The Golden Globes, an awards ceremony dedicated to honoring achievements in entertainment ever since World War I, broadcasted its 68th awards show on the night of Sunday, January 16. One of the many programs to honor the Hollywood hits of the previous year, the Golden Globes are somewhat unique in that they present awards to both TV shows and films – as opposed to the Emmys, which just award TV, and the Academy Awards, which focus on movies.
British actor, comedian, and creator of “The Office,” Ricky Gervais, hosted the ceremony for the second year in a row, with considerably more controversy than last year. Gervais’s characteristically jibing humor wasn’t toned down for the ceremony, and he ended up poking fun at the normally taboo subjects of celebrities’ career choices, drug problems, and sexual preferences in a fiasco that had celebrities cringing in their seats. Though many defend Gervais’s humor as entertaining and witty, there is no doubt that his days of hosting the Globes are over.
Despite the somewhat contentious nature of the setting, many of the awards themselves weren’t totally unexpected. Because the “Best Actor/Actress” and “Best Movie/TV Show” categories are each split into Drama and Comedy subsections, the competition for the top prizes isn’t as intense as during the Academy Awards and Emmys. Natalie Portman received her well-deserved “Best Actress in a Movie – Drama” award for her role in Black Swan, a movie about the fierce competition between ballerinas in a major production of Swan Lake. The Kids Are All Right, a movie about a lesbian couple whose kids discover and bond with their sperm-donor dad, won “Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical” with no real contest (though Burlesque, one of its competitors, won “Best Original Song in a Movie” for “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me”), and Annette Bening won for “Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical” as one of the wives for the same movie. Toy Story 3, Pixar’s coming-of-age tale for toys and teenagers alike, was another obvious winner in the “Best Animated Feature” category.
The Social Network, an unauthorized and fictionalized exposé of the creation of Facebook, swept up with awards for “Best Motion Picture – Drama” over Black Swan, The King’s Speech, The Fighter, and Inception, as well as winning the award for “Best Director,” “Best Screenplay,” and “Best Original Score” for a motion picture. Colin Firth, however, received the award for “Best Actor in a Movie – Drama” for his portrayal of a stuttering King George VI in The King’s Speech. The award for “Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical Movie” went to Paul Giamatti for Barney’s Version, in which he plays a TV producer as the movie follows him over two continents, three wives, and thirty years of his life. The Fighter, a biographical sports drama about a boxer’s unlikely rise to the world light welterweight title, won the awards for both supporting actor (Christian Bale) and actress (Melissa Leo) in a motion picture. In a Better World, a movie about the intertwining of two Danish families, won the award for “Best Foreign Language Film.”
The awards for TV shows were a little more spread out. “Glee,” the hit show about a high school glee club, was the biggest TV winner of the night, winning “Best Comedy or Musical Television Series” for the second year in a row against tough competitors such as “30 Rock” and “Modern Family.” Jane Lynch picked up the award for “Best Supporting Actress on TV” for her portrayal of the not-as-heartless-as-she-seems cheerleading coach, and a shocked Chris Colfer won his first nomination in “Best Supporting Actor on TV” for his depiction of the sensitive, gay club member who faces bullying and threats at school. HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” a new show set in Atlantic city during the prohibition era, also won multiple awards, scoring “Best TV Series – Drama” and “Best TV Actor – Drama” for Steve Buscemi’s role as the corrupt Atlantic City Treasurer and powerful politician.
The rest of the awards were strewn across many shows – Katey Sagal won “Best TV Actress – Drama” for her role in “Sons of Anarchy” as a tough, protective mother and wife, while Laura Linney won the “Best TV Actress – Comedy or Musical” for her depiction of a middle-aged woman’s solitary and facetious battle against chronic cancer. Jim Parsons got the “Best TV Actor – Comedy or Musical” award for his role as an overly-intellectual theoretical physicist at Caltech in “The Big Bang Theory.” The Award for “Best Mini-Series or TV Movie” went to Carlos, a French-German miniseries about a convicted Venezuelan terrorist and murderer. “Best Actress in a Mini-Series or TV Movie” was awarded to Claire Danes for her portrayal of the strong autistic lead in Temple Grandin, and the “Best Actor” award in the same category was granted to Al Pacino for You Don’t Know Jack, in which he played Jack Kevorkian, the physician famous for his support of doctor-assisted suicide.
As this show came to a close, one couldn’t help but wonder what is in store for the Academy Awards, which will be broadcast on February 27. The comedies, musicals, and dramas will all come head to head, and the outcome isn’t yet clear. Will the dramas win out, as usual? Will The Social Network continue its winning streak? And will James Franco and Anne Hathaway, the show’s hosts, be able to hold the attentions of millions of audience members for the whole three-and-a-half-hour-long show? I, for one, am excited to find out.