From Golden Globes to Oscars

So if the 70th Golden Globes Awards are any indication, come Oscar time, some of my personal favorites should be right in line to win some of the best awards in the show. Held on January 13 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Golden Globes are one of the most prestigious awards during award season and are a good indicator of potential Oscar winners. Movie fans and critics pay close attention to the Golden Globes to gauge the success of certain actors, films and other technical marks to see just where the chips will fall come Oscar time; and if you are a gambler, you can even skirt some of those Vegas odds as well.

This year at the Golden Globes, one of my personal favorites managed to take away several awards for his film. Ben Affleck managed to snag the Golden Globe for Best Director for his film Argo. Argo also managed to snag the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama. This is great news for the film as it is also nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but this is perhaps even more significant as vindication for Affleck who was snubbed by the Academy for directing nods. Hopefully Steven Spielberg can take home his third award for Best Director in Affleck’s absence. Winning the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical was Les Miserables, which is also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. For my taste, I am actually hoping that Zero Dark Thirty takes home the Oscar in the Best Picture category, though that seems like a tall order going against Argo, Lincoln and Les Miserables.

Les Miserables’ win for Musical or Comedy is also great news for Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway who both won Golden Globes for Best Actor Performance in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Supporting Actress Performance in a Motion Picture, respectively. The two are also nominated for similar awards, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, at the Academy Awards as well. Personally, I thought that the awards should have gone to Ewan McGregor (for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen), and who was completely snubbed by the Academy, and Amy Adams for The Master and is also nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.

Daniel Day-Lewis took home the Golden Globe for Best Actor Performance in a Motion Picture – Drama, a feat that I also hope he can achieve at the Academy Awards over Hugh Jackman and several other Best Actor nominees. Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence each won Best Actress Performances in a Motion Picture, Chastain for Drama and Lawrence for Musical or Comedy, and both are nominees for an Oscar in the Best Actress category. My choice would be to have Chastain win the Academy Award for her role as well. And Christoph Waltz managed to snag the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor Performance in a Motion Picture, something that I hope also translates to an Oscar win for him in the Best Supporting Actor category there as well.

Winning the Best Screenplay Golden Globe was Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Hopefully it can also pick up the Best Writing (Original Screenplay) award at the Oscars as well. Though Argo was also nominated for the same Golden Globe, hopefully it can win for the Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) award at the Oscars.

Life of Pi snagged the Golden Globe for Best Original Score, and is also nominated for Best Music (Original Score) at the Academy Awards. Personally, I would like the Oscar to go to Alexandre Desplat for his work on Argo. Winning the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, and hopefully also winning the Academy Award for Best Music (Original Song), was Adele for her soulful rendition of the theme song for Skyfall, an honor she shares with song writer Paul Epworth.

While Brave may have won the Golden Globe award for Best Animated Feature Film, I hope at the Academy Awards next month Wreck-It Ralph manages to take the win. Both were great films and both coming from the Disney family of studios. As for Best Foreign Language Film, Amour won the Golden Globe for its sweet and endearing story – a feat that I also hope it repeats at the Oscars in their Best Foreign Language Film category. Though, to be honest, I really only saw one film from both Foreign Film categories and it just happened to be Amour.

This is a good race this awards season for many of my personal favorites this year. And just because someone or film wins at the Golden Globes doesn’t necessarily translate to an automatic Academy Awards win. As the Academy has proven time and again over the years, they are anything but predictable; sometimes a bit outlandish and farfetched, but never predictable. So be sure to check out the 85th Academy Awards when they air on February 23 to see if any of the Golden Globe winners take home an Oscar as well.

Check back tomorrow for my thoughts on the Television section of the 70th Golden Globe Awards. For a full list of Golden Globe nominees and winners, check out the following list:

Best Motion Picture – Drama

Argo (Winner)

Django Unchained

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Zero Dark Thirty

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Les Miserables (Winner)

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Moonrise Kingdom

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Silver Linings Playbook

Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Drama

Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln (Winner)

Richard Gere for Arbitrage

John Hawkes for The Sessions

Joaquin Phoenix for The Master

Denzel Washington for Flight

Actress

Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty (Winner)

Marion Cotillard for Rust and Bone

Helen Mirren for Hitchcock

Naomi Watts for The Impossible

Rachel Weisz for The Deep Blue Sea

Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Actor

Hugh Jackman for Les Misérables (Winner)

Jack Black for Bernie

Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook

Ewan McGregor for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Bill Murray for Hyde Park on Hudson

Actress

Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook (Winner)

Emily Blunt for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Judi Dench for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Maggie Smith for Quartet

Meryl Streep for Hope Springs

Best Supporting Actor

Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained (Winner)

Alan Arkin for Argo

Leonardo DiCaprio for Django Unchained

Phillip Seymour Hoffman for The Master

Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln

Best Supporting Actress

Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables (Winner)

Amy Adams for The Master

Sally Field for Lincoln

Helen Hunt for The Sessions

Nicole Kidman for The Paperboy

Best Director

Ben Affleck for Argo (Winner)

Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty

Ang Lee for Life of Pi

Steven Spielberg for Lincoln

Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained

Best Screenplay

Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained (Winner)

Chris Terrio for Argo

Tony Kushner for Lincoln

David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook

Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty

Best Original Score

Mychael Danna for Life of Pi (Winner)

Dario Marianelli for Anna Karenina

Alexandre Desplat for Argo

John Williams for Lincoln

Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil for Cloud Atlas

Best Original Song

“Skyfall” by Adele and Paul Epworth for Skyfall (Winner)

“For You” by Keith Urban and Michael McDevitt for Act of Valor

“Not Running Anymore” by Jon Bon Jovi for Stand Up Guys

“Safe & Sound” by Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars for The Hunger Games

“Suddenly” by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer for Les Misérables

Best Animated Feature Film

Brave (Winner)

Frankenweenie

Hotel Transylvania

Rise of the Guardians

Wreck-It Ralph

Best Foreign Language Film

Amour (Winner)

A Royal Affair

The Intouchables

Rust and Bone

Kon-Tiki