Globes go blue: Cameron and Avatar score awards

The Golden Globes were tonight and I’ve got the winners and some of my thoughts for each of the major film awards. As expected after taking the box office by storm, Avatar was the big winner walking away with two of the most prestigious awards. No other film won two significant globes although Up and Crazy Heart scored their seconds on music awards.

If you want to see, here were my original predictions/comments. Anyway, on with it.

Best Picture – Drama

• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglorious Basterds
• Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• Up in the Air

My Thoughts: When the nominations first came out and Avatar had grossed a total of $0 billion dollars, it was kind of a surprise to see it on this list because most of us were pegging it as just a winter sci-fi blockbuster. All that money later, is there any doubt that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association would choose one of the highest-grossing worldwide movies of all time? No, no there was not.

Best Picture – Musical/Comedy

• (500) Days of Summer
• The Hangover
• It’s Complicated
• Julie & Julia
• Nine

My Thoughts: I predicted this would be a popularity contest but said I’d be shocked if The Hangover won. Don’t know why I didn’t connect the two. I mean, the cast actually presented this award, which says it all. Pretty funny moment when producer/director Todd Phillips mentioned he had Mike Tyson on his side should Harvey Weinstein try anything.

Best Actor – Drama

• Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
• George Clooney for Up in the Air
• Colin Firth for A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman for Invictus
• Tobey Maguire for Brothers

My Thoughts: Bridges was spot on about not being able to keep his underrated reputation now. After the buzz for Colin Firth I saw him as the favorite, but there was also strong buzz on the art film track for Jeff Bridges. I’m definitely more interested in trying to catch A Crazy Heart pre-Oscars and after this win I’m sure I’m not the only one with that thought. A pleasant surprise from the Hollywood Foreign Press considering they’re more apt to pick the more popular stars such as our next winner.

Best Actress – Drama

• Emily Blunt for The Young Victoria
• Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren for The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan for An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe for Precious

My Thoughts: I really didn’t want Sandra Bullock to win, but I’m not surprised. She was great, but there were lots of talented young actresses that could’ve really used the career boost. Bullock, however, was also the only major actress in a major film on this list, and that’s how it goes. She gave a nice speech, however. I always appreciate it when the winners talk about why the film is important and consider the role the real winner, not themselves.

Best Actor – Musical/Comedy

• Matt Damon for The Informant!
• Daniel Day-Lewis for Nine
• Robert Downey Jr. for Sherlock Holmes
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt for (500) Days of Summer
• Michael Stuhlbarg for A Serious Man

My Thoughts: In his acceptance speech, RDJ said he was told Matt Damon would win. He should’ve. Popularity prevailed in this one, not that Matt Damon would be an unpopular choice — just not an effective one. People can still go out and see “Holmes” after tonight. The Informant was not a wildly successful film and it was in theaters in October. Funny speech, however, from Downey as expected. Warner Bros. does owe him for making a killing despite being in the shadow of Avatar.

Best Actress – Musical/Comedy

• Sandra Bullock for The Proposal
• Marion Cotillard for Nine
• Julia Roberts for Duplicity
• Meryl Streep for It’s Complicated
• Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia

My Thoughts: The clear choice for this award. It was amusing, because you could tell she had to make sure she was thanking the people from the right movie in her acceptance speech. One of the touching moments of the show for sure as she dedicated the award to her late mother.

Best Supporting Actor

• Matt Damon for Invictus
• Woody Harrelson for The Messenger
• Christopher Plummer for The Last Station
• Stanley Tucci for The Lovely Bones
• Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds

My Thoughts: Waltz had the buzz from the early reviews of “Basterds” and his globe here all but seals up the Oscar, especially if he has similar competition.

Best Supporting Actress

• Penelope Cruz for Nine
• Vera Farmiga for Up in the Air
• Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air
• Mo’nique for Precious
• Julianne Moore for A Single Man

My Thoughts: Mo’nique also had all the buzz, so there were no surprises to start off the ceremony. I hope Precious stays out long enough so I can catch it. Obviously at this point she’s the Oscar favorite. The most moving speech of the night for sure and a hard act to follow as Drew Barrymore (winner for miniseries “Grey Gardens”) mentioned later on.

Best Director

• Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron for Avatar
• Clint Eastwood for Invcitus
• Jason Reitman for Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds

My Thoughts: I thought the Globes would jump at the chance to be the first major award show to honor a female director, but considering James Cameron’s made the two highest-grossing films of all time, it’s hard to just ignore the fact that he’s on the list. The HFPA definitely saw this as a chance to award a visionary filmmaker.

Best Screenplay

• District 9 – Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
• The Hurt Locker – Mark Boal
• Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino
• It’s Complicated – Nancy Meyers
• Up in the Air – Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

My Thoughts: I predicted if Reitman didn’t win director that he’d have a trophy to hoist for “Air.” Fortunately, he and Turner took the prize. I could’ve seen Tarantino winning here because of the popularity of “Basterds,” but this was the right choice. After scoring the most nominations, “Air” deserved to walk away with something and at the least, this is where it should’ve — and did — get its due.

Best Animated Film

• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• Coraline
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Princess and the Frog
• Up

My Thoughts: Clear frontrunner for this list of excellent animated film, Up quietly took this much-deserved award. Not surprised that Pete Docter thanked his Pixar family. You get the feeling that that has to be exactly what it’s like working for Pixar.

Best Foreign Film

• Los Abrazos Rotos (“Broken Embraces”)
• Baaria
• Das weisse Band – Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (“The White Ribbon”)
• La Nana (“The Maid”)
• Un profete (“A Prophet”)

My Thoughts: Palm d’Or winner at Cannes says it all for this German film. Way to go producers of the Globes for showing Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger during the acceptance speech.

Best Original Song

• Avatar – “I Will See You” – James Horner, Simon Franglen, Kuk Harrell
• Brothers – “Winter” – U2, Bono
• Crazy Heart – “The Weary Kind” – T-Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham
• Everybody’s Fine – “(I Want To) Come Home” – Paul McCartney
• Nine – “Cinema Italiano” – Maury Yeston

Best Original Score

• Avatar – James Horner
• The Informant! – Marvin Hamlisch
• A Single Man – Abel Korzeniowski
• Up – Michael Giaccino
• Where the Wild Things Are – Carter Burwell, Karen Orzolek

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Well that does it! Stick with me as we head into Oscar season! You can bet I’ll have nominations the morning of.