It’s over a month it’ll we reach what I consider to be the main events of the award season, the Oscars, Academy Awards, and BAFTA, British Academy of Film and Television Awards, but the Golden Globes possibly give the most accurate early insight into who’s leading the way to bringing home Best Picture. The show, hosted by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, was held on Sunday and heralded these results.
Best Motion Picture – Drama:
12 Years a Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Philomena
Rush
Best Actress – Drama
Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
Judi Dench – Philomena
Emma Thompson – Saving Mr Banks
Kate Winslet – Labor Day
Best Actor – Drama
Matthew MacConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave
Idris Elba – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips
Robert Redford – All is Lost
Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical
American Hustle
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Actor – Comedy or Musical
Leonardo Di Caprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
Christian Bale – American Hustle
Bruce Dern – Nebraska
Oscar Isaac – Inside Llewyn Davis
Joaquin Phoenix – Her
Best Actress – Comedy or Musical
Amy Adams – American Hustle
Julie Delpy – Before Midnight
Greta Gerwig – Frances Ha
Julia Louis Dreyfus – Enough Said
Meryl Streep – August: Osage County
Best Supporting Actor
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips
Daniel Bruhl – Rush
Bradley Cooper – American Hustle
Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave
Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle
Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts – August: Osage County
June Squibb – Nebraska
Best Screenplay
Spike Jonze – Her
Bob Nelson – Nebraska
Jeff Pope, Steve Coogan – Philomena
John Ridley – 12 Years a Slave
Eric Warren Singer, David O’Russell – American Hustle
Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity
Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips
Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
Alexander Payne – Nebraska
David O’Russell – American Hustle
Best Animated Feature
Frozen
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Best Foreign Language Film
The Great Beauty
Blue is the Warmest Colour
The Hunt
The Wind Rises
Best Original Score
All is Lost
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Gravity
The Book Thief
12 Years a Slave
Best Original Song
“Ordinary Love” – Mandela Long Walk to Freedom
“Atlas” – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
“Let it Go” – Frozen
“Please Mr Kennedy” – Inside Llewyn Davis
“Sweeter Than Fiction” – One Chance
American Hustle leads the way with three wins but it’s Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity and 12 Years a Slave that’ll be remembered for last night’s success. The victories Alfonso Cuaron, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Leonardo Di Caprio and Matthew MacConaughey were expected but there’s some real surprises with Spike Jonze, Amy Adams and Jared Leto picking up Globes.
I’ll give a quick review on the TV results. As expected, the final season of Breaking Bad won Best Drama and Best Actor, for Bryan Cranston, while Robin Wright won the Globe for Best Actress with Netflix’s House of Cards. In comedy, brand new cop show Brooklyn Nine-Nine caused an upset for the bookies as it starred taking Best Comedy and Best Actor (Adam Sandberg) in a Comedy from favourites such as The Big Bang Theory, Arrested Development, Girls and Modern Family. Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra won both Best Mini-Series or TV Movie and Best Actor in a Mini-Series for Michael Douglas while Elizabeth Moss (Top of the Lake) won the corresponding Best Actress award. Jacqueline Bisset (Dancing on the Edge) and Jon Voight (Ray Donovan) respectively won Best Supporting Actress and Actor.
Star Wars: Episode VII, as you know, is an upcoming sci-fi reboot of George Lucas’ classic ’77 – ’83 trilogy that gained an poor name thanks to Lucas’ failed prequel ’99 – ’05 trilogy. JJ Abrams (Star Trek Into Darkness, Super 8, Lost, Felicity) will direct the new instalment that’s seen a number of intriguing cast rumours.
Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Day Lewis, and Chiwetel Ejiofor have gone round the rumour mill while Soarise Ronan, Jack O’Connell, Michael B Jordan and Sullivan Stapleton are confirmed to have had auditions. The Episode VII producers took a tour of Britain with open auditions across about five or six cities to find fresh face and old Star Wars favourites Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Warwick Davis, Samuel L Jackson and Anthony Daniels are rumoured to reprise their roles.
Now, four fresh entrants to the series are in contention but, before you accuse this as a wild guess, consider that the closer we get to the film’s release, the more accurate the rumours’ll be. The latest batch of potential Star Warriors are Michael Fassbender, Hugo Weaving, Jesse Plemons and Adam Driver.
The Irish/Germanic Fassbender is probably the most known of the four. He’s equally spread between mainstream and award worthy performances after leading box-office success with Prometheus, Inglorious, X-Men: First Class and 300 and winning the critics in the more art-house Shame, Hunger and 12 Years a Slave, for which he’s tipped for Oscar success. I’m not sure if Fassbender will sign on as he’s already doing X-Men: Days of Future Past, Frank, Untitled Terrence Malick project, Assassin’s Creed, MacBeth and Prometheus 2 already lined up.
The other three are much more likely candidates. Hugo Weaving (The Matrix’s Mr Smith, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit’s Elrond, Captain America’s Red Skull, V for Vendetta, Cloud Atlas’ Mrs Noakes), Adam Driver (Frances Ha, Lincoln, Inside Llewyn Davis and Girls’ Adam Sackler) and Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad’s Todd, Friday Night Lights, Battleship, Paul) are the other three stars rumoured for Star Wars. Casting venerable stars such as Weaving is fine as long as they don’t waste them on pointless politician roles, see Terence Stamp as Chancellor Valorum. There was a rumour that a casting call went out for the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s daughter or granddaughter but that may just be fiction.
Star Wars: Episode VII – December 18th 2015