70TH ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS RECAP- FEMALE DRIVEN SHOW
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The trophies have been handed out at what is considered the biggest party of the year, the 70th Annual Golden Globes. Unlike the formality of the Oscars or BAFTA awards, the Globes is a night filled with comedy, libations, and strikingly honest acceptance speeches. This year’s biggest moments could not have been any more entertaining. Not to mention all the girl power going on in Hollywood last night!
We opened with this year’s first-time hosts, SNL’s female power couple, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler filling in the shoes of three-time host Ricky Gervais. No, the ladies did not drink a beer on stage- although they did break out some cocktails later in the night -they certainly kicked off the party with hit jokes. These included warning newly single Taylor Swift to stay away from Michael J. Fox’s son Sam (Mr. Golden Globe), giving props to Kathryn Bigelow for knowing a thing or two about torture after having been married to notoriously difficult director James Cameron, and telling Anne Hathaway she hadn’t looked as alone as she did in her Les Miserables performance since hosting the Oscars with James Franco! Yep, it was going to be a fun night!
And the funny did not stop there! Other great moments of the night included Poehler calling Director Quentin Tarantino “the star of my sexual nightmares”, announcing Meryl Streep’s absence from the evening due to the flu with the quip “we hear she is great in it”, and a few purposely failed attempts to break out Fey’s previous Sarah Palin impression as Julianne Moore won for her role as Palin in Game Change.
The hosts were not the only ladies to have the audience in tears. In fact when Kristin Wiig took the stage beside Will Ferrell to present the award to Best Lead Actress in a Comedy or Musical in a skit where neither presenter clearly knew a thing about any of the films they should have watched, I nearly wet my pants in laughterBridesmaid style!
But it wasn’t all tears of laughter. There were a few very heartfelt moments that left not a dry eye in the house. For me, the speech that really hit home came from Jessica Chastain as she took home the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture-Drama for her role in Zero Dark Thirty. She spoke the words of any struggling actress in this town, having only reached commercial success in recent years herself, “I’ve wanted to be an actress since I was a little girl and I’ve worked for a really long time,” she said, her voice shaking. “I’ve auditioned, and struggled, and fought, and been on the sideline for years and to be here now, in this moment, it’s a beautiful feeling to receive this encouragement and support, thank you so much.” She went on to praise director Kathryn Bigelow for all she has done for women in this industry, “You’ve said that filmmaking for you is not about breaking gender roles, but when you make a film that allows your character to disobey the conventions of Hollywood, you’ve done more for women in cinema than you take credit for.”
Moving female speeches did not stop there. Anne Hathaway who won Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for Les Miserables, paid homage to her fellow nominee Sally Field, saying. “Sally, I have to thank you so much for being a vanguard against typecasting, because as the girl who started out as the princess of Genovia (Princess Dairies), I can’t tell you how encouraging it was to know that the Flying Nun grew up to be Norma Rae and grew up to be Mama Gump (Forrest Gump) and grew up to be Mary Todd Lincoln (Lincoln). So thank you so much.”
Perhaps the most odd yet heartfelt speech of the night came fromJodie Foster in accepting her Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. She gave a long, fiery coming out (of sorts) speech proclaiming she is 50 and single, defending her right to privacy, dissing a culture that embraces Honey Boo Boo, embracing change and the possibility that she may ‘never be on stage again’, praising her long-time partner/ex-lover/soul sister in life Cydney Bernard and her children, and sending a message of love to her ailing mother. With a career spanning nearly four decades, she deserved every second of the spotlight and no music would dare to cut her off. Her self-proclaimed ‘big moment’ or ‘graduation’ had the audience and every viewer at home watching in awe and looking forward to what is next to come for her.
Other powerhouse female winners for the night included Adele who’s song Skyfall won for Best Original Song- Motion Picture. With more Grammy’s and American Music Awards than any twenty-four year old girl can count, she seemed genuinely thrilled to take home a Globe thanking the film and TV community for “letting me be a part of your world”.Jennifer Lawrence made the audience chuckle as she noted “I beat Meryl. That’s what it says (the Golden Globe),” taking home the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical for her turn in Silver Linings Playbook. Unlike Meryl, she didn’t let the flu keep her from missing this shining moment.
New Mom, Claire Danes took home the well-deserved award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series- Drama for Homeland, as did Lena Dunham for the same award in the Musical or Comedy category for HBO’s Girls. It was no surprise when Homeland and Girls won respectively for Best Television Series- Drama and Best Television Series- Musical or Comedy. Lastly, Julianne Moore took home the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Game Change and Maggie Smith won for Best Supporting Actress in the same category for Downton Abbey: Season 2.
Of course, it was not all about the women (though it sure did seem like it this year!). It was a surprise to almost no one that Daniel Day-Lewis took home the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture- Drama for Lincoln or that Hugh Jackman won the same category for Comedy or Musical for Les Miserables. Both men gave standout performances of complete transformation and gave eloquent speeches in accepting their deserved awards. Jackman praised his wife for not allowing him to walk away from the role of a lifetime in playing Valjean.
In the supporting categories, Christopher Waltz beat out tough competition to win Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for his turn in Django Unchained as did Damien Lewis for his win as Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series-Drama for Homeland and Don Cheadle for TV Series- Comedy or Musical in House of Lies. These categories truly could have gone either way with competitors including Leonardo DiCaprio and Tommy Lee Jones to Jeff Daniels and Bryan Cranston to Louis C.K. and Jim Parsons, among others. Lastly Kevin Costner took home the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Hatfields & McCoy and in the supporting actor role of that category Ed Harris won for Game Change.
But perhaps the biggest victory of the night came for Ben Affleck. After being snubbed by The Academy in the directing category, Affleck won for Best Director-Motion Picture (Argo) and Argo won for Best Motion Picture- Drama. If Argo were to win Best Picture at the Oscars it would be the first time since Driving Miss Daisy that a film could win sans a director nomination. Well at least the HFP got it right! In fact, Affleck was so elated he forgot to thank a few people. Luckily, wife Jennifer Garner was presenting and was able to sneak in his additional thanks. Note: Never get to thank George Clooney!
Speaking of presenters and powerful men, former President Bill Clinton made an appearance to introduce Best Motion Picture- Drama nominee Lincoln. This surprise guest was apparently added to the show at the suggestion of director Steven Spielberg earlier in the week. Clinton received a standing ovation and even a few laughs as he left the stage and Poehler exclaimed, “That was Hillary Clinton’s husband!”
The other top categories of the night went as follows: Best Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical to Les Miserables, Best Animated Feature Film to Brave, Best Foreign Language Film to Amour(Austria), Best Screenplay- Motion Picture to Quentin Tarantino forDjango Unchained, Best Original Score- Motion Picture to Mychael Danna for Life of Pi, and Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television to Game Change. For the full list of winners visit GoldenGlobes.org
All in all it was a strong night for Hollywood but specifically for women. From female hosts to stronger than ever female performances, I can’t help but feel a bit feminist and a whole lot proud. Perhaps I drank the toast that Jodie Foster was pouring this evening, but change in Hollywood is good. This was a ‘big moment’ for the Golden Globes. Let’s hope The Academy can graduate too!
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