The Golden Globe nominations will be announced in just a few hours but before the film award focus shifts to those I should acknowledge several critics groups that have announced awards in the past week or so.
The Los Angeles film critics and the National Board of Review both selected Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima as the best film of 2006. I haven't seen the film yet but I look forward to it, especially since I immensely enjoyed Eastwood's WWII companion piece Flags of our Fathers.
The New York film critics went with United 93, a critical favorite earlier this year.
All three of these groups selected The Last King of Scotland's Forest Whitaker and The Queen's Helen Mirren as the year's best actor and actress (although Whitaker tied with Borat's Sacha Baron Cohen in Los Angeles).
Other key critics groups to announce awards include Boston film critics (who selected The Departed as the year's best film), Washington D.C. critics (United 93), New York online critics (The Queen) and San Francisco critics (Little Children). (And if you're dying to see their choices in other categories check out Movie City News.)
The Broadcast Film Critics also announced their nominations in a number of categories (they seem to pride themselves on trying to predict Oscar nominations, which makes their selections less interesting than other organizations) and AFI announced its annual top ten list of American films (and also TV shows).
2006 has developed into a pretty respectable year for films and the diversity in these awards demonstrates that to at least some degree. But the Globes will be the first awards of the year to really catch the general public's interest (and the only until Oscar nominations come out).
This year's presumed Oscar frontrunners will be scattered across three categories at the Globes making for a very broad race. Expect to see The Departed and The Queen nominated for best drama film, Dreamgirls and Little Miss Sunshine competing in best comedy/musical and Letters From Iwo Jima regulated to the foreign film category (per Globe rules). (And yes those five films are the top Oscar contenders for Best Picture.)
Babel has deservedly seen its Oscar hopes fade (due mostly to poor box office) but it should be up for drama film here along with some combination of Flags of our Fathers, United 93, World Trade Center, Notes on a Scandal, The Pursuit of Happyness and The Painted Veil. While Borat, The Devil Wears Prada, For Your Consideration and Stranger Than Fiction will be angling to join in the comedy/musical fight. Happy Feet, one of the year's best films, would have a stronger shot at a comedy/musical nomination if the Globes hadn't recently introduced an animated film category.
Of course we could be in for a repeat of last year's unexpected Globe nominations, where smaller, more unlikely, films like Match Point and A History of Violence made the cut. Films as varied as Bobby, Children of Men, Half Nelson, Little Children, Miss Potter and A Prairie Home Companion would fit the bill this year.
It's worth noting that last year's "Best" Picture come Oscar time wasn't even nominated by the Globes. They'll always have that working in their favor.
On the TV side I'm most interested in how several new series will fare. I expect noms for Heroes (drama series), Ugly Betty (comedy series, lead actress and maybe supporting actress for Vanessa Williams), 30 Rock (lead actor and possibly comedy series), Brothers and Sisters (lead actress for Sally Field, longer shot Calista Flockhart, even longer shot Rachel Griffiths and fairly long shot for drama series) and probably Studio 60 (maybe drama series, maybe lead actor/actress, maybe Sarah Paulson in supporting). Showtime's Dexter also likely has a shot at drama series and lead actor nominations.
Other key comedy contenders include Entourage, The Office, My Name is Earl, Scrubs, Desperate Housewives, Weeds and presumably Arrested Development (which aired five episodes in 2006). There's also Two and a Half Men if they want to be boring, or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia if they want to be adventurous. Curb Your Enthusiasm sits this year out.
Dramas eligible include 24, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Big Love, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, House, The Shield, Battlestar Galactica and Rescue Me. Nominating any series outside of this list or the new contenders mentioned above would be a real surprise (even the critically acclaimed Friday Night Lights, given the competition).
By the time anyone reads this nominations will probably have been announced and you'll know how right or wrong I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment