Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone Film

Africa

Egypt – January 16, 2002
South Africa – November 23, 2001

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Asia

Hong Kong – December 20, 2001
India – April 12, 2002
Indonesia – December 19, 2001
Israel – November 29, 2001
Japan – December 1, 2001
Kazakhstan – March 21, 2002
Kuwait – December 15, 2001
Malaysia – November 22, 2001
Philippines – November 21, 2001
Singapore – November 22, 2001
South Korea – December 14, 2001
Taiwan – November 16, 2001
Thailand – November 30, 2001
Turkey – February 1, 2002

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Europe

Austria – November 23, 2001
Belgium – November 21, 2001
Bulgaria – February 15, 2002
Croatia – December 23, 2001
Cyprus – December 21, 2001
Czech Republic – February 14, 2002
Denmark – November 23, 2001
Estonia – December 21, 2001
Finland – November 23, 2001
France – December 5, 2001
Germany – November 22, 2001
Greece – November 30, 2001
Hungary – December 13, 2001
Iceland – November 30, 2001
Ireland – November 16, 2001
Italy – December 6, 2001
Latvia – December 21, 2001
Lithuania – December 21, 2001
Malta – November 16, 2001
Netherlands – November 22, 2001
Norway – November 23, 2001
Poland – January 18, 2002
Portugal – November 30, 2001
Romania – January 25, 2002
Russia – March 21, 2002
Slovenia – December 6, 2001
Spain – November 30, 2001
Sweden – November 23, 2001
Switzerland (German) – November 22, 2001
Ukraine – March 21, 2002
United Kingdom (London World Premiere) – November 4, 2001
United Kingdom – November 16, 2001
Yugoslavia – December 28, 2001

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North America

Canada – November 16, 2001
Guatemala – November 30, 2001
Mexico – November 30, 2001
United States – November 16, 2001

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Oceania

Australia – November 29, 2001
New Zealand – November 29, 2001

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South America

Argentina – November 29, 2001
Brazil – November 23, 2001
Chile – November 29, 2001
Colombia – November 30, 2001
Panama – December 7, 2001
Peru – December 6, 2001
Uruguay – November 30, 2001
Venezuela – December 5, 2001

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"New HARRY POTTER Film Review!!!" - Ain't It Cool News | October 27, 2001

"HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE" - By Roger Ebert | Chicago Sun-Times | November 16, 2001

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" - Cranky Critic

"HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE" - By Mark Dujsik | Mark Reviews Movies

"Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" - NY Movie Reviews

"'Potter's' amazing powers / Movie version magical but long" - By Bob Graham | San Francisco Chronicle | May 31, 2002

"'Amazing and transfixing'" - The Telegraph | November 16, 2001

"Visually stunning 'Potter' falls short of pure magic" - By Claudia Puig | USA Today | November 16, 2001

"Slack Magic" - By J. Hoberman | The Village Voice | November 13, 2001

Awards Won

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films

Best Costumes
Judianna Makovsky

AFI Awards

Special Award
Won along with the rest of the Harry Potter films.

Art Directors Guild

Contribution to Cinematic Imagery Award
David Heyman, David Barron, David Yates, Chris Columbus, Mike Newell, Alfonso Cuarón, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves, Michael Goldenberg, Stuart Craig, Neil Lamont, Stephenie McMillan
Won along with the rest of the Harry Potter films.

Awards Circuit Community Awards

Best Original Score - 2nd Place
John Williams

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards

Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema
Won along with the rest of the Harry Potter films.

BMI Film & TV Awards

BMI Film Music Award
John Williams

Bogey Awards

Bogey Award in Titanium

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

Best Family Film - Live Action

Casting Society of America

Best Casting for Feature Film, Comedy
Jane Jenkins and Janet Hirshenson

Costume Designers Guild Awards

Excellence in Period/Fantasy Costume Design for Film
Judianna Makovsky

Empire Awards

The "Harry Potter" films for outstanding contribution to British cinema
Won along with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Evening Standard British Film Awards

Best Technical/Artistic Achievement
Stuart Craig

Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards

Best Family Film

National Board of Review Awards, USA

Special Achievement in Filmmaking
David Heyman (For "The Harry Potter Franchise - A Distinguished Translation from Book to Film")
Won along with the rest of the Harry Potter films.

Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards

Best Family Film

Publicists Guild of America

Maxwell Weinberg Award
Warner Bros.

Satellite Awards

Outstanding New Talent
Rupert Grint

Young Artist Awards

Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress
Emma Watson (tied with Scarlett Johansson for An American Rhapsody)

Most Promising Young Newcomer
Rupert Grint

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Nominations

Academy Awards

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
Stuart Craig (art director), Stephenie McMillan (set decorator)

Best Costume Design
Judianna Makovsky

Best Music, Original Score
John Williams

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films

Best Director
Chris Columbus

Best Fantasy Film

Best Make-Up
Nick Dudman, Mark Coulier, John Lambert

Best Performance by a Younger Actor
Daniel Radcliffe

Best Performance by a Younger Actor
Emma Watson

Best Special Effects
Robert Legato, Nick Davis, Roger Guyett, John Richardson

Best Supporting Actor
Robbie Coltrane

Best Supporting Actress
Maggie Smith

AFI Awards

AFI Digital Effects Artist of the Year
Robert Legato, Nick Davis, Roger Guyett

Amanda Awards (Norway)

Best Foreign Feature Film
Chris Columbus

American Cinema Editors

Best Edited Feature Film - Dramatic
Richard Francis-Bruce

Art Directors Guild

Excellence in Product Design Award - Feature Film - Period or Fantasy Films
Stuart Craig (production designer), John King (art director) Neil Lamont (art director), Andrew Ackland-Snow (art director), Peter Francis (art director), Michael Lamont (art director), Simon Lamont (art director), Steven Lawrence (art director), Lucinda Thomson (art director), Stephen Morahan (assistant art director), Dominic Masters (assistant art director), Gary Tomkins (assistant art director)

Awards Circuit Community Awards

Best Visual Effects

Awards of the Japanese Academy

Best Foreign Film

British Academy Children's Awards

Best Feature Film
David Heyman, Chris Columbus, Steve Kloves

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards

Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year
David Heyman and Chris Columbus

Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects
Robert Legato, Nick Davis, John Richardson, Roger Guyett, Jim Berney

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Robbie Coltrane

Best Costume Design
Judianna Makovsky

Best Make-Up and Hair
Amanda Knight, Eithne Fennel, Nick Dudman

Best Production Design
Stuart Craig

Best Sound
John Midgley, Eddy Joseph, Ray Merrin, Graham Daniel, Adam Daniel

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

Favorite Film Franchise
Nominated along with the rest of the Harry Potter films.

Best Young Actor/Actress
Daniel Radcliffe

Best Composer
John Williams

DVD Exclusive Awards

Best Overall New Extra Features, New Release
Paul Hemstreet, Jeffrey Lerner, Kathy Pettijohn

Empire Awards

Best Debut
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson

Best Film

Golden Trailer Awards

Best Animation/Family
Warner Bros., The Ant Farm/Imaginary Forces

Grammy Awards

Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
John Williams

Hugo Awards

Best Dramatic Presentation

Motion Picture Sound Editors

Best Sound Editing - Foreign Film
Eddy Joseph (supervising sound editor), Martin Cantwell (sound effects editor), Nick Lowe (adr editor), Colin Ritchie (dialogue editor), Peter Holt (foley editor)

MTV Movie Awards

Breakthrough Male Performance
Daniel Radcliffe

Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards

Favorite Movie

Online Film & Television Association Awards

Best Costume Design
Judianna Makovsky

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Mark Coulier, Nick Dudman, Eithne Fennel, Amanda Knight, Chris Lyons

Best Official Film Website

Best Production Design
Stuart Craig (production design), Andrew Ackland-Snow (art direction), Peter Francis (art direction), John King (art direction), Michael Lamont (art direction), Neil Lamont (art direction), Simon Lamont (art direction), Steven Lawrence (art direction), Lucinda Thomson (art direction), Stephenie McMillan (set decoration)

Best Visual Effects
Robert Legato, Nick Davis, Roger Guyett, John Richardson

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
Steve Kloves

Best Youth Performance
Rupert Grint

Best Youth Performance
Daniel Radcliffe

People's Choice Awards

Favorite Movie Fan Following
Nominated along with the rest of the Harry Potter films.

PGA Awards

Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
David Heyman

Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards

Best Costume Design
Judianna Makovsky

Best Newcomer
Daniel Radcliffe

Best Original Score
John Williams

Best Production Design
Stuart Craig

Best Visual Effects
Robert Legato, Nick Davis, John Richardson, Roger Guyett

Best Youth Performance
Emma Watson

Satellite Awards

Best Art Direction
Stuart Craig

Best DVD Extras
(For "Harry Potter Years 1-4")
Nominated along with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Best Film Editing
Richard Francis-Bruce

Best Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media

Best Visual Effects
Robert Legato, Nick Davis, John Richardson, Roger Guyett

Best Youth DVD
(For "Harry Potter: The Complete 8 Film Collection")
Nominated along with the rest of the Harry Potter films. 

Teen Choice Awards

Film - Choice Movie, Drama/Action Adventure

Young Artist Awards

Best Ensemble in a Feature Film
Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Tom Felton

Best Family Feature Film - Drama

Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor
Tom Felton

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• Robbie Coltrane was the very first person to be cast.
• Richard Harris only agreed to take the part of Albus Dumbledore after his eleven-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again.
• Author J.K. Rowling insisted that the principal cast be British and she got her wish, with two exceptions - Richard Harris was, of course, Irish, and Zoë Wanamaker, though she has made her name as a "British" actress, is actually a US citizen. Other non-Brits in the cast include Verne Troyer, born in Michigan, USA, who plays Griphook (the second Goblin in Gringotts Bank) and Christopher Columbus's daughter, Eleanor, who played Susan Bones.
• Steven Spielberg was offered the position as director but was later refused when he couldn't agree with J.K. Rowling's insistence on an all-British cast. He wanted to use Haley Joel Osment for the part of Harry.
• In addition to Steven Spielberg, other candidates for the director's job were Jonathan Demme, Brad Silberling, and Terry Gilliam. Gilliam was Rowling's initial favorite but the studio finally picked Chris Columbus to direct because he had experience directing child actors. Columbus was also asked many times by his daughter to direct and he agreed after he read her book.
• Tom Felton's grandfather appears in the film at the start-of-term feast, the Halloween feast, and the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin as a Hogwarts professor.
• The trouble-making poltergeist Peeves (played by Rik Mayall) does not, in the end, appear in the movie.
• Although Daniel Radcliffe's voice broke during production, he did speak all the lines in the movie. The scenes were filmed in order, and his voice changes slowly throughout the movie. It was erroneously reported by a London tabloid that a young actor who spoke lines for the action figure dubbed his lines in the movie.
• There was a huge media outcry in Gloucester, England when it was decided to use the local Cathedral for some of the Hogwarts scenes. Protesters wrote letters by the sack-load to local newspapers, claiming it was blasphemy and promising to block the film crew's access. In the end, only one protester turned up.
• The movie is known as "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" everywhere except the US, and so every scene in which the Sorcerer's Stone was mentioned was filmed twice, once with the actors saying "Philosopher's" and once with the actors saying "Sorcerer's."
• The hut used during the filming as Hagrid's hut has since been demolished in case fans of the film swamped it.
• The tabby cat used ran away during filming and came back two days later.
• Platform nine and three-quarters was filmed at King's Cross but on Platforms 4 and 5. J.K. Rowling has admitted that she mixed up the layout of London's King's Cross railway station when she assigned the Hogwarts Express to Platform 9 3/4, reached by using magic between Platforms 9 and 10. She meant the location to be in the inner-city part of the station, but 9 and 10 are actually among the rather less grand suburban platforms. The movie conformed to Rowling's original intent: the platforms seen as 9 and 10 are in real life inter-city Platforms 4 and 5.
• During filming, actor Daniel Radcliffe changed the screen on Robbie Coltrane's cell phone to Turkish. Coltrane had to phone hair designer Eithne Fennel's Turkish father in order to find out the Turkish for "change language."
• At one point, when Harry, Hermione, and Ron are approaching Hagrid, the latter can be seen playing a wind instrument. He is playing "Hedwig's Theme."
• Among the portraits on the shifting staircase, you can clearly see a painting of Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII's second wife and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. Anne Boleyn was popularly believed to be a witch.
• This movie has the distinction of opening on more screens in the USA than any other (3762).
• By February 2002, this was the second highest grossing film worldwide after Titanic.
• Harry Potter's birthday is reported in the books as being "somewhere in July." Author J.K. Rowling and actors Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon) were all reported to have their birthdays on July 31. It was later revealed that Radcliffe's birthday is, in fact, July 23 and that the claim that his birthday was the same as Harry Potter's was merely a publicity stunt.
• On the Quidditch trophy that has Harry's father's name on it, there are additional inscriptions for M. McGonagall and R.J.H. King.
• The name of Filch's cat ("Mrs. Norris") is not mentioned anywhere in the movie, nor is the name of Harry's owl ("Hedwig").
• Harry does not cast a single spell in the entire film.
• The inscription around the Mirror of Erised says: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. Reading the inscription backward it says, "I show not your face but your heart's desire."
• The word "bloody" appears in the film six times, along with one "arse," one "bugger," and two "blasted"s. This, and some very scary scenes in the Forbidden Forest, led to its PG certificate.
• The film reveals that the twelfth use for dragon's blood is an oven cleaner.
• Nicholas Flamel, mentioned as the creator of the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone, was actually a real alchemist who was believed by some people to have produced the Philosopher's Stone and who has mysterious circumstances surrounding his "death." It is rumored that he might still be alive, and if so, he would be about the age given in the book and movie.
• The Hogwarts motto, "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus" means "never tickle a sleeping dragon."
• Three owls play Hedwig, Ook, Gizmo, and Sprout, but mainly Ook.
• In the final credits, Will Theakston is mistakenly credited as playing Marcus Flint and Scott Fern is also erroneously credited with playing Terence Higgs. Warner Bros., apparently, mixed up their names and characters when they released a memo to the press (they subsequently corrected their mistake with the press), however, they failed to correct the credits thus the mistake remains (for the record, Will Theakston played Terence Higgs and Scott Fern played Marcus Flint).
• Warwick Davis, who played Professor Flitwick and the first Gringotts Goblin, also provided the voice for Griphook who was physically played by Verne Troyer.
• In the original draft, Drew Barrymore, a self-proclaimed Harry Potter fan, had a cameo.
• John Williams composed a piece of music specifically for the movie's trailer, and it is found on the soundtrack as "The Prologue." As of March 2002, he has done this only once before, for Steven Spielberg's Hook.
• Rosie O'Donnell and Robin Williams were two of the celebrities who had asked for a role in the movie without pay. However, they did not film any scenes for the movie.
• Tim Roth was a leading contender for the role of Professor Severus Snape. Roth dropped out of contention, however, to pursue his role as General Thade in Tim Burton's adaptation of Planet of the Apes.
• In the script, the flashbacks to Voldemort killing Harry's parents were written by J.K. Rowling herself. The producers knew she was the only one who knew exactly what happened.
• The Hogwarts Express locomotive in this film is portrayed by the 1937 GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall. It has been on display at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter since 2015.
• Alan Rickman was hand-picked to play Snape by J.K. Rowling.
• In the troll scene in the girls' bathroom, Daniel Radcliffe isn't actually on the troll's neck because the motions would have snapped his neck; therefore, his image was digitally added.
• In the trophy cupboard, to the right of the Quidditch trophy, you can see the "Service to the School" trophy with part of "Tom M. Riddle" engraved on it.
• In the wizard chess set that Harry and Ron play with, the red queen is from the Lewis Chessmen, the most important of all chess pieces dating from the 12th century. They were found in 1831 on a beach in Uig, Lewis. 78 pieces were recovered in all and are now in the care of the National Museum of Scotland and the British Museum in London.
• For the Gringotts interior scenes, the Australian Embassy in London was used. The exteriors are the Silver Vaults located not far from the Australian Embassy.
• In August 2020, Sorcerer's Stone became the second film in the Harry Potter film franchise to cross $1 billion worldwide at the box office, doing so 19 years after its original release. This is due to the fact that a 4K 3D version of the movie was released in China when movie theaters there eased up on indoor capacity restrictions months after the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first film in the franchise to cross $1 billion worldwide at the box office was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.

Information courtesy of IMDb.