‘Avatar’ eyes awards season gold at Golden Globes
Science-fiction blockbuster “Avatar” will be aiming to convert box
office riches into movie industry accolades Sunday as Hollywood’s awards
season gets underway in earnest at the 67th Golden Globes.
The horrors of the Haiti earthquake are likely to give a somber tone
to proceedings, with many celebrities including best actor nominee
George Clooney expected to encourage donations to help the relief
effort.
Clooney will host a telethon to raise funds for Haiti next Friday
while Globes organizers, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, have
announced a 100,000 dollar donation to musician Wyclef Jean’s relief
effort.
All eyes are on James Cameron’s “Avatar” to see if its remarkable box
office performance — 1.3 billion dollars worldwide since December —
translates into awards season honors.
The 500-million-dollar epic is vying for four honors at the Globes,
which begin in Beverly Hills at 5.30 pm (0130 GMT Monday).
As well as best picture, “Avatar” has nods for best director
(Cameron), best original score and best original song.
However, the film faces stiff competition from recession-era
drama-comedy “Up In the Air,” which has six nominations, as well as the
gripping Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker,” which has three nominations.
Nods for “Up In the Air” include best actor (Clooney), best director
(Jason Reitman) as well as nominations for Vera Farmiga and Anna
Kendrick.
In a quirk of fate, “The Hurt Locker’s” director Kathryn Bigelow
finds herself nominated for best director alongside ex-husband Cameron.
Bigelow scored a pre-Globes boost late Friday when “The Hurt Locker”
was named best picture at the Broadcast Film Critics Awards (BFCA) in
Los Angeles. Bigelow also beat Cameron for the best director prize.
Yet while “Up In the Air” and “The Hurt Locker” remain critical
darlings, awards season pundits say the 85 members of the Hollywood
Foreign Press Association (HFPA) who pick the Golden Globes may lean
towards “Avatar.”
“Globes voters are foreign journalists who consider it their job to
track the hot new thing,” said Tom O’Neil, of the Los Angeles Times’s
theenvelope.com. “And there’s nothing hotter right now than ‘Avatar.’”
However “Avatar” almost certainly needed to triumph this weekend if
it was to emerge as an awards season favorite for the coveted best
picture prize at the Oscars, which will be handed out in Hollywood this
year on March 7. “This is the award that ‘Avatar’ needs if it’s going to
become the official front-runner for the Oscars,” O’Neil said. “If
‘Avatar’ gets crowned ahead of time then it could be Oscar-bound.”
In the acting stakes, Clooney will be up against Jeff Bridges (“Crazy
Heart”), Colin Firth (“A Single Man”), Morgan Freeman (“Invictus”), and
Tobey Maguire (“Brothers”) for best drama actor.
The women’s acting awards could unfold as a duel between Sandra
Bullock and Meryl Streep, who both have two nominations each.
Bullock is nominated as best actress in both drama and comedy
categories for her respective roles in “The Blind Side” and “The
Proposal,” while Streep — hoping to win her seventh Globe — is a double
nominee in the comedy category for her performances in “Julie & Julia”
and “It’s Complicated.”
Bullock and Streep shared the best actress prize at the BFCA Awards
on Friday, and delighted a star-studded audience by engaging in a mock
playfight on stage, underscoring the good-natured rivalry between the
two.
For actors, the Golden Globes are often seen as a vital dress
rehearsal for the Oscars. A well-received acceptance speech at the
Globes can help build unstoppable momentum while a poor performance can
derail even best laid plans. “The Golden Globes is your Oscars
audition,” O’Neil said. “Hilary Swank won for ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ because
she wowed the audience with her speech at the Globes. Same thing for
Jamie Foxx. He sealed his Oscar win at the Globes.”
Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes splits its best picture prizes
between genres, honoring best drama and best comedy/musical.
The Globes are often viewed as a key barometer of which films may go
on to challenge for honors at the Oscars.
AFP |