Known for his neo-realist film about the plight of Latin American immigrants living in New York City, "La Ciudad," indie writer/director David Riker has spent the better part of 14 years evolving story of his latest feature, "The Girl," which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last week. In the minimalist drama, Abbie Cornish plays Ashley, a minimum wage earner working in a podunk South Texas chain store, who is determined to get her son back; taken by child services after a drunken mistake. She finds out her wandering, absentee father (Will Patton) is on a self-proclaimed "lucky streak," which turns out to mean he's using his truck driving job to sneak Mexican immigrants into the country. When she tries her hand at it out of desperation, it goes terribly wrong -- except she now has to deal with Rosa (Maritza Santiago Hernandez), a little girl that forces her to help find her mother and deal with her actions.

Last year, Australian beauty Abbie Cornish played supporting fiddle in "Limitless," "Sucker Punch" and Madonna's critically assaulted "W.E." She had already proved she had leading lady chops after impressing critics as John Keats' doomed girlfriend in Jane Campion's 2009 period romance "Bright Star," so it's good to see her back as a headliner in her new indie, "The Girl," playing at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.

From The Press and Journal

With the hype building around new fantasy flick Sucker Punch, Abbie Cornish tells Shereen Low about handling big weapons, kicking butt and Skyping Madonna

From Toronto Sun

Someone who directed Abbie Cornish early on in her career described the actress as being, "Filled with light." It wasn't just her luminous beauty they were talking about.

From Nylon (brief excerpt)

April is our birthday month, and this year, NYLON turns twelve. So we figured we should celebrate a milestone with another milestone - for the first time ever, NYLON releases five separate covers for the issue.

From USA Today

Abbie Cornish is a bit turned around inside the sprawling Los Angeles County Museum of Art— until she spots a giant blue Jeff Koons balloon animal.

From SF Gate

If you don't know Abbie Cornish's work yet, you should ... and will. The 27-year-old star of Bright Star, Stop-Loss and the arresting Candy (with Heath Ledger) can now be seen in theaters with Bradley Cooper in Limitless, in which a new drug can afford users access to 100 percent of their brains. She also stars in Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch - as Sweet Pea, one of a group of institutionalized women who discover they are warriors. Sucker Punch opens March 25.

From Cinema Blend

When you’ve got a movie about a guy on drugs, what better way to show his softer side than to give him a girlfriend? Well, not only does Abbie Cornish do just that for Bradley Cooper’s character in Limitless, but her own has quite a bit of depth as well – and a heck of a fight sequence.

From Marie Claire

The Limitless costars reveal their thoughts on first dates, intimacy with strangers, and why women fall for lovable jerks.

From GQ

Australia's Abbie Cornish puts her indie darling status on temporary hiatus for a butt-kicking turn in Zack Snyder's big-budget, swords-and-guns fantasia Sucker Punch.

From IndieWire

OK, actress Abbie Cornish went on far too long this weekend during the Limitless junket about being a vegetarian (booooring), but the Australian beauty is still tops in our book. Coming off an amazing (and sadly unrecognized turn) in Jane Campion‘s Bright Star, Cornish’s career has taken some interesting twists and turns.

From Vanity Fair

The Cupid’s-bow lips, the downy-soft cheeks, the button nose: 27-year-old Abbie Cornish has those Ivory-soap-girl features we’re so familiar with, and yet hers is a face it’s hard to stop staring at—testament to the intelligence, vulnerability, and sensuality she brings to her characters.

From MadisonMag.com

Smart, shrewd and as talented as they come, Abbie Cornish has it all – just don’t try getting personal, writes Farrah Butt.

From Movieline.com

There’s something about the women in Jane Campion’s films: They can say so much without saying anything at all. Bright Star’s Abbie Cornish certainly gets to talk more than Holly Hunter did in The Piano, but as her Fanny Brawne falls in love with Ben Whishaw’s John Keats, her quiet fortitude conveys intelligence, emotion, and deep passion. It’s one of the year’s most striking performances.

From Los Angeles Times

The next Nicole Kidman? Meryl Streep? Critics have been keeping a close eye on Australian actress Abbie Cornish—as much for her intense acting style as for her striking looks. The honey-colored eyes and (usually) blond hair first garnered international attention in 2004, when Cornish deftly carried Somersault, the story of a teenage runaway in sexual limbo.

From Los Angeles Times

The 19th century gentlewoman Fanny Brawne might have been lost to history were it not for her love affair with the great romantic poet John Keats. Most certainly, Brawne would have been lost to the Twitterati generation were it not for 27-year-old Abbie Cornish's interpretation of her in Jane Campion's Bright Star, which chronicles her attachment to Keats, who died of tuberculosis at 25. The film opens Friday.

From VanityFair.com

This is a busy time for Abbie Cornish. Between traveling and doing physical training for her upcoming Zack Snyder film—if you’ve seen 300 you know how grueling that can be—she also has the Oscar buzz around Bright Star to fret about. Yet in our interview, she managed to mask her exhaustion with good, old-fashioned Aussie energy, and summon a passion for her work worthy of Fanny Brawne, the character she plays in Jane Campion’s film, about John Keats’s greatest love.

From W Magazine

In Jane Campion’s new film, Bright Star, Abbie Cornish shines as poet John Keats’s inspiration.

From Details

Abbie Cornish is preoccupied with her tan. It’s a notably superficial concern for an actress who seems completely without vanity. In 2006’s Candy, she played a heroin addict with red-rimmed eyes and matted hair, and in her current film, Stop-Loss, she fought to forgo makeup altogether.

From The Daily Telegraph

Sometimes it’s hard to reconcile the public image of Abbie Cornish with her Aussie farm-girl origins.

Watching her, all regal and corsetted, as the queen’s handmaiden in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, or reading about her reported part in the break-up of Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon, it’s tempting to think of her as a femme fatale who might care more about which designer label she’ll be wearing on the red carpet than how we treat animals.

From News.com.au

Rising Aussie star Abbie Cornish has advice for those who question the history of Elizabeth: The Golden Age - go and see a documentary.

From News.com.au

While Elizabeth newcomer Clive Owen adds hunk factor to the film, it is Newcastle farm girl Abbie Cornish who has big-name Hollywood directors talking.

From The Sydney Morning Herald

Abbie Cornish finds her characters through divining the smallest of details. For 2004’s Somersault, her acclaimed breakthrough role, it was a matter of figuring out how Heidi, the haltingly hopeful teenage girl she played, would grasp a schooner of beer. But to play Elizabeth “Bess” Throckmorton, the favoured lady-in-waiting of Cate Blanchett’s Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, it was a far more difficult process of discovery.

From The Courier-Mail

She’s the Australian Scarlett Johansson; the next Cate Blanchett or the next Nicole Kidman; an actor tipped to be more popular internationally than Naomi Watts.

From The Times Style

Abbie Cornish smoulders as tinseltown’s hottest new talent. She tells our correspondent how it all came to pass

From About.com / By Rebecca Murray

Abbie Cornish has become one of the most sought after young actresses in Hollywood. With her starring turn as Queen Elizabeth I's favorite lady-in-waiting in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Cornish really emerges as a force to be reckoned with.

From Teen Hollywood

Seems that the first Queen Elizabeth had a lady-in-waiting named Bess Throckmorton who was younger, prettier and who was able to party with the royal courtiers while the frustrated Queen had to behave. In Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a sequel to 1998's Elizabeth, the luminous Cate Blanchett is again the virgin queen but Bess is played by pretty young Aussie actress Abbie Cornish. Abbie came from a farm in New South Wales to model as a 13-year-old then co-star in an Aussie soap at age 15. She played a sex-addicted teen in the racy film Somersault and co-stared with Heath Ledger in Candy, a movie about a drug-addicted young couple. You can see her next year in Stop Loss, the film that started all those rumors about her and actor Ryan Phillippe.

From Coming Soon

Following in the footsteps of Nicole, Naomi and other great Australian actresses, 25-year-old beauty Abbie Cornish, Cate Blanchett’s co-star in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, might surprise those who see Shekhar Kapur’s historic epic, because few people will have seen the actress’ amazing performances in the Aussie dramas Somersault and Candy. (A few more people may have seen her in Ridley Scott’s 2005 comedy A Good Year but not too many more.)

From CanMag.com

Elizabeth: The Golden Age is the story of Elizabeth I's reign, but many other characters get a chance to shine. Clive Owen makes Sir Walter Raleigh his own, and Abbie Cornish stands out as the queen's confidante, Bess. She serves the queen, but has her own personality.

From Dark Horizons / By Paul Fischer

Australia's Abbie Cornish is having quite the year. The beautiful 25-year old has made inroads into Hollywood as both an actress and recent fodder for the tabloids.

From AOL / By Angie Argabrite

Abbie Cornish isn't a household name in the States -- yet. The 26-year-old Aussie has already been nominated for and won several awards Down Under, for her roles as free-spirited Heidi in 'Somersault' and as free-spirited yet downward-spiraling 'Candy' in the druggie love story of the same name. In 'Elizabeth: The Golden Age,' she's Elizabeth Throckmorton, a favorite lady-in-waiting to Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth I who risks the wrath of her queen for the love of Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). And yet you may know Cornish best for a role she won't play: the next Bond girl. She confirmed that she was never up for the part, and has never even been contacted by 'Bond' producers. What? A widespread internet rumor with zero basis in fact? We're shocked.

From MoviesOnline / By Sheila Roberts

MoviesOnline sat down with Abbie Cornish at the Los Angeles press day for her new movie, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” directed by Shekhar Kapur from an original screenplay by William Nicholson ("Gladiator”) and Michael Hirst ("Elizabeth”). Reprising the roles they originated in seven-time Academy Award-nominated "Elizabeth,” Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush return for a gripping historical thriller laced with treachery and romance. Joining them in the epic is Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh, a dashing seafarer and newfound temptation for Elizabeth.

From Premiere.com / By Deborah Day

Seeing as 25-year-old Australian beauty Abbie Cornish has, herself, been the center of a romantic entanglement (tabloids eagerly reported tales of her having been involved with pre-divorce Ryan Phillippe, her costar in the upcoming Stop Loss), taking on the role of Bess Throckmorton seems oddly appropriate. Elizabeth I's lady-in-waiting, Bess wins the heart of poet and adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh, then incurs the wrath of a jealous queen.

From News.com.au

Rising Aussie star Abbie Cornish was shocked by the public hatred she faced when linked romantically to co-star Ryan Phillippe and blamed her for the break-up of his marriage to Reese Witherspoon.

From Radio Free / By Michael J. Lee,

In the wake of its 1998 release, Elizabeth rocked the movie awards scene, scoring a slew of nominations across the board for both its performances and its myriad of technical achievements. Ultimately, Cate Blanchett walked away with several Best Actress recognitions for her role as the title ruler, including a Golden Globe and BAFTA Film Award, and sparked an international film career for herself in the process. Since then, she has starred in everything from independent features to epic blockbusters like the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

From Men's Vogue

The Outback's latest export, Abbie Cornish, can milk a cow, rock a mike, and steal a scene.

From The NY Times T Style / By Lynn Hirschberg

You made “Somersault” when you were 20 and became an instant sensation in your native Australia. Now you’re 25 and about to star in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” opposite Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen.

From The Independent

Hollywood's latest hot property is more at ease on a ranch than the red carpet. But Abbie Cornish is having a ball just the same.

From Vanity Fair

Age and occupation: 24, actor.
Provenance: Hunter Valley, Australia.

Rampant kidmania: Ever since her breakthrough performance in 2004's Somersault, Cornish has had to contend with the "Next Nicole" hype that accompanies any young woman who is beautiful, talented, and Australian. But with the pending releases of Neil Armfield's Candy (in which she stars opposite Aussie god Heath Ledger) and Ridley Scott's A Good Year (in which she stars opposite Aussie god Russell Crowe), maybe the hype is justified.

From Interview

In Somersault, a tiny Australian movie from first-time director Gate Shortland, Abbie Cornish plays Heidi, a 16-year-old girl who, after clumsily trying to seduce her mother's boyfriend, leaves home on a journey of self-discovery that manages to cram every mistake that a woman can make with a man into a little less than two hours of vigorous sexual awakening. For Cornish, who has won an armful of Australian acting awards for her work in the film--and miraculously manages to keep her clothes on through most of it--avoiding the usual cliches of playing a young woman at the moment of her inglorious blossom proved the biggest challenge. "