Ben Affleck may not be able to win Best Director at the Oscars as he has now done at both the Critics’ Choice Awards and Golden Globe Awards, but you better believe with Argo also winning Best Picture at both awards shows we now have something to talk about when it comes to the front-runners for Best Picture at the Oscars.
Granted, both the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards are chosen by critics, but there is some measure of trickle effect when it comes to these things and two big precursor awards while the Academy is still voting and members are attending these shows does not go unnoticed.
Argo took home Best Picture (Drama) and Les Miserables ended up taking home three Globes including Best Picture (Comedy/Musical), Best Actor (Comedy/Musical) for Hugh Jackman and Best Supporting Actress to Anne Hathaway.
Les Miserables chances at the Oscars have been murky. The film managed a solid eight Oscar nominations, tying Silver Linings Playbook, which went home with one win tonight for Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress (Comedy/Musical) and one of the night’s better speeches. Following the Oscar noms it looked like the conversation would simply be leading nomination getter Lincoln versus Life of Pi and the Harvey Weinstein machine pushing Silver Linings Playbook. However, tonight’s awards and last Thursday’s Critics’ Choice Awards show this is a race that’s wide open.
Curious thing for Argo supporters will be the fact that only three films have ever won Best Picture without a Best Director nomination and the last time was Driving Miss Daisy in 1990. Before that you have to go back to the very first Oscar awards and Wings and then 1932 with Grand Hotel. The stats aren’t in Argo‘s favor, but boy these precursor awards tell a different story.
Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln) did the inevitable and took home Best Actor (Drama) and Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) won for Best Actress (Drama), which was a win that actually surprised me. Not because I thought Chastain was bad, I thought she was great, but because I didn’t think the Hollywood Foreign Press would go for something so ambiguous. I like being proved wrong in this case.
While Supporting Actress was a no-brainer with Anne Hathaway, Supporting Actor wasn’t in the same boat as anyone could have won. Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln) seemed like the obvious favorite, but hardly a sure thing. Well, sure enough, Christoph Waltz won for Django Unchained in a bit of a surprise and the movie followed that win up with a win for Quentin Tarantino for Best Screenplay.
I can’t say I was surprised to see Brave win for Best Animated Feature as much as it simply shouldn’t have won, but I was surprised to see Amour take Best Foreign Language as I thought for sure the HFPA would go with the lighter feature in The Intouchables.
As far as the show was concerned, I thought Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did a great job, and while I can understand why shows like the Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards decide to go with the TV awards first, I don’t understand why they let them babble on and on and on so that by the time you get to the end of the show the movie winners are being rushed off the stage. If you are keeping the movie awards until the end it must be because you know that’s what people came to see and yet you are rushing them off the stage while other winners won’t shut up? I just don’t get it.
Overall, it was a solid night and tomorrow I will be updating my Oscar vs. Golden Globe Awards article with the 2013 edition so we can take a look and see just what kind of information we can gain from tonight, if any.
Otherwise, I have included all of the nominees below and highlighted the night’s winners in bold red text.
BEST PICTURE (DRAMA)
- Argo
- Django Unchained
- Life of Pi
- Lincoln
- Zero Dark Thirty
BEST PICTURE (COMEDY/MUSICAL)
- The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
- Les Miserables
- Moonrise Kingdom
- Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
- Silver Linings Playbook
BEST ACTOR (DRAMA)
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
- Richard Gere, Arbitrage
- John Hawkes, The Sessions
- Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
- Denzel Washington, Flight
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
BEST ACTOR (COMEDY/MUSICAL)
- Jack Black, Bernie
- Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
- Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
- Ewan McGregor, Salman Fishing in the Yemen
- Bill Murray, Hyde Park on Hudson
BEST ACTRESS (COMEDY/MUSICAL)
- Emily Blunt, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
- Judi Dench, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
- Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
- Maggie Smith, Quartet
- Meryl Streep, Hope Springs
SUPPORTING ACTOR
- Alan Arkin, Argo
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
- Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
- Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- Amy Adams, The Master
- Sally Field, Lincoln
- Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
- Helen Hunt, The Sessions
- Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy
DIRECTOR
- Ben Affleck, Argo
- Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
- Ang Lee, Life of Pi
- Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
- Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
ANIMATED FILM
- Brave
- Frankenweenie
- Hotel
- Rise of the Guardians
- Wreck-It Ralph
SCREENPLAY
- Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty
- Tony Kushner, Lincoln
- David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
- Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
- Chris Terrio, Argo
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
- Amour
- A Royal Affiar
- The Intouchables
- Kon Tiki
- Rust and Bone
ORIGINAL SCORE
- Life of Pi
- Argo
- Anna Karenina
- Cloud Atlas
- Lincoln
ORIGINAL SONG
- “For You” from Act of Valor
- “Not Running Anymore” from Stand Up Guys
- “Safe and Sound” from The Hunger Games
- “Skyfall” from Skyfall
- “Suddenly” from Les Miserables
Cecil B. deMille Award
- Jodie Foster
The television winners and nominees are on the next page…
