Golden Globes, squid and whale

If the Golden Globes mean anything – and I’m not promising that they do – we could be looking at a squid and the whale showdown come Oscars time. (In this metaphor, James Cameron is the whale, Kathryn Bigelow is the squid and I am Noah Baumbach. Also, in this metaphor Noah Baumbach thinks his whale-father’s movie is undeserving of awards.)

Surely Cameron and Bigelow and their respective films must count as the heavyweights this year. By heavyweights, I mean either in terms of quality or box office. The Golden Globes awarding committee (whoever they may be) chose as their best dramatic picture nominees Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious and Up in the Air. Of course, Avatar won. Cameron was also awarded the best director statuette.

The smaller awards were pretty much evenly spread out, with most productions seemingly managing to snag something or another. 

Here are the awards in full:

Best supporting actress
Winner: Mo’nique, Precious
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Best animated feature
Winner: Up
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess And The Frog

Best original score
Winner: Michael Giacchino, Up
Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant!
James Horner, Avatar
Abel Korzeniowski, A Single Man
Karen O and Carter Burwell, Where The Wild Things Are

Best supporting actress, comedy/musical
Winner: Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Meryl Streep, It’s Complicated

Motion picture screenplay
Winner: Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up In The Air
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Nancy Meyers, It’s Complicated
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Foreign language film
Winner: The White Ribbon
Baria
Broken Embraces
The Maid
Un Prophete

Best supporting actor
Winner: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones

Best director
Winner: James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best actress, drama
Winner: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabby Sidibe, Precious

Best picture, comedy or musical
Winner: The Hangover
500 Days of Summer
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

Best actor, comedy or musical
Winner: Robert Downey Jr, Sherlock Holmes
Matt Damon, The Informant
Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
Joe Gordon Levitt, 500 Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

Best actor, drama
Winner: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Best picture, drama
Winner: Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

Interesting note: Inglourious Basterds was a black comedy, right? Right? Otherwise, I really need to adjust the mental star rating I gave it and send everyone involved a history book. So, surely it needs to be in the comedy category, where it would have trounced eventual winner The Hangover and thus made everything okay. I fear that in some alternate dimension, there is another version of me interred in a room 101, doomed to endlessly watching The Hangover, until I find a funny bit. (Okay, at the end, when Ed Helms’s Stu was pictured, having just pulled out his own tooth – now that was funny. But they should have given that an award for ‘funniest photo that you see at the end of a movie’.)

Looking at the way forward, what’ll be interesting is to see how the Oscars fill the ten slots for best picture nominee. (My guesses at this stage are: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, Up in the Air, A Serious Man, A Single Man, An Education, Up and The Blind Side.)