Striking Gold

Traditionally, Golden Goble awards are supposed to the predictions to the Oscar as the Globes have a spotty record of predicting the Oscar winners. It happened with movies like Shakespeare in Love, American Beauty, Gladiator and Chicago.

However, since last two years the Globe seems to have lost its soothsayer abilities. In 2004, The Aviator was Globe’s best drama. Million Dollar Baby took the honours at the Oscars. And 2005 it was Brokeback Mountain, which lost to Crash.

What’s in store at this year’s Oscar night? Is Martin Scorsese finally getting a piece of uncle Oscar? The mystery can wait till Feb 25. For now, it’s the who’s who at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globe awards.

Best Motion Picture – Drama
BABEL
An array of characters in Morocco, Tunisia, Japan, Mexico and suburban America find themselves in a series of desperate situations in this drama that flows between different storylines and different languages as well. Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Other nominations
Bobby
The Departed
Little Children
The Queen

Best Actress — Drama
Helen Mirren — The Queen
When Princess Diana died, everyone went ahead to criticise the royalty for her death. But none ever gave a thought about the Queen’s concerns. Mirren portrays the human side of an institute, caught between tradition and family duties.

Other nominations
Penélope Cruz – Volver
Judi Dench – Notes On A Scandal
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Sherrybaby
Kate Winslet – Little Children

Best Actor — Drama
Forest Whitaker – The Last King Of Scotland
Playing a soldier is his forte (Platoon). Here, Whitaker is Idi Amin, the brutal Ugandan dictator, seen from the eyes of his personal physician during the 1970s. And Amin is reincarnated!

Other nominations
Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Departed
Peter O'Toole – Venus
Will Smith – The Pursuit Of Happyness

Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy
DREAMGIRLS
This dazzling and energising adaptation of the Broadway musical rockets at warp speed from Detroit to the stratosphere, boosted by the performances of Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson as singers left behind in soul’s crossover to the pop charts. With Jamie Foxx and Beyonce Knowles as figures inspired by Berry Gordy Jr and Diane Ross.

Other nominations

Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
The Devil Wears Prada
Little Miss Sunshine
Thank You For Smoking

Best Actress — Musical or Comedy
Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada
Streep is Miranda Priestly, a ruthless and cynical editor of New York’s biggest magazine, playing the boss to the boots to a naïve Anne Hathaway. Streep’s biggest and bestest comic adventure since Death becomes Her.

Other nominations
Annette Bening – Running With Scissors
Toni Collette – Little Miss Sunshine
Beyoncé Knowles – Dreamgirls
Renée Zellweger – Miss Potter

Best Actor — Musical or Comedy
Sacha Cohen – Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
Cohen plays a buffoonish Kazakhstan tele-journalist who travels to America, offends everyone, and tries to meet, and marry, Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson. Hilarious to the hilt, a ‘clowning’ glory of a performance.

Other nominations
Johnny Depp – Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Aaron Eckhart – Thank You For Smoking
Chiwetel Ejiofor – Kinky Boots
Will Ferrell – Stranger Than Fiction

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls
From American Idol to the Golden Globe, it’s a dream journey, to say the least. Hudson plays Effie White, a struggling Soul singer trying to make it big as a pop star. She gets to sing and act and she dazzles.

Other nominations
Adriana Barraza – Babel
Cate Blanchett – Notes On A Scandal
Emily Blunt – The Devil Wears Prada
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Eddie Murphy – Dreamgirls
He is James "Thunder" Early, a popular R&B star

Other nominations
Ben Affleck – Hollywoodland
Jack Nicholson – The Departed
Brad Pitt – Babel
Mark Wahlberg – The Departed

Best Animated Feature Film
CARS
When cars takes human attitudes. Lightning McQueen is a cocky, rookie race car. Speeding on his way to a big race, he crashes into Radiator Springs, destroying lots of the inhabitants belongings. In order to make up for what he did, the cocky roadster is sentenced to community service, where he learns about life in a hard way.

Other nominations
Happy Feet
Monster House

Best Foreign Language Film
Letters From Iwo Jima (Japan, United States)
Clint Eastwood completes the story of Flags of Our Fathers telling the Japanese version of the Iwo Jima war where the Japanese army fought and died to the last man.

Other nominations
Apocalypto (United States)
The Lives Of Others (Germany)
Pan’s Labyrinth (Mexico)
Volver (Spain)

Best Director — Motion Picture

Martin Scorsese – The Departed
Scorsese remakes an old film and makes it better than the original, a thriller complete with fast moving intense action, great usage of smart humour, fantastic acting, good character development, and the brutal Scorsese violence as usual.

Other Nominations
Clint Eastwood – Flags Of Our Fathers
Clint Eastwood – Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears – The Queen
Alejandro Iñárritu – Babel

Special Mention
Cecil B DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award to Warren Beatty

Spotlights

Babel, was a hot favourite with seven nominations but lost in every race except for the last and the best one.
The power of cinema is universal," director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu said. “This is a very meaningful award, not only for us, but for the Mexican film industry.”
DreamGirls girl Jennifer Hudson was the verge of tears: “Wow,” she said, “I have always dreamed but never, ever this big.”
The Song of the Heart, from the animated Happy Feet, was named best original song in a motion picture. The award for best miniseries or TV movie went to HBO’s Elizabeth I.
The award for best TV series drama went to Grey’s Anatomy, while the best comedy prize went to Ugly Betty.
The event kicked off to live television coverage from the Beverley Hills Hilton after stars like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sheryl Crowe, Sienna Miller, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Reese Witherspoon, Beyonce Knowles, Hilary Swank, and Jamie Foxx strolled down the red carpet.