The most important cultural events in the world in 2007

JANUARY
1. - Luxembourg became the European Capital of Culture.
10. - Italian film producer Carlo Ponti died at the age of 94.
16. - The Golden Globe for Best American Drama went to the film Babel by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu in Los Angeles. The Best Musical Film award went to the musical Dreamgirls directed by Bill Condon.

FEBRUARY
9. - The World Press Photo of the Year in Amsterdam was awarded to the photograph of young Lebanese in bombed Beirut taken by American photographer Spencer Platt, who works for Getty Images.
12. - At the American Grammy Awards, the country girl group Dixie Chicks dominated, taking home five trophies including Best Album (Taking the Long Way) and Song of the Year (Not Ready To Make Nice).
17. - The Golden Bear, the main award of the Berlinale International Film Festival, was won by the Chinese film Tuya's Marriage (Tchujin sňatek).
25. - The film Lady Chatterley by director Pascale Ferran won the César Award, the most prestigious French film award.
- Actress Sharon Stone received one of the film's anti-awards - a Golden Raspberry for her performance in Basic Instinct 2.
26. - The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its awards. Martin Scorsese's film The Departed won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director. The Best Actress in a Leading Role was Helen Mirren (The Queen), and the Best Actor was Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland). The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to the German drama The Lives of Others about the secret East German Stasi service. Italian composer Ennio Morricone received an Oscar for lifetime achievement.

MARCH
12. - Punk rock poet Patti Smith and rock bands Van Halen and R.E.M. became new members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, USA.
30. - The Pritzker Prize for Architecture was awarded to British architect Richard Rogers; the master of urban structures received the prestigious award for the second time.

APRIL
6. - Italian director Luigi Comencini passed away at the age of 90; he was one of the leading representatives of the Italian neorealism film school.
11. - American writer Kurt Vonnegut died at the age of 84.
16. - The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service was awarded to The Wall Street Journal for materials covering the American stock scandal of 2006; the American newspaper was also recognized in the category of International Reporting for its work on the adverse effects of capitalism's development in China.
26. - The Mies van der Rohe Award for architecture went to Spanish architects Luis Mansilla and Emilio Tuñón for their design of the museum of contemporary art in León.
27. - Renowned Russian musician and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich died at the age of 80.

MAY
27. - The Golden Palm for Best Film at the 60th Cannes Film Festival was awarded to the Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days directed by Cristian Mungiu. The Grand Prix went to the film Mogari's Forest by Japanese director Naomi Kawase.
22. - American rock band Smashing Pumpkins kicked off their tour in Paris after more than seven years.
28. - British rock legends The Police began a world tour after a twenty-year hiatus, which started in Vancouver, Canada.

JUNE
19. - The Lord of the Rings, the most expensive musical in West End history with a budget of £25 million (over a billion crowns), had its grand premiere in London.

JULY
3. - The fifth film about the wizard apprentice, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, had its official premiere in London; on June 28, viewers in Tokyo could see it at the pre-premiere.
7. - The first in a series of Live Earth concerts dedicated to the threats of climate change began in Sydney, Australia; other star-studded concerts were held in Shanghai, Johannesburg, London, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, New Jersey, Washington, and Hamburg.
8. - Based on a poll of 100 million people from around the world, the new seven wonders of the world were announced in Lisbon, Portugal: The Great Wall of China, the Jordanian rock city Petra, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, the sacred Inca fortress Machu Picchu in Peru, the pyramid in the temple city of Chichén Itzá in Mexico's Yucatán, the Roman Colosseum, and the Indian mausoleum Taj Mahal.
21. - The English edition of the seventh installment of the Harry Potter series titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published worldwide.
30. - The famous Swedish film, theater, and television director Ingmar Bergman died at the age of 89.
- Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni died in Rome at the age of 94.

AUGUST
25. - Over a million people danced at the iconic German technoparty Love Parade in Essen.

SEPTEMBER
6. - Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti died at the age of 71 in Modena.
8. - The Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival was awarded to the erotic thriller Lust, Caution (Touha, opatrnost) by Taiwanese director Ang Lee. Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci received the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.
10. - Rihanna took home the award for Best Music Video at the MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas for her hit Umbrella.
11. - One of the most famous jazz musicians of today, Joe Zawinul, died at the age of 75 in Vienna.
17. - The series The Sopranos and 30 Rock took home the main Emmy awards for television production in the drama and comedy categories, respectively.
23. - The famous French mime Marcel Marceau died at the age of 84.
29. - The Golden Shell at the film festival in San Sebastián, Spain, was awarded to the film A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Hong Kong director Wayne Wang.

OCTOBER
8. - A blue diamond, one of the rarest gemstones in the world, was auctioned at Sotheby's in Hong Kong for nearly eight million dollars (156 million crowns), becoming the most expensive gemstone in the world in terms of price per carat.
11. - The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to British writer Doris Lessing.
16. - The Man Booker Prize for Best English Language Novel was awarded to Irish author Anne Enright for her family epic The Gathering.
24. - The first recipient of the Lux Film Prize (Light), awarded by the European Parliament, was German director Fatih Akin for his film The Edge of Heaven.
29. - American band Eagles celebrated their comeback after 28 years with the release of their studio album Long Road Out of Eden.

NOVEMBER
1. - At the MTV European Music Awards in Munich, Avril Lavigne dominated, taking home the awards for Best Female Artist and Best Song. The award for Best Group went to American band Linkin Park, and for Album of the Year to Canadian singer Nelly Furtado.
2. - Renowned Russian choreographer Igor Moiseev passed away in Moscow at the age of 101 years.
8. - The British punk legend, the Sex Pistols, reunited for a concert in London after years.
10. - American writer and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Norman Mailer died at the age of 84.
13. - American writer Ira Levin died at the age of 78 in New York.
22. - French choreographer Maurice Béjart, one of the founders of modern dance, died at the age of 80 in Switzerland.
29. - The literary Cervantes Prize was awarded to Argentine poet Juan Gelman.

DECEMBER
1. - The best European film of 2007 was announced in Berlin as the Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days directed by Cristian Mungiu.
3. - The Turner Prize, awarded for the best contemporary visual artwork, went to British artist Mark Wallinger.