Golden Globes Wrap-Up: 3 Things We Learned

The camera began zooming out as host Ricky Gervais said "Good Night" to the star-filled audience gathered in the illustrious Beverly Hilton, Los Angeles. Typically, the day after a major awards ceremony like the Golden Globes, people spend more time discussing fashion than the real implications of the winners. With the Oscars only a month away, the Golden Globes clearly will have an impact on who wins or losses those major Academy Award races.

In 2009, of the 6 major categories (Best Lead Actor/Actress, Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Director, Best Picture), the Golden Globes and Oscars shared 4 winners. The only difference was the Golden Globes rewarded Avatar for Best Picture and Director (James Cameron), while the Academy granted wins to The Hurt Locker and its director Kathryn Bigelow. Hence, we better expect last night's ceremony to greatly influence next month's biggest award show.

For the record here were the Major winners last night:

Best Picture - Drama: The Social Network
Best Picture - Comedy or Musical: The Kids Are All Right
Best Actor - Drama: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
Best Actor - Comedy or Musical: Paul Giamatti (Barney's Version)
Best Actress- Drama: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Best Actress - Comedy or Musical: Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Best Director: David Fincher (The Social Network)
Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3
Best Foreign Film: In A Better World (Denmark)
Best Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)
Best Original Score: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (The Social Network)

The Social Network ruled the evening with 4 wins, clearly making it the frontrunner for the Oscars. Despite its pair of wins, I don't expect The Kid's Are All Right to fare well in February. However, The Fighter, the underdog who also took home a pair of wins, could possibly pull off the upset.

There were few surprises from some of the closer races. Ultimately, the Golden Globes unfolded exactly as expected (I went 10 for 10 on my predictions blog). That being the case, there are 3 major things we learned as we approach the stretch run to the Oscars.



#1) The Social Network is unstoppable. For a while, people had it slightly ahead of The King's Speech, but a tight race nonetheless. Yet, with back to back wins at The Critics Choice Awards and now The Golden Globes, it's almost a certainty that it's going to win Best Picture next month. Bet the farm on it,


#2) Much like The Social Network, Best Supporting Actress nominee Melissa Leo (The Fighter) will reap the benefits of back to back wins. Having also taken home the the hardware at The Critics Choice Awards and The Golden Globes, Leo heads into the Oscar race as the clear frontrunner ( to the disliking of her fellow co-star Amy Adams and Helena Bonham Carter).


#3) Finally, with all due respect to Christopher Nolan (director of Inception), it's looking like his hopes of an Academy Award are dwindling daily. David Fincher (The Social Network) held a slight edge in their race, but his victory over Nolan last night may have sealed the deal. Although, if the Academy wants to differ a little from the Golden Globes, I could see Nolan being the appropriate upset winner.



Gear up, and I'll be back soon my Oscar predictions and snubs.