A Bunch Of Top Stars Have Kissed Each Other For A Series Of Moving New Short Films

    Benedict Cumberbatch and Reese Witherspoon are among the celebrity smoochers rounded up by the New York Times in a feature of the best actors of the year.

    The New York Times has rounded up 18 of the best actors from 2014 and shot them kissing for a series of nine new short films called 9 Kisses.

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    And they're all pretty majestic.

    Benedict Cumberbatch and Reese Witherspoon star in the first passionate clinch, which sees Cumberbatch dressed in a Mask of Zorro-esque ensemble.

    Cumberbatch has been hailed this year for his role as genius mathematician Alan Turning in The Imitation Game, while Witherspoon was equally praised for movie Wild.

    And it's really quite something.

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    Another scene features an embrace by Steve Carell and Laura Dern.

    Which is all pretty awkward.

    And Rosario Dawson and Jenny Slate kiss passionately while celebrating New Year's Eve.

    Each of the nine clips is around a minute long and features a different romantic scenario.

    Even Kristen Stewart got on board, playing a superfan pining after Chadwick Boseman.

    Before she runs on stage to steal a kiss.

    Other stars featured in the clip include 2014 successes Shailene Woodley and Jack O'Connell.

    The pair box against each other before Woodley punches O'Connell too hard and kisses him on the cheek. Timothy Spall and David Oyelowo are paired up for another clip as they engage in an arm wrestle before Spall pecks Oyelowo on the lips to put him off and win the game.

    Julianne Moore and John Lithgow, Patricia Arquette and Jason Schwartzman, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Miles Telle feature in the other clips, which were all directed by Elaine Constantine.

    There is also a separate video revealing the making of 9 Kisses, which, most importantly, shows outtakes of Cumberbatch and Witherspoon dancing and messing around.

    In the making-of video, Constantine, who also directed the film Northern Soul, says:

    When you get these very, very talented, creative people on set, you know, they come with their own ideas. I am a photographer and director and I've never worked on anything like this before. It's been amazing fun and each one of them involves a kiss. It's just an amazing eye-opener for me to see people at this level. We decided that it would all be public spaces at night. ... These actors in most cases didn't actually know each other. And I think in a way it was a good thing that they didn't know each other, because the concept of kissing someone, you just come to a shoot and say, 'oh right, I've got to kiss this person.'

    I'm very happy with how they turn out. I hope that people share them because they're funny or their emotional or they make you feel young again. Or they'll make you feel romantic.

    You can watch all nine here. <3

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