologically human. Chris Mikesell from the University of Hawaii newspaper "Ka Leo" writes that "Substitute 'black,' 'Asian,' 'Mexican,' 'illegal,' 'Jew,’ 'white,’ or any number of different labels for the word 'prawn' in this film and you will hear the hidden truth behind the dialogue".


title: District 9

text: Themes of racism and xenophobia are shown in the form of speciesism. Used to describe the aliens, the word "prawn" is a reference to the Parktown prawn, a king cricket species considered a pest in South Africa. Copley has said that the theme is not intended to be the main focus of the work, but can work at a subconscious level even if it is not noticed.


title: District 9

text: Duane Dudek of the "Journal Sentinel" wrote that "The result is an action film about xenophobia, in which all races of humans are united in their dislike and mistrust of an insect-like species".


title: District 9

text: Another underlying theme in "District 9" is states' reliance on multinational corporations (whose accountability is unclear and whose interests are not necessarily congruent with democratic principles) as a form of government-funded enforcement. As MNU represents the type of corporation which partners with governments, the negative portrayal of MNU in the film depicts the dangers of outsourcing militaries and bureaucracies to private contractors.


title: District 9

text: Producer Peter Jackson planned to produce a film adaptation based on the "Halo" video game franchise with first-time director Neill Blomkamp. Due to a lack of financing, the "Halo" adaptation was placed on hold. Jackson and Blomkamp discussed pursuing alternative projects and eventually chose to produce and direct, respectively, "District 9" featuring props and items originally made for the "Halo" film. Blomkamp had previously directed commercials and short films, but "District 9" was his first feature film. The director co-wrote the script with his wife, Terri Tatchell, and chose to film in South Africa, where he was born.


title: District 9

text: In "District 9", Tatchell and Blomkamp returned to the world explored in his short film "Alive in Joburg", choosing characters, moments and concepts that they found interesting including the documentary-style filmmaking, staged interviews, alien designs, alien technology/mecha suits, and the parallels to racial conflict and segregation in South Africa, and fleshing out these elements for the feature film.


title: District 9

text: QED International financed the negative cost. After the 2007 American Film Market, QED partnered with Sony's TriStar Pictures for distribution in several territories.


title: District 9

text: The film was shot on location in Chiawelo, Soweto, during a time of violent unrest in Alexandra (Gauteng) and other South African townships involving clashes between native South Africans and Africans born in other countries. The location that portrays "District 9" is itself a real impoverished neighbourhood from which people were being forcibly relocated to government-subsidised housing. Several scenes were shot at the Ponte building.


title: District 9

text: Filming for "District 9" took place during the winter in Johannesburg. According to director Neill Blomkamp, during the winter season, Johannesburg "actually looks like Chernobyl", a "nuclear apocalyptic wasteland". Blomkamp wanted to capture the deserted, bleak atmosphere and environment, so he and the crew had to film during the months of June through July. The film took a total of 60 days of shooting. Filming in December raised another issue in that there was much more rain. Due to the rain, there was a lot of greenery to work with, which Blomkamp did not want. Blomkamp had to cut some of the vegetation in the scenery to portray the setting as desolate and dark.


title: District 9

text: The film features many weapons and vehicles produced by the South African arms industry, including the R5 and Vektor CR-21 assault rifles, Denel NTW-20 20 mm anti-materiel rifle, BXP submachine gun, Casspir armoured personnel carrier, Ratel infantry fighting vehicle, Rooikat armoured fighting vehicle, Atlas Oryx helicopter and militarized Toyota Hilux "technical" pickup truck.


title: District 9

text: Blomkamp said no single film influenced "District 9", but cited the 1980s "hardcore sci-fi/action" films such as "Alien", "Aliens", "The Terminator", "", "Predator" and "RoboCop" as subconscious influences. The director said, "I don't know whether the film has that feeling or not for the audience, but I wanted it to have that harsh 1980s kind of vibe—I didn't want it to feel glossy and slick."


title: District 9

text: Because of the amount of hand-held shooting required for the film, the producers and crew decided to shoot using the digital Red One 4K camera. Cinematographer Trent Opaloch used nine digital Red Ones owned by Peter Jackson for primary filming. According to HD Magazine, "District 9" was shot on RED One cameras using build 15, Cooke S4 primes and Angenieux zooms. The documentary-style and CCTV-style cam footage was shot on the Sony EX1/EX3 XDCAM-HD. Additionally, the post-production team was warned that the most RED Camera footage they could handle a day was about an hour and a half. When that got to five hours a day additional resources were brought in, and 120 terabytes of data was filled.


title: District 9

text: The aliens in "District 9" were designed by Weta Workshop, and the design was executed by Image Engine.


title: District 9

text: Blomkamp wanted the aliens to maintain both humane and barbaric features in the design of the creatures. According to Terri Tatchell, the director's writing partner, "They are not appealing, they are not cute, and they don't tug at our heartstrings. He went for a scary, hard, warrior-looking alien, which is much more of a challenge." The look of the alien, with its exoskeleton-crustacean hybrid and crab-like shells, was meant to initially evoke a sense of disgust from viewers but as the story progresses, the audience was meant to sympathize with these creatures who had such human-like emotions and characteristics. Blomkamp established criteria for the design of the aliens. He wanted the species to be insect-like but also bipedal. The director wanted the audience to relate to the aliens and said of the restriction on the creature design, "Unfortunately, they had to be human-esque because our psychology doesn't allow us to really empathize with something unless it has a face and an anthropomorphic shape. Like if you see something that's four-legged, you think it's a dog; that's just how we're wired ... If you make a film about an alien force, which is the oppressor or aggressor, and you don't want to empathize with them, you can go to town. So creatively that's what I wanted to do but story-wise, I just couldn't."


title: District 9

text: Blomkamp originally sought to have Weta Digital design the creatures, but the company was busy with effects for "Avatar". The director then decided to choose a Vancouver-based effects company because he anticipated making films there in the future and because British Columbia offered a tax credit. Blomkamp met with Image Engine and considered them "a bit of a gamble" since the company had not pursued a project as large as a feature film. Aside from the aliens appearing on the operating table in the medical lab, all of them were created using CGI visual effects.


title: District 9

text: Weta Digital designed the 2-kilometre-diameter mothership and the drop ship, while the exo-suit and the little pets were designed by The Embassy Visual Effects. Zoic Studios performed overflow 2D work. On-set live special effects were created by MXFX. Some of the software used for the visual effects were Autodesk Softimage.


title: District 9

text: The music for "District 9" was scored by Canadian composer Clinton Shorter, who spent three weeks preparing for the film. Director Neill Blomkamp wanted a "raw and dark" score, but one that maintained its South African roots. This was a challenge for Shorter, who found much of the South African music he worked with to be optimistic and joyful. Unable to get the African drums to sound dark and heavy, Shorter used a combination of taiko drums and synthesized instruments for the desired effects, with the core African elements of the score conveyed in the vocals and smaller percussion. Both the score and soundtrack feature music and vocals from Kwaito artists.


title: District 9

text: Sony Pictures launched a "Humans Only" marketing campaign to promote "District 9". Sony's marketing team designed its promotional material to emulate the segregational billboards that appear throughout the film. Billboards, banners, posters, and stickers were thus designed with the theme in mind, and the material was spread across public places such as bus stops in various cities, including "humans only" signs in certain locations and providing toll-free numbers to report "non-human" activity. This marketing strategy was designed to provoke reactions in its target audience (namely, sci-fi fans and people concerned with discrimination), hence the use of obviously fake segregational propaganda.


title: District 9

text: According to Dwight Caines, Sony's president of digital marketing, an estimated 33,000 phone calls were made to the toll-free numbers during a two-week period with 2,500 of them leaving voicemails with reports of alien sightings. Promotional material was also presented at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, advertising the website D-9.com, which had an application presented by the fictional Multi-National United (MNU). The website had a local alert system for Johannesburg (the film's setting), news feeds, behavior recommendations, and rules and regulations. Other viral websites for the film were also launched, including an MNU website with a countdown timer for the film's release, an anti-MNU blog run by fictional alien character Christopher Johnson, and an MNU-sponsored educational website. An online game for "District 9" has also been made where players can choose to be a human or an alien. Humans are MNU agents on patrol trying to arrest or kill aliens. Aliens try to avoid capture from MNU agents whilst searching for alien canisters. This digital approach to marketing follows a rising trend among digital natives who develop marketing trends and techniques which are appropriate to the digital age, and is cost-efficient due to its reliance on social media and communications. This breaking down and circumvention of existing marketing structures follows postmodernist theory in cinema.


title: District 9

text: According to the American Humane Association, the film displays an unauthorized "no animals were harmed" end credit, which is a registered trademark of the group.


title: District 9

text: "District 9" grossed US$115.6 million from the United States and Canada, with a worldwide total of $210,819,611, against a production budget of US$30 million. Documents from the Sony Pictures hack revealed the film turned a profit of $67 million.


title: District 9

text: It opened in 3,048 theatres in Canada and the United States on 14 August 2009, and the film ranked first at the weekend box office with an opening gross of US$37.4 million. Among comparable science fiction films in the past, its opening attendance was slightly less than the 2008 film "Cloverfield" and the 1997 film "Starship Troopers". The audience demographic for "District 9" was 64 percent male and 57 percent people 25 years or older. The film stood out as a summer film that generated strong business despite little-known casting. Its opening success was attributed to the studio's unusual marketing campaign. In the film's second weekend, it dropped 49% in revenue while competing against the opening film "Inglourious Basterds" for the male audience, as Sony Pictures attributed the "good hold" to "District 9"s strong playability.


title: District 9

text: The film enjoyed similar success in the UK with an opening gross of £2,288,378 showing at 447 cinemas.


title: District 9

text: Rotten Tomatoes gives "District 9" an approval rating of 90% based on 314 reviews, with an average score of 7.80/10. The website's consensus states, "Technically brilliant and emotionally wrenching, "District 9" has action, imagination, and all the elements of a thoroughly entertaining science-fiction classic." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has a score of 81 based on 36 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: District 9

text: Sara Vilkomerson of "The New York Observer" wrote, ""District 9" is the most exciting science fiction movie to come along in ages; definitely the most thrilling film of the summer; and quite possibly the best film I've seen all year." Christy Lemire from the Associated Press was impressed by the plot and thematic content, claiming that ""District 9" has the aesthetic trappings of science fiction but it's really more of a character drama, an examination of how a man responds when he's forced to confront his identity during extraordinary circumstances." "Entertainment Weekly"s Lisa Schwarzbaum described it as "...madly original, cheekily political, [and] altogether exciting..."


title: District 9

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three stars out of four and praised it for "giving us aliens to remind us not everyone who comes in a spaceship needs to be angelic, octopod or stainless steel", but complained that "the third act is disappointing, involving standard shoot-out action. No attempt is made to resolve the situation, and if that's a happy ending, I've seen happier. Despite its creativity, the film remains space opera and avoids the higher realms of science-fiction."


title: District 9

text: Josh Tyler of Cinema Blend says the film is unique in interpretation and execution, but considers it to be a knockoff of the 1988 film "Alien Nation".


title: District 9

text: Nigeria's Information Minister Dora Akunyili asked movie cinemas around the country to either ban the film or edit out specific references to the country because of the film's negative depiction of the Nigerian characters as criminals and cannibals. Letters of complaint were sent to the producer and distributor of the film demanding an apology. She also said the gang leader Obesandjo is almost identical in spelling and pronunciation to the surname of former president Olusegun Obasanjo. The film was later banned in Nigeria; the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board was asked to prevent cinemas from showing the film and also to confiscate it.


title: District 9

text: Hakeem Kae-Kazim, a Nigerian-born British actor, also criticised the portrayal of Nigerians in the film, telling the "Beeld" (an Afrikaans-language daily newspaper): "Africa is a beautiful place and the problems it does have can not be shown by such a small group of people."


title: District 9

text: However, the Malawian actor Eugene Khumbanyiwa, who played Obesandjo, has stated that the Nigerians in the cast of "District 9" were not perturbed by the portrayal of Nigerians in the film, and that the film should not be taken literally: "It's a story, you know. It's not like Nigerians do eat aliens. Aliens don't even exist in the first place."


title: District 9

text: Teju Cole, a Nigerian-American writer, has commented that the "one-dimensionality of the Nigerian characters is striking," even when taking into account that "District 9" is meant to be a fable. He suggests two possible explanations for Blomkamp's narrative choice: first, that it is meant to reflect anti-foreigner sentiment within South Africa, or second, that it simply represents an oversight on Blomkamp's part.


title: District 9

text: In 2013, the film was one of several discussed by David Sirota in "Salon.com" in an article concerning white savior narratives in film.


title: District 9

text: Alexandra Heller Nicholas discusses Wikus's self-identity in "District 9" as problematic due to him being a white man and the hero of the film. Nicholas argues that a white saviour "disempowers the film’s allegory to apartheid that comments on the corruption of the South African government" as well as the discrimination black South Africans dealt with during and post-apartheid. Making Wikus the "white savior" backtracks from the main message of "District 9" which is to show the audience the detrimental effects "of colonialism brought by the Western world". Another point Nicholas makes is that "District 9" is a "stereotypical White Saviour film". She states that the plot is about a white man working for the government, who has roots "in South Africa's apartheid culture", involuntarily joining the "victims of apartheid". In this case, instead of black people, it's prawns.


title: District 9

text: It has been argued that Wikus's grotesque transformation is indicative of the fact that "While biological discourses of racial subhumanity might have been expunged from public knowledges in the postapartheid nation, contemporary South Africa continues to be structured according to the binary that undergirds such narratives."


title: District 9

text: Doctor Shohini Chauduri wrote that "District 9" even echoes apartheid in its title, as it is reminiscent "of District 6 in Cape Town, declared a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act". She also discusses how the wide shots used in "District 9" strongly emphasize the idea of exclusion under apartheid. The separation of people and "prawns" into human and non-human zones mark South Africa's social divisions.


title: District 9

text: "District 9" was named one of the top 10 independent films of 2009 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. The film received four Academy Awards nominations for: Best Motion Picture of the Year (Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham), Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell), Best Achievement in Film Editing (Julian Clarke) and Best Achievement in Visual Effects (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken); seven British Academy Film Awards nominations: Best Cinematography (Trent Opaloch), Best Screenplay – Adapted (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell), Best Editing (Julian Clarke), Best Production Design (Philip Ivey, Guy Potgieter), Best Sound (Brent Burge, Chris Ward, Dave Whitehead, Michael Hedges and Ken Saville), Best Special Visual Effects (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken) and Best Director (Neill Blomkamp); five Broadcast Film Critics Association nominations: Best Makeup (Won), Best Screenplay, Adapted (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell), Best Sound, Best Visual Effects and Best Action Movie; and one Golden Globe nomination: Best Screenplay – Motion Picture (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell).


title: District 9

text: It is the fifth TriStar Pictures film ever nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards (the previous four were "As Good as It Gets", "Jerry Maguire", "Bugsy" and "Places in the Heart)." It won the 2009 Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.


title: District 9

text: The Blu-ray Disc and region 1 code widescreen edition of "District 9" as well as the 2-disc special-edition version on DVD was released on 22 December 2009 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The DVD and Blu-ray Disc includes the documentary "The Alien Agenda: A Filmmaker's Log" and the special features "Metamorphosis: The Transformation of Wikus", "Innovation: Acting and Improvisation", "Conception and Design: Creating the World of District 9", and "Alien Generation: Visual Effects".


title: District 9

text: The demo for the video game "God of War III" featured in the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo is also included with the Blu-ray release of "District 9" playable on the Sony PlayStation 3.


title: District 9

text: On 1 August 2009, two weeks before "District 9" was released to cinemas, Neill Blomkamp hinted that he intended to make a sequel if the film was successful enough. During an interview on the "Rude Awakening" 94.7 Highveld Stereo breakfast radio show, he alluded to it, saying "There probably will be." Nevertheless, he revealed that his next project is unrelated to the "District 9" universe.


title: District 9

text: In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Blomkamp stated that he was "totally" hoping for a follow-up: "I haven't thought of a story yet but if people want to see another one, I'd love to do it."


title: District 9

text: In an interview with "Empire" magazine posted on 28 April 2010, Sharlto Copley suggested that a follow-up, while very likely, would be about two years away, given his and Neill Blomkamp's current commitments.


title: District 9

text: In an interview with IGN in June 2013, Blomkamp said, "I really want to make a "District 9" sequel. I genuinely do. The problem is I have a bunch of ideas and stuff that I want to make. I'm relatively new to this—I'm about to make my third film, and now the pattern that I'm starting to realise is very true is that you lock yourself into a film beyond the film you're currently working on. But it just doesn't work for me." Referring to a potential sequel, Blomkamp said "[he] want[s] to make "District 10" at some point".


title: District 9

text: On February 26, 2021, Neill Blomkamp revealed on his official Twitter that development was moving ahead on a script for a sequel, titled "District 10", with Sharlto Copley and Terri Tatchell co-writing the screenplay with him.


title: District 9

text: On August 19, 2022, Sharlto Copley said in an interview that "District 10" is still in discussions; that both him and Blomkamp had written drafts for it, and that the film would probably have a chance once Blomkamp is done shooting "Gran Turismo".


title: John Cho

text: John Cho (born Cho Yo-Han; June 16, 1972) is an American actor known for his roles as Harold Lee in the "Harold & Kumar" films, and Hikaru Sulu in the "Star Trek" rebooted film series.


title: John Cho

text: Early in his career, Cho also starred in the Asian American–centered films "Shopping for Fangs" (1997), "Yellow" (1998) and "Better Luck Tomorrow" (2002). In 2017, he received critical acclaim for his performance in the hit indie film "Columbus". In 2018, he starred in the thriller film "Searching", making him the first Asian American actor in history to headline a mainstream thriller film in Hollywood. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his performance in "Searching".


title: John Cho

text: He also made history in American television in the 21st century as the first Asian-American actor cast as a romantic lead in a romantic comedy series when he starred as Henry Higgs in the 2014 sitcom "Selfie". In addition to his role in "Selfie", Cho has had lead roles in series such as "FlashForward" and "Off Centre", and recurring roles in "Go On", "Sleepy Hollow" and "Difficult People".


title: John Cho

text: Born in Seoul, South Korea, Cho moved to the United States in 1978. He was raised in Los Angeles, where his family settled after living in Houston, Seattle, Daly City, California, and Monterey Park, California. His father was a minister in the Church of Christ and was originally from North Korea. He grew up with one younger brother. Cho graduated from Herbert Hoover High School, in Glendale, California, in 1990.


title: John Cho

text: Cho attended the University of California, Berkeley. In 1994, he toured nationally for a stage production of Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior" by the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature.


title: John Cho

text: After graduation, Cho taught English literature at Pacific Hills School in West Hollywood, California, while acting at East West Players in downtown Los Angeles. There, he appeared in Edward Sakamoto's "The Taste of Kona Coffee" in 1996 and in Euijoon Kim's film "My Tired Broke Ass Pontificating Slapstick Funk" in 2000.


title: John Cho

text: Cho gained attention with a small role as "MILF Guy #2" in the 1999 comedy "American Pie", in which he popularized the slang term MILF. Cho reprised the role in three sequels: "American Pie 2", "American Wedding", and the latest installment "American Reunion" in which he has a much larger role. His character initially had no name but he was given the name "John" in the third film, named after Cho himself.


title: John Cho

text: Cho guest-starred on "Charmed" as a ghost in the episode "Dead Man Dating" in 1998 and was one of the stars of the short-lived situation comedy "Off Centre" from 2001 to 2002. He was a costar on the Fox sitcom "Kitchen Confidential" based on Anthony Bourdain's . He had supporting roles in the science fiction comedy "Evolution" directed by Ivan Reitman, "Down to Earth" , and "Bowfinger".


title: John Cho

text: In 2002, Cho had a starring role in the ensemble cast of Justin Lin's "Better Luck Tomorrow", a drama focusing on the travails of a group of Asian Americans living in Southern California who are academically successful but socially discontented, and as a result engage in wantonly violent, criminal behavior. It was well received by critics, with Elvis Mitchell of "The New York Times" describing Cho's character's "lazy magnetism of which he is charmingly aware". Later that year, the movie "Big Fat Liar" was released, in which Cho played a Hong Kong-based film director. He refused to do the accent scripted for his character. The director worked with him to re-develop the role.


title: John Cho

text: Cho had a successful starring role as Harold Lee in 2004's "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" and reprised the role in 2008's "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" which earned $38million at the box office, and again in 2011's "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas" which made $35million. Cho's role in the popular franchise was written specifically for him by Hayden Schlossberg, and Cho has recounted that when Schlossberg first approached him with the role, he was initially suspicious.


title: John Cho

text: Cho appeared in the July 2004 issue of "KoreAm Journal" and, in September 2006, was cast in NBC's new comedy "The Singles Table", but the series never aired due to changes in scheduling and production. In 2006 and again in 2009, Cho was selected as one of the sexiest men alive in "People" magazine.


title: John Cho

text: In 2007, Cho was added to the cast of "Ugly Betty" as a recurring character. Cho plays Kenny, a best friend of accountant Henry Grubstick. Cho played helmsman Hikaru Sulu in J. J. Abrams's feature film "Star Trek". Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" praised him for making his role "ultimately and rather wonderfully [his] own".


title: John Cho

text: Cho appeared in Nas's "Be a Nigger Too" music video along with various celebrities, and had a guest appearance on the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother", in the episode "I'm Not That Guy" where he played a partner in an evil law firm. Of the latter, Staci Krause of IGN, wrote that Cho was "the scene stealer in this episode" and that she would "definitely like to see more of him" in the series.


title: John Cho

text: From 2009 to 2010, Cho starred in the television series "FlashForward" as FBI Special Agent Demetri Noh. His character was originally slated to be killed off during what turned out to be the show's only season, but after his turn as Sulu in "Star Trek" boosted his popularity, the producers revised the show's storyline so that he survived, in an attempt to boost declining ratings.


title: John Cho

text: Cho starred as Henry Higgs in the short-lived sitcom "Selfie", a retooling of the play "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw, becoming the first Asian American man to play a romantic lead on a U.S. romantic comedy television series in 2014. In July 2022, when Cho was asked about his thoughts on the show's cancellation, he answered, "I'm still stunned to see how many people still love that series. And yeah, I was bummed when it got canceled. I just thought that was a good show."


title: John Cho

text: In 2016, he was a series regular for the television show as Andy Kim in the second season of "The Exorcist" television series.


title: John Cho

text: In 2018, Cho starred in the film "Searching", playing a man combing social media for clues to his daughter's disappearance. He was the first Asian-American actor to headline a mainstream thriller in Hollywood. Also in 2018, he was presented with the Spotlight Award at the San Diego International Film Festival.


title: John Cho

text: In April 2019, "Variety" reported that Cho had been cast as Spike Spiegel in a live-action version of the "Cowboy Bebop" series. However, production shut down when Cho suffered a knee injury in October and remained shut down until late September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Cowboy Bebop" premiered on Netflix on November 19, 2021.


title: John Cho

text: He wrote a middle school grade novel book for younger readers called "Troublemaker" on March 22, 2022.


title: John Cho

text: Cho is the lead singer for Viva La Union (formerly known as Left of Zed), a Los Angeles garage rock band composed of former Berkeley and USC students. They have one album, self-titled, while their song "Chinese Baby" is featured on the "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" soundtrack.


title: John Cho

text: Cho married actress Kerri Higuchi in 2006. They met at UC Berkeley and later dated when they came to Los Angeles. They have a son, born in 2008, and a daughter, born in 2013. As of 2015, he and his family reside in Los Angeles, California. He is close to his father, a former preacher, and would like to play a role in the story of his father's generation, growing up in North Korea through the Korean War.


title: John Cho

text: Cho has indicated he has found freedom in being Harold in the "Harold and Kumar" films because the stoner character goes against the grain of Asian Americans onscreen. He has said he has experienced racism throughout his career in Hollywood and that he tries to take roles that do not perpetuate Asian stereotypes. When asked to do an Asian accent for "Big Fat Liar", Cho refused. "I don't want to do this role in a kid's comedy, with an accent, because I don't want young people laughing at an accent inadvertently", he wrote. In a 2015 tweet he said, "Stop turning Asian roles white. It's bullshit and we all know it." On being the first Asian to play a romantic lead on a U.S. romantic comedy television series, he described his casting in "Selfie" as being "revolutionary" and a "personal revolution" for him because of its uniqueness in Hollywood. "Asians narratively in shows are insignificant. They're the cop, or waitress, or whatever it is. You see them in the background. So to be in this position ... is bit of a landmark," he has said on the inability of Asians getting offered such roles.


title: John Cho

text: In 2016, Cho was the face of the "#StarringJohnCho" social movement and hashtag campaign, created by William Yu, wherein Cho is Photoshopped onto existing movie posters as the male lead. The purpose of the project was to call attention to the lack of opportunities for Asian American actors in Hollywood.


The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variations) in other countries and regions.


title: British undergraduate degree classification

text: The classification system as currently used in the United Kingdom was developed in 1918. Honours were then a means to recognise individuals who demonstrated depth of knowledge or originality, as opposed to relative achievement in examination conditions.


text: Concern exists about possible grade inflation. It is claimed that academics are under increasing pressure from administrators to award students good marks and grades with little regard for those students' actual abilities, in order to maintain their league table rankings. The percentage of graduates who receive a First (First Class Honours) has grown from 7% in 1997 to 26% in 2017, with the rate of growth sharply accelerating toward the end of this period. A 2018 study by the "UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment" concluded that improvements in faculty skill and student motivation are only two of many factors driving average grades upward, that grade inflation is real, that the British undergraduate degree classifications will become less useful to students and employers, and that inflation will undermine public confidence in the overall value of higher education. Students already believe that a First or upper Second, by itself, is no longer sufficient to secure a good job, and that they need to engage in extra-curricular activities to build their CV.


text: A bachelor's degree can be an "honours degree" (bachelor's with honours) or an "ordinary degree" (bachelor's without honours). Honours degrees are classified, usually based on a weighted average (with higher weight given to marks in the later years of the course, and often zero weight to those in the first year) of the marks gained in exams and other assessments. Grade boundaries can vary by institution, but typical values are given below.


text: Students who do not achieve honours may be awarded an ordinary degree, sometimes known as a 'pass'. Ordinary degrees, and other exit awards such as the Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE; for completing the first two years of a degree course) and Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE; for completing the first year of a degree course), may be unclassified (pass/fail) or, particularly in Scotland where the ordinary degree is offered as a qualification in its own right, classified into pass, merit and distinction.


text: Integrated master's degrees are usually classified with honours in the same way as a bachelor's honours degree, although some integrated master's degrees are classified like postgraduate taught master's degrees or foundation degrees into:


text: At most institutions, the system allows a small amount of discretion. A candidate may be elevated to the next degree class if his or her average marks are close to (or the median of their weighted marks achieves) the higher class, and if they have submitted several pieces of work worthy of the higher class. However, even students with a high average mark may be unable to take honours if they have failed part of the course and so have insufficient credits.


text: In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, a bachelor's degree with honours normally takes three years of full-time study and usually requires 360 credits, of which at least 90 are at level 6 (final year of a bachelor's degree) level, while an ordinary bachelor's degree normally requires 300 credits, of which 60 are at level 6. In Scotland, the honours bachelor's degree takes four years and requires 480 credits with a minimum of 90 at level 10 of the Scottish framework (last year of the honours degree) and 90 at level 9 (penultimate year), while the ordinary degree takes three years and requires 360 credits with a minimum of 60 at level 9 (last year of the ordinary degree).


text: In Scotland, it is possible to start university a year younger than in the rest of the United Kingdom, as the Scottish Higher exams are often taken at age 16 or 17 (as opposed to 18), so Scottish students often end a four-year course at the same age as a student from elsewhere in the UK taking a three-year course, assuming no gap years or students skipping the first year (direct entry to 2nd year).


text: When a candidate is awarded a degree with honours, '(Hons)' may be suffixed to their designatory letters – for example, BA (Hons), BSc (Hons), BMus (Hons), MA (Hons). An MA (Hons) would generally indicate a degree award from certain Scottish universities (c.f. Scottish MA) and is at the same level as a bachelor's degree.


text: The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) has published the number of degrees awarded with different classifications since 1994–1995. The relative proportions of different classes have changed over this period, with increasing numbers of students being awarded higher honours. The table below shows the percentage of classified degrees (i.e., not including fails or unclassified degrees such as MBBS) in each class at five-year intervals; note that HESA stopped giving statistics separately for third class honours and pass degree after 2003 and that a small number of undivided second class honours degrees (shown under "other" along with "unknown", which makes up the bulk of this category) were awarded up to 1996.


text: First Class Honours, referred to as a 'first', is the highest honours classification and indicates high academic achievement. Historically, First Class Honours were uncommon, but as of 2019 are awarded to nearly thirty percent of graduates from British universities. The increase is said by some commentators to be due to student-demanded grade inflation rather than the quality of students or improvements to their education.


text: In the early 1990s, First Class Honours went to about 7% of graduates, or about one student in 15. The percentages of graduates achieving a First vary greatly by university and course studied. Students of law are least likely to gain a first, while students of mathematical sciences are most likely to gain a first.


text: A first class honours degree is sometimes colloquially known (in rhyming slang) as a Geoff Hurst (First) after the English 1966 World Cup footballer.


text: The upper division is commonly abbreviated to '2:1" or 'II.i' (pronounced "two-one"). The 2:1 is a minimum requirement for entry to many postgraduate courses in the UK. It is also required for the award of a research council postgraduate studentship in the UK, although a combination of qualifications and experience equal to a 2:1 is also acceptable. This is often interpreted as


text: possession of a master's degree (sometimes at merit level or above) in addition to a 2:2 undergraduate degree.


text: The percentage of candidates who achieve Upper Second Class Honours can vary widely by degree subject, as well as by university.


text: A 2:1 degree is sometimes nicknamed an Attila the Hun (two-one) in the UK. The term Bren gun is also sometimes used as rhyming slang.


text: This is the lower division of Second Class degrees and is abbreviated as '2:2' or 'II.ii' (pronounced "two-two"). It is also informally known as a 'Desmond', named after Desmond Tutu.


text: Third Class Honours, referred to as a "Third", is the lowest honours classification in most modern universities. Historically, the University of Oxford awarded Fourth Class Honours degrees and, until the late-1970s, did not distinguish between upper and lower Second Class Honours degrees.


text: Informally, the Third Class Honours degree is referred to as a "gentleman's degree" ("cf." the "gentleman's C" in U.S. parlance) and in the UK as a Douglas Hurd (Third) after the 1980s Conservative politician of that name, who had actually graduated with a First Class Honours degree in history in 1952.


text: Approximately 7.2% of students graduating in 2006 with an honours degree received a Third Class Honours degree.


text: While most university bachelor's degree courses lead to honours degrees, some universities offer courses leading to ordinary degrees. Some honours courses permit students who do not gain sufficient credits in a year by a small margin to transfer to a parallel ordinary degree course. Ordinary degrees may also sometimes be awarded to honours degree students who do not pass sufficient credits in their final year to gain an honours degree, but pass enough to earn an ordinary degree.


text: Some Scottish universities offer three-year ordinary degrees as a qualification in their own right, as well as an honours degree over four years. This is in contrast to English universities that have honours degrees with three years of study. An ordinary degree in Scotland is not a failed honours degree, as in certain English universities. Students can decide, usually at the end of their second or third year, whether or not they wish to complete a fourth honours year. Scottish universities may also award their ordinary degrees with distinction if a student achieves a particularly good grade average, usually 70% or above. A common example of a Scottish ordinary degree is the Bachelor of Laws course taken by graduates of other subjects, as this is sufficient (without honours) for entry into the legal profession.


text: An "aegrotat" (; ) degree is an honours or ordinary degree without classification, awarded to a candidate who was unable to undertake their exams due to illness or even death, under the presumption that, had they completed those exams, they would have satisfied the standard required for that degree. "Aegrotat" degrees are often qualified with an appended '("aegrotat")'. Following the introduction of new regulations regarding mitigating circumstances, "aegrotat" degrees are less commonly awarded.


text: Degrees may be granted which incorporate prior learning, such as by means of CATS points transfer. Where the substance of incorporated credit exceeds a given threshold, the granting institution may be unable to grade sufficient work to award a degree classification. Any degree granted may then be unclassified.


text: At the University of Cambridge, undergraduate Tripos examinations are split into one or more Parts, which span either one or two years. Each student receives a formal classification for each Part (i.e. Class I, II.i, II.ii, or III). Until October 2020, officially a grade simply existed for every Part of the degree, not for the overall degree. For students beginning their course of study from October 2020, a final class is awarded across the course of study, according to an algorithm determined by the Tripos.


text: At the University of Oxford, a formal degree Class is given, and this is typically based on the final examinations. In Oxford, examinations for Prelims or Honour Moderations are also undertaken in first/second year, but these results do not typically affect the final degree classification. Until the 1970s, the four honours divisions in Oxford's moderations and final examinations were named first, second, third and fourth class, but eventually Oxford gave in and adopted the numbering used by other English universities.


text: At the University of Cambridge, Triposes (undergraduate degree examinations) are split into one or more Parts. Attaining First Class Honours in two Parts culminates in graduating with a 'Double First'. It is possible in some Triposes to be awarded a 'Starred First', for examination scripts that "consistently exhibit the qualities of first class answers to an exceptional degree." Some Cambridge alumni who achieved Firsts in three Parts of the Tripos are described by their colleges and others as having achieved a 'Triple First'.


text: Oxford sometimes grants a congratulatory first, which "The New York Times" described as "a highly unusual honor in which the examining professors ask no questions about the candidate's written work but simply stand and applaud" and Martin Amis described as "the sort where you are called in for a "viva" and the examiners tell you how much they enjoyed reading your papers". A 'double first' at Oxford usually informally refers to First Class Honours in both components of an undergraduate degree, i.e., Moderations/Prelims and the Final Honours School, or in both the bachelor's and master's components of an integrated master's degree.


text: At University College London, candidates who perform well beyond the requirements of a standard First Class Honours may be nominated to the Dean's List. This is generated once per year and recognises outstanding academic achievement in final examinations. There are no set criteria for nomination to the list, but typically only a small number of students from each faculty are nominated per year. Comparable recognition in other anglophone countries is the award of a University Medal.


text: Degrees in the UK are mapped to levels of the Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications of UK Degree-Awarding Bodies (FHEQ), which includes the Framework for Qualifications of Higher Education Institutes in Scotland (FQHEIS), which has an alternative numbering of levels corresponding to those of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). Bachelor's degrees (including the Scottish MA, but not including medical degrees, dentistry degrees or degrees in veterinary science) attained in the UK are at FHEQ level 6/FQHEIS level 9 (ordinary) or 10 (honours); master's degrees (including integrated master's degrees and first degrees in medicine, dentistry and veterinary science) are at FHEQ level 7/FQHEIS level 11, and doctoral degrees are at FHEQ level 8/FQHEIS level 12. Bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees map to first, second and third cycle qualifications in the Qualifications Framework of the European Higher Education Area.


text: The table below depicts the Greek Grading system while illustrates approximately how the Grades are compared with ECTS and UK grades:


text: The University of St Andrews gives equivalencies between French and British grades for its study-abroad programme. Equivalencies for the purposes of initial teacher training have also been derived by the UK NARIC for 1st, 2:1 and 2:2 degrees, which do not align with St Andrews' table.


text: The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) compares international degrees with local degrees before any international student continues their studies in that country. While the British degree accreditation and classification system allows students to go straight from a three-year bachelor's degree onto a master's degree (normally requiring a 1st or a 2:1 – those with a 2:2 or a 3rd usually require appropriate professional experience), South Africa does not do so unless the student has proven research capabilities. South African Honours degrees prepare the students to undertake a research-specific degree (in terms of master's), by spending an in-depth year (up to five modules) creating research proposals and undertaking a research project of limited scope. This prepares students for the research degrees later in their academic career.


text: The UK NARIC has derived equivalencies for the grades of the Spanish "grado" and "licenciatura" degrees for purposes of initial teacher training bursaries.


text: The Netherlands organisation for international cooperation in higher education (NUFFIC) has compared UK degree classification to Dutch degree grades. Dutch equivalencies have also been calculated by the UK NARIC.


text: NUFFIC also noted that the grading culture is different in the Netherlands, so that it is very rare for even the best students in the Netherlands to be awarded a 9 or a 10, which represent near perfection and absolute perfection.


text: US comparison services treat English three-year bachelor's degrees and American four-year bachelor's degrees as equivalent. Some British sources, such as the Dearing Report, consider British honours degrees equivalent to a US master's degree and US bachelor's degrees as equivalent to British pass degrees in terms of the standard reached in the major subject, due to the higher degree of specialisation in the UK. However, British institutions generally accept US bachelor's degrees for admission to postgraduate study (see below).


text: In comparing US bachelor's degrees to British honours degrees, equivalencies can be expressed in terms of either US grade point averages (GPAs) or letter grades. British institutions normally state equivalence in terms of GPAs. Approximate mappings between British classifications and GPAs can be inferred from the graduate admissions criteria used by British universities, which often give international equivalents. For example, University College London (UCL) equates the minimum classification for entrance to GPAs using 2:1 = 3.3 and 2:2 = 3.0. Different universities convert grades differently: the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) considers a GPA of 3.5 or better as equivalent to gaining a 2:1, while the department of English Language and Literature at Oxford considers a GPA of "about 3.8" equivalent to a first class degree. Similarly, the UK NARIC gives equivalent GPAs for determining eligibility for teacher training bursaries. Durham University's "North American Undergraduate Guide" gives a conversion table as a guide to understanding British classifications (rather than for admission to postgraduate study) of 1st = 3.8–4.0, 2:1 = 3.3–3.7, 2:2 = 2.8–3.2 and 3rd = 2.3–2.7.


text: Letter grade equivalents are more commonly used by American institutions. World Education Services (WES), a nonprofit organisation which provides qualification conversion services to many universities and employers, gives 1st = A, 2:1 = A−/B+, 2:2 = B, 3rd = B−, Pass = C. The Fulbright Commission has also created "an unofficial chart with approximate grade conversions between UK results and US GPA." The table below summarises these conversions, including GPA equivalents for the WES grades given using the letter grade to GPA conversion of Duke University.


text: Canadian academic grades may be given as letters, percentages, 12-point GPAs or 4-point GPAs. The 4-point GPAs are sometimes seen to differ from the US but other sources treat them as equivalent. The Durham conversion specifies GPAs for the US and letter grades/percentages for Canada while the UK NARIC has separate GPA conversions for the four-year bachelor's honours, baccalauréat and professional bachelor's degrees (which differ from their US GPA equivalents by at most 0.1) and the three-year bachelor's degree (which is seen as a lower standard). The "British Graduate Admissions Fact Sheet" from McGill University uses the conversion 1st = 4.0; 2:1 = 3.0; 2:2 = 2.7; 3rd = 2.0; Pass = 1.0; Fail = 0.0.


text: Regulations governing the progression of undergraduate degree graduates to postgraduate programmes vary among universities, and are often flexible. A candidate for a postgraduate master's degree is usually required to have at least a 2:1 (or 2:2 in some cases) bachelor honours degree, although candidates with firsts are in a considerably stronger position to gain a place in a postgraduate course and to obtain funding, especially in medical and natural sciences. Some institutions specify a 2:1 minimum for certain types of master's program, such as for a Master of Research course.


text: Candidates with a Third or an Ordinary degree are sometimes accepted, provided they have acquired satisfactory professional experience subsequent to graduation. A candidate for a doctoral programme is nearly always required to have a first or 2:1 at bachelor's level.


text: Some universities, such as those in Australia, offer ordinary or pass degrees (for instance, as a three-year B.A. or a three-year BSc) by default. High-achieving students may be recognised with an honours classification without further coursework or research, as is often the case in engineering (which often contains a research and thesis component) or law. However, other courses (such as humanities, arts, social sciences, and sciences) and other universities may recognise high-achieving students with an honours classification with further coursework or research, undertaken either concurrently with, and as part of or in addition to, a bachelor's course, or after completion of a bachelor's course requirements and attaining adequately competitive grades.


text: Some graduate degrees have been or are classified; however, under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), no graduate-level degrees (i.e., master's by coursework, master's by research, or higher research degrees) may be classified. To comply with this standard, some institutions have commenced, or will commence, offering high-achieving graduates with "distinction". Notably, this is consistent with British graduate degree classification.


text: In the United Kingdom, medicine is usually taught as an undergraduate course, with graduates being awarded a master's level qualification: normally the conjoined degrees of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, BM BCh, MB ChB, etc.) although at Queen's University Belfast (and universities in Ireland) Bachelor in the Art of Obstetrics (BAO) is added, and at some universities only the Bachelor of Medicine is awarded – all of these have equal standing. Unlike most undergraduate degrees, the MBBS is not normally considered an honours degree, and thus is not classified into first class honours, etc. Students may be awarded "Merits" and "Distinctions" for parts of the course or the whole course (depending on the institution) and "Honours" may be awarded at some institutions for exceptional performance throughout the course (as a grade above Distinction).


text: Medical schools split their year groups into 10 deciles. These deciles are the major factor in the calculation of Educational Performance Measure (EPM) points used as part of medical students' Foundation Programme applications, with the top decile receiving 43 points, decreasing by a point for each decile (so the lowest gets 34 points); 7 points can be awarded for other educational achievements (other degrees and publications), and the EPM points are combined with up to 50 points from the Situational Judgement Test to give a total out of 100.


text: Following the recommendation of the Burgess report into the honours degree classification system in 2007, the Higher Education Academy ran a pilot in 2013–2014 in collaboration with 21 institutions delivering higher education (ranging from Russell Group universities to Further Education colleges) to investigate how a grade point average (GPA) system would work best in Britain. Two main weighting systems were tested: an American-style average of all marks, weighted only by credit value, and weighting by "exit velocity" in the manner of the honours classification, where modules in the first year are given a low or zero weight and modules in the final year have a higher weight (a third model was only rarely used). Over two-thirds of providers preferred exit-velocity weighting to the straight average.


text: A GPA scale, tied to percentage marks and letter grades, was recommended for use nationally following the study, to run in parallel with the honours degree classification system.


text: Based on colloquial rhyming slang, British undergraduate honours degree classifications have gained a number of more or less common nicknames, based on the names of various well-known current and historical figures. The following is a summary of these.


title: Cherry Jones

text: Cherry Jones (born November 21, 1956) is an American actress known for her roles on screen and stage. She has received various accolades for her performances in television and theatre including three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, three Drama Desk Awards and two Obie Awards. She also received a Laurence Olivier Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.


title: Cherry Jones

text: Jones started her career in theatre in 1980 when she cofounded the American Repertory Theatre. She made her Broadway debut in the 1987 play "Stepping Out". She received her first Tony nomination for her role in "Our Country's Good" in 1991. She continued working on and off broadway including portraying various roles in Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" in 1993. She portrayed Catherine Sloper in the Broadway production of "The Heiress" in 1995 for which she earned her first Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She received another Tony nomination for "A Moon for the Misbegotten" in 2000. She won her second Tony Award for originating the role of Sister Aloysius in John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt" in 2005. In 2014 she received her fifth Tony nomination as Amanda in the Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie", a role for which she reprised in London's West End earning a Laurence Olivier Award nomination in 2017. Her most recent Broadway performance was in "The Lifespan of a Fact" in 2018.


title: Cherry Jones

text: She is also known for her work on television making her debut in 1987's "". She continued acting in television in various roles including Barbara Layton in "The West Wing" and President Allison Taylor in "24" the latter of which won her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2009. She received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for "Transparent" in 2015 and earned two more Primetime Emmy Awards this time for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her performances in the Hulu drama series "The Handmaid's Tale" in 2019 and the HBO drama series "Succession" in 2020. Her film appearances include "The Horse Whisperer" (1998), "Erin Brockovich" (2000), "Signs" (2002), "The Village" (2004), "Amelia" (2009), "The Beaver" (2011), "A Rainy Day in New York" (2019), and "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" (2021).


title: Cherry Jones

text: Jones was born in Paris, Tennessee. Her mother was a high school teacher, and her father owned a flower shop. Her parents were very supportive of her theatrical ambitions, encouraging her interest by sending her to classes with local drama teacher, Ruby Krider. Jones takes great pains to credit her high school speech teacher, Linda Wilson, with her first real preparatory work. She is a 1978 graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. While at CMU, she was one of the earliest actors to work at City Theatre, a fixture of Pittsburgh theatre.


title: Cherry Jones

text: Most of her career has been in theater, beginning in 1980 as a founding member of the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


title: Cherry Jones

text: Her Broadway performances include Lincoln Center's 1995 production of "The Heiress" and also a 2005 production of John Patrick Shanley's play "Doubt" at the Walter Kerr Theatre. For both roles, she earned a Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play.


title: Cherry Jones

text: Other Broadway credits include Nora Ephron's play "Imaginary Friends" (with Swoosie Kurtz), the 2000 revival of "A Moon for the Misbegotten", and Timberlake Wertenbaker's "Our Country's Good", for which she earned her first Tony nomination. She is considered to be one of the foremost theater actresses in the United States. In 1994, she also appeared in the Broadway run of "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches" and "Perestroika" as the Angel, replacing Ellen McLaughlin, who had originated the role.


title: Cherry Jones

text: She has narrated the audiobook adaptations of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House " series including, "Little House in the Big Woods", "Little House on the Prairie", "Farmer Boy", "On the Banks of Plum Creek", "By the Shores of Silver Lake", "The Long Winter", and "Little Town on the Prairie". In recent years, Jones has ventured into feature films. Her screen credits include "Cradle Will Rock", "The Perfect Storm", "Signs", "Ocean's Twelve", and "The Village".


title: Cherry Jones

text: Jones played President Taylor on the Fox series "24", a role for which she won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She played the role in the seventh season, from January to May 2009, as well as eighth season, which aired from January to May 2010.


title: Cherry Jones

text: Also in 2012, she portrayed Amanda Wingfield in the Loeb Drama Center's revival of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" alongside Zachary Quinto, Brian J. Smith and Celia Keenan-Bolger.


title: Cherry Jones

text: In 2015 and 2016 Jones had a recurring role on the Primetime Emmy Award-winning Amazon comedy-drama series "Transparent" in its second and third seasons. She was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series for her work in the 2015 season.


title: Cherry Jones

text: In 2018, Jones played Holly, the feminist mother to June/Offred in "The Handmaid's Tale". She won an Emmy for her performance.


title: Cherry Jones

text: In 2019, Jones played the role of a grouchy psychic and tarot card reader in the comedy "Wine Country", directed by Amy Poehler.


title: Cherry Jones

text: In 1995, when Jones accepted her first Tony Award, she thanked her then-partner, architect Mary O'Connor, with whom she had an 18-year relationship.


title: Cherry Jones

text: She started dating actress Sarah Paulson in 2004. When she accepted her Best Actress Tony in 2005 for her work in "Doubt", she thanked "Laura Wingfield", the "Glass Menagerie" character being played in the Broadway revival by Paulson. In 2007, Paulson and Jones declared their love for each other in an interview with Velvetpark at Women's Event 10 for the LGBT Center of New York. Paulson and Jones ended their relationship amicably in 2009.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: "Hallelujah" is a song written by Canadian singer Leonard Cohen, originally released on his album "Various Positions" (1984). Achieving little initial success, the song found greater popular acclaim through a new version recorded by John Cale in 1991. Cale's version inspired a 1994 recording by Jeff Buckley that in 2004 was ranked number 259 on "Rolling Stone"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: The song achieved widespread popularity after Cale's version of it was featured in the 2001 film "Shrek". Many other arrangements have been performed in recordings and in concert, with over 300 versions known. The song has been used in film and television soundtracks and televised talent contests. "Hallelujah" experienced renewed interest following Cohen's death in November 2016 and re-appeared on international singles charts, including entering the American "Billboard" Hot 100 for the first time.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Cohen is reputed to have written around 80 to as many as 180 draft verses for "Hallelujah"—a number affected by the accounting question that he had many versions of the same line. Cohen is said to have claimed 150 draft verses, a claim substantiated by his notebooks containing manifold revisions and additions, and by contemporary interviews. In a writing session in New York's Royalton Hotel, Cohen is famously said to have been reduced to sitting on the floor in his underwear, filling notebooks, banging his head on the floor. Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, creators of the 2022 documentary film "," said that Cohen took about five years to write the song, and reconfigured it numerous times for performances.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Unlike some other songs that became anthems, "Hallelujah" initially was on an album that was rejected by Columbia Records, was largely ignored after an independent label released it, wasn't widely covered until John Cale's 1991 version, and didn't reach the "Billboard" charts until Cohen's death in 2016. Reflecting on the song's initial rejection, Cohen related that Columbia told him that "we know you are great, but don't know if you are any good".


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Following his original 1984 studio-album version, Cohen performed the original song on his world tour in 1985, but live performances during his 1988 and 1993 tours almost invariably contained a quite different set of lyrics. Numerous singers mix lyrics from both versions, and occasionally make direct lyric changes; for example, in place of Cohen's "holy dove", Canadian-American singer Rufus Wainwright substituted "holy dark", while Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe sang "holy ghost".


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: "Hallelujah", in its original version, is in time, which evokes both early rock and roll and gospel music. Written in the key of C major, the chord progression of C, F, G, A minor, F matches those referenced in the song's famous first verse.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: When at age 50 Cohen first recorded the song, he described it as "rather joyous", and said that it came from "a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way, but with enthusiasm, with emotion." He later said "there is a religious hallelujah, but there are many other ones. When one looks at the world, there’s only one thing to say, and it’s hallelujah". Journalist Larry Sloman, who knew Cohen well and interviewed him often, described the song as one part biblical, one part the woman that Cohen slept with last night, citing an unidentified critic saying that Cohen was most interested in "holiness and horniness".


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: His original version, recorded on his 1984 album "Various Positions", contains allusions to several biblical verses, including the stories of Samson and Delilah from the Book of Judges ("she cut your hair") as well as King David and Bathsheba ("you saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you").


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Cohen's lyrical poetry and his view that "many different hallelujahs exist" is reflected in wide-ranging covers with very different intents or tones, allowing the song to be "melancholic, fragile, uplifting [or] joyous" depending on the performer: The Welsh singer-songwriter John Cale, the first person to record a cover version of the song (in 1991), promoted a message of "soberness and sincerity" in contrast to Cohen's dispassionate tone; the cover by Jeff Buckley, an American singer-songwriter, is more sorrowful and was described by Buckley as "a hallelujah to the orgasm"; Crowe interpreted the song as a "very sexual" composition that discussed relationships; Wainwright offered a "purifying and almost liturgical" interpretation; and Guy Garvey of the British band Elbow made the hallelujah a "stately creature" and incorporated his religious interpretation of the song into his band's recordings. Noting its inclusion in the 2001 animated movie "Shrek" and performance in numerous singing competition reality shows, "New York Times" movie reviewer A. O. Scott wrote that "Hallelujah is one of those rare songs that survives its banalization with at least some of its sublimity intact".


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Canadian singer k.d. lang said in an interview shortly after Cohen's death that she considered the song to be about "the struggle between having human desire and searching for spiritual wisdom. It's being caught between those two places." Former Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page, who sang the song at Canadian politician Jack Layton's funeral, described the song as being "about disappointing [other] people".


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: The song was the subject of a 2012 book, ""; author Alan Light said that Cohen's "approach to language and craft feel unlike the work of anybody else. They sound rooted in poetry and literature because he studied as a poet and a novelist first." The book served as the basis for the 2022 documentary film ""; the film's co-creator said that Cohen "addressed the deepest of our human concerns about longing for connection and longing for some sort of hope, transcendence and acknowledgment of the difficulties of life."


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: "Financial Times" arts and culture columnist Enuma Okoro wrote that "the lyrics and the tone of the song seem to sway between hymn and dirge, two musical forms that could serve as responses to almost everything that happens in our lives: songs that celebrate and acknowledge the blessings and provisions of our lives, and songs that bemoan our losses, our heartbreaks, and our deaths". Okoro noted that the Hebrew language roots of the word hallelujah means "praise God", adding that Cohen said people have been "singing it for thousands of years to affirm our little journey".


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Since 1991, "Hallelujah" has been performed by a wide variety of singers: over 300, and in various languages. Statistics from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Canadian Recording Industry Association, the Australian Recording Industry Association, and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, show that, by late 2008, more than five million copies of the song sold in CD format. It has been the subject of a BBC Radio documentary, a book, and been in the soundtracks of numerous films and television programs. Different interpretations of the song may include different verses, out of the over 80 verses Cohen originally wrote.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: In an April 2009 CBC Radio interview, Cohen said he found the number of covers of his song "ironic and amusing", given that his record label refused to release it when he first wrote it; however, he then claimed the song could benefit from a break in exposure:


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: I was just reading a review of a movie called "Watchmen" that uses it and the reviewer said – "Can we please have a moratorium on 'Hallelujah' in movies and television shows?" And I kind of feel the same way ... I think it's a good song, but I think too many people sing it.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Conversely, in early 2012, while promoting his then-current album, "Old Ideas", Cohen stated he was not tired of the song being covered:


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: There's been a couple of times when other people have said can we have a moratorium please on "Hallelujah"? Must we have it at the end of every single drama and every single "Idol"? And once or twice I've felt maybe I should lend my voice to silencing it but on second thought no, I'm very happy that it's being sung.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: John Cale's cover first appeared on "I'm Your Fan" (1991), a Leonard Cohen tribute album, and later on his live album "Fragments of a Rainy Season" (1992). Cale's version has vocals, piano, and different lyrics that Cohen had only performed live such as "I used to live alone before I knew you" and "All I ever learned from love was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you". Cale had watched Cohen perform the song and asked Cohen to send him the lyrics. Cohen then faxed Cale 15 pages of lyrics. Cale claims that he "went through and just picked out the cheeky verses."


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Cale's version forms the basis of most subsequent performances, including Cohen's performances during his 2008–09 world tour. Cale's version is used in the film "Shrek" (2001), but Rufus Wainwright's version appears on . Cale's also appears on the first soundtrack album for the TV series "Scrubs" and as the ending song of the "Cold Case" episode "Death Penalty, Final Appeal".


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Jeff Buckley, inspired by Cale's earlier cover, recorded one of the most acclaimed versions of "Hallelujah" for his only complete album, "Grace", in 1994. It was released as a single in 2007, ten years after Buckley's death.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: In 2004, Buckley's version was ranked number 259 on "Rolling Stone"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The same year "Time" called Buckley's version "exquisitely sung," observing "Cohen murmured the original like a dirge, but ... Buckley treated the ... song like a tiny capsule of humanity, using his voice to careen between glory and sadness, beauty and pain ... It's one of the great songs."


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: In September 2007, a poll of fifty songwriters conducted by the magazine "Q" listed "Hallelujah" among the all-time "Top 10 Greatest Tracks" with John Legend calling Buckley's version "as near perfect as you can get. The lyrics to 'Hallelujah' are just incredible and the melody's gorgeous and then there's Jeff's interpretation of it. It's one of the most beautiful pieces of recorded music I've ever heard." In July 2009, the Buckley track was ranked number three on the 2009 Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time, a listener poll held every decade by the Australian radio station Triple J. In 2017, The International Observer named Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" the greatest song of all time.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: On 2 April 2013, it was announced that Buckley's version of the song will be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Buckley's version was not an instant hit, nor did Buckley live to see the full measure of the reception his recording would ultimately have; he died in 1997. The album on which it appeared did not go Gold in the U.S. until 2002, nine years after its release. In fact, like Cohen's original, the Buckley version was not released as a single until much later, and it did not chart until 2006, posthumously for Buckley. In March of that year, Buckley had his first national top 10 best-seller when "Hallelujah" was at number seven in Norway. In 2007, it made the top 3 on the Swedish charts. In March 2008, it topped "Billboard"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Hot Digital Songs in the U.S. after a performance of the song by Jason Castro in the seventh season of "American Idol". The sudden resurgence of interest provided both Gold and Platinum status, the RIAA certifying the digital track on 22 April 2008. It has sold 1,144,000 digital copies in the US as of May 2010. It also hit number one in France in March 2008.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: The Buckley version has been widely used in film and television dramas, including the movie Lord of War, the series "The West Wing", "Crossing Jordan", "Without a Trace", "The O.C.", "Third Watch", "LAX", and "Justiça". "Hallelujah can be joyous or bittersweet, depending on what part of it you use", "Time" quoted Buckley's publisher as saying. The magazine opined that its liberal use in some cases was "a tacit admission that neither the writers nor the actors could convey their characters' emotions as well as Buckley."


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: On 20 April 2013, Buckley's version of the song was played at Fenway Park during a tribute honoring the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing before the Red Sox played their first home game following the tragedy.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Canadian-American musician and singer Rufus Wainwright had briefly met Jeff Buckley and recorded a tribute to him after his 1997 death. That song, "Memphis Skyline", referenced Buckley's version of "Hallelujah", which Wainwright would later record, though using piano and a similar arrangement to Cale's. Wainwright's version is included on the album "", although it was Cale's version that was used in the film itself. The "Shrek" soundtrack, containing Wainwright's cover, was certified 2× Platinum in the United States in 2003 as selling over two million copies.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: In 2016, Rufus Wainwright recorded a version of the song with a chorus of 1500 singers at a disused power station in Toronto.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: In 2004, k.d. lang recorded a version of "Hallelujah" on her album "Hymns of the 49th Parallel". She has since sung it at several major events, such as at the Canadian Juno Awards of 2005, where it "brought the audience to its feet for a two-minute ovation." Lang also sang it at the 2006 Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame when Cohen was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Cohen's partner, singer Anjani Thomas, said: "After hearing k.d. lang perform that song at the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2006 we looked at each other and said, 'well, I think we can lay that song to rest now! It's really been done to its ultimate blissful state of perfection'." Lang sang it at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, before a claimed TV audience of three billion.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Alexandra Burke, the winner of the fifth series of the reality television show "The X Factor", released a condensed cover version of the song as a prize for her victory. It reached Christmas number one on the UK Singles Chart on 21 December 2008.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: The release of Burke's cover created interest in the previous versions of the song, including a Buckley fan campaign to take Buckley's cover to the top of the Christmas chart and therefore deny Burke the top spot. The campaign was fuelled by Buckley fans' dislike of "The X Factor"s commercialism and the song's arrangement, as well as their desire to introduce younger people to Buckley's version. Burke herself was not enamoured of the choice of song, remarking "It just didn't do anything for me."


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Burke's version broke a European sales record after selling over 105,000 digital downloads in just one day, breaking the previous record set by Leona Lewis. The song sold 576,000 copies in its first week, becoming the fastest-selling single released by a woman in the United Kingdom and the 2008 Christmas number one, while Buckley's cover charted at number two and Cohen's original version at number 36.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: On 28 December 2008, the UK Singles Chart listed Burke's version as the biggest-selling single of the year, with "NME" announcing sales of over one million copies since its release. This also made Burke the first ever female British artist to have a million-selling single in the UK. It has sold 1.330 million as of August 2016, making it the biggest-selling "X Factor" winner's single to date.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: The a cappella group Pentatonix covered the song in the quintet's 2016 album, "A Pentatonix Christmas". On 21 October 2016, Pentatonix also released a music video for their cover filmed in the California Mojave Desert.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Bob Dylan was among the first to perform Cohen's song in concert with his earliest noted performance being in Montreal on 8 July 1988. Other notable singers who have covered "Hallelujah" include Brandi Carlile, Regina Spektor, Willie Nelson, Susan Boyle, Tim Minchin, Myles Kennedy, and Bono. Bono's version, which is mostly spoken, was included in "Tower of Song", an all-star tribute to Cohen in 1995. Bon Jovi has covered the song several times in concert, including on their 2008 "Live at Madison Square Garden" DVD.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: In 2006, the Norwegian quartet of Espen Lind, Kurt Nilsen, Alejandro Fuentes and Askil Holm released a cover of the song. After debuting at number 8 on the Norwegian VG-lista, the single reached number one in January 2007. The song remained listed on the Norwegian top 20 for 37 (non-consecutive) weeks between 2006 and 2007. The song also appears on the 2006 album "Hallelujah Live", credited to Lind with Nilsen, Fuentes and Holm, which also reached the top of the Norwegian VG-lista.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: International group Il Divo released a Spanish-language adaptation with different lyrics on their album "The Promise" (2008), which topped the charts in the UK. The song was performed by recording artist Damien Rice at the 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions when Cohen was inducted. That same year Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins recorded a classical-crossover version for her album "Sacred Arias". Kate Voegele performed it in character as Mia Catalano in the U.S. teen drama "One Tree Hill". Also appearing on an album, her version made the Hot 100 "Billboard" charts and reached number 53 in the UK shortly after airing of the episode there. Also in 2008, the Welsh band Brigyn released a version in Welsh. In 2009 Swedish artist Ebba Forsberg released a version sung in Swedish.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: The song has become a staple of television talent shows. Jason Castro, an "American Idol" season 7 contestant, performed a version on 4 March 2008, which propelled Jeff Buckley's version of the song to the top of the "Billboard" digital song chart. His version was included in his self-titled debut album and his second studio album, "Who I Am". Lisa Hordijk, winner of the 2009 Dutch "X Factor", released "Hallelujah" as her debut single, which went double platinum and remained at the top of the Dutch charts for ten weeks.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: A 2009 hit by Orthodox Jewish singer Ohad Moskowitz, ""Bo'i Kala"", featuring the words of the traditional tune accompanying a Jewish bride to the chuppah, is a musical adaptation of "Hallelujah".


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: On 22 January 2010, American musicians Justin Timberlake, Matt Morris, and Charlie Sexton performed a live cover version of "Hallelujah" during the "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon in support of those affected by the 2010 Haiti earthquake. A recorded version was released the following day on the "Hope for Haiti Now" soundtrack album and reached a peak of No. 13 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: On 16 April 2010, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Richard Eaton Singers conducted by Jack Everly premiered a new arrangement for orchestra and chorus by Claude Lapalme. Also in 2010, the Maccabeats of Yeshiva University released "Voices from the Heights", with an "a cappella" version of "Hallelujah" set to the Hebrew words of the Shabbat liturgical poem "Lecha Dodi".


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Steven Page performed the song live at the state funeral of Canadian Opposition Leader Jack Layton on 27 August 2011.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Raul Esparza performed the song live at the Kennedy Center's 11 September Memorial Concert on 8 September 2011.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: In May 2012, Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet presented the World Premiere of "The Doorway – Scenes from Leonard Cohen", created and choreographed by Jorden Morris – with "Hallelujah" performed by Allison Crowe (voice and piano) and ballerinas Sophia Lee and Jo-Ann Gudilin dancing alternate dates.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: On the 17 December 2012 episode of "The Voice", the song was covered in tribute to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting by coaches Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Cee Lo Green.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: American actor, comedian and musician Adam Sandler performed an off-color parody of "Hallelujah" in December 2012 at Madison Square Garden in New York City as part of , with Paul Shaffer on piano. Sandler's version contained numerous references to Hurricane Sandy and contemporary events in local culture, sports and politics.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Singer Tori Kelly recorded a cover of "Hallelujah" for the animated film "Sing" and has done two notable live performances of the song: during the "In Memoriam" portion of the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards, and alongside Luis Fonsi during the 2017 "" telethon. In August 2020, Cohen fans were incensed when Kelly's recording was played after Donald Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention. A legal representative for the Cohen estate said they had "specifically declined the RNC's use request" for "one of the most important songs in the Cohen song catalogue". She added that the estate might have approved the use of Cohen's "You Want It Darker".


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: On 12 November 2016, an episode of "Saturday Night Live" opened with cast member Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton performing a rendition of the song in tribute to both Cohen and Clinton. The preceding week had seen both Cohen's death and Clinton's loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington sang "Hallelujah" during his eulogy to Chris Cornell at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on 26 May 2017.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: The American alt-right conspiracy theorist and comedian Owen Benjamin used the music of "Hallelujah" with new lyrics in his song titled "How They Rule Ya" in support of freeing British far right activist Tommy Robinson, who was held at the time for contempt of court charges for violating a press gag order and illegally filming some of the defendants in the trial of the Huddersfield grooming gang. Released on 12 June 2018 under the alternative title "Free Tommy Robinson", it charted in the UK iTunes Charts. Robinson as a tribute and gratitude to Owen Benjamin, upon his release led the crowd outside the Old Bailey to a rendition of the song written by Benjamin.


title: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song)

text: At a national remembrance in January 2021 for those killed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Yolanda Adams sang a slightly modified two verses of "Hallelujah", changing "Maybe there's no God above" to "I know that there's a God above". A number of American Jews criticized the performance, as they had a usage of the song at the end of the 2020 Republican National Convention, for ignoring the song's lyrics about sexuality and questioning one's faith.


title: The Real Housewives

text: The Real Housewives is an international reality television franchise that consists of 57 programs; 11 American installments, 20 international installments and 26 spin-offs. Most of the franchise documents the personal and professional lives of a group of affluent women residing in or around a certain city.


title: The Real Housewives

text: The American franchise is primarily broadcast on Bravo, with one installment broadcast on Peacock. The American franchise began on March 21, 2006 with "The Real Housewives of Orange County".


title: The Real Housewives

text: The international franchise is broadcast on various networks. The international franchise began on March 4, 2011 with "The Real Housewives of Athens". Of the international franchise, the longest-running is "The Real Housewives of Cheshire", which has aired 15 series.


title: The Real Housewives

text: The American franchise has led to a vast number of spin-offs; the most successful, "Vanderpump Rules", has itself had a number of spin-offs.