Ryan McNeil
So yesterday the Golden Globe Award nominees were announced. pardon me while I stifle a yawn.
Just a few short years ago, I looked at them as the Oscar precursor. That was before I realized how The Hollywood Foreign Press Association were actually primarily starstruck fans…who tended to nominate stars that they wanted to meet and appease. Couple that with the fact that they’ve been calling more and more categories wrong in recent years, and it leaves me more than a tad disenchanted.
Still, for what it’s worth…
…UP IN THE AIR was the big leader with 6 nominations (Six? That’s it??).
…There had to be a way to nominate Meryl twice without making her compete against herself.
…There also had to be a way to avoid nominating Sandra Bullock twice.
…While we’re at it…Julia Roberts and Robert Downey Jr…really?
…On the flip side, I was quite pleased to see love for THE HURT LOCKER – that’s not the sort of film that the HFPA go for.
…Speaking of, earlier this week I mentioned that LOCKER, PRECIOUS, and UP IN THE AIR all have Oscar noms for Best Picture sewn up. That seems even more solid now.
…While not absolute certainties, one also has to consider AVATAR and INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS as stocks on the rise.
For a bit better of a gauge, watch out for the SAG Award nominees on Thursday. Until then, these will have to do! The full list of movie nominees can be found after the jump.
Motion Picture, Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air
Motion Picture, Comedy/Musical
500 Days of Summer
The Hangover
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine
Actress, Drama
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabby Sidibe, Precious
Actor, Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers
Actor Comedy/Musical
Matt Damon, The Informant
Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
Joe Gordon Levitt, 500 Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man
Actress, Comedy
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Meryl Streep, It’s Complicated
Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Screenplay
Neill Blomkampt & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Nancy Meyers, It’s Complicated
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Original Score
Michael Giacchino, Up
Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant
James Horner, Avatar
Abel Krozeniowski, A Single Man
Karen O. and Carter Burwell, Where the Wild Things Are
Foreign Language Film
Baaria
Broken Embraces
The Maid
Un Prophete
The White Ribbon
Original Song
“Cinema Italiano,” Nine
“I Want To Come Home,” Everybody’s Fine
“I See You,” Avatar
“The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart
“Winter,” Brothers
This year the HFPA is made up of 95 members, that makes the minimum number necessary to win 20, the max 48… that's such an insanely small sample it's like asking your 8am class what the best movie of the year is. Of course at times I enjoy the HFPA I was happy to see them give In Bruges a lot of love last year, despite it not being a necessarily oscar appealing film. So there's a plus and a minus to it.
Though I will say one thing:
2 nominations for Sandra Bullock
0 nominations for the movie Moon
this = EPIC failure x 100
Right there with you guys on Bullock. WTF is that about. Go back to driving buses over 50.
Not all that excited about the Golden Globes, never have been really. Best part is gonna be Ricky Gervais.
I've never really cared what award shows say (my own opinion carries much more weight!), but then I can't help getting angry at their decisions. Of course Moon didn't get any nominations even though it deserves like every one possible, but I'm honestly surprised A Serious Man didn't get more. And I can't understand why Inglourious Basterds is up for Best Drama.
@ Univarn… Funny little thing about your 20-to-Win math: This year, because of the ten best picture nominees, Oscar has gone to a weighted voting system. Basically, they went this way to avoid a movie getting a Best Picture win with a majority as low as eleven percent.
The weighted system might make for some interesting results though. Stay tuned!
@ Aiden… Yeah, last night I was watching NBC and an ad for the GG's came on where Gervais was bragging about how he'd already spent the money HFPA paid him to host.
It was hilarious – can't wait for him!
@ Alex… I'm usually only interested in what Oscar says, and even then I usually only agree with them about half the time. All these other awards are just preamble.
I'm gonna have to get my hands on MOON – a lot of people have been talking about that as a flick that should get more award love than it has. I'm starting to feel out of the loop!
I actually like the globes: but i was sort of pissed. love emily blunt, but having seen The Young Victoria I don't know what they were thinking. I was hoping they'd give Cheri some love in musical/comedy but alas no. Some choices were interesting in a good way [McGuire] some were just generic [Meryl StreepvMeryl Streep]. But alas, what can I do?
I was planning to blog about this then the nominations came out and I haven’t seen most of the films nominated. They will probably come out in the new year.
The one that jumps out at me is Julia Roberts for Duplicity. I think I am alone in this but I actually thought it was a really, really bad film and she was the worst thing about it. I know criticizing Julia Roberts is second only to criticizing Meryl Streep in awards season but Duplicity was utter crap.
I like watching the Globes and find this noms list a bit like getting the jump ahead on if you want to see all the Oscar nominated films.
I don't have issue with Sandra Bullock being nominated, I think she's a good actress although I've note seen either of the films both of the trailers looked pretty freaking solid and it's nice to see a primarily comedy centric actress getting kudos.
I do think it's odd to see Julia Roberts nominated for Duplicity – I didn't hear one freaking good thing about that.
No issue with RDJ for Sherlock Holmes. People love him, he's charming, charismatic and usually give a great performance.. that can certainly be enough.
And woohoo to Univarn for the nom/win/vote math! I always forget the # of voters there is rather small.
Oh – also… agree wth no Moon nominations? Would expect at the very least to see a nom for Sam Rockwell.
And.. why no Jeremy Renner nom for Hurt Locker? Seriously?
@ Andrew… I'm left scratching my head at Emily Blunt as well, but her star seems to be on the rise with that role. The SAG nominations today might be one more step towards deciding if it'll indeed merit an Oscar nomination.
@ Fandango… I haven't seen DUPLICITY, but I never heard any especially good things about Julia in it. Her nomination just reeks of the HFPA wanting to have dinner with her, and thus nominating her for any 'ol thing she's in.
@ Shannon… I like watching The Globes, but haven't used it as a gauge on what to see for a few years. For example, last year they ignored THE VISITOR and FROZEN RIVER.
I don't have big issue with Bullock getting nominated – I do think it's overkill to nominate her twice.
I like RDJ, but nominating him for his work in an action movie feels like they nominated him "just cuz"…like Julia Roberts.
If Christoph Waltz doesn't win for Col. Hans Landa, I'm … I'm … well, in reality, I'll just throw a tantrum of "The Dark Knight"-sized proportions.