Tagged: Golden Globes

Golden Globe Nominations Announced

Golden GlobesWe have arrived at the most wonderful time of the year to be a movie buff (unless you are a more high falutin cinephile who likes to think of lists and awards as being trivial and beneath them). December brings with it a flurry of top ten lists and the first round of nominations for the award season. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced its nominees for the 2014 Golden Globe awards. As always the Golden Globes only give a slight indication of how things will pan out come Oscar time, particularly as the Globes divide categories between Drama and Musical or Comedy. However, we can none the less start in earnest to speculate as to who will be in the mix when Oscar nominations are announced on 16th January 2014.

Best Motion Picture – Drama

  • 12 Years a Slave
  • Captain Phillips
  • Gravity
  • Rush
  • Philomena

If this award were to go to anything other than 12 Years a Slave or Gravity it can be considered quite an upset. It will be interesting to see which way this goes. There was no other film that got quite the overwhelming response that Gravity did, but 12 Years a Slave is also a brilliant and important film which is a much more traditional ‘Best Picture’ type.

My tip: 12 Years a Slave

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

  • Nebraska
  • American Hustle
  • The Wolf of Wall Street
  • Inside Llewyn Davis
  • Her

Again, this would appear to be a two horse race between American Hustle and Inside Llewyn Davis, with these two films plus the two favourites from the other best picture category likely to be the four main contenders for the Oscar. The fact that Joel Coen didn’t get a directing nomination might swing things in the favour of David O. Russell’s film.

My tip: American Hustle

Best Director

  • Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)
  • Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
  • David O. Russell (American Hustle)
  • Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips)
  • Alexander Payne (Nebraska)

Where this category is usually dominated by the directors from the best drama field there is a bit more of a mix this year with David O. Russell and Alexander Payne representing the musical or comedy category. While it is yet to be seen if voters consider Gravity to be Best Picture material, there is no doubt that it is a directorial achievement and it is not without precedent to see directors rewarded for amazing technical achievements (see Ang Lee’s Oscar win last year). In all, this is probably the strongest contested field at this year’s Golden Globes.

My tip: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

Best Actor – Drama

  • Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
  • Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
  • Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)
  • Robert Redford (All is Lost)
  • Idris Elba (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom)

An interesting field featuring veterans (Hanks and Redford), breakout performances (Ejiofor and Elba) and someone who is slowly but surely becoming quite an impressive actor (McConaughey). For mine, Redford’s work in All is Lost is the most impressive acting I’ve seen this year, but it also feels like the kind of film that will get overlooked. Don’t be surprised if momentum builds behind Tom Hanks and he’s an unbackable favourite by the time the Oscars come around.

My tip: Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)

Best Actor – Musical or Comedy

  • Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
  • Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
  • Christian Bale (American Hustle)
  • Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis)
  • Joaquin Phoenix (Her)

It’s great to see an old dog in Bruce Dern back in the mix and Christian Bale’s amazing fluctuating weight gets him in the frame again, but Joaquin Phoenix was so impressive in Her, performing the majority of the film only with a disembodied voice to play off, so I’d be inclined to go that way.

My tip: Joaquin Phoenix (Her)

Best Actress – Drama

  • Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
  • Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
  • Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)
  • Judi Dench (Philomena)
  • Kate Winslet (Labor Day)

There is a bit of a usual suspects feel to this category with every nominee being a previous Golden Globe and Oscar winner. Cate Blanchett would seem hard to beat in this category unless the voters go left field for something out of left field and opt for Dench.

My tip: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Actress – Musical or Comedy

  • Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
  • Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Enough Said)
  • Amy Adams (American Hustle)
  • Julie Delpy (Before Midnight)
  • Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha)

The amazing Meryl Streep gets her obligatory nomination here, but this one will likely come down to Amy Adams and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

My tip: Amy Adams (American Hustle)

Best Supporting Actor

  • Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
  • Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
  • Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
  • Daniel Brühl (Rush)
  • Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)

Michael Fassbender has done the best work of his career when under the direction of Steve McQueen and his performance as the violent Epps in 12 Years a Slave will likely see him edge out Brühl and Abdi for the honours.

My tip: Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)

Best Supporting Actress

  • Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)
  • Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
  • Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
  • June Squibb (Nebraska)
  • Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

Lupita Nyong’o was very impressive in 12 Years a Slave, her first feature film role, and Sally Hawkins earned praise for her work opposite Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine, but 2013 has been Jennifer Lawrence’s year and her combination with David O. Russell should see her strike gold again.

My tip: Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

Best Screenplay

  • John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)
  • Bob Nelson (Nebraska)
  • Eric Warren and David O. Russell (American Hustle)
  • Jeff Pope (Philomena)
  • Spike Jonze (Her)

There are five very good screenplays nominated in this category but none is as bold as Spike Jonze’s for Her. His screenplay takes a scenario which could easily have been silly and makes it incredibly sincere and heartfelt and, as such, despite being an outsider I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he won.

My tip: Spike Jonze (Her)

Best Animated Feature

  • Frozen
  • The Croods
  • Dispicable Me 2

This has to be the least inspiring collection of animated films in recent memory. It doesn’t help that there is no contribution from Pixar or Studio Ghibli, the two most consistently excellent producers of animation in recent years. As such, Disney’s Frozen, an old-fashioned feeling Disney movie, is probably favourite be default.

My tip: Frozen

Best Foreign Language Film

  • Blue is the Warmest Color
  • The Past
  • The Hunt
  • The Wind Rises
  • The Great Beauty

This category lacks the out and out favourite it had last year in Amour, but there are a number of strong contenders. Blue is the Warmest Color, The Hunt and The Great Beauty have all made a bit of noise, winning numerous awards. It could go to any of those three, though Blue is the Warmest Color is probably the favourite at this stage.

My tip: The Hunt

The Golden Globes will be held on 12th January 2014

 

Five Oscar Nomination Surprises

Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone announce the nominees for Best Picture

Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone announce the nominees for Best Picture

At 5:30am Los Angeles time, Oscars host Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone announced the nominees for the 85th Academy Awards. While there were a few categories which panned out exactly as expected, the nominations did throw up more than the usual number of surprises. Here are five of the biggest…

1) Only 9 in the Best Picture

There were a few notable omissions in the Best Picture category. Moonrise Kingdom, The Master, The Sessions and, to a lesser extent, Skyfall had all been talked about as Best Picture contenders but all were notably absent from the nominees announced. What makes that even more surprising is the Academy chose only to give out nine of a possible ten nominations. So it wasn’t even that these films were simply squeezed out by other worthy pictures, rather they were deemed not worthy of a nomination.

2) Amour gets some love

It is not often that a foreign language film gets Academy recognition outside of the Best Foreign Language Film category. So it was somewhat of a surprise to see Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner, Amour, pick up five nominations including Best Picture and Best Director. If nothing else it means that Amour will be the shortest of short priced favourites to win the Best Foreign Language Film category.

3) Big names missing in the Best Director field

It was the Best Director nominations which contained the biggest surprises, primarily as a result of who wasn’t there. Ben Affleck, Quentin Tarantino and Kathryn Bigelow had all been talked about as serious contenders to take the award home, yet none of them managed to get a nomination. The most obvious beneficiaries of these ‘snubbings’ are the surprise – unexpected but not undeserved – nominations of Michael Haneke and Behn Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild).

4) Silver Lining Support

The surprise nominations in both the Supporting Actor and Actress categories both came from Silver Linings Playbook. Robert De Niro had only received a handful of lead up nominations, none of them major, for his role as Pat Sr. His surprise nomination means that there wasn’t room for some more fancied possible nominees, particularly Django Unchained’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson. Australian Jackie Weaver came from right out of left field to score a nomination in the Supporting Actress category having not received any lead up nominations, other than as part of an ensemble cast. The Golden Globes and SAG nominations had opted for Nicole Kidman (The Paperboy) or Maggie Smith (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) to round of their fields, but neither seem any more deserving than Weaver.

5) The Dark Knight does not rise

While I don’t think anyone was realistically expecting The Dark Knight Rises to earn a best picture nomination, most would have expected it to figure somewhere (maybe in visual effect?), but instead it became the highest profile film to be completely overlooked by the Academy this year.

Golden Globe Nominations Announced

Only one day after we got the SAG nominations, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association have announced the nominations for the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards. There are more categories here than there are in the SAGs as we are looking beyond just acting, so it gives us our first real taste of who will be Oscar contenders. And there are a couple of differences already between what we saw yesterday and what the HFPA announced today.

Best Motion Picture – Drama

  • Argo
  • Django Unchained
  • The Life of Pi
  • Lincoln
  • Zero Dark Thirty

One of the things which makes the Golden Globes a tricky guide for Oscar form is that films are separated into dramas and musicals/comedies. That means, in this case, Les Miserables and Silver Linings Playbook are both in a different category to most of the other films they will be battling it out with come Oscar time. While Django Unchained was notably absent in the SAG nominations, it is there for the Golden Globes and should be a major player. Again, The Master is notably absent, and after so much hype when it first hit the festival circuit it may end up falling by the wayside. That being said, the Oscars have ten nominations in the Best Picture category, and only two or maybe three of the films in the next category are a realistic chance of a Best Picture Oscar nod so The Master may sneak in. Zero Dark Thirty is creating some great buzz before it’s cinematic release, already topping a few best of 2012 lists, but I can’t help but feel that this might be the year that Tarantino gets the recognition that has eluded him thus far.

My Tip: Django Unchained

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

  • The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
  • Les Miserables
  • Moonrise Kingdom
  • Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
  • Silver Linings Playbook

For mine, this list involves a top three – Les Miserables, Moonrise Kingdom and Silver Linings Playbook – and then there is quite a drop off to the also-rans.

My Tip: Les Miserables

Best Director

  • Ben Affleck (Argo)
  • Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)
  • Ang Lee (The Life of Pi)
  • Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)
  • Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)

Unsurprisingly, the best director nominations list lines up perfectly with the best picture – drama nominations. Ben Affleck has proven himself to be one of the brightest young directorial talents going around following Gone Baby Gone and The Town with Argo, and it is great to see him getting recognition, but I can’t see him winning this category. I find it interesting that Kathryn Bigelow is establishing herself as the best director working in the war/combat genre. For mine this category will come down to Tarantino vs Bigelow. Spielberg could be a player, but I get the feeling that Lincoln is a bit too much of an ‘award bait’ picture and that might turn some voters off.

My Tip: Quentin Tarantino

Best Actor – Drama

  • Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)
  • Richard Gere (Arbitage)
  • John Hawks (The Sessions)
  • Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)
  • Denzel Washington (Flight)

My Tip: Daniel Day-Lewis

Best Actor – Musical or Comedy

  • Jack Black (Bernie)
  • Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)
  • Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables)
  • Ewan McGregor (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen)
  • Bill Murray (Hyde Park on Hudson)

My Tip: Hugh Jackman

Best Actress – Drama

  • Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)
  • Marion Cotillard (Rust and Bone)
  • Helen Mirren (Hitchcock)
  • Naomi Watts (The Impossible)
  • Rachel Weisz (The Deep Blue Sea)

It is interesting that four of the five nominations for best actress at the SAG awards fall into this category. I still think it comes down to Cotillard or Chastain.

My Tip: Marion Cotillard

Best Actress – Musical or Comedy

  • Emily Blunt (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen)
  • Judi Dench (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel)
  • Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
  • Maggie Smith (The Quartet)
  • Meryl Streep (Hope Springs)

Jennifer Lawrence is the only one from this field who earned a SAG nomination (technically Maggie Smith did but it was for a different performance), and she’s up against a couple of Dames and the most nominated actress of all time in Meryl Streep. It would be a surprise, to say the least, if Meryl was to win here.

My Tip: Jennifer Lawrence

Best Supporting Actor

  • Alan Arkin (Argo)
  • Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained)
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)
  • Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)
  • Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

For the supporting awards the categories are not divided into dramas and musicals/comedies. This is the category where Django Unchained was most notably absent in the SAG nominations and, lo and behold, we see both DiCaprio and Waltz making their way into the field.

My Tip: Philip Seymour Hoffman

Best Supporting Actress

  • Amy Adams (The Master)
  • Sally Field (Lincoln)
  • Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)
  • Helen Hunt (The Sessions)
  • Nicole Kidman (The Paperboy)

Amy Adams comes into the field that was nominated for SAGs at the expense of Maggie Smith.

My Tip: Anne Hathaway

Best Screenplay

  • Argo – Chris Terrio
  • Django Unchained – Quentin Tarantino
  • Lincoln – Tony Kushner
  • Silver Linings Playbook – David O. Russell
  • Zero Dark Thirty – Mark Boal

Similar to the best picture – drama field, except that David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook screenplay comes in for The Life of Pi.

My Tip: Django Unchained

Best Animated Feature

  • Brave
  • Frankenweenie
  • Hotel Transylvania
  • Rise of the Guardians
  • Wreck-it-Ralph

This is an interesting year for this category because, for once, Pixar failed to live up to expectations. Brave lacked Pixar’s usual spark and as such this category is wide open.

My Tip: Wreck-it Ralph

Best Foreign Language Film

  • Amour
  • Kon-Tiki
  • The Intouchables
  • A Royal Affair
  • Rust and Bone

The Intouchables will no doubt be the popular favourite in this category. It has been a huge box-office success and one of the feel-good movies of the year. However, the critical response has not quite been as unanimous as the popular praise so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was passed over.

My Tip: Amour

The Golden Globes will be held on 13th January 2013