WOW. In a bit of shocking news this morning, Rooney was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”! HUGE CONGRATS TO ROONEY!!

Congrats to Rooney on another award season honor! The Santa Barbara Film Festival will present her with the Virtuoso Award at this year’s festivities, which will take place on Friday, February 3rd.

SBIFF continues its tradition of honoring the year’s standout performers with The 2012 Virtuosos Award. The actors who were selected to be recognized for their exceptional performances are: Demián Bichir for his earnest portrayal as Carlos, a virtuous father struggling to provide for his son in A Better Life; Rooney Mara for her dark and provocative performance as Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Melissa McCarthy for her role as the hilariously outspoken Megan in Bridesmaids; Patton Oswalt for masterfully navigating between the realms of comedy and drama as Matt Freehauf in Young Adult; Andy Serkis for stepping into the mind and body of an ape through his master of performance-capture technology in his role as Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes; and Shailene Woodley for bringing an emotional complexity to a character rarely seen at her age as Alexandra in The Descendants.

Comments Durling, “I’m ecstatic about this strong line-up of Virtuosos. They all gave us indelible performances.”

The Virtuosos Award was created to recognize a select group of actors who have distinguished themselves through performances in film this past year. Last year’s recipients for this award were Lesley Manville, John Hawkes, Jacki Weaver and Hailee Steinfeld.

The Award presentation, moderated by Entertainment Weekly’s Dave Karger, is sponsored by Stella Artois and will now take place at the Arlington Theatre on Friday, February 3, 2012.

Congrats to Rooney on her first Best Actress win of the season! The St. Louis Film Critics Association have chosen her as the best lead female performance of the year for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Congrats Rooney, hope there are more to come! The movie itself also won some other honors.

Best Actress
Rooney Mara (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo)
runners-up – tied: Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) and Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn)

Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki (The Tree Of Life)
runners-up – tied: Jeff Cronenweth (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and Janusz Kaminski (War Horse)

Best Scene – favorite movie scene or sequence
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: the opening titles sequence
runner-up: The Artist: the finale

HUGE CONGRATS to Rooney!!! She received a very deserved Golden Globe Best Actress nomination for her role in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” SO happy. Rooney is fantastic in the movie.

Best Actress, Drama
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Thanks so much to Taylor for getting in touch with us about this wonderful opportunity. We know all about Rooney’s philanthropic endeavors, so it’s not surprising to hear she’s donated 2 tickets to the premiere of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” to Brad Pitt’s charity to auction off. Press release below.

Stars of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Help Brad Pitt Build Homes for Families in Need

New York City – Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, stars of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, are making room on the red carpet for two fans at the movie’s premiere in New York City on December 14. Fans of the movie can bid on and win two tickets to this season’s hottest premiere — walk the red carpet, see the stars of the film and enjoy the very first look at this highly anticipated adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s literary blockbuster.

Bidding is open now and closes on Sunday at 4pm PST: www.ebay.com/makeitright.

Adding to the already immense anticipation for the film, Columbia Pictures has been stoking audience interest with dramatic extended trailers and clips from the movie. The energy and excitement at the
December 14 premiere promises to be electric.

Columbia Pictures and the film’s stars, Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, generously donated the tickets. All proceeds from the online auction will benefit Make It Right, Brad Pitt’s foundation to build safe, sustainable and affordable homes for New Orleans’ families who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. Make It Right also works with community groups in Newark, Kansas City and other areas around the country to provide energy-efficient, affordable housing for
disadvantaged youth and low-income families.

YAY ROONEY!! Rooney has won a Breakthrough Performance Award from the National Board of Review, for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, which was also listed on the group’s Top 10 Films of the Year. Congrats to Rooney, hopefully it’s the first of many!

Best Film: Hugo
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Best Actor: George Clooney, The Descendants
Best Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Best Original Screenplay: Will Reiser, 50/50
Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
Best Animated Feature: Rango
Breakthrough Performance: Felicity Jones, Like Crazy
Breakthrough Performance: Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Debut Director: J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Best Ensemble: The Help
Spotlight Award: Michael Fassbender (A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, X-Men: First Class)
NBR Freedom of Expression: Crime After Crime
NBR Freedom of Expression: Pariah
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
Best Documentary: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Special Achievement in Filmmaking: The Harry Potter Franchise – A Distinguished Translation from Book
to Film

Top Films
(in alphabetical order)

The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The Ides of March
J. Edgar
Tree of Life
War Horse

Love how dedicated Rooney is to her charity work and the town of Kibera. These necklaces are super cute so be sure to pick one up and support a great cause!

Rooney Mara may be out of the spotlight right now as she gears up to promote her highly-anticipated movie The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo this December, but she’s still finding time to do charity work. Recently, Mara teamed up with KORA —a Los Angeles and East Africa-based jewelry company that creates pieces out of recycled objects— to promote this necklace made from recycled bone and brass (shown). KORA’s Maxandra Short and Amy Walker designed the piece, and 100% of proceeds will be donated to a charity close to Mara’s heart, Uweza, a non-profit organization dedicated to abolishing poverty in the Kibera section of Nairobi, Kenya. “I’m excited to be working with KORA to help bring attention to Uweza, an organization that does such good work and that I’m proud to be a part of,” Mara told InStyle. The necklace is available for $95 in silver or gold on KoraDesigns.com.

Source

Huge congrats to Rooney, she is among the Academy’s 178 invitees for membership this year. Not even an Oscar nomination gets you an invite, so this is a great honor!

Actors
Russell Brand – “Arthur,” “Get Him to the Greek”
Gerard Butler – “The Ugly Truth,” “300″
Vincent Cassel – “Black Swan,” “Eastern Promises”
Robbie Coltrane – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1,” “Mona Lisa”
Bradley Cooper – “Limitless,” “The Hangover”
John Corbett – “Sex and the City 2,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”
Rosemarie DeWitt – “The Company Men,” “Rachel Getting Married”
Peter Dinklage – “Find Me Guilty,” “The Station Agent”
David Duchovny – “Things We Lost in the Fire,” “The X-Files”
Jesse Eisenberg – “The Social Network,” “The Squid and the Whale”
Jennifer Garner – “Arthur,” “Juno”
John Hawkes – “Winter’s Bone,” “The Perfect Storm”
Thomas Jane – “The Mist,” “The Thin Red Line”
Nastassja Kinski – “An American Rhapsody,” “Tess”
Beyonce Knowles – “Dreamgirls,” “Austin Powers in Goldmember”
Mila Kunis – “Black Swan,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”
Jennifer Lawrence – “Winter’s Bone,” “The Burning Plain”
Tea Leoni – “Ghost Town,” “Spanglish”
Anthony Mackie – “The Hurt Locker,” “Million Dollar Baby”
Lesley Manville – “Another Year,” “Topsy-Turvy”
Rooney Mara – “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “The Social Network”
Dominic Monaghan – “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
Connie Nielsen – “Brothers,” “Gladiator”
Ellen Page – “Inception,” “Juno”
Wes Studi – “Avatar,” “The Last of the Mohicans”
Mia Wasikowska – “Jane Eyre,” “The Kids Are All Right”
Jacki Weaver – “Animal Kingdom,” “Cosi”

According to some newly added information on IMDb, Rooney’s once unknown exact birthdate is supposedly April 17th, 1985, which would make today her 26th birthday! Happy birthday, Rooney! Leave some love for our girl in the comments!

We have our first official Rooney appearance to look forward to since being cast in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”! On January 8th, Rooney will join “The Social Network” co-stars Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer and Justin Timberlake in Palm Springs to receive the Performance Ensemble Award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival! CONGRATS!! In a press release, PSIFF Chairman Harold Matzer said:

“Every so often, a movie comes along with performances that set the standard for a generation of actors. ‘The Social Network’ combines a theme that defines our time with performances that redefine acting for the screen.”