Martin I. Petrov

Only a few weeks away from FEST – Training Ground, FEST announced the return of one of the festival's all time star speakers: Academy Award Winning Actress MELISSA LEO!

Melissa Leo is one of the most in demand actresses in the world right now, Winner of an Oscar for her performance on The Fighter Melissa is surely one of the great actresses of our time, and is step by step also becoming one of the most awarded actresses in activity.

Melissa Leo starred as the mother of boxer Mickey Ward in the 2010 film The Fighter, also starring Mark Wahlberg. The role garnered her both Golden Globe (best supporting actress) and Oscar awards. Other accolades include award nominations for the film Frozen River and the HBO series Mildred Pierce.

Leo’s breakthrough role came in 1993, when she began playing Detective Sergeant Kay Howard on the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street. 

Leo went on to win acclaim for her performance as a struggling mother in the heralded film Frozen River (2008), most notably Independent Spirit Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award nominations—all in the best actress category.
More films followed, including Everybody’s Fine (2009) with Robert DeNiro, Conviction (2010) with Hilary Swank and The Fighter (2010) with Mark Wahlberg. In the latter film, she garnered wide acclaim for her performance, including a Golden Globe and an Academy Award, both in the best supporting actress category. 

Leo went on to work on several projects, including Oblivion (2013), with Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, which show us Melissa in a different genre, but always keeping it faithful to her choice for strong and captivating women, who immediately jump from the screen.
Also in 2013 she starred in the highly praised Prisioners alongside Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. She was also part of the cast of highly praised tv show Treme.

In 2014 we saw her in The Equalizer alongside Denzel Washington and The Angriest Man in Brooklyn alongside Robin Williams.

In 2015 Melissa will reprise her role of Madam Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan in London has Fallen, and star in the biopic Snowden directed by Oliver Stone.

Wayward Pines, the highly anticipated M. Night Shyamalan tv series, has Melissa playing Nurse Pam, a surely unforgettable character in the peculiar tv show.

Melissa Leo will join FEST's Training Ground for an awesome Masterclass on Acting. 

*From Official Press Release.