Milk Movie

Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant, is a film about California's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, who was assassinated on November 27, 1978. The film was shot on location in San Francisco.

The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won Best Original Screenplay and Sean Penn won Best Actor.

• Best Motion Picture of the Year
• Best Achievement in Costume Design
• Best Achievement in Directing
• Best Achievement in Editing
• Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
• Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - Won
• Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
• Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen - Won

San Francisco's Castro Street, where Harvey Milk owned a camera shop, was transformed for the film in January, 2008, to look as it did in the 1970s. The producers felt that the life of Harvey Milk was "such a San Francisco story" that the film had to be shot on location. Milk is one of two films about Milk's life expected to be released around the same time. The other is The Mayor of Castro Street, directed by Bryan Singer.

"Need equality? Get Milk. That might be one way of summing up how some gays and lesbians regard the new Gus Van Sant film.The film revolves in part around a fight to fend off the so-called Briggs Initiative, which would have outlawed gay teachers in the public schools, along with any and all sympathetic or positive expression for gays and lesbians."—EdgeEdge: Gay Activists Anchor Anti-Prop 8 Message in New Film (November 25, 2008)