Golden Globes

Golden Globes Sharpen Rules For Comedy Category

Kevin Jagernauth — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 17:27:35 GMT

As far awards season goes, the Golden Globes Awards are best understood as a high school prom, compared to the Academy Awards' being more like a formal dinner at the White House. The Golden Globes aren't taken very seriously, but it's a fun party, with the nominees often seem positioned more to guarantee celebrity attendance than any consideration based on merit. The Musical Or Comedy category at the Globes has been particular source of random nominees, with movies like "Alice In Wonderland," "My Week With Marilyn," "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind," and "Her" managing to qualify over the years. But perhaps the most egregious nomination in the category in recent memory was at this year's ceremony for Ridley Scott's "The Martian," which wound up winning over films like "Spy" and "Trainwreck." Well, it seems even the Golden Globes have their limits.

READ MORE: 'The Revenant' Wins Big At The 2016 Golden Globes, Taking Best Picture, Director & Actor

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization behind the Globes, has ruled today a change to guidelines, stating "dramas with comedic overtones should be entered as dramas." Seems like the sort of thing that should be obvious, but in an awards season where studios try to whatever they can to get some shine on their films, it needs to spelled out.

Other changes include ruling that actors cannot be nominated for playing themselves in cameo roles (lol), and that animated feature films need to be at least 75% animated. You can check out the full changes to the rules right here. We'll see how they actually work in practice next year. [The Independent]

Lady Gaga to Perform Oscar-Nominated Song at Producers Guild Awards

Matt Brennan — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 21:39:50 GMT

Lady Gaga will perform Oscar-nominated original song "Til It Happens to You," from "The Hunting Ground," at this Saturday's Producers Guild Awards ceremony, where "Hunting Ground" producer Amy Ziering will accept the PGA's Stanley Kramer Award for raising awareness about social issues.

READ MORE: "Campus Rape Exposé 'The Hunting Ground' to Receive Producers Guild of America Stanley Kramer Award"

In promoting her heartfelt single, a portion of proceeds from which will be donated to organizations that support survivors of sexual assault, Gaga is also on the ever-important Oscar campaign trail, after two news-making knocks on her credibility. First, Leonardo DiCaprio seemed to sneer at her Golden Globe win for "American Horror Story: Hotel," in a GIF that went viral. (He denies he meant anything by it.) Then, earlier this week, 4 Non Blondes' Linda Perry claimed (and soon thereafter apologized for claiming) that Gaga did not contribute enough to Diane Warren's writing of "Til It Happens to You" to merit the joint nomination.

READ MORE: "Lady Gaga Performs Oscar-Contending Original Song 'Til It Happens To You' in Beverly Hills"

It may be that actors don't take Gaga seriously, though musicians (well, except Linda Perry) do. Still, the controversies could generate sympathy for Gaga, who's up against Sam Smith's oft-dissed Golden Globe-winning "Skyfall" theme in the Oscar race. She may need it. Only one single from a documentary (Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up," in "An Inconvenient Truth") has ever won Best Original Song.

Surprise Golden Globe Winner 'Mozart in the Jungle' To Stream on Amazon For Free This Weekend

Riyad Mamedyarov — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 18:15:43 GMT

"Mozart in the Jungle," the below-the-radar Amazon Prime show, surprised everyone by picking up two heavyweight Golden Globes a few nights ago -- one for Best Television Series, Comedy and the other being Best Actor in a Television Series-Musical or Comedy for Gael Garcia Bernal. Now you can find out why: Amazon will be streaming the entire series for free this weekend.

READ MORE: Gael García Bernal on What 'Mozart in the Jungle' Taught Him, and the Color and Scope of Season 2

The nascent Amazon Studios has even gone so far as to permit the streaming of the series worldwide, outside of their usual subscription territories of the US, UK, Japan, Austria and Germany for the duration of the weekend. On top of that, the company is enacting a promotional deal which would discount a year-long US Amazon Prime subscription (which includes the streaming service) to $73 as compared to the usual $99 fee (a nod to the 73rd annual Golden Globes).

Vice President of Amazon Studios Roy Price said in a statement, "what an incredible honor [it is] to be recognized by the Hollywood Foreign Press two years in a row," and that, "It's gratifying and exciting to see the success of ['Mozart']."

Catch the worldwide free stream of "Mozart in the Jungle" this weekend, from Friday at midnight ET to 11:59pm on Sunday.

READ MORE: For Paul Weitz and Roman Coppola, 'Mozart in the Jungle' Season 2 is a Story of Art, Music and People

Daily Reads: The World Doesn't Need a Young Han Solo, How Boxing Movies Celebrate Black Heroes, and More

Vikram Murthi — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 17:12:59 GMT

Criticwire's Daily Reads brings today's essential news stories and critical pieces to you.

1. The World Doesn't Need a Young Han Solo. Amidst all the mourning of the tragic loss of David Bowie, a shortlist of actors being considered for the part of young Han Solo for one of the numerous "Star Wars" spinoffs was leaked onto the Internet. The shortlist underwhelmed and enraged plenty of fans and innocent bystanders. The Atlantic's David Sims argues that the world doesn't need a young Han Solo, but should rather embrace new faces.

"The Force Awakens" mined familiar motifs (the Death Star, the lonely soul on a desert planet, the transformative death of a mentor) from George Lucas's original work to position its new characters. Yes, the critical backlash eventually focused on how familiar everything felt, but few could discount the thrill of seeing Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, and John Boyega as the new faces of the franchise. Harrison Ford was involved, of course, playing an aging Solo, but he was there to pass the torch more than anything, and he did his work well. Elgort, or Franco, or whomever is cast in this upcoming film won't be so lucky — they'll have to live up to the memory of a character who's almost universally adored by audiences, and do it in a film that can't have any bearing on the future of the Star Wars franchise, given that it's set before Lucas’s original films. Perhaps it'll concern Solo acquiring the Millennium Falcon, or meeting his pal Chewbacca, or making that infamous Kessel Run he keeps talking about. Guess who tried this kind of story-mining before? George Lucas, whose prequel trilogy tripped over itself trying to explain every famed original character's background, unfortunately getting in the way of a coherent story in the process. Why do audiences need to see the events that made Han Solo who he is? He’s a complete package the second he's introduced — rebellious, charming, with just enough bravado to disguise that he's making it up as he goes along — and so much of that is down to Ford's performance. Any new actor in the role will be saddled with the choice between trying to imitate Ford or creating their own take on the character, and both will be a tough sell. The most depressing thing is that "Star Wars" doesn't need any of this. By 2018, "Episode VIII" will have been released and a whole other generation will be firmly invested in the series's new characters. Where will the appetite for a young Han Solo be? Older viewers raised on Harrison Ford will be predisposed to cynicism. Younger viewers will be waiting for the return of Finn and Rey. Another upcoming spinoff, "Rogue One," will also explain a past bit of Star Wars marginalia — the theft of the original Death Star plans — but it at least has an exciting ensemble of character actors playing entirely novel characters.

2. How Boxing Movies Put Black Heroes in the Frame. Ryan Coogler's "Creed," the successful seventh installment in the "Rocky" franchise, features Michael B. Jordan as a young Adonis Creed trains with Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to become a professional boxer like his father Apollo. In light of "Creed," Little White Lies' Christina Newland writes about how boxing films raise awareness of race and class, and often place black heroes in the frame.

As early as 1910, boxing has played an important role in both race relations and film history. When first-ever black heavyweight champ Jack Johnson KO'd "great white hope" Jim Jeffries in the so-called "Fight of the Century" – exposing the lie of white superiority – race riots broke out across the nation. The immediate response in several states was an outright ban on prizefight films; one of the earliest instances of American film censorship. Such was the power of the fledgling medium. Motion pictures were perfectly suited to capture the sport's dynamic movement – and its potentially revolutionary impact. Prizefighting had its on-screen heyday in the '30s and '40s. Among the many catalysts for the "progressive" boxing film were the respective surges in popularity of pugilism and moviegoing during the first half of the 20th century. Traditionally, fighters came from urban immigrant backgrounds, making them perfect salt of the earth heroes for Warner Brothers' Depression-era output. This aligned with other progressive influences in Tinseltown at the time – the incipient rise of the Communist Party and left-wing activism came to have a significant relationship with the prizefight film. Familiar rags-to-riches plots became cautionary tales about the pitfalls of capitalism; heroic sports figures became dopes and heels, exploited by gangsters and corrupt managers. Throughout the '40s, boxing films swelled the film noir ranks, offering an even more pessimistic interpretation of what had come before. When it came to promoting white heroes, Hollywood had catapulted champs like Jack Dempsey and Max Baer onto the big screen in walk-on roles. But by 1937 the legendary Joe Louis was heavyweight champ, opening the door for African-American fighters that would soon dominate the sport over ethnic Jews, Irish, and Italians. Yet in the unrivalled 11 years that Louis was champ, not a single boxing film produced by a major studio featured a prominent black protagonist. In terms of both race and class, a look at the output of two Hollywood screenwriters during this portion of the studio era – both active CPUSA members and later victims of the McCarthy blacklist – proves illuminating. Carl Foreman is perhaps best known for penning "High Noon," but did equally subversive work with his 1949 Kirk Douglas vehicle, "Champion." Douglas stars as a champ with dubious morals; his all-American success story is implicated as a racket where only the ruthless truly succeed. Screenwriter Abraham Polonsky made an even greater impact on the genre, first with 1947's evocative and fiercely felt "Body and Soul," starring John Garfield as fictional Jewish fighter Charley Davis. Davis is a man torn between the wealth of the big-time fight game and solidarity with his old world Brooklyn community. In the climactic final fight, Charley plans to take a fall for the short-term money, even though his neighborhood has rallied around him and is gambling on his win. Canada Lee co-stars as Ben, an African-American fighter forced to retire and work in Charley's corner after the ring doctor warns that he has a potentially fatal blood clot on the brain. His friendship with Garfield's Charley is a rare occurrence in Hollywood cinema of the 1940's; the narrative hinges on the brotherhood and solidarity between a black and a Jewish fighter. Once again, race in boxing had managed to raise the ire of American film censors – the Production Code Administration moved to have Lee's character completely excised from the script.

3. The 2016 Golden Globe Awards Explained. On Sunday, the 73rd annual Golden Globe Awards aired on NBC to generally negative reviews and low viewership. This can be attributed to many reasons, but Vox's Todd VanDerWerff argues in his explainer of the show that the Golden Globes no longer have a strong identity and instead flounder in insignificance.

In the '80s and '90s, the Golden Globes knew their role in the awards ecosystem exactly: They were the awards that predicted the Oscars. Sure, there were a variety of industry prizes with better track records (like, say, the Director's Guild Awards), but they weren't televised to the American public. Add to a solid prediction track record stars getting drunk and behaving badly, and you had a recipe for a fun show. But the Globes increasingly just aren't that anymore. The Oscars changed their schedule in the early 2000s to blunt the influence of the Globes and other precursor awards. And without the "predicting the Oscars" element, the Globes have started to feel increasingly adrift. A great host can save the proceedings, as can a handful of inspired speeches. But the Globes haven't particularly handled their transition to "institution" all that well, because becoming an institution was never in the awards' DNA. They've always been about throwing a great party for celebrities, and the awards were incidental. There was a recurring theme throughout the night that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association probably didn't want out there: You can buy a Golden Globe. And this is true, on some level! Washington discussed in his speech about how when he won his first Globe, it was because he spent lots of time with HFPA members, while Larson said exactly the same thing while collecting her prize, telling said members how fun it's been getting to know them. There are only a few dozen HFPA members. Enterprising networks and studios, then, can woo them fairly easily, and fairly inexpensively compared with larger awards bodies. The Globes had mostly cast off this image, except as something people whispered about — but this year, obsessed with the past as it was, brought it roaring back. In the end, the Golden Globes are what they always were: a party for a handful of journalists to get to meet famous people.

4. Adam Sandler, Streaming Superstar. You may have heard rumblings about how "The Ridiculous 6," Adam Sandler's newest film for Netflix, is one of the most watched films on the streaming service. While this is shocking to just about anyone who has even a cursory awareness of Sandler, Slate's Amanda Hess claims that Sandler is the type of figure to succeed on streaming platforms rather than in movie theaters.

Netflix's heralding of Sandler as a "global" star is another case of exceeding low expectations. Several of Sandler's films have brought in more money overseas than they did in the U.S., but a) they were flops in America and b) the U.S. population is small compared to all the people in every other country combined. Healthy foreign box office receipts shouldn’t be mistaken for universal appeal: Reviews of Sandler’s films are just as lousy abroad as they are stateside, even in the countries Netflix has held up as Sandler apologists. "I have literally no idea why Adam Sandler would be popular here or anywhere else," British film critic Ben Walters told me. "It's not like the French loving Jerry Lewis or anything." A German critic called it "unpleasant," explaining, "the running gag of the film is an incontinent donkey." A Belgian journalist begged Netflix to "give him the bag of money he's still owed, but please don't let him make those other three films." Though one Brazilian reviewer described the "Ridiculous 6" as "mental torture," Sandler is genuinely popular in that country. When a Brazilian friend of Slate surveyed her Facebook compatriots on their attitudes toward Sandler, the dozen-or-so respondents signaled a deep affinity with the star. "He is considered a great actor," one said. "People are entertained by his charisma," said another. And on and on: "All his movies are great," "He is very funny," "I love him." None of them had seen "The Ridiculous 6," because they don’t subscribe to Netflix. Yet. Sandler's career redistribution — waning at home, trending abroad — could be a case of sinking to the lowest common denominator. The conventional wisdom is that comedy is too culturally specific to travel far and wide, but Sandler's slapstick style and scatological fixations operate on such a subverbal level, they slip beneath the language barrier to reach tween males across the world. In Brazil, "Pixels" enjoyed a bigger opening weekend than "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," but both were bested by "Minions," a film starring cartoon aliens who speak a language that no human understands. "My character will be the easiest to translate, because he only makes noises," "Lost" castaway and "Ridiculous 6" star Jorge Garcia told audiences at the Sao Paulo Comic Con outpost, where he and his castmates were met with huge crowds.

5. "13 Hours": Can Michael Bay Pull Off a Gritty Movie About Benghazi? Michael Bay's Benghazi movie "13 Hours," based on the 2013 book by Mitchell Zuckoff, is set to be released this Friday. Bay's films have always done well at the box office but have fared poorly with the majority of critics who find his work consistently juvenile and indulgent. Rolling Stone's Josh Eells profiles Bay on the set of "13 Hours" and wonders if he can pull off a Benghazi movie.

Bay's alleged cinematic sins have been well documented: the explosions, the hammy one-liners, the epileptic editing, the indifference to narrative logic, the explosions, the explosions. By now, he has little interest in defending himself. "What's to defend?" he says. "See the movie. Make your choice. What I do know is that when I show these guys doing their stuff, it's accurate. We tried getting it really right." It's fair to be skeptical about claims of realism from a director who once said, of a fireball in "Armageddon," "Now, I know there's no fire in space. But it's a movie, and most people don't know that." In some ways, though, Benghazi is a perfect fit for Bay. "13 Hours" is based on a book of the same name, written by journalist Mitchell Zuckoff with five of the CIA contractors. Much of it sounds like something right out of a Michael Bay movie: There's a weaselly desk-jockey boss, a family-man CIA contractor doing one last job. At one point, one of the heroes climbs into an armor-plated SUV and can't find anywhere to put his coffee and grumbles, "Spend $250,000 on a damn Mercedes and there's no cup holder? What kind of bullshit is that?" – which is almost literally a line from "Bad Boys." The real-life contractors were happy with the choice. "I thought 'Armageddon' was awesome," says Kris "Tanto" Paronto, a former Army Ranger. Adds former Marine Mark "Oz" Geist, "Some people are like, 'Oh, Michael Bay, he does all the explosions.' Well, the real event had plenty of explosions. So it's not like he had to come up with any." And according to former Marine John "Tig" Tiegen, Bay had incentive to be accurate: "We told him we'd waterboard him if he got it wrong." Bay is going to get into all of it, with one caveat. "Some of the things I tell you have to be off the record," he says. "Because they have to do with the CIA, and how they do what they do. A lot of people think they know the story of Benghazi," he says, like a human trailer. "But they have no idea."

Tweet of the Day:

VELVET GOLDMINE also offers my favorite (indirect) description of who Bowie was: pic.twitter.com/TMUvUlkltR

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) January 11, 2016

What Exactly Happened at the Golden Globes, and Why Does It Matter?

Kate Erbland and Ben Travers — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 20:38:59 GMT

READ MORE: Full List of All Golden Globe Film and Television Winners

KATE ERBLAND: If there's one word that best describes my Golden Globes viewing experience, it's "WHAT." Or, perhaps a bit more eloquently, "surprise!" The night was packed with shockers, from the really good (Rachel Bloom winning for "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," mere hours after a TCA panel that seemed to be dedicated to talking about just how much the creative team behind the show wishes it would get some love, Oscar Isaac picking up a trophy for "Show Me a Hero") to the really unexpected (Kate Winslet looking genuinely shocked that anyone wanted to dole out accolades for "Steve Jobs," which has mostly been forgotten by both audiences and awards bodies, or Ridley Scott sniffing at the designation of his "The Martian" as a comedy), but weirdly, that didn't help the whole thing move at a clip for me, it just sort of highlighted how bloated and off-kilter the whole thing was.

When that actual emotion burbled up, it provided a respite, and it's certainly a nice takeaway from the show itself, but man, wouldn't it be nice if the entire thing could be that zippy and fresh?

BEN TRAVERS: You've touched on the greatest challenge facing award shows in general, which is balancing those sweet, genuine acceptance speeches with the more politically motivated rudimentary list readings.

Bloom's astonished reaction to her (much-deserved) victory reminded us why we watch, tweet, analyze and generally devote attention to the HFPA to begin with, while Scott's bland recitation of many names few viewers know all to make sure no one feels excluded (in the hopes they'll support his Oscar bid) takes us straight to Snoozeville. So every time Ricky Gervais made a crack about how the show could be a half-hour, all I could think was, "How?" What would you cut that people might not miss and what would you keep that would make the ceremony worth airing? It was far from a perfect ceremony, but I always watch the Globes like I watch a playoff game: Who looks like they can go the distance, and who's just happy to be here?

Of course, when it comes to TV, most winners fall into the latter category, as the HFPA inexplicably but consistently contradicts itself by crowning little-known upstarts like "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and "Mozart in the Jungle" on the TV side and regularly rewarding the biggest names (or most likely Oscar winners) on the film side. But hey, I can't complain about too much. Sylvester Stallone won a Golden Globe Sunday night. All is right with the world.

KATE ERBLAND: I mostly believed Gervais when he reminisced about how great things were during the Writers' Strike and the "awards ceremony" literally consisted of names being read off a sheet. Boom, half an hour, in and out, zero, done. But where's the pageantry in that? And awards shows — especially ones like the Golden Globes, which is mounted every year amongst chatter about legitimacy and financial gain — are all about pageantry. (And, also, geez, Ricky, if you hate this stuff as much as you put on last night, get off our television and let someone else have a crack at flaming the entirety of Hollywood for a pretty paycheck.)

The funny thing about all those TV shocks — like "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," "Mr. Robot" and "Mozart in the Jungle" — is that it made me think, "Hmm, here's some stuff I should really be catching up on," while the film winners mainly made me just exhale hot, angry breath, much like a particularly annoyed dragon. Aside from Sly! That was an actual treat and, moreover, the kind of win that actually might position him for the kind of Oscar glory he should be getting for his turn in "Creed."

Basically, I feel extremely conflicted about the impact of the Golden Globes.

BEN TRAVERS: I'm right there with you in terms of an overall reaction, though the one aspect that had me breathing fire was the almost entire dismissal of comedies.

Aside from including TV, the one big advantage the Globes has always carried over the Oscars is its split categories. Sure, the comedy and drama groupings are probably there more to bring in more big-name talent than honor a genre otherwise overlooked, but at least they have them. In a world where any heavy-handed drama is given more credit than the funniest film of the year, the Globes has a unique opportunity to show proper respect to a craft that's largely ignored at award shows, by critics' groups and even in Top 10 lists.

So what happened last night? "The Martian" won Best Comedy (or, as Matt Damon joked backstage, Best Musical), Damon stole Best Actor, Jennifer Lawrence snagged actress for the pseudo-comedy "Joy," and "Mozart in the Jungle" took home TV honors. I mean, the flat-out funniest winner across the board last night was Bloom — and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" is a musical! While preposterous category shifts are common at the Globes and, even with the comedy category in place, they still often reward the most dramatic entry of the group, what made 2016's ceremony all the worse was that there were so many great comedies nominated that were, you know, actual comedies! "Veep" is a clear favorite of mine and a vastly superior series to everything else in its category, but even "Silicon Valley" is deserving of some time in the sun. As I tweeted last night, I'm happy "Mozart in the Jungle" got some love, but why did it have to get everything? And, on the film side, how the Globes shut out a star-fueled crowd favorite like "The Big Short" (which, by the way, is also freaking great) is beyond me.

READ MORE: Golden Globes Winners and Sinners (Analysis)

KATE ERBLAND: While running the Indiewire Twitter feed for all the hot Golden Globes action last night, the one question that got tossed my way more than anything else is the now old stand-by: "How the hell is 'The Martian' a comedy?" I didn't really have the time to dig into deeper discussions of category fraud with confused Twitter followers, and frankly, I'm right there with them (and, I guess to some extent, with even Ridley Scott himself).

Comedies lost out big time in both film and television, with "The Martian" and "Joy" sucking up the love that should have gone to nominees like "Trainwreck" (ACTUALLY FUNNY) or "Spy" (AT LEAST A TRUE COMEDY) or "The Big Short" (terrifying, but lots more amusing than "The Martian," which I do love). Laymen are confused by what unfolded there, and I don't have a good answer for them — I understand the actual mechanics of it, but damn, it looks just awful when it actually comes time to handing out awards and films that tickled the funny bone are shut out of the categories that exist to laud them.

Why even bother with such categories then? Why carve out room for musical and comedies — which the Oscars do not do, so this is the end of the road for lots of Golden Globe nominees — if the HFPA isn't going to allot that space to the right films?

Also, important question, is "Mozart in the Jungle" even a comedy? Help me.

BEN TRAVERS: "Mozart" is as much of a comedy as "Transparent," another show that deserves all the awards it can get, but isn't written, structured or facing the same demands as series that put laughter above all else. And that's what irks me the most: As you said, it's easy to understand the HFPA's motivations without losing the sense of disgust when the awards are doled out, but as someone who very much believes in rewarding excellent work as a vital part of any profession, it sucks that comedians are repeatedly shunned in a category designed to honor them. It's hard enough to compare art on an objective scale, but saying "The Martian" is a better comedy than "Trainwreck" is like saying pizza is your favorite sandwich.

But in an effort to steer thing back to the positive note you so graciously began our convo with, can you share a personal moment of glee from the evening? Something akin to what I can only assume would have been our shared reaction if Saoirse Ronan would've won the only award "Brooklyn" was nominated for? Be it a win (like Sly getting the evening's first standing o), a speech (like Jon Hamm's, whose seemingly genuine thanks to the HFPA for supporting him really hit home) or a bit of comedy (like Eva Longoria and America Ferrara making a case that two women should always host everything from now on), what will you remember from Sunday night?

KATE ERBLAND: I can't imagine another award acceptance just plain tickling me the the way Taraji P. Henson's "Empire" win did, and I'm not on the "Empire" bandwagon at all (I'm not even a Cookie Monster, in the parlance of the evening). She just owned the stage. Hell, she owned the reaction, the walk to the stage, the general establishment of "here I am," the stage, the speech, everything. And, given how many people were played off (and how many referenced it!), it was actually refreshing to see someone just say "Nope, none of that noise" and continue on with their thank-yous and comments.

It's easy to get jaded about awards show sometimes, especially in our line of business, but when someone wins something and seems to be truly happy about it, it does kind of seem worth it. Henson made it all feel worth it for me last night.

Now, can you possibly use words to describe your own reaction when Stallone won?

BEN TRAVERS: I think the only way to properly capture my exuberance would be in .gif form, but I'll do what I can to translate that passion here. Seeing Stallone win was one thing — a wondrous, life-fulfilling, ridiculously awesome thing — but watching everyone stand and cheer for a titan of the industry who came from nothing, climbed to the top, fell down again only to rise better than ever had me choking up. It was a beautiful moment not marred at all by his momentary lapse in thanking Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan. He was clearly overwhelmed, but still took the time to come back on stage and acknowledge his director and co-star. A class act, that Sly.

Also, I must say, despite losing any respect I've earned by admitting the following, nothing could ruin the Globes for me last night after seeing two of my all-time favorite writers take the stage. Stallone was Priorities A through Y going into the night, but seeing Aaron Sorkin get some merited acknowledgment for what had to be a gargantuan, grueling writing process was a nice surprise. Clearly, he's been given enough awards over the years, and it's a shame Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer weren't acknowledged for their meticulous work on "Spotlight," but while everyone else is complaining about Sorkin fatigue, I'll throw some love out there in the hope more people watch "Steve Jobs" (for Kate Winslet and Michael Fassbender, as much as the writing).

READ MORE: Golden Globes TV Awards: The Edge of Reason (Analysis)

KATE ERBLAND: Ben, please feel free to insert any and all appropriate .gifs as you see fit.

I do wonder what kind of bumps the Globes will give to some of its winners, from the TV surprises to the film shockers (like "Steve Jobs," which got much more love than I was anticipating). I also wonder how many people spent last night going, "Huh, Kate Winslet is in that movie?" It will be interesting to see what programs and films work their way into more forward-facing pop cultural discussions over the next few weeks. Will "Steve Jobs" get a box office bump? Is everyone going to start binge-watching "Mozart"? Maybe this all isn't so bad.

BEN TRAVERS: I feel like it helps TV more than film, if only because it's hard to imagine even a slew of Oscar nods renewing interest in "Steve Jobs." It just cratered so bad, Kate. And so quickly.

But for TV, the 2015 awards certainly helped out "Transparent" and Amazon as a whole. One could argue at this time last year few people knew how to watch Amazon originals, but the same can't be said today. "Mozart" should see a sampling bump, and — considering Amazon's slightly more transparent (no pun intended) attitude toward viewing statistics — we might even know if that happens in the next few weeks. "Jane the Virgin" saw a slight uptick in ratings last season after Gina Rodriguez won, so perhaps "My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" can see a similar (and needed) boost.
"The Affair" Season 1 was over by the time it took home Best Drama last year, so it's uptick in ratings during Season 2 can't totally be attributed to the Golden Globes. But it had to help with awareness and credibility, two things USA's "Mr. Robot" still needs to succeed. So to your overall point, yes, I think a lot of good can come from the Globes' picking series that may not be "the best" but definitely are deserving of more eyes — at least in TV.

KATE ERBLAND: Some of these shows already have at least one guaranteed new viewer — me! It's finally time for me to spend some Q.T. with "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," methinks.

Overall, what is your takeaway from the show? Oddly, I feel more inspired and excited by the TV picks, while the film awards just seemed surprising and strange and bound to throw the already wacky Oscar field into total disarray. Yeah, Oscar nomination voting is over and was before the show kicked off, but the Globes might have given us some insight into how the tide is turning. Love for Sly? Yes. No love for "Brooklyn" or "Spotlight"? Not so much.

BEN TRAVERS: Final reaction (since you gave me permission):
READ MORE: Review: Can We Just Give Up on Broadcasting The Golden Globes?

KICKING TELEVISION: Seeing Ourselves in the Golden Globes

Mike Spry — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 19:45:33 GMT

There are few things I detest more than celebrity culture. But, in stark contrast and wrapped in hypocrisy, I love the Golden Globes. Not that long ago, just after my now wife and I had become friends, we were taking a nice walk on a beautiful spring day in Montreal, headed out for some breakfast to try and get to know each other better. I was tipping shy that day, a bit in awe of her beauty—a beauty that I refuse to describe analogously through comparisons to indie songstresses or pixied actresses—and was kind of fumbling through early friendship questions. What are you reading? I dunno… not much—Saunders. What bands are you in to? Uh, Silver Jews. Do you like stuff? Hmm. Mostly just things. My responses provided no insight, revealed no interesting character beneath my Bon Iver beard and unwashed aesthetic. I was losing her. But then, in a flash of inspiration, and out of nowhere, I uttered: All I really want out of life is someone to watch the Golden Globes with. And a love was born.

What was important in this transcendental moment was that I didn’t profess my desire to have someone to watch TV with. That would’ve been too simple and lacking of perceptive interiority. And I didn’t claim a longing for the Oscars or the Grammys or the People’s Choice Awards. Affection for those ceremonies offers suggestions of alternate character: Glamour and elitism, fondness for trite song writing, celebration of the pedestrian. The Golden Globes suggest an understanding of culture, but also a devotion to the playful, a love of honesty, a tenderness towards organized chaos, and respect for accomplishment and an open bar. In an inspired moment I revealed myself to someone who is three leagues beyond me, and perhaps endeared myself to her.

What I love most about the Golden Globes is the way they reflect the time in which they exist unlike other forms of pageantry and celebrity. The Oscars always seem dated, with safe jokes and anachronistic musical productions. The Grammys don’t seem to understand that music exists outside of Top 40 radio, which further exposes the insulation and ignorance of celebrity culture. The Emmys try to get it right, but then celebrate The Big Bang Theory and Jon Cryer as comedy, and not in a meta way. The Golden Globes—perhaps organically, perhaps by design—communicate a moment in our culture, a snapshot of where we are as a people.

Case in point: The ignorant and transphobic jokes at the expense of Caitlyn Jenner, Transparent and its exceptional star Jeffrey Tambor. Of Jenner, host Ricky Gervais quipped: “I’ve changed. Well, not as much as Bruce Jenner, obviously—now Caitlyn Jenner, of course. What a year she’s had. She became a role model for transpeople everywhere, showing great bravery in breaking down barriers and destroying stereotypes. She didn’t do a lot for women drivers, but you can’t do everything.” He then joked about Tambor’s testicles. No only are these punch lines not funny, but they’re unfortunately indicative of where our tolerance is in terms of understanding LGTBQ issues. That it’s still acceptable to use these issues as punch lines shows that we have yet progressed to the level of understanding we need in order to assimilate all people into our culture. It was like Gervais had told a black joke in 1985 or a gay joke in 2005. It reveals the distance between where we are and where we need to be.

Despite Gervais' failed humor, the Golden Globes provided, as they always do, a forum for the celebrated artists to address larger societal concerns. Transpeople’s issues are important right now, and Transparent, Caitlyn Jenner, and Laverne Cox are important beacons of that conversation. Last night, Leonardo DiCaprio and Alejandro González Iñárritu (after wins for The Revenant) both asked that indigenous people’s issues be more prominent in our cultural and political discourses. In many instances, certainly too many, venues like awards ceremonies are the only place much of the audience would be exposed to issues more relevant than the Kardashians' meal choices. And while at the Oscars or the Grammys or the Cable Ace Awards such speeches could come across as preaching, the laid-back and jovial manner of the Golden Globes seems to make political messages more palatable to the audience.

Beyond societal concerns, the Golden Globes provide a place to reflect upon the condition of the mediums of film and TV, and the roles they play in cultural discourse. Last night, Gervais recycled jokes from previous eras and hosting efforts, mocking Charlie Sheen’s addictions, Angelina Jolie Pitt’s adoptions, and Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitism. And while not being funny, they did illuminate and illustrate where we seem to be as a culture artistically, certainly in film and television: We seem to be out of ideas. Now is a time of recycling and rebooting; from Star Wars to The Muppets to old white men in late night film and TV, we seem to be plagued (except in some exceptional cases) with an inability or unwillingness or fear to be ambitious or innovative. The Golden Globes were a reflection of this, from Gervais’ jokes to Sylvester Stallone’s Best Supporting Actor win for Creed to the endless close-ups on Harrison Ford. Even the appearance of BFFs Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Schumer seemed rebooted, like a joke we’ve seen before: this time, the punch line didn’t hit.

The funniest part of the production, and further reflection of the disparity between society and the entertainment we’re fed, was the excessive bleeping of cursing. How is it possible, in an era of unconscionable violence both in art and reality, that expletives can be deemed so dangerous? This is indicative of the flawed manner in which we address issues in society. Swearing in a Versace gown is unacceptable, but the 2^nd Amendment is important. Expletives are dangerous but Donald Trump isn’t. The Golden Globes, through the flaw of their network oversight, illuminate this hypocrisy. Perhaps futilely, but at least its there. Nary a celeb would dare drop an F-bomb on the Oscars, even while drone bombing plays live on other channels.

In a more positive light, what I do love about the Golden Globes is the honesty it seems to project, in stark contrast to the polished and tapered product of celebrity we are fed by Entertainment Tonight, People Magazine, and publicist-driven narratives. Other awards ceremonies revel in that culture of disingenuous production, but the Golden Globes celebrate its absence. Everyone has had a few cocktails. Lips are loose. Mistakes are made. There are always a few moments of truth that we don’t often get from the Hollywood machine. Rachel Bloom’s exuberance in her upset win as Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy TV Series, Denzel Washington and his wife without their glasses stumbling through his acceptance speech for his Cecil B. DeMille Award, Jamie Foxx’s noting the absence of recognition (at least musically) for Straight Outta Compton and his love for his daughter (Miss Golden Globe), and Tom Hanks’ Denzel impression are examples of polished and pampered stars being human. And I find something inherently beautiful about that.

We filter ourselves through celebrity. We quantify our aesthetic through its dissemination. We value our art in contrast to theirs. And their success—family, fame, fortune—is what we aspire to, no matter how impractical those aspirations are. I writhe at the lack of humility and grand ego that encompasses it all—both the celebrity and our obsessive filtering. But, once a year—when it’s at its best—the Golden Globes provide a glimpse of the virtue of celebrity and a reminder that these are simply people at the top of their industry, all dressed up, and out for a night of free champagne.

Mike Spry is a writer, editor, and columnist who has written for The Toronto Star, Maisonneuve, and The Smoking Jacket, among others, and contributes to MTV’s PLAY with AJ. He is the author of the poetry collection JACK (Snare Books, 2008) and Bourbon & Eventide (Invisible Publishing, 2014), the short story collection Distillery Songs (Insomniac Press, 2011), and the co-author of Cheap Throat: The Diary of a Locked-Out Hockey Player (Found Press, 2013). Follow him on Twitter @mdspry.

Golden Globes 2016 Wrap-Up: Cheers to Taraji P. Henson and Rachel Bloom, Jeers to Ricky Gervais

Laura Berger — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 19:30:00 GMT

The overwhelming majority of the honorees at the 2016 Golden Globes were, as expected, white men. And Ricky Gervais was, as expected, mean-spirited and dreadfully glib as opposed to delightfully so.

The evening had barely kicked off when Gervais unleashed transphobic “jokes.” After "deadnaming" Caitlyn Jenner -- a term The Advocate explains is used “in the transgender community when someone refers to a trans person by the name they were assigned at birth instead of their chosen name” -- he later made a series of uncomfortable and unfunny comments about "Transparent" actor Jeffrey Tambor, who portrays a transgender woman in the Amazon series.

Gervais said, "At least Jeffrey Tambor did it in a dress. Um, what a year he's had. Oh. What an actor, what a role. Every day, he has to put on all that women's clothes and the hair and makeup and let people film it. That takes balls. So, I don't know how he does it. I really don't. I've seen his balls. They are huge and long. I don't know he tucked them in the bra, that thing push them out the back and let them hang out, like a bulldog? No one knows. I love Jeffrey Tambor."

YIKES. As Slate perfectly summarized, Tambor "responded with a grim look of disbelief rather than a smile." It was uncomfortable. Not because Gervais was pushing the envelope, but because he was being offensive for the sake of it as part of a cheap and unfunny gag. And the evident discomfort -- and audible quiet -- of the room suggested that, thankfully, the time for transphobic jokes of this nature are no longer welcome.

Apparently the fact that we were immune to our host’s charms makes us "humorless cunts" in his eyes (we'll add that many other outlets panned his performance). We actually think Gervais has made some brilliant TV and can be hilarious -- hell, we laughed out loud when he incredulously asked Mel Gibson exactly what "sugar tits" means -- but we were tired of his shtick within minutes of the broadcast starting and waited in vain for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to zipline onto the stage and save the day.

That’s enough about Gervais.

Our favorite moment of the night was probably Rachel Bloom's unexpected win for Best Actress in a Television Comedy. What an upset! The star, co-creator, writer and producer of the critically lauded but criminally underwatched "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" was sincerely, obviously stunned to hear her name called, and explained how the show almost didn't happen (six networks rejected the musical comedy series in one day!). Bloom thanked co-creator Aline Brosh McKenna and excitedly shouted, "Aline saw my YouTube videos and two-and-a-half years later, I am standing on stage with a Golden Globe." This marks the second year in a row that an actress from The CW has won the award. (Last year's winner was a super well-deserving Gina Rodriguez for "Jane the Virgin.")

We also loved the chemistry between America Ferrara and her co-presenter Eva Longoria, where the two riffed about Hollywood's racism and how often Latina actresses (who don't even look alike!) are confused for one another.

Another duo we were pleased to see onscreen were famed BFFs Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Schumer, who just finished writing a comedy together. Lawrence later won the award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for "Joy."

Taraji P. Henson handed out cookies to Lady Gaga and Leonardo DiCaprio, among others, as she took the stage to accept the award for Best Actress in a TV Drama as a nod to her character on “Empire,” Cookie Lyon. Henson delivered an entertaining, free-wheeling speech, which she refused to keep short, and scoffed at the warnings she received on the teleprompter. Henson is the third black actress to ever win the award in this category: her predecessors are Gail Fisher in 1973 for "Mannix" and Regina Taylor in 1993 for "I'll Fly Away."

Kate Winslet rightly noted "what an incredible year" it's been for women in film when she scored the Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for "Steve Jobs." She continued, "These categories are so crowded and crammed with incredible skill and integrity and I feel prouder than ever this year to be included, I really truly do." There really are so many deserving actresses in the awards race this year, and that's a testament to both their talent and the wider availability of good roles for women versus weaker years, such as 2014.

Brie Larson took home the gold for her leading role in "Room." She immediately thanked Emma Donoghue, the woman behind the novel on which the film is based as well as its screenwriter.

We -- like most -- were both confounded and disappointed by the fact that "Mozart in the Jungle" triumphed over "Transparent" for Best Comedy Series.

And our heart broke a little when Deniz Gamze Erguven's brilliant "Mustang" lost for Best Foreign Language Film, but thankfully the winner, "Son of Saul," is also excellent. We remain hopeful that "Mustang" will land an Oscar nom (the drama about repressed Turkish sisters is one of nine remaining contenders).

And finally, Miss Golden Globes feels retrograde at this point, no? So '50s. If we're going to continue this tradition, why not add Mr. Golden Globes?

From our understanding, no female writers or directors went home with an award in those categories. Here are the female winners (list adapted from Vulture):

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Rooney Mara, Carol
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE, MUSICAL, OR COMEDY
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Melissa McCarthy, Spy
Amy Schumer, Trainwreck
Maggie Smith, The Lady in the Van
Lily Tomlin, Grandma

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN ANY MOTION PICTURE
Jane Fonda, Youth
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Helen Mirren, Trumbo
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES, DRAMA
Caitriona Balfe, Outlander
Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder
Eva Green, Penny Dreadful
Taraji P. Henson, Empire
Robin Wright, House of Cards

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES, MUSICAL, OR COMEDY
Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Jamie Lee Curtis, Scream Queens
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Gina Rodriguez, Jane the Virgin
Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Kirsten Dunst, Fargo
Lady Gaga, American Horror Story: Hotel
Sarah Hay, Flesh and Bone
Felicity Huffman, American Crime
Queen Latifah, Bessie

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A SERIES, LIMITED SERIES, OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Uzo Aduba, Orange Is the New Black
Joanne Froggatt, Downton Abbey
Regina King, American Crime
Maura Tierney, The Affair
Judith Light, Transparent

How Golden Globe Winner Oscar Isaac Assured His Post-'Star Wars' Ascension with 10 Smart Moves

Susan Wloszczyna — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 18:52:00 GMT

He’s the GIF that keeps on GIF-ing. He’s the Internet’s new boyfriend. He’s bringing the intergalactic sexy to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in ways that not even Billy Dee Williams’ smooth operator Lando Calrissian could provide. Just don’t pretend that you knew all along who Oscar Isaac was when he showed up onscreen as the dashing X-wing pilot Poe Dameron, sporting an Errol Flynn-class matinee idol smile that has been flashing all over your friends’ social media accounts of late.

Judging by the numbers, you and countless others failed to heed the critical hurrahs and didn’t see Isaac in “Inside Llewyn Davis” (box office: a mere $13.2 million), “A Most Violent Year” (box office: an underwhelming $6 million) and HBO’s summer miniseries “Show Me a Hero” (average rating: a measly 422,000 viewers). But you can make up for your late acknowledgement of Isaac’s abundant gifts and show your devotion by inquiring about this huggable body-length pillow case featuring Poe that is available HERE.

What a difference one super-sized year-end blockbuster can make. Isaac was nominated for his first major acting award, a Golden Globe, back in 2013 for his slinky self-defeating ‘60s folk singer in “Inside Llewyn Davis.” But after he sashayed through the red-carpeted celebrity gridlock at this Sunday’s event, he wound up taking home the Globe best actor in a TV movie or miniseries for his ‘80s-era Yonkers politico in “Hero." Now he's arrived as a legitimate sensation.

In a little more than a decade, this Guatemalan-born, Miami-raised actor who has been dubbed both the next Al Pacino and the reincarnation of Cary Grant by the media has suddenly become the man that many dream of each night and muse about during the day – a path that recent eye-candy actors such as Michael Fassbender and Benedict Cumberbatch have tread before him. Some of the not-yet-sated Oscar fixated have even been known to watch and re-watch the bare-chested disco prancing that his mad scientist performs with a lady robot in last spring’s sci-fi hit “Ex Machina." If you want a measure of his sway over his devoted admirers, consider that his @realOscarIsaac Twitter account has over 10,600 followers – and he has never posted a single tweet since joining in 2011.

How did Isaac, 36, go from a relative unknown in supporting parts to the It guy of 2016? Very smartly, judging by these choices.

1. Appear in a buzz-worthy breakout.
The Juilliard grad bided his time doing small roles, including a detective curiously named Fartman in 2004’s “Lenny the Wonder Dog” and a 2006 episode of TV’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” But it wasn’t until Catherine Hardwicke, who had already proven to have a sharp eye for fresh talent after her 2003 directorial debut “Thirteen” and 2005’s “Lords of Dogtown,” cast Isaac as Joseph in 2006’s “The Nativity Story,” that he first found himself attracting attention.

As Hardwicke – who propelled Rob Pattinson to teen-idol fame after casting him in “Twilight” -- told me this year while promoting her latest movie, “Miss You Already”: “I was laughing when I saw Oscar in the new "Star Wars" trailer. When we had a premiere of "The Nativity Story" at the Vatican, 2,000 nuns had crushes on him.”

2. Acquire mucho musicality.
Isaac wisely increased his versatility quotient as an actor when he got an early taste of showbiz by performing in punk bands after high school. As he told The Telegraph while promoting “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “My dad was a bit of a frustrated artist so we grew up listening to Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, all the singer-songwriters.” While avoiding the drugs and alcohol side of rock and roll, he became the frontman in a ska-punk group called the Blinking Underdogs that once opened for Green Day.

That training would come in handy for a number of film roles besides “Inside Llewyn Davis,” primarily in 2011. He would duet with Carla Gugino on “Love Is the Drug” in Zach Snyder’s far-out brothel fantasy “Sucker Punch.” He played a musician in the Channing Tatum-Jenna Dewan high-school reunion comedy “10 Years,” performing Dylan’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” with co-stars Kate Mara and Chad Fischer as well as a song he wrote, “Never Had.” And in “W.E.,” Isaac had to learn to perform two piano pieces as a Russian auction-house guard who becomes involved with Abbie Cornish as a married woman obsessed with the romance shared by King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson.

3. Brush up your stage chops.
It is one thing to impress Hollywood studio honchos. But it never hurts to also wow the New York theater crowd by acting before live audiences. Before his film career truly took off, Isaac tackled Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet” and Proteus in the rock musical version of “Two Gentlemen of Verona” for the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park series. He also appeared in actress Zoe Kazan’s play ‘We Live Here” for the Manhattan Theater Club in 2011.

4. Butter up Madonna.
When the pop superstar -- who has never disguised her attraction to Latin men -- directed Isaac in "W.E.," the British gossip hounds had a field day. They proclaimed she had a crush on the actor and reported on their flirtatious interaction together on the set. The actor told Ocean Drive Magazine that Madonna was exacting in her direction with just a tease of a suggestion that there might be something there. “She’s definitely a formidable person, and was very determined to get things right – a very detail-oriented director. She was calling every day, always asking for updates, and making sure I was working out and getting prepared for the love scene. I mean, this is Madonna directing me to make love better.” He laughed before adding, “But I had an ‘in,’ because I knew she likes Latin boys.”

5. Steal the lead’s thunder.
We are sure Russell Crowe thought he was the main attraction of Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood” in 2010 and Ryan Gosling believed that his driver-for-hire was central draw of “Drive” in 2011. But they didn’t count on Isaac undercutting their macho presence, first as a lust-driven, tax-mad tyrant of a King John and then as Carey Mulligan’s distractingly hunky ex-con husband who convinces Gosling to help him pull off a heist.

6. Be a man of many faces.
Isaac has taken measures to avoid being typecast as a Latin lover (he dropped his actual last name, Hernandez, specifically for that reason). He is quite capable of adapting his appearance to suit a variety of character types just by adjusting the density of his naturally dark curly locks and facial hair. You can see his range simply by pitting Llewyn Davis look against “Ex Machina’s” software company CEO Nathan Bateman and Poe Dameron.

7. Work with the Coen brothers.
Isaac has done two Ridley Scott outings (besides “Robin Hood,” he was in 2008’s “Body of Lies”). He also had a secondary role as a U.N. interpreter and the film’s narrator in Steven Soderbergh’s “Che: Part One” from 2008. But when aligning yourself with A-list filmmakers, nothing beats collaborating with the Coen brothers when it comes to raising your profile.

According to the actor, the impact was felt even before “Inside Llewyn Davis” started shooting. “On a practical level, as soon as Joel and Ethan cast me, the doors opened for more parts. Basically the next day.” His agent told him, “We got these offers now. Now you’re bona fide, kid.”

8. Keep your private life private.

To maintain that air of mystery and not spoil his fan base’s fantasy life, it is often best to keep your love life under wraps. For a while, he was attached to Maria Miranda, who has been described by the press as his childhood sweetheart and onetime fiancée. But a photo emerged around New Year’s Day 2015 of Isaac and Elvira Lind, a documentary filmmaker who worked on a 2014 music video that featured Isaac and who earned special thanks in the credits of “A Most Violent Year.” Sure enough, she was at his side when he won at the Globes this weekend.

9. Maintain a mix of popcorn titles and arthouse fare.
One keeps you honest. The other keeps you solvent. Isaac has two projects coming out this year – one small, the other enormous. There is no release date yet for “The Promise,” a drama by “Hotel Rwanda’s” Terry George in which Isaac’s medical student and Christian Bale’s journalist vie for the love of the same woman during the final days of the Ottoman Empire. But there is already great anticipation for Isaac’s debut appearance as comic-book supervillain Apocalypse in “X-Men Apocalypse,” which opens May 27.

10. Attach yourself to a sure thing. That would be the “Star Wars” saga, of course. Some actors would be averse to being second fiddle to George Lucas’ pre-existing universe and the enormous expectations that come with it, including endless rounds of publicity. But no one, save for Carrie Fisher and dog Gary, seems to be having a better experience promoting the seventh adventure in the series than Isaac, as witnessed here. If he isn’t having fun, however, then Isaac is even better at acting than we think.The only thing Isaac seems to lack at this point is a nickname for his worshipers to call themselves, a la Cumberbitches or Fassinators. Perhaps the Poe Patrol might do.

Watch: Ricky Gervais' Opening Monologue From The 2016 Golden Globes, Plus Acceptance Speeches, And More

Kevin Jagernauth — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 14:05:00 GMT

Last night, Hollywood gathered around together, got drunk, and gave each other Golden Globes Awards. For all we know, "The Revenant" team might still be celebrating, after taking home a trio of top prizes with Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. But if you politely and perhaps wisely avoided sitting through the three-hour plus broadcast, and just want to catch up with the highlights, we've got you covered.

READ MORE: 'The Revenant' Wins Big At The 2016 Golden Globes Awards Taking Best Picture, Director & Actor

Ricky Gervais returned as host for the fourth time and was delightfully indifferent about the whole ceremony. Walking on stage with a beer, he threw some jabs around at Sean Penn, Caitlyn Jenner, and others. As for the actual show, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg memorably presented Best Screenplay, Jim Carrey ad libbed a great bit as he presented Best Motion Picture — Comedy, while Denzel Washington was a delight taking home the Cecil B. DeMille award. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio's reaction after getting caught in the path of Lady Gaga created the most instantly gif-able moment of the evening.

Check it all out below and let us know what you thought of the show in the comments section.

'The Revenant' Wins Big At The 2016 Golden Globes Awards, Taking Best Picture, Director & Actor

Kevin Jagernauth — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 01:11:03 GMT

You might have noticed this week that we didn't do a Golden Globes winners prediction piece because, well, they don't really matter in the overall Oscar race. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association event tends to be more of a celebrity hang than a serious look at the year's best achievements in cinema. That's why it's generally more fun to watch than the Oscars (though, admittedly, that's a pretty relative measuring stick).

However, for movie obsessives like ourselves, we're still committed to find out who won, cursing our favorites who didn't get a trophy, delighting in those that did, and of course, shouting at the TV about all the terrible fashion choices. Basically, it's like spring training for the Oscars. And while, again, these awards don't have much bearing on how the Academy will go, it's clear from the response in the room tonight, the industry really likes "The Revenant."

READ MORE: Review: Alejandro G. I ñárritu's Fierce And Unremitting 'The Revenant' Starring Leonardo DiCaprio And Tom Hardy

Alejandro G. Iñárritu's film took home three big prizes, winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (in the Drama categories). But let's not forget that "The Martian" is still in play too, with the film earning Best Director and Best Actor in, uh, the comedy category. As you might've noticed on Twitter, there was some hurt feelings that "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Carol" walked away empty handed, but they are still likely to see nominations from Oscars on Thursday, so their narrative isn't over yet.

Below, see who won, and in the comments section, let us know your thoughts on the night.

Best Film - Drama
WINNER: The Revenant
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
Room
Spotlight

Best Film - Comedy/Musical
WINNER: The Martian
The Big Short
Joy
Spy
Trainwreck

Best Director
WINNER: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - The Revenant
Todd Haynes - Carol
Tom McCarthy - Spotlight
George Miller - Mad Max Fury Road
Ridley Scott - The Martian

Best Actor - Drama
WINNER: Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant
Bryan Cranston - Trumbo
Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl
Will Smith - Concussion

Best Actress - Drama
WINNER: Brie Larson - Room
Cate Blanchett - Carol
Rooney Mara - Carol
Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn
Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl

Best Actor - Comedy/Musical
WINNER: Matt Damon - The Martian
Christian Bale - The Big Short
Steve Carell - The Big Short
Al Pacino - Danny Collins
Mark Ruffalo - Infinitely Polar Bear

Best Actress - Comedy/Musical
WINNER: Jennifer Lawrence - Joy
Melissa McCarthy - Spy
Amy Schumer - Trainwreck
Maggie Smith - The Lady In The Van
Lily Tomlin - Grandma

Best Supporting Actor
WINNER: Sylvester Stallone - Creed
Paul Dano - Love & Mercy
Idris Elba - Beasts Of No Nation
Mark Rylance - Bridge Of Spies
Michael Shannon - 99 Homes

Best Supporting Actress
WINNER: Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs
Jane Fonda - Youth
Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight
Helen Mirren - Trumbo
Alicia Vikander - Ex Machina

Best Screenplay
WINNER: Aaron Sorkin - Steve Jobs
Adam McKay & Charles Randolph - Big Short
Quentin Tarantino - The Hateful Eight
Emma Donoghue - Room
Thomas McCarthy - Spotlight

Best Animated Feature
WINNER: Inside Out
Anomalisa
The Good Dinosaur
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun The Sheep Movie

Original Song
WINNER: Writing’s On The Wall - Spectre
Love Me Like You Do - 50 Shades Of Grey
One Kind Of Love - Love & Mercy
See You Again - Furious 7
Simple Song No. 3 - Youth

Best Original Score
WINNER: Ennio Morricone - The Hateful Eight
Carter Burwell - Carol
Alexandre Desplat - The Danish Girl
Daniel Pemberton - Steve Jobs
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - The Revenant

Best Foreign Language Film
WINNER: Son Of Saul
The Brand New Testament
The Club
The Fencer
Mustang

Musical/Comedy Series
WINNER: Mozart In The Jungle
Casual
Orange Is The New Black
Silicon Valley
Transparent
Veep

Drama Series
WINNER: Mr. Robot
Empire
Game Of Thrones
Narcos
Outlander

Actor In A Drama
WINNER: Jon Hamm - Mad Men
Rami Malek - Mr. Robot
Wagner Moura - Narcos
Bob Odenkirk - Better Call Saul
Liev Schreiber - Ray Donovan

Actress In A Drama
WINNER: Taraji P Henson - Empire
Caitriona Balfe - Outlander
Viola Davis - How To Get Away With Murder
Eva Green - Penny Dreadful
Robin Wright - House Of Cards

Actor In A Comedy Series
WINNER: Gael Garcia Bernal - Mozart
Aziz Ansari - Master Of None
Rob Lowe - The Grinder
Patrick Stewart - Blunt
Jeffrey Tambor - Transparent

Actress In A Comedy Series
WINNER: Rachel Bloom - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Jamie Lee Curtis - Scream Queens
Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Veep
Gina Rodriguez - Jane The Virgin
Lily Tomlin - Grace & Frankie

Supporting Actress - TV
WINNER: Maura Tierney - The Affair
Uzo Aduba - Orange Is The New Black
Joanne Froggatt - Downton Abbey
Regina King - American Crime
Judith Light - Transparent

Supporting Actor - TV
WINNER: Christian Slater - Mr. Robot
Alan Cumming - The Good Wife
Damian Lewis - Wolf Hall
Ben Mendelsohn - Bloodline
Tobias Menzies - Outlander

Limited Series/TV Movie
WINNER: Wolf Hall
American Crime
American Horror Story: Hotel
Fargo
Flesh & Bone

Actress - Limited Series/TV Movie
WINNER: Lady Gaga - American Horror Story: Hotel
Kristen Dunst - Fargo
Sarah Hay - Flesh & Bone
Felicity Huffman - American Crime
Queen Latifah - Bessie

Actor - Limited Series/TV Movie
WINNER: Oscar Isaac - Show Me A Hero
Idris Elba - Luther
David Oyelowo - Nightingale
Mark Rylance - Wolf Hall
Patrick Wilson - Fargo

Full List of All Golden Globe Film and Television Winners

Kate Erbland — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 00:00:57 GMT

READ MORE: 17 Snubs & Surprises from the 2016 Golden Globes TV Nominations

Check out the full list of winners from the 73rd Annual Golden Globes ceremony below, with all winners bolded and italicized. This list will be updated throughout the live show, so keep checking back throughout the evening for the latest batch of winners.

Be sure to check out Anne Thompson's analysis of the winners' list right here.

Film

Best Motion Picture - Drama
"Carol"
"Mad Max: Fury Road"
"The Revenant"
"Room"
"Spotlight"

Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical
"The Big Short"
"Joy"
"The Martian"
"Spy"
"Trainwreck"

Best Director
Todd Haynes, "Carol"
Alejandro González Iñárritu, "The Revenant"
Tom McCarthy, "Spotlight"
George Miller, "Mad Max: Fury Road"
Ridley Scott, "The Martian"

Best Actress - Drama
Cate Blanchett, "Carol"
Brie Larson, "Room"
Rooney Mara, "Carol"
Saoirse Ronan, "Brooklyn"
Alicia Vikander, "The Danish Girl"

Best Actor - Drama
Bryan Cranston, "Trumbo"
Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant"
Michael Fassbender, "Steve Jobs"
Eddie Redmayne, "The Danish Girl"
Will Smith, "Concussion"

Best Actress - Comedy/Musical
Jennifer Lawrence, "Joy"
Melissa McCarthy, "Spy"
Amy Schumer, "Trainwreck"
Maggie Smith, "The Lady in the Van"
Lily Tomlin, "Grandma"

Best Actor - Comedy/Musical
Christian Bale, "The Big Short"
Steve Carell, "The Big Short"
Matt Damon, "The Martian"
Al Pacino, "Danny Collins"
Mark Ruffalo, "Infinitely Polar Bear"

Best Supporting Actress
Jane Fonda, "Youth"
Jennifer Jason Leigh, "The Hateful Eight"
Helen Mirren, "Trumbo"
Alicia Vikander, "Ex Machina"
Kate Winslet, "Steve Jobs"

Best Supporting Actor
Paul Dano, "Love & Mercy"
Idris Elba, "Beasts of No Nation"
Mark Rylance, "Bridge of Spies"
Michael Shannon, "99 Homes"
Sylvester Stallone, "Creed"

Best Screenplay
"Room"
"Spotlight"
"The Big Short"
"Steve Jobs"
"The Hateful Eight"

Best Animated Feature
"Anomalisa"
"The Good Dinosaur"
"Inside Out"
"The Peanuts Movie"
"Shaun the Sheep Movie"

Best Foreign Language Film
"The Brand New Testament"
"The Club"
"The Fencer"
"Mustang"
"Son of Saul"

Best Original Score
"The Revenant"
"The Hateful Eight"
"Steve Jobs"
"Carol"
"The Danish Girl"

Best Original Song
"Love Me Like You Do," "50 Shades of Grey"
"One Kind of Love," "Love & Mercy"
"See You Again," "Furious 7"
"Simple Song #3," "Youth"
"Writing's On the Wall," "SPECTRE"

READ MORE: For Your Consideration: Let's Guess The 2015 Golden Globe Film Nominations

The winners list, complete with all television winners, continues on the next page.
READ MORE: 17 Snubs & Surprises from the 2016 Golden Globes TV Nominations

Television

Best Drama Series
"Empire"
"Game of Thrones"
"Mr. Robot"
"Narcos"
"Outlander"

Best Comedy Series
"Casual"
"Mozart in the Jungle"
"Silicon Valley"
"Orange is the New Black"
"Transparent"
"Veep"

Best Actress in a Television Drama Series
Caitriona Balfe, "Outlander"
Viola Davis, "How to Get Away With Murder"
Eva Green, "Penny Dreadful"
Taraji P. Henson, "Empire"
Robin Wright, "House of Cards"

Best Actor in a Television Drama Series
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men"
Rami Malek, "Mr. Robot"
Wagner Moura, "Narcos"
Bob Odenkirk, "Better Call Saul"
Liev Schreiber, "Ray Donovan"

Best Actress in a Television Comedy Series
Rachel Bloom, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"
Jamie Lee Curtis, "Scream Queens"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Veep"
Gina Rodriguez, "Jane the Virgin"
Lily Tomlin, "Grace and Frankie"

Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series
Aziz Ansari, "Master of None"
Gael Garcia Bernal, "Mozart in the Jungle"
Rob Lowe, "The Grinder:
Patrick Stewart, "Blunt Talk"
Jeffrey Tambor, "Transparent"

Best Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
"American Crime"
"American Horror Story: Hotel"
"Fargo"
"Flesh and Bone"
"Wolf Hall"

Best Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
Kirsten Dunst, "Fargo"
Lady Gaga, "American Horror Story: Hotel"
Sarah Hay, "Flesh and Bone"
Felicity Huffman, "American Crime"
Queen Latifah, "Bessie"

Best Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
Idris Elba, "Luther"
Oscar Isaac, "Show Me a Hero"
David Oyelowo, "Nightingale"
Mark Rylance, "Wolf Hall"
Patrick Wilson, "Fargo"

Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
Uzo Aduba, "Orange is the New Black"
Joanna Froggatt, "Downton Abbey"
Regina King, "American Crime"
Judith Light, "Transparent"
Maura Tierney, "The Affair"

Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
Alan Cumming, "The Good Wife"
Damien Lewis, "Wolf Hall"
Ben Mendelsohn, "Bloodline"
Tobias Menzies, "Outlander"
Christian Slater, "Mr. Robot"

The 73rd Golden Globe Awards were broadcast live on January 10, 2016 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

READ MORE: Fearless Golden Globes Film Predictions

Fearless Golden Globes Film Predictions, from Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon to Jennifer Lawrence vs. Amy Schumer

Anne Thompson — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 20:34:00 GMT

No matter who wins at the Golden Globes Sunday night, Hollywood will be reveling all weekend, both leading up to the star-studded live awards show hosted by an unfettered Ricky Gervais, and after, as the winners move from party to party through the Beverly Hilton to celebrate —and lick their wounds. Leonardo DiCaprio will not only celebrate his sure win for "The Revenant" at the Fox party (where comedy contender Jennifer Lawrence will be on hand), but always hangs with his peeps at the Weinstein celebration as well (partnered with Netflix this year). Universal will host comedy contender Amy Schumer, who may beat Lawrence, who has earned four Globe nominations and two wins in recent years. Warner Bros/InStyle is often the last stop of the night, as they not only offer Godiva chocolates but good dancing. And everyone in film and TV gathers by the covered Hilton pool for the HBO festivities.

Herewith our fearless predictions (TV will be separate). Check my votes at Gold Derby to see a more detailed ordering of my predictions.

Best Film Drama

"Spotlight"
Possible Spoiler: "Mad Max: Fury Road"

Best Film Drama Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio ("The Revenant")
Possible Spoiler: Michael Fassbender "Steve Jobs")

Best Film Drama Actress

Brie Larson ("Room")
Possible Spoiler: Saoirse Ronan ("Brooklyn")

Best Film Comedy/Musical

"The Big Short"
Possible Spoiler: "The Martian"

Best Film Comedy/Musical Actor

Matt Damon ("The Martian")
Possible Spoiler: Christian Bale ("The Big Short")

Best Film Comedy/Musical Actress

Jennifer Lawrence ("Joy")
Possible Spoiler: Amy Schumer ("Trainwreck")

Best Film Supporting Actor

Mark Rylance ("Bridge of Spies")
Possible Spoiler: Sylvester Stallone ("Creed")

Best Film Supporting Actress

Jennifer Jason Leigh ("The Hateful Eight")
Possible Spoiler: Alicia Vikander ("Ex Machina")

Best Film Director

Ridley Scott ("The Martian")
Possible Spoiler: George Miller ("Mad Max: Fury Road")

Best Film Screenplay

Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer ("Spotlight")

Possible Spoiler: Adam McKay and Charles Randolph ("The Big Short")

Best Animated Feature

"Inside Out"
Possible Spoiler: "Anomalisa"

Best Foreign Language Film

"Son of Saul"
Possible Spoiler: "Mustang"

Best Score

Ruichi Sakamoto ("The Revenant")
Possible Spoiler: Ennio Morricone ("The Hateful Eight")

Best Song

"One Kind of Love" ("Love and Mercy")
Possible Spoiler: "See You Again" (Furious 7")

Fearless Golden Globes TV Predictions, from Taraji P. Henson and Idris Elba to Kirsten Dunst

Matt Brennan — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 14:05:00 GMT

Though the Golden Globes have even less to do with predicting the Emmys than they do the Oscars, this year's TV nominations showed that the HFPA is increasingly hip to the future of the medium: diverse, streaming, multinational. Whether the awards themselves hew to that pattern is another matter, though in recent years voters have shied away from honoring the same series and performers time after time. (The same can't be said of the TV Academy.) The near-universal acclaim for "Transparent" and "Fargo" should trump the newcomers, while past nominees "Game of Thrones," Julia Louis-Dreyfus ("Veep"), and Idris Elba ("Luther") now have their best chance yet to break through.

Still, there's reason to expect the HFPA to make good on the promise of this year's nominations shake-up, which is why I predict first-time nominee Rami Malek ("Mr. Robot") to beat out past winner Jon Hamm ("Mad Men") on his farewell tour, and Tobias Menzies ("Outlander," which received three nominations) to win the series a prize in the wide-open Supporting Actor race.

READ MORE: "Golden Globes: Finally, an Awards Group Looks to the Future of TV, Not the Past"

Best Drama Series
"Game of Thrones"

Best Comedy/Musical Series
"Transparent"

Best Limited Series/TV Movie
"Fargo"

Best Actress (Drama)
Taraji P. Henson, "Empire"

Best Actor (Drama)
Rami Malek, "Mr. Robot"

Best Actress (Musical/Comedy)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Veep"

Best Actor (Musical/Comedy)
Jeffrey Tambor, "Transparent"

Best Actress (Limited Series/TV Movie)
Kirsten Dunst, "Fargo"

Best Actor (Limited Series/TV Movie)
Idris Elba, "Luther"

Best Supporting Actress
Regina King, "American Crime"

Best Supporting Actor
Tobias Menzies, "Outlander"

PODCAST: Who's Going to Win Big at the Golden Globes?

Indiewire — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 04:09:34 GMT

READ MORE: Why This Could Be the Year Only 5 Films Get Nominated For Best Picture

This week's episode of Screen Talk is brought to you by Showtime Documentary Film's "Listen to Me Marlon."

It's barely 2016 and awards season is off and running. The New York Film Critics Awards kicked off the week on Monday, followed by the star-studded National Board of Review Gala, not to mention the PGA nominations. There are parties across the country for last minute Oscar campaigns as the first round of ballots are due at the end of this week. This Sunday comes the Golden Globes. And let's not forget about those Oscar nominations coming out next Thursday.

This week's episode of Screen Talk cuts through the chaos, as co-hosts Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson talk through the state of the race and debate its status. Needless to say, much has changed since they first started discussing the contenders many months ago.

Listen to the full episode above.

Screen Talk is available on iTunes. You can subscribe here or via RSS. Share your feedback with Thompson and Kohn on Twitter or sound off in the comments. Browse previous installments here, review the show on and be sure to let us know if you'd like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk. Check out the rest of Indiewire's podcasts on iTunes right here.

READ MORE: Screen Talk in 2015

'Ex Machina' Screenplay Contender Alex Garland Gets Ready for 'Annihilation'

Ryan Lattanzio — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 14:48:00 GMT

With critics' kudos, four British Independent Film Award wins and a surprise Golden Globe nom for indie darling du jour Alicia Vikander, "Ex Machina" is the cool sleeper of this year's awards season — and an Oscar could-be for Best Original Screenplay, despite being a non-eligible no-show on the WGA ballot.

"There's anxiety to being both writer and director," writer/director Alex Garland told me in our telephone interview. "I identify as a writer, and like any writing gig, it's struggling until the end."

Garland — who's penned scripts and source material mainly for Danny Boyle — styles his elegant directorial debut with tweezer-like precision, constructing a battle-of-the-minds between Oscar Isaac as the hard-drinking CEO of a secluded software company, and Domnhall Gleeson as the protege who scores the lucky chance to go under his wing for a week at his underground brain factory. Slithering under all is AI humanoid Ava, made teasingly spooky by the subtle modulations of Vikander's performance, part ingenue and part femme fatale.

While "Ex Machina" "sits in many genres, like horror or science fiction," said Garland, his next film is much more sci-fi. Adapted from Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 novel, "Annihilation" will star Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman and Gina Rodriguez as participants in an expedition to a territory known ominously as Area X where, quarantined from civilization, previous explorers have died mysteriously. Mostly doctors and scientists, the ensemble is dominated by five female characters.

Garland already knows "Annihilation" will be a more “difficult film to shoot” than “Ex Machina,” a six-week production where “everything about the film [was] constrained and confirmed, like being in a small box” that you could “explore everything fully.”

When conceiving the visual strategy for "Ex Machina," “we discussed Peter Weir’s ‘Master and Commander.’ There’s a lot of VFX, but you’re not aware of it.” Garland said he “never felt the parameters” of filming “Ex Machina” on a soundstage in England and in Norway. Shot without green-screen, with all VFX done in post, it was a "luxury," he said.

Set up at Paramount by Scott Rudin, who tapped Garland after producing "Ex Machina," "Annihilation" promises to be a "surreal experience that requires adapting locations" to create a more "impressionistic mood poem." Garland said his adaptation of the novel, which he'll write and direct this year, will emphasize "atmosphere and tone over structure and plot" — unlike his 2010 adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's dystopian "Never Let Me Go" directed by Mark Romanek, which Garland said was "more like a mirror."

A24, which is also backing Oscar hopefuls "Room" and "Amy," should see more indie and critics' awards along the way for "Ex Machina." It's streaming on Amazon Prime.

Awards Daily's Sasha Stone Joins Screen Talk to Parse SAG and Golden Globes Nominations

Anne Thompson — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 19:44:20 GMT

During the week Awards Daily's Sasha Stone and I were emailing each other, trying to make sense of the disparity between this year's SAG nominating committee (they change every year) and the relatively staid Golden Globes. Stone sees this as not unlike the "Crash" year, when SAG and the eventual Oscar contenders were most far apart. She beat out the awards experts on Gold Derby with her Golden Globes picks.

Indiewire critic Eric Kohn doesn't mind that the awards landscape seems to be open to some diversity and unpredictability this year. Can Golden Globe comedies like "The Martian" and "The Big Short" come out ahead of more dramatic fare like "Spotlight" —where were those actors?—and "Carol"? Is there anything that can beat "Spotlight"? "Mad Max: Fury Road" is coming up on the outside.

Watch the Exclusive Trailer for Chile's Unsettling Oscar Entry 'The Club'

Ryan Lattanzio — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 19:05:30 GMT

Pablo Larraín won the Berlinale Silver Bear this year for his mordantly creepy priest drama "The Club," which represents Chile in the foreign Oscar race and just received a Golden Globe nomination. With an ensemble featuring Alfredo Castro (also terrific in Venice winner "Desde Alla"), Roberto Farias, Antonia Zegers and Jaime Vadell, the film settles into a seaside town where four former Catholic priests languish in exile, doing penance for their shady pasts while obsessively betting on a greyhound they're training for local dog races.

But their quiet lives are shattered by the arrival of, first, a counselor sent by the Vatican, and then a disgruntled victim of Catholic abuse, inevitably raining a spiritual plague upon their houses. Reminiscent of Pasolini's "Teorema," "The Club" is an astute examination of an interloper's effects on the power dynamics of a group.

"The Club" is the fifth film by Larraín, Oscar-nominated in 2013 for "No."

Fox Juggles Multiple Oscar Contenders from Different Labels

Anne Thompson — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 21:35:49 GMT

Back in the 70s, United Artists released three Best Picture Oscar winners in a row: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" opened before I got there in 1976 right out of college, but I was in the publicity bullpen when we promoted “Rocky” and “Annie Hall" to their wins. (Trivia: If "Rocky" creator Sylvester Stallone lands a nomination for "Creed," that will mark the seventh time in 87 years that an actor has been nominated for playing the same role.)

This year Twentieth Century Fox is trying to repeat that Oscar trifecta, having won best Picture Oscars two years running for "12 Years a Slave" and "Birdman," but it's a very different picture. For one thing, UA was UA. Although the company did release some indie pickups and partnered with MGM on such films as "Network," there was one unified marketing and distribution apparatus.

Fox, on the other hand, like Disney and Sony, is made up of several fiefdoms under the direction of chairman Jim Gianopulos. Main Fox is run by Stacey Snider and her production head Emma Watts, who supervised Ridley Scott's 3D space epic "The Martian" ($590 million worldwide). "The Martian" was always considered a mainstream populist play for wide release, but it turned out far better than anyone expected and when the studio booked the film at the Toronto Film Festival for maximum junket exposure, it turned into an Oscar contender, and sure enough, collected three Golden Globe nominations this week.

But it was submitted by the studio as a Golden Globe Comedy, where it will compete with Elizabeth Gabler's Fox 2000 David O. Russell biopic "Joy," starring Jennifer Lawrence as a Long Island home products inventor. Russell himself is gunning to be in Oscar Best Picture contention for the fourth time running (after "The Fighter," "Silver Linings Playbook, " and "American Hustle," which went zero for ten). But after Russell fussed over "Joy" in the editing room under deadline duress, Fox sent out screeners late in the voting period to Screen Actors Guild voters, so Lawrence landed only a Globe Comedy nomination en route to a likely Oscar nod.

With respectable but not great reviews so far, she's the best chance for a "Joy" nomination, and given that the actress already won for "Silver Linings Playbook," the three-time nominee would be competing for a long-shot second win. More important perhaps: the movie is entertaining and Lawrence is a huge draw in the only major studio release at Christmas aimed at women.

But with no late screener excuse, why did SAG overlook Damon's delightful "Martian" performance? Perhaps he made his wise-cracking but vulnerable astronaut survivor stranded on Mars look too easy. Will Globes Comedy contention lend "The Martian" enough gravitas to become a viable Best Picture contender? That is the question. (Fox's online "The Martian" For Your Consideration ads tout Three Golden Globe Nominations; Comedy is in very small type.)

WATCH: How Matt Damon Met the Challenge of Ridley Scott's 'The Martian'

In the Golden Globe directing category, however, Ridley Scott is competing directly with the studio's other big Oscar entry, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu's $135 million "The Revenant," which is backed entirely by New Regency, which also partnered with the studio on its last two Best Picture-winners "12 Years a Slave" and "Birdman," which were released by specialty label Fox Searchlight. The Mexican filmmaker had been directing such art films such as "Babel" and "Biutiful" until breakout "Birdman," which grossed $103 million worldwide.

READ MORE: Ridley Scott and 'The Martian' Vie for Multiple Oscars

Searchlight, meanwhile, has notched 12 Best Picture nominations in the past 11 years, more than any other company, and with "Birdman"'s haul, the company is the industry Oscar leader. This year Searchlight is pushing Paolo Sorrentino's "Youth" (Jane Fonda notched a Globe nom) and a Sundance pickup, Irish period romance "Brooklyn," whose star Saoirse Ronan earned SAG and Globe nominations. Campaigning for Oscars is what Searchlight is equipped to do.

The big studio seems to be stacking its awards chips on "The Revenant," Iñárritu's most ambitious undertaking to date, and one he could take to the bank after his Oscar wins. Luckily for Fox, they did not have to ride herd on the period western, which faced harsh weather conditions but not enough snow, and when it finished up in frigid Tierra del Fuego, which provided dramatic vistas for the film's last section, went $35-million over-budget. Obviously, New Regency is under pressure to make some of its money back on a movie that is not overtly commercial. But no director has ever won back to back Oscars.

READ MORE: 'Joy' Marks Reunion, Breaks New Ground for Lawrence, Cooper, De Niro and Russell

One audience attraction is movie star Leonardo DiCaprio's haggard, stricken performance as a beleaguered frontier scout mauled by a bear and left for dead, which clearly benefitted from the arduous shoot. Many awards voters from the HPFA to the Globes to the Academy may feel that he's deserving of a reward after four acting nominations and no wins. And the film is undeniably stunning as a visual filmmaking feat, which the Academy may be happy to recognize, but can Emmanuel Lubezki collect his third Gold Man in a row?

While Searchlight has its own marketing, the studio handles the release and awards campaigns—all with discreet Oscar wranglers— for Fox 2000 as well as its New Regency partner and animation unit Blue Sky. These labels are all fighting for studio love and resources toward winning Oscars, which takes smart strategy and acumen to pull off. The studio is throwing many awards parties aimed at different constituencies: genial pater familias Gianopulos hosted a Sunday holiday party at his Brentwood home attended by all his labels and their stars; later in the week he threw another one celebrating long-time Fox filmmaker Scott's return to form at at his Beverly Hills RSA headquarters, attended by Watts, Matt Damon, writer Drew Goddard, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Simon Kinberg, Lionsgate's Patrick Wachsberger and other well-wishers. They're rooting for the 78-year-old filmmaker to win his first directing Oscar after three nominations and a Best Picture win for "Gladiator."

The next day "The Martian" was overlooked by the SAG awards, but the day after that, all six of Fox's children received some Golden Globes love, including animation entry “The Peanuts Movie" from animation label Blue Sky. Academy voters are now catching up on their screeners, which have all gone out except for Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight," which faced an extended 70 mm post-production schedule; Oscar voting starts on December 30th.

Where Fox ends up on nominations morning January 14th is anyone's guess.

6 Actresses of Color Nominated by Golden Globes for TV, 0 for Film

Inkoo Kang — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 16:15:00 GMT

TV proved itself not just a medium for women, but especially one for women of color, with this year's Golden Globes nominations.

Six actresses of color -- Queen Latifah, Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson, Uzo Aduba, Regina King and Gina Rodriguez -- were nominated for their TV work, while a grand total of zero were nominated in the women's film acting categories. To borrow from Davis's historic Emmy speech from earlier this year: "The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an [award] for roles that are simply not there." Catch up, film industry.

In other Globes news, Lily Tomlin and Alicia Vikander each scored two nods, Tomlin for her starring roles in "Grandma" and Netflix's "Grace and Frankie," Vikander for her lead role in "The Danish Girl" and her supporting one in "Ex Machina."

Unlike the Oscars, plenty of female-centric movies were nominated for Best Picture in both the drama and comedy/musical categories: "Carol" (which led the pack with five nods) "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Room" in the former; "Joy," "Spy" and "Trainwreck" in the latter.

The Best Actress film drama category consisted of exactly who you'd expect: Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara for "Carol," Brie Larson for "Room," Saoirse Ronan for "Brooklyn" and Vikander for "The Danish Girl." The Best Actress film comedy category had more surprises. Nominated alongside Tomlin were perennial nominee Jennifer Lawrence for "Joy" (which is in no way a comedy, but whatever) and a trio of dark horses: Maggie Smith in "The Lady in the Van," Amy Schumer for "Trainwreck" and Melissa McCarthy for "Spy."

Deniz Gamze Ergüven's "Mustang" was the only female-directed movie to be nominated in any category; it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

The TV drama nominations were dominated by male-led series, but female-centric shows made up four of the five TV comedy nominees: "Mozart in the Jungle," "Orange is the New Black," "Transparent" and Veep."

Here are the 2015 Golden Globes' female-centric nominees.

FILM

Best Motion Picture, Drama
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
Room

Best Motion Picture, Comedy
Joy
Spy
Trainwreck

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Rooney Mara, Carol
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Melissa McCarthy, Spy 
Amy Schumer, Trainwreck  
Maggie Smith, Lady in the Van 
Lily Tomlin, Grandma

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Jane Fonda, Youth
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Helen Mirren, Trumbo
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Emma Donoghue, Room

Best Animated Feature Film
Anomalisa 
Inside Out 

Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language
Mustang

TELEVISION

Best TV Series, Drama 
Empire - With showrunner Ilene Chaiken
Outlander

Best TV Series, Comedy
Mozart in the Jungle
Orange Is the New Black
Transparent
Veep

Best TV Movie or Limited-Series
American Crime
American Horror Story: Hotel
Flesh and Bone

Best Actress in a TV Series, Drama
Caitriona Balfe, Outlander
Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder
Eva Green, Penny Dreadful
Taraji P. Henson, Empire
Robin Wright, House of Cards

Best Actress in a TV Series, Comedy
Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex Girlfriend
Jamie Lee Curtis, Scream Queens
Julia Louis Dreyfus, Veep
Gina Rodriguez, Jane the Virgin
Lilly Tomlin, Grace & Frankie

Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Limited-Series, or TV Movie
Uzo Aduba, Orange is the New Black
Joanne Froggatt, Downton Abbey
Regina King, American Crime
Judith Light, Transparent
Maura Tierney, The Affair

Best Actress in a Limited-Series or TV Movie
Kirsten Dunst, Fargo
Lady Gaga, American Horror Story: Hotel
Sarah Hay, Flesh & Bone
Felicity Huffman, American Crime
Queen Latifah, Bessie

[via THR]

Golden Globe Awards Animation Nominees: The Pixar Duo, Shaun The Sheep, Anomalisa and Charle Brown

Jerry Beck — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 15:55:02 GMT

The 73nd Annual Golden Globe Award nominees were announced this morning. Nominated for Best Animated Feature were Pixar's Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur, Blue Sky's The Peanuts Movie, Aardman's Shaun The Sheep Movie, and Starburns Industries Anomalisa.

Reactions from the filmmakers? Steve Martino, Director of The Peanuts Movie - the first Golden Globe nom ever for Blue Sky Studios - sent us this statement from a camel in Dubai (where he received the news while riding in the middle of the desert with writer/producer Craig Schulz. They are on a global press tour for the film): "This really is an incredible honor for the movie and I know I speak for everyone at Blue Sky and Fox Animation when I say a heartfelt thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press. We are all honored to carry on the legacy of Charles Schulz and are thrilled to see audiences around the world embracing the film and that a whole new generation of fans are discovering the characters."

And from the team at Aardman: “We've just heard about the nomination and just like our film, we're speechless,” said Richard Starzak and Mark Burton, Writer/Directors of Shaun The Sheep Movie.

Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, the directors of Anomalisa, had this to say: "We are excited and honored to be recognized by the HFPA, especially alongside such great animated films. We share this honor with our immensely talented cast — Jennifer, David and Tom — and the best team of animators, designers, craftspeople and technicians who worked with such passion to bring ‘Anomalisa’ to life."

No other nominations in any other categories were for animated films this year. The award winner will be announced on January 10th, 2016, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Congratulations to all the nominees. Here is the formal list:

BEST MOTION PICTURE – ANIMATED

ANOMALISA
Starburns Industries; Paramount Pictures

THE GOOD DINOSAUR
Pixar Animation Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

INSIDE OUT
Pixar Animation Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

THE PEANUTS MOVIE
Blue Sky Studios; Twentieth Century Fox

SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE
Aardman; Lionsgate / Studiocanal

17 Snubs & Surprises from the 2016 Golden Globes TV Nominations

Ben Travers — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 15:49:49 GMT

Surprises

1. "Outlander" snags three nominations.
Starz, in general, had an excellent morning, but the network has to be most excited by the HFPA's love for "Outlander," a highly-rated (if not critically-adored) drama getting ready to release its second season. In addition to its somewhat surprising nod for Best Drama Series, stars Caitriona Balfe and Tobias Menzies scored nominations for Best Actress in a Drama and Supporting Actor.

2. "Mozart in the Jungle" gets into the awards race.
Other than an Imagen Foundation Award, this Amazon dramedy has been kept out of all awards races, and it didn't seem likely that the Globes would be the first to get on board given when its release date was scheduled in conjunction with nominations' day (Season 1 came out December 23, 2014, and Season 2 will arrive on December 30, 2015, making it a Globes nominee before anyone has even seen it). But the always fickle HFPA has thrown it some major love anyway, giving it a Best Comedy Series nod as well as Gael Garcia Bernal a slot in the Best Actor race.

3. "Flesh and Bone" is a Golden Globe nominee.
Granted, the limited series/miniseries race isn't exactly flush with contenders, but Starz must've appealed to some very specific voters in getting the quickly-forgotten drama "Flesh and Bone" nominated for Best Limited Series/Miniseries and star Sarah Hay up for Best Actress in the category. It bumped off two major projects from HBO (which we'll get into soon) in doing so, and undoubtedly will have people asking, "What the heck is 'Flesh and Bone'?" all day?

4. "Narcos" is the new "House of Cards"
Okay, so we may be surprised that "Flesh and Bone" snuck into the race, but we're not upset about it. Switch those emotions around and you've got our reaction to "Narcos" earning two coveted spots in Drama Series and Best Actor for star Wagner Moura. We technically saw this coming — even if we didn't want to believe it — but the Globes virtually subbing in the new Netflix drama for the old one ("House of Cards") was still unsettling. Season 3 may not have been the best year for Beau Willimon's political soap opera, but it's still superior to that other Netflix option.

5. Finally! Someone noticed Eva Green!
All praise be to the Hollywood Foreign Press for being the first major awards show to recognize the utterly magnificent work of Eva Green on Showtime's superb "Penny Dreadful." We've been singing her praises since Season 1, taking note she would be an Emmy and Globes winner by now if award shows didn't hold a grudge against the horror genre. Thankfully the Globes looked past that this year, and hopefully this is the start of a run.

6. Rachel Bloom? Hell yes!
Why say anything about more about this fully deserved nomination than what Bloom herself so aptly wrote on Twitter:

7. And Netflix's sole nominee for "Bloodline" is...Ben Mendelsohn?
Let me say this quickly so no one gets confused: Ben Mendelsohn gives the best performance of anyone on "Bloodline." He absolutely deserves this award, just as he did at this year's Emmys. But there he was nominated alongside Kyle Chandler, and many expected Sissy Spacek to sneak in as well. Considering the Globes' love for famous faces, it's somewhat surprising they picked the largely unknown Mendelsohn's over Coach Taylor and a three-time former winner. More power to them, though, for doing just that.

8. And Showtime's sole nominee for "The Affair" is...Maura Tierney?
Again, same deal: Maura Tierney has rocked it on this season of "The Affair," but the Globes fell head over heels in love with the Showtime drama last year, awarding it Best Drama Series and Ruth Wilson Best Actress in a Drama Series. Dominic West also scored a nomination, and now none of those same categories feature the show. West and Wilson were blanked, as was the show in the race it won last year. But Tierney persevered, earning her first Globes nod ever.

Snubs

1. "Mad Men" and "Better Call Saul" underperform
Both AMC dramas were able to score a nod for Best Actor for Jon Hamm and Bob Odenkirk, respectively, but neither could fight their way into the Best Drama race. "Mad Men" hoped to get back into the field for its last season after being excluded for the past few, and "Better Call Saul" was a strong contender as the first season of a well-received spin-off of a former winner ("Breaking Bad"). But Matthew Weiner's swan song wasn't enough to upset "Narcos" or "Empire" (what the Globes apparently consider to be instant TV classics), and Vince Gilligan's latest couldn't even secure a Supporting Actor nod for Jonathan Banks, an actor many considered a favorite in the category. All these snubs have to hurt.

2. "Downton Abbey" ends its streak.
The much-loved PBS period piece had been nominated for Best Drama Series or Miniseries (it switched categories to Drama in Season 2) for four years straight, winning three trophies along the way. But Season 5 just wasn't good enough to make the cut for drama series, even if Joanne Froggatt — a winner in the Supporting Actress field last year — did land another nod. At least one part of the Crawley family will still be represented a bit at the Beverly Hilton this January.

3. "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" gets blanked.
Many thought the Netflix comedy from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock was the frontrunner, or at least a lock to be nominated, in the comedy races, but the mercurial HFPA instead saw fit to reward "Mozart in the Jungle" in the series race and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" star Rachel Bloom in the Best Actress category. Not even Jane Krakowski could sneak into the Supporting Actress race (which isn't too much of a surprise given she was never nominated for "30 Rock"), and everyone's favorite new comedian/wine snob, Tituss Burgess, was also left off the short list.

4. "Show Me a Hero" and "Bessie" are shut out of Best Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
HBO comes to play when it comes to awards, and while they still made a respectable showing at the 2016 Golden Globe nominations, these two have to have them baffled. "Show Me a Hero" is one of the best-reviewed TV shows of the year, and both shows earned nods for their lead actors. What, exactly, did the voters not like about each show as a whole?

5. "Marvel's Jessica Jones" couldn't overcome the superhero bias.
We're not saying "Marvel's Jessica Jones" is the TV equivalent to "The Dark Knight" (or that the Globes are equivalent to the Oscars), but the recent Netflix release earned across-the-board raves for its authenticity and emotional core. It's a grounded, realistic and gritty psychological thriller more than an action series, and star Krysten Ritter delivers one helluva performance. Hopefully, the Emmys will be able to look past the "Marvel" part of its title next year.

6. "Parks and Recreation" gets nada.
The NBC sitcom has never been an awards behemoth, but we were hopeful Amy Poehler would at least be nominated for her final season as Leslie Knope. No such luck. Despite killing it as host of the Golden Globes — three times — the former Emmy nominee and Globe winner will go home empty-handed for an impressive and brave last year.

7. No love for "True Detective" Season 2
Other than the Pizzo-lunatics who are hopelessly devoted to the HBO drama, no one was fighting all that hard for "True Detective" Season 2 to land a slew of nods. But there were at least two worthy performances from stars who some thought the HFPA might want to see stroll down the red carpet. Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams were as terrific as Season 2 was terrible, but apparently the Globes couldn't look past the latter.

8. The Supporting Acting fields went bananas.
We've already mentioned a few of the surprises in these consistently unpredictable fields, but here's a full list of names we thought had a good chance to get a phone call Thursday morning and didn't: Jonathan Banks, Tituss Burgess, Ted Danson ("Fargo"), Peter Dinklage ("Game of Thrones"), T.J. Miller, Tony Hale ("Veep"), Lena Headey ("Game of Thrones"), Allison Janney ("Mom"), Jean Smart ("Fargo"), Julie Walters ("Indian Summer") and Mo'Nique ("Bessie"). That right there, on its own, would make for an impressive group of nominees, but they'll all be sitting at home come January 10 instead.

9. "The Leftovers" remains overlooked.
It was highly unlikely this somber drama with few household names would suddenly score a Best Drama Series nod at the Globes, but call us overly optimistic after reading all the incredible reviews out there and remembering that if Justin Theroux was nominated, he'd probably be bringing Jennifer Aniston with him to the ceremony. And who doesn't want to see that?

READ MORE: Full List of Golden Globe Film and Television Nominations

Golden Globes Nominations Snubs and Surprises (ANALYSIS)

Anne Thompson — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 15:15:27 GMT

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe nominations were announced Thursday morning at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the rollicking awards show hosted by Rickey Gervais will be held on January 10th and broadcast live on NBC. This idiosyncratic group of 90 entertainment editors and writers who report on the film and television business for their outlets in 55 countries can be counted on to offer up some oddities, but this year hewed to a straighter course than the wacky Screen Actors Guild Awards. The HFPA even left out "Black Mass" star Johnny Depp, while making sure to invite a solid roster of stars to their glitzy ceremony, including Matt Damon, Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Rooney Mara and Jennifer Lawrence.

The Globes nominations over 14 film categories add momentum to certain races, without being at all predictive. The nominations did much to consolidate the frontrunner status of Best Drama, Director and Screenplay nominee "Spotlight," although the strategy of campaigning for its sprawling ensemble in supporting seems to have backfired (the SAG Awards yielded a Best Ensemble nomination as well as one for Rachel McAdams), with no Globe acting nominations at all. Michael Keaton might want to switch gears and compete for the Best Actor Oscar to give Mark Ruffalo a shot at supporting. As it is they are knocking each other out.

The Globes offer double the Best Actor and Actress slots, divided between Drama and Musical/Comedy, but the supporting categories offer only five each. Thus "Spotlight" star Ruffalo oddly landed a Best Comedy Actor nomination for "Infinitely Polar Bear" instead.

Notably, the HFPA showed love for all three Christmas awards entries, not only Best Drama "The Revenant," which landed four nominations—Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio (also a SAG nominee) as well as Best Director Alejandro G. Inarritu and Score—but SAG shutouts Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" with three (Supporting Actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, Screenplay and Score) and David O. Russell's "Joy" with two (Best Comedy and Comedy Actress Jennifer Lawrence).

Statistically, those who land noms from SAG alone are more likely to land an Oscar nod than from the Globes alone. Land both groups, and you have better odds of landing an Oscar slot. Those who get neither reduce their chances, but this year's SAG noms are strange enough to offer some unpredictability.

Idris Elba and Alicia Vikander are having a good day. Elba landed Globe noms for both "Luther" on the TV side and Netflix's "Beasts of No Nation" on the film front: all signs are pointing to an eventual supporting actor Oscar nomination. Also looking strong for Focus Feature's "The Danish Girl" is in-demand Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, who landed not only a Best Actress nod for that film (as the HFPA put her in that category, along with "Carol" star Rooney Mara") but for A24's Brit sci-fi film "Ex Machina" in supporting. She'll likely wind up with a supporting Oscar nom for "The Danish Girl."

Her "Danish Girl" co-star and fellow SAG nominee Eddie Redmayne also landed a Best Actor mention, but the film's only other Globe nom was for Alexandre Desplat's score. Also snubbed for Best Drama, Director and Screenplay was Fox Searchlight's emigre drama "Brooklyn"; only SAG nominee Saoirse Ronan registered with a Best Actress mention.

Landing Drama, Best Actress and Screenplay was A24's "Room," The Weinstein Co.'s "Carol" led the Globes field with five nominations: Drama, Best Actress for both SAG nominees Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, Director Todd Haynes and Score. Universal's "Steve Jobs" landed four: Best Actor and SAG nominee Michael Fassbender, Supporting Actress and SAG nominee Kate Winslet, Screenplay and Score, but no Drama slot. Warner Bros.' "Mad Max: Fury Road" registered Drama and a Director nod for George Miller, who will likely compete for the Best Director Oscar. His stars Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy are being unfairly penalized by awards groups for their virtually silent action performances.

Both SAG absentees "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "The Martian" needed some HFPA love. Leading the Comedy nominees, which lend less gravitas to Oscar contenders than Drama, was Paramount's "The Big Short" with four—Best Comedy, Actors Steve Carell and Christian Bale (who was slotted in supporting by SAG) and Screenplay, followed by Fox's "The Martian" with three—Best Comedy and Actor Matt Damon (a notable SAG omission) and Director Ridley Scott, who will give Miller a run for his money at the Oscars. While Universal's "Trainwreck" earned Best Comedy and Comedy Actress noms, Amy Schumer is most likely to compete at the Oscars for Best Original Screenplay.

As with the SAG Awards, Bleecker Street's Hollywood blacklist drama "Trumbo" did well for both Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren. Fox Searchlight's own show business entry "Youth" finally entered the awards fray with a supporting actress nod for Jane Fonda, but Michael Caine is still MIA, along with "Bridge of Spies" star Tom Hanks, "45 Years" star Charlotte Rampling, Ian McKellen ("Mr. Holmes") and IFC's "Clouds of Sils Maria" Cesar-winner Kristen Stewart. Sony Pictures Classics' "The Lady in the Van" did land a Comedy nomination for Dame Maggie Smith, who was overlooked at the SAG Awards, along with "Grandma" Globe nominee Lily Tomlin (who also landed a TV Comedy nom for "Grace and Frankie")—as was Will Smith, who is in Globes contention for Best Actor Drama for "Concussion."

Both SAG and the Globes anointed Elba and Mark Rylance (who also scored for TV's "Wolf Hall" and marked the solo Globes nomination for "Bridge of Spies") as well as Michael Shannon ("99 Homes") as supporting actor candidates; the Globes added critic's fave Paul Dano ("Love & Mercy") and "Creed" comeback kid Sylvester Stallone to the mix at the expense of "Room" star Jacob Tremblay (Bale was a SAG nominee in supporting). Add the "Spotlight" actors and that's a tight Oscar race indeed.

Among the foreign film nominees, Oscar entries "Son of Saul," which is winning critics' prizes, and crowdpleaser "Mustang" continue to lead the disparate field of contenders.

Nominations are listed below:

Best Drama

“Carol”

“Mad Max: Fury Road”

“The Revenant”

“Room”

“Spotlight”

Best Musical/Comedy

"The Big Short"

"Joy"

"The Martian"

"Spy"

"Trainwreck"

Actor Motion Musical/Comedy

Christian Bale "The Big Short"

Steve Carrell "The Big Short"

Matt Damon "The Martian"
Al Pacino "Danny Collins"

Mark Ruffalo "Infinitely Polar Bear"

Best Director

Todd Haynes "Carol"

Alejandro G. Inarritu "The Revenant"

Tom McCarthy "Spotlight"

George Miller "Mad Max: Fury Road"

Ridley Scott "The Martian"

Supporting Actress

Jane Fonda "Youth"
Jennifer Jason Leigh "The Hateful Eight"

Helen Mirren "Trumbo"

Alicia Vikander "Ex Machina"

Kate Winslet "Steve Jobs"

Supporting Actor

Paul Dano "Love & Mercy"
Idris Elba "Beasts of No Nation"

Mark Rylance "Bridge of Spies"
Michael Shannon "99 Homes"

Sylvester Stallone "Creed"

Actor Drama

Bryan Cranston "Trumbo"

Leonardo DiCaprio "The Revenant"

Michael Fassbender "Steve Jobs"

Eddie Redmayne "The Danish Girl"

Will Smith "Concussion"

Actress Musical/Comedy
Jennifer Lawrence "Joy"

Melissa McCarthy "Spy"

Amy Schumer "Trainwreck"

Maggie Smith "The Lady in the Van"

Lily Tomlin "Grandma"

Actress Drama

Cate Blanchett "Carol"

Brie Larson "Room"

Rooney Mara "Carol"

Saoirse Ronan "Brooklyn"

Alicia Vikander "The Danish Girl"

Best Animated Feature
"Anomalisa"
"The Good Dinosaur"
"Inside Out"
“The Peanuts Movie”
“Shaun the Sheep Movie”

Original Song
“Love Me Like You Do” (“Fifty Shades of Grey”)
“One Kind of Love” (“Love & Mercy” Brian Wilson and Scott Bennett)
“See You Again” (“Furious 7”)
“Simple Song #3” (“Youth” David Lang)
“Writings on the Wall” (“Spectre” Sam Smith)

Best Screenplay
Emma Donoghue (“Room”)
Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (“Spotlight”)
Charles Randolph and Adam McKay (“The Big Short”)
Aaron Sorkin (“Steve Jobs”)
Quentin Tarantino (“The Hateful 8”)

Best Original Score

Carter Burwell, “Carol”

Alexandre Desplat, “The Danish Girl”

Ennio Morricone, "The Hateful Eight"

Daniel Pemberton, "Steve Jobs"

Ryuchi Sakamoto and Alva Noto, "The Revenant"

Best Foreign-Language Film

“Son of Saul”

“Mustang”

“The Fencer”

“Brand New Testament”

“The Club”

Full List of Golden Globe Film and Television Nominations

Kate Erbland — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 14:02:19 GMT

READ MORE: Golden Globes 2015: Who Will and Should Earn TV Nominations

Film

Best Motion Picture - Drama
"Carol"
"Mad Max: Fury Road"
"The Revenant"
"Room"
"Spotlight"

Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical
"The Big Short"
"Joy"
"The Martian"
"Spy"
"Trainwreck"

Best Director
Todd Haynes, "Carol"
Alejandro González Iñárritu, "The Revenant"
Tom McCarthy, "Spotlight"
George Miller, "Mad Max: Fury Road"
Ridley Scott, "The Martian"

Best Actress - Drama
Cate Blanchett, "Carol"
Brie Larson, "Room"
Rooney Mara, "Carol"
Saoirse Ronan, "Brooklyn"
Alicia Vikander, "The Danish Girl"

Best Actor - Drama
Bryan Cranston, "Trumbo"
Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant"
Michael Fassbender, "Steve Jobs"
Eddie Redmayne, "The Danish Girl"
Will Smith, "Concussion"

Best Actress - Comedy/Musical
Jennifer Lawrence, "Joy"
Melissa McCarthy, "Spy"
Amy Schumer, "Trainwreck"
Maggie Smith, "The Lady in the Van"
Lily Tomlin, "Grandma"

Best Actor - Comedy/Musical
Christian Bale, "The Big Short"
Steve Carell, "The Big Short"
Matt Damon, "The Martian"
Al Pacino, "Danny Collins"
Mark Ruffalo, "Infinitely Polar Bear"

Best Supporting Actress
Jane Fonda, "Youth"
Jennifer Jason Leigh, "The Hateful Eight"
Helen Mirren, "Trumbo"
Alicia Vikander, "Ex Machina"
Kate Winslet, "Steve Jobs"

Best Supporting Actor
Paul Dano, "Love & Mercy"
Idris Elba, "Beasts of No Nation"
Mark Rylance, "Bridge of Spies"
Michael Shannon, "99 Homes"
Sylvester Stallone, "Creed"

Best Screenplay
"Room"
"Spotlight"
"The Big Short"
"Steve Jobs"
"The Hateful Eight"

Best Animated Feature
"Anomalisa"
"The Good Dinosaur"
"Inside Out"
"The Peanuts Movie"
"Shaun the Sheep Movie"

Best Foreign Language Film
"The Brand New Testament"
"The Club"
"The Fencer"
"Mustang"
"Son of Saul"

Best Original Score
"The Revenant"
"The Hateful Eight"
"Steve Jobs"
"Carol"
"The Danish Girl"

Best Original Song
"Love Me Like You Do," "50 Shades of Grey"
"One Kind of Love," "Love & Mercy"
"See You Again," "Furious 7"
"Simple Song #3," "Youth"
"Writing's On the Wall," "SPECTRE"

Television

Best Drama Series
"Empire"
"Game of Thrones"
"Mr. Robot"
"Narcos"
"Outlander"

Best Comedy Series
"Casual"
"Mozart in the Jungle"
"Silicon Valley"
"Orange is the New Black"
"Transparent"
"Veep"

Best Actress in a Television Drama Series
Caitriona Balfe, "Outlander"
Viola Davis, "How to Get Away With Murder"
Eva Green, "Penny Dreadful"
Taraji P. Henson, "Empire"
Robin Wright, "House of Cards"

Best Actor in a Television Drama Series
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men"
Rami Malek, "Mr. Robot"
Wagner Moura, "Narcos"
Bob Odenkirk, "Better Call Saul"
Liev Schreiber, "Ray Donovan"

Best Actress in a Television Comedy Series
Rachel Bloom, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"
Jamie Lee Curtis, "Scream Queens"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Veep"
Gina Rodriguez, "Jane the Virgin"
Lily Tomlin, "Grace and Frankie"

Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series
Aziz Ansari, "Master of None"
Gael Garcia Bernal, "Mozart in the Jungle"
Rob Lowe, "The Grinder:
Patrick Stewart, "Blunt Talk"
Jeffrey Tambor, "Transparent"

Best Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
"American Crime"
"American Horror Story: Hotel"
"Fargo"
"Flesh and Bone"
"Wolf Hall"

Best Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
Kirsten Dunst, "Fargo"
Lady Gaga, "American Horror Story: Hotel"
Sarah Hay, "Flesh and Bone"
Felicity Huffman, "American Crime"
Queen Latifah, "Bessie"

Best Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
Idris Elba, "Luther"
Oscar Isaac, "Show Me a Hero"
David Oyelowo, "Nightingale"
Mark Rylance, "Wolf Hall"
Patrick Wilson, "Fargo"

Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
Uzo Aduba, "Orange is the New Black"
Joanna Froggatt, "Downton Abbey"
Regina King, "American Crime"
Judith Light, "Transparent"
Maura Tierney, "The Affair"

Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made For Television
Alan Cumming, "The Good Wife"
Damien Lewis, "Wolf Hall"
Ben Mendelsohn, "Bloodline"
Tobias Menzies, "Outlander"
Christian Slater, "Mr. Robot"

The 73rd Golden Globe Awards will be broadcast live on January 10, 2016 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California at 5:00PM PST / 8:00PM EST.

READ MORE: Fearless Golden Globes Film Predictions

'Carol' Leads 2016 Golden Globe Nominations, 'The Revenant,' 'Steve Jobs,' 'The Big Short' Also Strong

Oliver Lyttelton — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 13:50:07 GMT

Another day, another batch of awards nominations, and after the eyebrow-raising announcements with the SAG awards, we’re sure that more surprises are to come with the reveal of the nominees for this year’s Golden Globes.

The ‘fun,’ vaguely disreputable little brother to the Oscars, the Globes might be sneered at in serious critic circles, but they have a value with the public second only to the Academy Awards, and so while they’re not always indicative of the Oscars (“Boyhood” was the big winner last year, for instance), they can be fun in and of themselves, and can sometimes signify where the wind is blowing.

READ MORE: 'Trumbo,' 'The Big Short,' & 'Beasts Of No Nation' Surprise at 2016 SAG Award Nominations

In this case, it's blowing, pleasingly, towards Todd Haynes' "Carol," which leads the field with five nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress nominations for both its leading ladies (Rooney Mara is campaigning as Supporting elsewhere, but the Hollywood Foreign Press Association deemed her, correctly, most would say, a Lead).

Elsewhere, the love was spread far, mirroring the season as a whole, with "The Revenant," "Steve Jobs" and "The Big Short" all picking up four nods, and "The Danish Girl," "The Hateful Eight," "The Martian," "Room" and "Spotlight" all managing three. "Mad Max: Fury Road" fans shouldn't worry too much, though: that film might have only got two nods, but they were for Best Film and Best Director, with George Miller beating out the likes of Quentin Tarantino and David O. Russell to make the cut. Not doing so hot? "Brooklyn," which took a single nomination, "Bridge Of Spies," which did the same, and "Suffragette" and "Black Mass" which missed out entirely.

With the Globes often a shaky predictor, nothing here should be taken too seriously, but it does point to certain things: a growing momentum behind "The Big Short" after yesterday's SAG ensemble nod, the solidification of once-dicey Idris Elba and Michael Shannon in Best Supporting Actor, that "Fury Road" could be a legit Best Picture contender. Beyond that, this isn't a bad grouping, the occasional "Trumbo" nod aside. You can see the full list of nominees below, including the TV categories.

Best Film - Drama
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Best Film - Comedy/Musical
The Big Short
Joy
The Martian
Spy
Trainwreck

Best Director
Todd Haynes - Carol
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - The Revenant
Tom McCarthy - Spotlight
George Miller - Mad Max Fury Road
Ridley Scott - The Martian

Best Actor - Drama
Bryan Cranston - Trumbo
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant
Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl
Will Smith - Concussion

Best Actress - Drama
Cate Blanchett - Carol
Brie Larson - Room
Rooney Mara - Carol
Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn
Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl

Best Actor - Comedy/Musical
Christian Bale - The Big Short
Steve Carell - The Big Short
Matt Damon - The Martian
Al Pacino - Danny Collins
Mark Ruffalo - Infinitely Polar Bear

Best Actress - Comedy/Musical
Jennifer Lawrence - Joy
Melissa McCarthy - Spy
Amy Schumer - Trainwreck
Maggie Smith - The Lady In The Van
Lily Tomlin - Grandma

Best Supporting Actor
Paul Dano - Love & Mercy
Idris Elba - Beasts Of No Nation
Mark Rylance - Bridge Of Spies
Michael Shannon - 99 Homes
Sylvester Stallone - Creed

Best Supporting Actress
Jane Fonda - Youth
Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight
Helen Mirren - Trumbo
Alicia Vikander - Ex Machina
Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs

Best Screenplay
Adam McKay & Charles Randolph - Big Short
Quentin Tarantino - The Hateful Eight
Emma Donoghue - Room
Thomas McCarthy - Spotlight
Aaron Sorkin - Steve Jobs

Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa
The Good Dinosaur
Inside Out
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun The Sheep Movie

Original Song
Love Me Like You Do - 50 Shades Of Grey
One Kind Of Love - Love & Mercy
See You Again - Furious 7
Simple Song No. 3 - Youth
Writing’s On The Wall - Spectre

Best Original Score
Carter Burwell - Carol
Alexandre Desplat - The Danish Girl
Ennio Morricone - The Hateful Eight
Daniel Pemberton - Steve Jobs
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - The Revenant

Best Foreign Language Film
The Brand New Testament
The Club
The Fencer
Mustang
Son Of Saul

Musical/Comedy Series
Casual
Mozart In The Jungle
Orange Is The New Black
Silicon Valley
Transparent
Veep

Drama Series
Empire
Game Of Thrones
Mr. Robot
Narcos
Outlander

Actor In A Drama
Jon Hamm - Mad Men
Rami Malek - Mr. Robot
Wagner Moura - Narcos
Bob Odenkirk - Better Call Saul
Liev Schreiber - Ray Donovan

Actress In A Drama
Caitriona Balfe - Outlander
Viola Davis - How To Get Away With Murder
Eva Green - Penny Dreadful
Taraji P Henson - Empire
Robin Wright - House Of Cards

Actor In A Comedy Series
Aziz Ansari - Master Of None
Gael Garcia Bernal - Mozart
Rob Lowe - The Grinder
Patrick Stewart - Blunt
Jeffrey Tambor - Transparent

Actress In A Comedy Series
Rachel Bloom - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Jamie Lee Curtis - Scream Queens
Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Veep
Gina Rodriguez - Jane The Virgin
Lily Tomlin - Grace & Frankie

Supporting Actress - TV
Uzo Aduba - Orange Is The New Black
Joanne Froggatt - Downton Abbey
Regina King - American Crime
Judith Light - Transparent
Maura Tierney - The Affair

Supporting Actor - TV
Alan Cumming - The Good Wife
Damian Lewis - Wolf Hall
Ben Mendelsohn - Bloodline
Tobias Menzies - Outlander
Christian Slater - Mr. Robot

Limited Series/TV Movie
American Crime
American Horror Story: Hotel
Fargo
Flesh & Bone
Wolf Hall

Actress - Limited Series/TV Movie
Kristen Dunst - Fargo
Lady Gaga - American Horror Story: Hotel
Sarah Hay - Flesh & Bone
Felicity Huffman - American Crime
Queen Latifah - Bessie

Actor - Limited Series/TV Movie
Idris Elba - Luther
Oscar Isaac - Show Me A Hero
David Oyelowo - Nightingale
Mark Rylance - Wolf Hall
Patrick Wilson - Fargo

Fearless Golden Globes Film Predictions

Anne Thompson — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 18:06:00 GMT

Predicting the annual nominations of the Hollywood Foreign Press, an idiosyncratic group of 90 entertainment editors and writers who report on the film and television business for their outlets in 55 countries, is no easy task. They are wined and dined all year by publicists, and sent on studio junkets where they conduct round table interviews, and hang with stars at various parties. Many of these media folks consider themselves to be friends with the stars, because they have been covering them for so long.

That is why they make different choices than other "critic" groups. The relatively senior HFPA's taste runs the gamut from sophisticated ("Carol") to mainstream ("Black Mass"). But they also like celebrities to come to their Golden Globes Awards show in January (Leonardo Di Caprio, Matt Damon, Johnny Depp, and Jennifer Lawrence come to mind), which is by far the most fun night of the year in Hollywood. So that's another factor.

The Golden Globes nominations will be announced Thursday morning, and will add momentum to certain races, without being at all predictive.

The Screen Actors Guild nominations, which were announced Wednesday morning, also add momentum. While the SAG nominating committee, which changes every year, tends to be a tad more mainstream than the Oscars, they are usually more predictive than the Globes, as they come from inside the film community.

So there are always some changes among the Oscar nominees from SAG and Globes—Academy voters always add some classy additions to the mix— but the winners are usually close. The SAG Ensemble award, especially, often presages the eventual Oscar Best Picture winner. "Spotlight" is supposed to win that one. Those who land noms from SAG alone are more likely to land an Oscar nod than from the Globes alone. Land both groups, and you have better odds of landing an Oscar slot. Those who get neither reduce their chances (more details here).

Veterans Sylvester Stallone ("Creed"), Charlotte Rampling ("45 Years"), Maggie Smith ("The Lady in the Van"), Michael Caine and Jane Fonda ("Youth") and Ian McKellen ("Mr. Holmes") may have better shots with the Academy than, say, comedienne Lily Tomlin ("Grandma"). Also with an Oscar advantage are late-breaking critics' faves Paul Dano ("Love & Mercy") and Kristen Stewart ("Clouds of Sils Maria"), who had no IFC awards campaign but will now get one.

GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD NOMINATIONS

Best Picture (Drama)

1. "Spotlight "

2. "The Revenant"

3. "Bridge of Spies"

4. "Carol"

5. "Brooklyn"

Best Picture (Comedy/Musical)

1. "The Martian"

2. "Joy"

3. "Trainwreck"

4. "The Big Short"

5. "Grandma"

Best Director

1. Tom McCarthy "Spotlight"

2. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu "The Revenant"

3. Ridley Scott "The Martian"

4. David O. Russell "Joy"

5 Steven Spielberg "Bridge of Spies"

Best Actor (Drama)

1. Leonardo DiCaprio "The Revenant"

2. Michael Fassbender "Steve Jobs"

3. Eddie Redmayne "The Danish Girl"

4. Johnny Depp "Black Mass"

5. Tom Hanks "Bridge of Spies"

Best Actress (Drama)

1. Brie Larson "Room"

2. Cate Blanchett "Carol"

3. Saoirse Ronan "Brooklyn"

4. Alicia Vikander "The Danish Girl"

5. Rooney Mara "Carol"

Best Actor (Comedy/Musical)

1. Matt Damon "The Martian"

2. Steve Carell "The Big Short"

3. Bill Hader "Trainwreck"

4. Christian Bale "The Big Short"

5. Robert De Niro "The Intern"

Best Actress (Comedy/Musical)

1. Jennifer Lawrence "Joy"

2. Lily Tomlin "Grandma"

3. Amy Schumer "Trainwreck"

4. Maggie Smith "The Lady in the Van"

5. Melissa McCarthy "Spy"

Best Supporting Actor

1. Michael Keaton "Spotlight"

2. Mark Ruffalo "Spotlight"

3. Idris Elba "Beasts of No Nation"

4. Tom Hardy "The Revenant"

5. Mark Rylance "Bridge of Spies"

Best Supporting Actress

1. Kate Winslet "Steve Jobs"

2. Jennifer Jason Leigh "The Hateful Eight"

3. Jane Fonda "Youth"

4. Helen Mirren "Trumbo"

5. Kristen Stewart "Clouds of Sils Maria"

Best Screenplay

1. "Spotlight"

2. "The Martian"

3. "Steve Jobs"

4. "Carol"

5. "Room"

Best Original Score
1. Ennio Morricone "The Hateful Eight"
2. Howard Shore "Spotlight"
3. Alexandre Desplat "The Danish Girl"
4. Carter Burwell "Carol"
5. Riuichi Sakamoto "The Revenant"

Best Original Song

1. "Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey)," from "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Ahmad Balshe, Stephan Moccio, Jason Quenneville & Abel Tesfaye, songwriters (The Weeknd)

2. "Love Me Like You Do," from "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Savan Kotecha, Max Martin, Tove Nilsson, Ali Payami & Ilya Salmanzadeh, songwriters (Ellie Goulding)

3. "See You Again," from "Furious 7"

Andrew Cedar, Justin Franks, Charles Puth & Cameron Thomaz, songwriters (Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth)

4. "Simple Song #3" from "Youth," songwriter David Lang (Sumi Jo)

5. "Writing's On the Wall" from "Spectre" (Sam Smith)

Best Foreign-Language Film
1. "Son of Saul"
2. "The Second Mother"
3. "Viva"
4. "Mustang"
5. "Phoenix"

Best Animated Feature

1. "Inside Out"

2. "Anomalisa"

3. "The Good Dinosaur"

4. "The Peanuts Movie"

5. "Shaun the Sheep Movie"