Earlier this evening, The 69th Annual Golden Globe awards were handed out at a ceremony hosted by Ricky Gervais. Gervais, much tamer than last year, still managed to deliver quite a few laughs during a ceremony where not many surprises were to be had. In fact, I was able to predict correctly 10/14 categories.
The biggest surprise of the night was probably that The Adventures of Tintin was able to beat Rango for Best Animated Feature. Rango has been the clear frontrunner throughout awards season while Tintin has only managed to win a small handful of critics awards. I actually found Tintin to be far superior to Rango, so this was a pleasant surprise.
The hardest category for me to predict this year was Best Original Song. I predicted that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (the group that votes on these awards) would go with Elton John‘s “Hello Hello” from Gnomeo and Juliet, but instead they chose Madonna‘s “Masterpiece,” a song that was rather bland. However, the HFPA has already proven that they’re quite tonedeaf, having given Best Song to a selection from Burlesque last year.
Best Director was a small surprise. With the love of The Artist, I expected Michel Hazanavicius to take the award, though I was finding it hard to count Marty out, and then, all of a sudden, there was Scorsese accepting his third Best Director Golden Globe for his amazing work on Hugo.
The last surprise came in the Best Actress in a Drama category. I was expecting this to go to Viola Davis, who had recently won the BFCA’s awards for Best Actress, for her outstanding performance in The Help. However, Meryl Streep ended up taking it for The Iron Lady, making this her eighth win.
There were no surprises to be had in the top categories. The Artist deservingly took Best Musical/Comedy despite it being more of a drama, and The Descendants took Best Drama despite it not being as good as the other five nominees. However, when the films are combined for the Oscars, it still seems like The Artist will have the advantage as it’s been the clear frontrunner throughout awards season.
We’ll know for sure who has the best chance at winning Best Picture when the Producers Guild of America announces their award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures on the 21st.
Please see below for a complete recap of the Golden Globe winners for motion pictures:
Best Motion Picture — Drama: “The Descendants”
Best Motion Picture — Comedy or Musical: “The Artist”
Best Director — Motion Picture: Martin Scorsese, “Hugo”
Best Actress — Drama: Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”
Best Actor — Drama: George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Best Actress — Comedy or Musical: Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn”
Best Actor — Comedy or musical: Jean Dujardin, “The Artist
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, “The Help”
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”
Best Screenplay: Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris”
Best Original Score: Ludovic Bource – “The Artist”
Best Original Song: “Masterpiece” — W.E., Madonna, Julie Frost, Jimmy Harry
Best Animated Feature Film: “The Adventures of Tintin”
Best Foreign Language Film: “A Separation” (Iran)