From Deadline
Golden Globes Film: HFPA Spreads Wealth As Tightest Awards Race In Years Accelerates
| Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 8:37am PST
Christmas came early for Hollywood this year, as it usually does, with the announcement this morning of the Golden Globe nominations. Ever quirky but dependable in its ability to spread the wealth by way of splitting major contenders into Drama or Comedy/Musical, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has further clarified the race. The group gave multiple key nominations to Oscar frontrunners like Argo, Life Of Pi, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables and Silver Linings Playbook as well as major impetus to the late-breaking hopes of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, which grabbed five key nominations including Picture-Drama, Director and Screenplay for Tarantino and two supporting actor nods for Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz, shaking up the supporting actor race in the process. So other than The Weinstein Company with a leading 15 nominations (Harvey really knows how to work the HFPA), who really came out on top here?
Related: Golden Globe Award Noms: Scorecard
As has been the case since Monday’s announcement of the AFI top 10 films of the year, Tuesday’s Critics Choice Movie Awards, where it led with 13 nominations, yesterday’s SAG noms, where it grabbed everything it could, and now today’s leading 7 nominations, Lincoln is
now certified at the top of the pack going into Oscar balloting, which
begins Monday. Steven Spielberg’s historical drama nabbed a nomination
in every single Globes category it was eligible (with 7 nods, the most
ever for a Spielberg film at the Globes) and made perhaps the most
impressive showing of all the nominees. To put the cherry on top for
Disney/Dreamworks, the film will hit $100 million domestically
today. But in a race that remains as tight as ever, Argo also almost ran the board, missing out as expected for producer-director Ben Affleck’s lead performance but named in 6 other categories. Zero Dark Thirty also
did what it had to do, grabbing the four key nominations
(Picture-Drama, Director for Kathryn Bigelow, Screenplay for Mark Boal,
Actress-Drama for Jessica Chastain) it was targeting. Add the
aforementioned impressive showing of Django and you have the
BIG winners of the morning as the HFPA handed out lots of gifts to each.
Correlation to actual Oscar nominations and wins is sometimes spotty
with the Globes, but because this has become such a high-profile awards
show on NBC, one of the year’s biggest, the town pays attention and, if
nothing else, the HFPA has confirmed the closeness of this race.
For two other Oscar-buzzed films, Silver Linings Playbook and Les Miserables, both the immediate front-runners for Best Picture — Musical or Comedy, the news was more of a mixed bag. Les Mis also
got nods in the Musical or Comedy category for its star Hugh Jackman in
addition to Anne Hathaway’s Supporting nom and Song, while Silver Linings also
got expected nods in the Musical-Comedy categories of Lead Actor
(Bradley Cooper) and Lead Actress (Jennifer Lawrence) along with a bid
for David O. Russell’s screenplay. But both films missed out in the
crucial Best Director category. The HFPA does not make a distinction
between Drama and Comedy-Musical in Director, Screenplay or Supporting
Acting categories, so those are usually the areas where you can separate
the men from the boys in terms of real strength, at least in this
organization. And the absence of two directors, Les Miz’s Tom Hooper and Silver Linings’ Russell
(though he did get a writing nod), is notable. It also follows a
pattern as the Globes favor directors of dramas 90% of the time — though
last year The Artist‘s Michel Hazanavicius and Woody Allen for Midnight In Paris were nominated — it
is mostly true Globe directing nods go for the more serious entries.
Interesting to note though that even as The Weinstein Company got its
wish in qualifying Django as a Drama, many members of the HFPA were grumbling after seeing it so late in the game and known to believe it was really a comedy. The
distinction is sometimes hard to discern, but nevertheless they were
clearly taken with Tarantino’s ultra-violent homage to spaghetti
Westerns no matter how it is classified. Maybe it was the Italian-ness
of it all. After all, this is the foreign press voting. Their
vote, along with mentions from AFI and the Broadcast Critics this week,
really lifts its Oscar chances as it was done without benefit of
DVD screeners and the movie didn’t even have its first unveiling until a
week and a half ago and has been on a rushed schedule of screenings
ever since.
The directing race is really turning into a barn-burner and now the ball is moving down the court to both
the DGA announcement January 8th and of course, the Oscars January
10th. There are now seven solid contenders in the Best Picture race (Argo, Django, Life Of Pi, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Silver Linings, Les Mis) with Michael Haneke’s Globe- Foreign Language Film- nominated Amour
a wild card in the Picture and Directing categories at the Oscars, but
there are only five director slots and gaining one of those is where the
game is really heading. Ang Li’s directing nod for Life Of Pi in addition to its recognition as Best Picture – Drama also keeps that technical triumph firmly in the race.
What the Globes and its meager showing in other contests this week
does is really dampen whatever hopes Paramount may have had for its big
contender, Flight , other than Denzel Washington’s lead performance and whatever prayer Focus had for Anna Karenina and its star Kiera Knightley who has been blanked all week and now at the Globes where she had her best shot. The Master also
appears now to be mainly in play in acting categories with the Globes
(in addition to the supporting nod for Philip Seymour
Hoffman) resusitating chances for Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams after
they were ignored by SAG yesterday.The omission of Silver Linings Playbook’s Robert De Niro was among the most surprising snubs to me but clearly those two Django co-stars DiCaprio and Waltz rode in an stole his thunder ( he also was too busy working to do the all-important – in terms of nominations - HFPA press conference) , as well as Magic Mike’s Matthew McConaughey whose emerging bright Oscar hopes may have dimmed without mentions at SAG and now the Globes. Too bad . He deserved the attention. Two other SAG no-shows Amour’s Emmanuelle Riva and Beasts Of The Southern Wild’s Quvenzhane Wallis (she was ineligible at SAG) also blanked here as the Globes reached back to early in the year and helped resusitate the memory of Rachel Weisz in the little-seen drama Deep Blue Sea.
In the Comedy/Musical category snubs for Globe favorite Barbra Streisand who is terrific in The Guilt Trip and Leslie Mann in Judd Apatow’s well-recieved This Is 40 surprised me. So did no mention whatsoever of Ted. Yet there were three nominations for CBS Films’ early 2012 release Salmon Fishing In The Yemen including two for stars Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor (who actually has been campaigning for his work in The Impossible , not Yemen. Go figure. Originally CBS Films had planned to open Salmon Fishing for an awards run in 2011 thinking they could get Globes attention but decided to hold it. Obviously the wait didn’t hurt.
Related: Golden Globes TV: ‘Homeland’ Tops; ‘Mad Men’ Snubbed
Projecting actual winners from this morning’s list could be fool’s folly as this looks to be a very close race, the most wide open in years but those winners will have ZERO impact on Oscar voters as , for the first time, the Academy Award nominations are going to be announced on January 10th , three days before the Golden Globes get handed out on NBC January 13th. Talk about stealing your thunder, HFPA! This thing is just getting started.
From The Playlist
'Lincoln' & 'Django Unchained' Lead 2013 Golden Globes Nominations, 'Salmon Fishing In The Yemen' This Year's Surprise
In one of the bigger weeks of the awards season (bar Oscar nominations week itself), we've already seen the LA Film Critics Awards, the Critics Choice Awards and the SAG Awards, among others, hand down their winners or nominees for the films and actors of the past twelve months. And this morning, the Academy's black sheep of a cousin (the one who turns up at family gatherings for the free booze, namedrops about the time he met Johnny Depp, then leaves), the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, have announced their nominees for their 70th Golden Globe Awards.
Generally deemed to be silly and disreputable, they nevertheless get more press coverage than most, so are still a relatively important part of the precursor season, even if it's slightly less so this year, due to the awards themselves now coming after Oscar nominations have been announced. But it's still the last chance for films and performances to make an impact before Oscar balloting opens on Monday, so they could end up making a difference to some degree or another. So how did the HFPA go this morning, when Megan Fox, Ed Helms and Jessica Alba announced the nominees.
Check the site for full anaylsis
Best Picture - Drama
"Argo"
"Django Unchained"
"Life Of Pi"
"Lincoln"
"Zero Dark Thirty"
Best Picture - Comedy/Musical
"Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"
"Les Miserables"
"Moonrise Kingdom"
"Salmon Fishing In The Yemen"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
Best Director
Ben Affleck - "Argo"
Quentin Tarantino - "Django Unchained"
Ang Lee - "Life Of Pi"
Steven Spielberg - "Lincoln"
Kathryn Bigelow - "Zero Dark Thirty"
Best Actress - Drama
Rachel Weisz - "The Deep Blue Sea"
Helen Mirren - "Hitchcock"
Naomi Watts - "The Impossible"
Marion Cotillard - "Rust And Bone"
Jessica Chastain - "Zero Dark Thirty"
Best Actor - Drama
Richard Gere - "Arbitrage"
Denzel Washington - "Flight"
Daniel Day-Lewis - "Lincoln"
Joaquin Phoenix - "The Master"
John Hawkes - "The Sessions"
Best Actress - Comedy/Musical
Judi Dench - "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"
Meryl Streep - "Hope Springs"
Maggie Smith - "Quartet"
Emily Blunt - "Salmon Fishing In The Yemen"
Jennifer Lawrence - "Silver Linings Playbook"
Best Actor - Comedy/Musical
Jack Black - "Bernie"
Bill Murray - "Hyde Park On Hudson"
Hugh Jackman - "Les Miserables"
Ewan McGregor - Salmon Fishing In The Yemen
Bradley Cooper - "Silver Linings Playbook"
Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway - "Les Miserables"
Sally Field - "Lincoln"
Amy Adams - "The Master"
Nicole Kidman - "The Paperboy"
Helen Hunt - "The Sessions"
Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin - "Argo"
Christoph Waltz - "Django Unchained"
Leonardo DiCaprio - "Django Unchained"
Tommy Lee Jones - "Lincoln"
Philip Seymour Hoffman - "The Master"
Best Screenplay
Chris Terrio - "Argo"
Quentin Tarantino - "Django Unchained"
Tony Kushner - "Lincoln"
David O Russell - "Silver Linings Playbook"
Mark Boal - "Zero Dark Thirty"
Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat - "Argo"
Dario Marianeli - "Anna Karenina"
Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil - "Cloud Atlas"
Mychael Danna - "Life Of Pi"
John Williams - "Lincoln"
Best Original Song
Keith Urban - "For You" ("Act Of Valor")
Taylor Swift - "Safe & Sound" ("The Hunger Games")
Hugh Jackman - "Suddenly" ("Les Miserables")
Adele - "Skyfall" ("Skyfall")
Jon Bon Jovi - "Not Running Anymore" - ("Stand Up Guys")
Best Animated Feature Film
"Brave"
"Frankenweenie"
"Hotel Transylvania"
"Rise Of The Guardians"
"Wreck-It Ralph"
Best Foreign Film
"Amour"
"The Intouchables"
"Kon-Tiki"
"A Royal Affair"
"Rust & Bone"
