BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters)
— The film "12 Years a Slave"
took the coveted Golden Globe for best drama and "American Hustle"
won best musical or comedy on Sunday in a kick-off to the Hollywood
awards season that foreshadows a wide scattering of honors for a
year crowded with high-quality movies.
Only two films garnered more than one award at the 71st
Annual Golden Globe Awards, an important but not entirely
accurate barometer for the industry's highest honors, the
Academy Awards to be held on March 2.
"American Hustle," a romp through corruption in the 1970s
directed by David O. Russell, was the top winner with three
Globes for its seven nominations, while modest AIDS film "Dallas
Buyers Club" starring Matthew McConaughey, took home two acting
awards for him and co-star Jared Leto.
British director Steve McQueen's brutal depiction of pre-Civil
war American slavery in "12 Years a Slave," based on a true
story of free black man Solomon Northup who was sold into
slavery, only won one award out of its seven nominations. It was
entirely shut out from the acting honors, for which it had been
a presumed favorite.
But best drama is the top award of the Golden Globes and McQueen
thanked actor and producer Brad Pitt, who played a small part in
the film but a big role in getting it made. "Without you this
movie would never had gotten made, so thank you, wherever you
may be," McQueen said.
Among those that left empty-handed were two darlings of critics,
the Coen brothers' paean to the 1960s folk scene "Inside Llewyn
Davis" and Alexander Payne's homage to the heartland,
"Nebraska."
The first big night of the Hollywood awards season is the
purview of the 90 some journalists in the Hollywood Foreign
Press Association (HFPA), who wield outsized clout in the awards
race as buzz around these honors influences members of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in their voting for
the Oscars.
Oscar nominations are to be announced on Thursday and "12 Years
a Slave" and "American Hustle" are likely to be in the list of
10 nominees for best picture, going head-to-head unlike in the
Globes, where they competed in two separate categories.
The Globes have a mixed record when it comes to predicting the
Oscar best picture, though last year's best drama winner,
"Argo," did go on to win the Academy Award for best movie.
WIDE ARRAY OF RECOGNITION
In a setting more intimate and whimsical than the tightly
scripted Oscars, A-listers and powerbrokers pow-wowed over
cocktails and returning co-hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler poked
fun at the most powerful in the glamorous audience.
It was a night in which there seemed to be a prize for most
every film, a reflection of a banner year for quality cinema in
which critically acclaimed films piled up in the last half of
the year.
The top drama acting awards went to Cate Blanchett for her turn
as a riches-to-rags socialite in Woody Allen's tragicomedy "Blue
Jasmine" and McConaughey for his portrayal of unlikely AIDS
activist Ron Woodroof for which he lost 50 pounds (22.7 kg).
"Ron Woodroof's story was an underdog, for years it was an
underdog, we couldn't get it made ... I'm so glad it got passed
on so many times or it wouldn't have come to me," said
McConaughey, widely lauded for a string of strong performances
this year.
"As the history of cinema unfolds, you will be regarded as one
of the great artists of all time," DiCaprio told Scorsese as he
accepted the award.
Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron won best director
for his existential space thriller, "Gravity," a film starring
Sandra Bullock as an astronaut tumbling through space that has won
praise for its groundbreaking technical advances.
Director Spike Jonze took home the Globe for best screenplay for
his quirky computer-age comedy "Her," starring Joaquin Phoenix.
"As the history of cinema unfolds, you will be
regarded as one of the great artists of all time," DiCaprio told
Scorsese as he accepted the award.
Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron won best director for his
existential space thriller, "Gravity," a film starring Sandra
Bullock as an astronaut tumbling through space that has won praise
for its groundbreaking technical advances.
Director Spike Jonze took home the Globe for best screenplay for
his quirky computer-age comedy "Her," starring Joaquin Phoenix.
"David, you write such amazing roles for women,"
Adams told the star-studded room as she accepted the award. She
starred in Russell's 2010 "The Fighter," while Lawrence won the best
actress Oscar last year for his previous film, "Silver Linings
Playbook."
DiCAPRIO THANKS SCORSESE
The HFPA is known to also reward big Hollywood names and this year
Leonardo DiCaprio won best actor in a musical or comedy for his role
as a fast-living, drug-popping, swindling stockbroker in the "The
Wolf of Wall Street," his fifth collaboration with director Martin
Scorsese.
"As the history of cinema unfolds, you will be
regarded as one of the great artists of all time," DiCaprio told
Scorsese as he accepted the award.
Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron won best director for his
existential space thriller, "Gravity," a film starring Sandra
Bullock as an astronaut tumbling through space that has won praise
for its groundbreaking technical advances.
Director Spike Jonze took home the Globe for best screenplay for his
quirky computer-age comedy "Her," starring Joaquin Phoenix.
The HFPA honored Woody Allen with the Cecil B. DeMille award
recognizing outstanding contribution to the entertainment field.
Famously averse to awards shows, the 78-year-old Allen sent one of
his favorite actresses, Diane Keaton, to stand in for him.
The Golden Globes are also the opening salvo for red carpet fashion,
and this year Hollywood's leading ladies appeared to favor shimmery
champagne, silver and gold, along with bright reds and vibrant
floral shades for their gowns.
In the television awards, "Breaking Bad" won best drama for its
offbeat story about a school teacher turned drug kingpin, a show
that concluded last year with its much acclaimed fifth and final
season.
"This is such a wonderful honor and such a lovely way to say goodbye
to the show that meant so much to me," said Bryan Cranston, who
accepted the award for best actor in a drama series.
(Additional reporting by Nichola Groom
and Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Sandra Maler)
