Golden Globe Winners and Losers

…and the effect this will have on the Oscar favorites?

The 69th Golden Globe Awards honor the best film and television for 2011 and were presented on January 15, 2012 at the Beverly Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

The night was a typical Holywood spectacle with all the big stars making an appearance. Hosted by funnyman Ricky Gervais for the third year running, the big winners included Meryl Streep, George Clooney and Kate Winslet while The Artist and The Descendants won the top two film prizes in Comedy and Drama respectively.

The winners and losers of Golden Globe were listed below:

• Best drama – The Descendants
• Best comedy or musical – The Artist
• Best Director – Martin Scorsese, Hugo
• Best Actor (Drama) – George Clooney, The Descendants
• Best actor (Comedy or musical) – Jean Dujardin, The Artist
• Best actress (Drama) – Meryl Streep, The Iron lady
• Best actress (Comedy or musical) – Michelle Williams, My week with Marilyn
• Best supporting actor – Christopher Plummer, Beginners
• Best supporting actress – Octavia Spencer, The Help
• Best screenplay – Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen
• Best animated film – The Adventures of Tin Tin
• Best score – The Artist, Ludovic Bource
• Best original song – Masterpiece, Madonna
• Best Foreign language film – A separation, Iran

Television:

• Best series (Comedy or musical) – Modern Family
• Best series (Drama) – Homeland
• Best Mini-series – Downtown Abbey
• Best actor (Drama) – Kelsey Grammer, Boss
• Best actor (musical or comedy) – Matt LeBlanc
• Best actress (Drama) – Claire Danes, Homeland
• Best actress (Musical or comedy) – Laura Dern, Enlightened
• Best actor (TV movie) – Idris, Luther
• Best actress (TV movie) – Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce
• Best supporting actor – Peter Dinklage, Game of thrones
• Best supporting actress – Jessica Lange, American Horror story

Golden Globes vs. Oscar

As quipped by the host Ricky Gervais “The Golden Globes are like The Oscars, only without all the esteem“. This perhaps is put into perspective by the fact that The Oscars are chosen by 6000 movie industry professionals, while the Globes by about 90 full and part time journalists whose organization has a mixed record when it comes to integrity and taste.

Still, the Globes and Oscars do seen to have similar preferences often enough that the Globes have become a measure of an Oscar-hopeful’s momentum. Going into the Globes, Weinstein’s movies and stars had plenty of momentum, but after last Sunday night, they are now the ones to beat. So how will the Globes effect the chances for the front runners in the run up to the Oscars. It’s wise to consider the following:

- The HFPA likes to spread the wealth more than the Academy does. In part, that’s because they want to attract stars to their live, televised, cocktail party and they don’t want too many of them to go home empty-handed.

- The globes’ 14 film trophies were spread among 10 movies and A-listers such as Madonna and Steven Spielberg who are less likely to take home similar prizes on Oscar night.

- “The Artist” and “The Descendants” both picked up best pictures prizes in the comedy and drama categories respectively. But there are no such divisions in Oscars, only one can win.

- Also confirming its front-runner status Iranian domestic drama “A separation” which won on merit even through the starry-eyed Globe voters had a chance to give prize to red carpet goddess Angelina Jolie.

Now it’s not as if Oscar voters will pick these winners just because voters did, but they will feel better about voting for them as consensus choices now that the globes have clicked “Like” on them as well.