key people Maggie Smith Her captivating presence and unmatched wit graced the silver screen for over six decades. Whether she was portraying the sharp-tongued dowager countess in the TV series Downton Abbey or the stern Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter, Smith consistently proved that she was a true master Michael Kahn He has been Steven Spielberg s go-to editor for decades, with credits including Schindler s List, Saving Private Ryan, and Jurassic Park. He s one of the most awarded editors in history. His incredible ability to know when and why you need a cut or a transition and how to blend the scenes together has made him a legend. He said that one of the most difficult scenes to edit was when Harrison Ford turns around the first time after he used his whip on the gun and the cutting in other scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark. In 2011, he received the Career Achievement Award of the American Cinema Editors. At the ceremony, Steven Spielberg said of editing, this is where filmmaking goes from a craft to an art. Famous for his rapidfire dialogue and political drama, he penned the TV series The Social Network, A Few Good Men, and The West Wing. His scripts are practically a genre of their own. For this reason, his surname has become an adjective for a couple of decades: sorkinian is used to refer to scenes with tight, brilliant dialogue, but also egocentric, morally impeccable characters with a tendency to explain the world to others. Now Sorkin is also a director, but he became an adjective for his work as a screenwriter: a job in which it is generally already a luxury if one manages to be noticed and remembered by one s first and last name. Aaron Sorkin go-to: irrinunciabile to pen: scrivere 252 Big and small screen of her craft. She studied acting at the Oxford Playhouse School and began appearing in revues in Oxford in 1952 and London in 1955. Smith occasionally appeared on television. After winning several awards for her roles at the theatre and on the big screen, she took on a role in the British series Downton Abbey (2010-15), a period drama centring on the Crawleys, an aristocratic family, and their servants. For her performance as Violet, countess of Grantham, Smith won three Emmys (2011, 2012, and 2016). She reprised the role for two feature-length films (2019 and 2022). rapid-fire: incalzante revue: variet sharp-tongued: lingua tagliente tight: serrato