BY JACOB MCKEE
2014 has arrived, and this year’s film awards season is off to the races.
Last weekend, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association held their annual Golden Globe Awards, the first awards ceremony of the year, to honor excellence in film and TV.
The top prizes in each of the races went as followed: “12 Years A Slave” took home Best Drama Picture, “American Hustle” won Best Comedy Picture, “Breaking Bad” was named Best Drama Series, and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” got Best Comedy Series.
The Golden Globes act as a nice warm-up for the Oscars, which announced their nominations last Thursday. The Oscars are the cream of the crop as far as film awards go, so just getting nominated is a real honor.
In Best Picture, the Academy named nine nominees: “12 Years A Slave,” “Gravity,” “American Hustle,” “Nebraska,” “Captain Phillips,” “Her,” “Philomena,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Five of those films also received recognition for their directors: Steve McQueen for “12 Years A Slave,” Alfonso Cuarón for “Gravity,” David O. Russell David O. Russell for “American Hustle,” Alexander Payne for “Nebraska” and Martin Scorsese for “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
As far as acting nominees go, all six of the Globe winners also found themselves with Oscar nominations Thursday morning.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey led the Best Actor lineup, joined by Christian Bale, Bruce Dern, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Cate Blanchett and Amy Adams both made the Best Actress category along with fellow Globe nominees Sandra Bullock, Judi Dench and Meryl Streep.
Supporting Actor finds Globe winner Jared Leto joined by fellow Globe nominees Michael Fassbender, Barkhad Abdi, and Bradley Cooper, as well as Jonah Hill, who missed out on a Globe nod.
The Supporting Actress lineup mirrors the Globe lineup with Jennifer Lawrence, Lupita Nyong’o, June Squibb, Julia Roberts, and Sally Hawkins getting Oscar nominations.
Personally, I have my own bias over who should win these awards. Gravity was my personal favorite movie of the year, and anyone who has seen the performances of Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Cate Blanchett in “Blue Jasmine” and Jared Leto in “Dallas Buyers Club” can’t deny that their performances are awards-worthy.
As far as Supporting Actress, I’d really like to see Sally Hawkins win, though if Jennifer Lawrence were to walk away with it because I certainly wouldn’t be mad.
The Oscars will be aired live on March 2 at 7 p.m. and will be hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.
This is my favorite time of the year. It’s better than Christmas.