The silent wins of the Golden Globes
Monday, January 10, 2022 at 12:31AM
NATHANIEL R in Golden Globes, Nicole Kidman, Power of the Dog, West Side Story

by Nathaniel R

No film truly dominated with Power of the Dog winning 3, and West Side Story 2

The Golden Globe ceremony did not air this year for only the second time in our lifetimes here at TFE. Some of you may recall the ceremony was cancelled once before due to the writers strike and the names were merely read out on television in a glorified press conference. This time, even less hoopla, given Hollywood turning their backs on the group and NBC refusing to telecast them this year. Neverthless they went ahead with their normal rounds of choosing nominees and winners. It's tough to expect that these prizes will mean anything more than, say, any winner lineup from a regional critics group, this year. Televised awards, with their red carpets and celebrity speeches and celebratory atmosphere are the only awards that receive enough mainstream attention to noticeably and consistently influence the Oscars, which always close "awards season".

Winners list and more commentary after the jump...

Had the Golden Globes chose several surprise winners this year (they chose only one in Nicole Kidman over Kristen Stewart for Best Actress in a Drama) we might have thought there would be a chance for them to have a noticeable affect somehow, even if it was in a "negative" way. Had they gone their own way and Oscars not embraced those choices, surely the media (who love to kick things when they're down) would have claimed a sort of reverse effect... "Nobody wants to be seen copying the Globes this year!" or some such. But since the Globes chose (mostly) presumed and critically supported frontrunners and mostly nominated and gave wins to the same films and performances that the bulk of critics groups have been choosing, it's safe to say there will be no after-effects. The interesting drama will be if any of the winners choose to acknowledge their wins. 

 

FILM PRIZES

BEST PICTURE, DRAMA 

Power of the Dog has won the bulk of prizes to date so this is par for the course. 

BEST PICTURE, COMEDY OR MUSICAL

Since the Globes are the only major organization that separates musicals and comedies from dramas, the West Side Story win is new though hardly unexpected. It's surely locked up for multiple Oscar nominations.

BEST DIRECTOR 

Campion continues her near unanimous dominance. It's worth noting here that if she wins the Oscar she would be only the third female director to do so but the Globes have a better track record with female directors as we've previously stated.

Fact: The Globes beat the Oscars to honoring a female director by a remarkable 26 years! Sadly the Oscar voters got kind of snobby and patriarchal about Barbra's historic multi-tasking in Yentl and denied her all four Oscar nods she was eligible for (Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Actress). 

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA

This is the only win that might have made a difference in a "normal" year since Nicole Kidman is an extremely famous actress and she beat the presumed frontrunner, Kristen Stewart. The speech would have been widely discusssed the next day in the media. 

BEST ACTRESS, MUSICAL/COMEDY 

This win would have been a major boost to Zegler's campaign (again in a normal year) since the race is still maybe tight in Best Actress... though it's hard to know who is most vulnerable of the presumed leaders and who is strongest of the presumed spoilers (aka tier 1 and tier 2 on the Oscar charts) 

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA

We knew that when the televised awards began Will Smith might come roaring in (Leading the non televised precursors has never been any kind of Oscar "winnning" guarantee though it undoubtedly helps to secure in the effort to procure an Oscar nomination.

BEST ACTOR, MUSICAL/COMEDY

Since people are beginning to feel that Best Actor is competitive between Smith, Cumberbatch, and Garfield, this was an obvious win.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS 

Again a great speech at the Globes could have sealed a history-repeats itself Oscar win. She still could win of course but the Globe won't help.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Smit-McPhee has proved a surprisingly sturdy awards magnet so far given his age (25)

BEST SCREENPLAY

An Oscar for Branagh for Belfast has felt likely for a long time. The question is can he mantain the early momentum given that Licorice Pizza and Don't Look Up opened after it and have been very noisy competitors. (Note: Belfast won't be competing with Power of the Dog in Oscar's writing categories, since Oscar splits its screenplay prizes) have come on 

BEST PICTURE, ANIMATED 

Critics have really rallied for The Mitchells Vs the Machines which was the surprising "snub" at the Globes. But what will Oscar love? It feels up in the air to us.

BEST PICTURE, NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Drive My Car just keeps rising in terms of awardability. This has been a huge success for tiny distributor Janus Films. Even with pandemic box office woes its earned over $300,000 at US arthouse theaters. For comparisons sake it's earned more than other subtitled features with more famous directors and more well funded distributors like  Benedetta (IFC Films), Escape from Mogadishu (Well Go), I'm Your Man (Bleecker Street), and Parallel Mothers (SPC) though it should be noted that the latter has been out a shorter period of time and generally Almodóvar films earn a lot more than it has thus far; The year's biggest foreign critical darlings that were also hits in terms of US arthouse box office were Lamb (NEON) with $2.6 million and Titane (NEON) $1.4 million.

BEST SCORE

BEST SONG 

It's interesting that James Bond songs usually couldn't get arrest with Oscar prior to Skyfall but they've been awards magnets ever since. This is the presumed frontrunner for the Oscar, too.

 

TELEVISION PRIZES

The Globes "precursor" status with television has always been since they don't coincide with the Emmy year at all. So you usually get a mix of last season's Emmy favourites and things that continue to gain popularity after the Emmys or come out after the Emmys and are eligible for the Globes first. Such is the case again this year. 

DRAMA SERIES

DRAMA ACTRESS

DRAMA ACTOR

 

COMEDY SERIES

 

COMEDY ACTRESS

 

COMEDY ACTOR

 

LIMITED SERIES, ANTHONY SERIES, OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

LIMITED SERIES ACTRESS

 

LIMITED SERIES ACTOR

 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS (ANY TELEVISION)

 

SUPPORTING ACTOR (ANY TELEVISION)

 

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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