The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards
Where: NBC
When: 8 p.m. Sunday
Screen Actors Guild. Directors Guild. Critics Choice.
Yes, awards season is upon us, with the Big Kahuna the Academy Awards taking place March 7. But the season of Hollywood bigwigs risking rotator cuff surgery with all their back patting really gets under way Sunday with the 67th Golden Globe Awards.
The Golden Globes are like the Oscars’ younger sibling, with some differences. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association — whatever that is — does the selecting of the Globes, whereas the Oscars are voted on by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Globes also honor television, and they nominate films and actors in both drama and comedy or musical categories.
“I think the Golden Globes is the insider’s award,” said John Hanshaw, founder and director of the Washington Film Institute and the annual Guerrilla Film Festival. “It’s definitely the film critics’ choice, as oppose to mainstream. Film critics don’t want a happy ending. Mainstream audiences are a sucker for a happy ending.”
Sometimes the Globes are a precursor to the Oscars: For example, last year’s “Slumdog Millionaire” won both the Golden Globe for best drama and the Oscar for best picture; and at the 2003 ceremony, “Chicago” won best musical or comedy at the Globes before taking home the best picture Oscar.
In other cases, it’s as if the voters at these award shows saw completely different sets of movies, like in 2003, when Roman Polanski won the Academy Award for best director for “The Pianist,” but it wasn’t even nominated for a Golden Globe.
And who can forget in 1999 when Jim Carrey won best actor in a drama for “The Truman Show” and wasn’t nominated for an Oscar? Carrey has won two Golden Globes and has been nominated for six, but has never received an Oscar nod.
“I think it is in a way [a precursor to the Oscars],” said Jon Gann, organizer of the D.C. Shorts Film Festival and director of the D.C. Film Alliance, on whether the Globes can predict the Oscars. “The Hollywood Foreign Press is looking for stuff that will play outside the country.”
The best motion picture drama nominees this year are “Avatar,” “Up in the Air,” “Precious,” “The Hurt Locker” and “Inglourious Basterds.”
Gann said he believes “Up in the Air” has the upper hand in winning the award this year.
“It’s a very well-written film,” he said.
Nominees this year are plentiful — naturally with two best picture categories as well as awards for television — but it’s sometimes not the films or shows that create the biggest memories, like in 1998 when Christine Lahti won a Globe for her role on the show “Chicago Hope,” but she was in the bathroom when her name was announced and had to rush to the stage.
And while Oscar night inspires legions of viewing parties around the country, the Golden Globes haven’t gotten to that point — yet.
“I think they will,” Hanshaw said. “It’s just another excuse to party.”
