Spellbound is a 2002 documentary, directed by Jeffrey Blitz, nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. It follows eight competitors in the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee: Harry Altman, Angela Arenivar, Ted Brigham, April DeGideo, Neil Kadakia, Nupur Lala, Emily Stagg and Ashley White. Spellbound is a 2002 documentary nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. ... Nupur Lala is the winner of the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee. ... ThinkFilm is a distibutor of independent films which was founded in 2001. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This is a list of film-related events in 2002. ... The Academy Award for Documentary Feature is one of the most prestigious awards for documentary films. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly known as the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee) is a highly competitive annual spelling bee run on a non-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company, held at the Grand Hyatt Washington hotel in Washington, DC. The National Spelling Bee was formed in...

Spellers

As they appear from left to right on the DVD's cover:

Neil Kadakia

Neil Kadakia is currently an aeronautical/propulsion engineer at NASA, recently graduating from U.C. Berkeley. He is the younger brother of Shivani Kadakia. Neil is an excellent downhill skier, poet, and technophile. Neil (as speller # 139) missed "hellebore" in the bee to get ninth place. Other words Neil spelled include:

• encephalon

• desecration

• mercenary

• Darjeeling

• hypsometer

• hellebore (spelled incorrectly as "helebore")

Emily Stagg

Emily Stagg (speller # 148) was sponsored by the New Haven Register in New Haven, Connecticut and spelled: The New Haven Register is a Connecticut newspaper based out of New Haven, Connecticut. ... Nickname: Location in Connecticut Coordinates: NECTA New Haven Region South Central Region Settled 1638 Incorporated (city) 1784 Consolidated 1895 Government  - Type Mayor-board of aldermen  - Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. ...

• seguidilla

• disclaimant

• kookaburra

• viand

• apocope

• brunneous

• clavecin (spelled incorrectly as "clavison")

Ashley White

Ashley White (speller 149) represented The Washington Informer in Washington, DC in the bee. She is the mother of a three-year-old girl and is currently attending Howard University. Following Ashley's teenage pregnancy, a marketing consultant who had seen the movie managed to rally support from other viewers of the documentary to help Ashley into Howard University. [1] Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... Howard University is a Carnegie Doctoral/Research extensive historically black university in Washington, D.C. Affectionately known as Black Harvard, Howard was established in 1867 by congressional order and named after Oliver O. Howard. ...

• lycanthrope

• jugular

• ecclesiastical (spelled incorrectly as "eccleastical")

April DeGideo

April DeGideo, who lives in Ambler, Pennsylvania, participated in the 1998 and 1999 bees, in the latter of which she placed third, representing the Times Herald of Norristown, Pennsylvania. April is now a junior journalism major at New York University. She was speller # 61 and spelled the following words: Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Montgomery Incorporated 1888 Government  - Mayor Charles Bud Wahl Area  - Borough  0. ... Official language(s) English, Pennsylvania Dutch Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area  Ranked 33rd  - Total 46,055 sq mi (119,283 km²)  - Width 280 miles (455 km)  - Length 160 miles (255 km)  - % water 2. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... Norristown is a home rule municipality in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 17 miles (27 km) west by north of Philadelphia, on the Schuylkill River. ... New York University (NYU) is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational institution in New York City. ...

• tuyere

• mattock

• fibula

• alegar

• colcannon

• epicede

• repetiteur

• exequies

• nepenthe

• terrene (spelled incorrectly as "terrine")

Harry Altman

Many critics who reviewed Spellbound singled out Altman (speller # 8) as its most interesting "character". Roger Ebert wrote that he "has so many eccentricities that he'd be comic relief in a teenage comedy ... He screws his face up into so many shapes while trying to spell a word that it's a wonder the letters can find their way to the surface". He went to the Academy for Engineering and Design Technology in Hackensack, New Jersey. He enrolled in the University of Chicago in autumn 2005. The phrase "What time is it?" has been time and again referred to within Tufts House, a dormitory at the University of Chicago, as an expression of mirth, intellectual sarcasm and sheer love for Altman. He missed "banns" in the bee featured in the film and spelled these words: Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ... Bergen County Academies Auditorium entrance The Bergen County Academies (sometimes referred to as Bergen Academy or BCA) is a public vocational magnet high school located in Hackensack that serves the high-school population of Bergen County, New Jersey. ... Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen CountyGR6. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ... The University of Chicago is an elite private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. ...

• cephalalgia (Harry laughed when the judge described this word's definition as "a pain in the head")

• adherent

• odyssey

• banns (on which he spent more than five minutes contorting his face; Harry was reminded several times to face forward and finish the word. He misspelled it as "bands").

Angela Arenivar

Angela Arenivar is a former student of Texas A&M University. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish in May 2007. Arenivar plans to attend graduate school at University of New Mexico in fall of 2007 to earn her Master of Arts in Hispanic linguistics. She spent the first half of 2006 studying abroad through Texas A&M at the University of Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain, and wrote a blog, Angela in Spain, during her time there. Texas A&M University, often called A&M or TAMU, is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas, USA. It is the flagship[7] institution of the Texas A&M University System. ... A B.A. issused as a certificate Bachelor of Arts (B.A., BA or A.B.), from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus is an undergraduate bachelors degree awarded for either a course or a program in the liberal arts or the sciences, or both. ... The University of New Mexico (UNM) is a public university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Studying abroad is the act of a student pursuing educational opportunities in a foreign country. ... The University of Salamanca (Spanish Universidad de Salamanca), located in the town of Salamanca, west-northwest of Madrid, is the second oldest university in Spain (the first one is the university of Palencia, now disappeared), and one of the oldest in Europe. ... Salamanca: Plaza Mayor Towers of the Old and New Cathedrals Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Salamanca Salamanca (population 160,000) is a city in western Spain, the capital of the province of Salamanca, which belongs to the autonomous community(region) of Castile-Leon(Castilla y León). ...

Angela, who was speller # 85, missed the word "heleoplankton". The words she spelled are listed below:

• zwieback

• wheedle

• heleoplankton (spelled incorrectly as "helioplankton")

Nupur Lala

Nupur Lala was the champion of the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee (as speller # 165), spelling "logorrhea" to win. She joined University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 2003 to study brain and cognitive sciences and pre-medical studies. Nupur won the bee against David Lewandowski, a speller from Indiana who misspelled "opsimath." All of the words she spelled were: Nupur Lala is the winner of the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee. ... The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public coeducational university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ...

• ailanthus

• extraordinaire

• corollary (with which she asked the judges whether it related to a Corolla)

• palimpsest

• balbriggan

• akropodion

• cabotinage

• trianon

• bouchon

• poimenics

• nociceptor

• logorrhea (the winning word)

The Toyota Corolla is a compact car produced by the Japanese automaker Toyota, which has acquired significant popularity throughout the world since the nameplate was first introduced in 1966. ...

Ted Brigham

Ted Brigham is attending medial school in Kansas City, Missouri (2007). From Lebanon, Missouri in 1999. Represented the Lebanon Daily Record, based in the same town. One of the more notable stories from his experience is the congratulations posted by students on the marquee in front of his high school in which "champ" was misspelled as "chapm". He was speller # 243. Official language(s) English Capital Jefferson City Largest city Kansas City Largest metro area Greater St. ...

• trachodon

• distractible (spelled incorrectly as "distractable")

Other notable spellers

• George Thampy was speller # 245 in the bee and was mentioned several times within the film. He misspelled "kirtle" as "curtle" for third place, tying with April DeGideo. Thampy eventually won the 2000 national bee.

• David Lewandowski finished second place in the spelling bee, spelling "opsimath" as "opsomath". After David's mistake, Nupur spelled "logorrhea" to win the competition.

• Allyson Lieberman was originally slated to be featured as one of the spellers in the documentary, but the plan never went through; the scene involving her can be found in the special features of the DVD. The youngest contestant in the entire 1998 bee, she misspelled "purblind".

• Frances Taschuk and Ann Foley are shown in the final set of scenes prior to the last round of the spelling bee. Frances misspells "acoelous" and Ann "quinquevir".

• Vinay Krupadev is in a scene involving Harry's mother feeling "sorry for the boy from Texas who got 'yenta'". She was referring to Vinay, and his pronunciation of "yenta" is shown in the film. He eventually spelled it "yente".

2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Scripps National Spelling Bee
• Spelling bee

The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly known as the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and commonly referred to simply as the National Spelling Bee) is a highly competitive annual spelling bee run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company, held in the ballroom at the... For other uses, see Spelling bee (disambiguation). ...

External links

• Spellbound at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website
• Round-by-Round Results of the 1999 Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee
• 1999 Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee Contestants
• Star Struggles for Happier Ending Article on Ashley White.