Dreamgirls, Babel win top movies at Golden Globes
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Babel, a sprawling film about human connections in the global village, won the Golden Globe for best motion picture, drama in Los Angeles Jan. 15.
Dreamgirls and Helen Mirren also were big winners at the event held by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson won supporting acting awards for their work in Dreamgirls, which also won for best motion picture, musical or comedy.
Mirren won awards both for best actress in a drama and in a television mini-series or movie.
In accepting the award for The Queen, in which she played England's Queen Elizabeth reacting to the death of Princess Diana, Mirren said, "I just tried to make her as truthful to herself as possible."
Mirren also won for best actress in a television miniseries or movie for HBO's Elizabeth I. She also was nominated in the same category for her lead role in Prime Suspect: The Final Act for PBS.
Forest Whitaker won the best acting award for a film drama for The Last King of Scotland, a drama about the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. He and Mirren have won the lion's share of critic's awards and are considered favorites to win Oscars.
Hudson took the first award of the evening for playing Effie, a singer who gets pushed from the limelight because of her looks.
The American Idol contestant dedicated her award to Florence Ballard, the real-life singer with the Supremes on whom her character was based and whom Hudson said "never got a fair chance ... You will never be forgotten."
Growing weepy as she accepted the award, Hudson said, "Am I turning into Effie up here?" She said the award was meaningful because it made her feel "like a part of this community and it makes me feel like an actress. You do not understand how good that feels to say."
Other winners included Martin Scorsese, who won best director for his high-energy crime drama, The Departed.
"I wanted to make a picture in the old Warner Bros. tradition of gangster pictures," Scorsese said.
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen won a best actor in a musical or comedy for his Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
The award for best foreign language film — a particularly strong category this year — went to Letters From Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood's World War II drama told from the Japanese perspective.
"Not many people thought this was anything when it was on paper," Eastwood said in accepting the award. In an unusual move, Eastwood released two movies about the battle of Iwo Jima last year.
The other one, Flags of Our Fathers earned a mixed critical reception but the much-better received Letters From Iwo Jima revived the possibility of Eastwood winning a best-picture Oscar. He received Golden Globe nominations for directing both films.
In the new Golden Globes category of best animated film, the winner was Cars, a comedy with talking automobiles, from Disney-Pixar.
In TV, Ugly Betty won the award for best television musical or comedy and its star, America Ferrera, won for best actress in a television musical or comedy.
Kyra Sedgwick won best actress in a television drama for TNT's The Closer while the award for best actor went to Hugh Laurie, the star of House on FOX.
Alec Baldwin won the award for best actor in a television musical or comedy for NBC's 30 Rock.
Tom Hanks presented the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement to Warren Beatty, who won Golden Globe recognition as most promising newcomer 45 years ago.
Beatty, who hasn't directed a movie in nine years and hasn't acted in one since 2001, drew laughs for noting that Eastwood made two movies simultaneously last year, two years after winning the Oscar for best picture (for Million Dollar Baby) and then asking: "How do you think that makes me feel?"
"Of course I'm going to make another movie," Beatty added.
Considering the awards are determined by a mere 90 people — the Hollywood correspondents of foreign publications — the Golden Globes has achieved an extraordinarily high profile.
Its popular televised awards ceremony attracts top stars, partly because it is an effective marketing tool and partly because the freewheeling banquet is a fun party.
By contrast, the Motion Picture Association of America, which gives out the Oscars, is comprised of 5,800 voting members.
Oscar nominations will be announced Jan. 23. Awards will be presented Feb. 25.
The American Idol contestant dedicated her award to Florence Ballard, the real-life singer with the Supremes on whom her character was based and whom Hudson said "never got a fair chance ... You will never be forgotten."
Growing weepy as she accepted the award, Hudson said, "Am I turning into Effie up here?" She said the award was meaningful because it made her feel "like a part of this community and it makes me feel like an actress. You do not understand how good that feels to say."
Other winners included Martin Scorsese, who won best director for his high-energy crime drama, The Departed.
"I wanted to make a picture in the old Warner Bros. tradition of gangster pictures," Scorsese said.
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen won a best actor in a musical or comedy for his Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
The award for best foreign language film — a particularly strong category this year — went to Letters From Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood's World War II drama told from the Japanese perspective.
"Not many people thought this was anything when it was on paper," Eastwood said in accepting the award. In an unusual move, Eastwood released two movies about the battle of Iwo Jima last year.
The other one, Flags of Our Fathers earned a mixed critical reception but the much-better received Letters From Iwo Jima revived the possibility of Eastwood winning a best-picture Oscar. He received Golden Globe nominations for directing both films.
In the new Golden Globes category of best animated film, the winner was Cars, a comedy with talking automobiles, from Disney-Pixar.
In TV, Ugly Betty won the award for best television musical or comedy and its star, America Ferrera, won for best actress in a television musical or comedy.
Kyra Sedgwick won best actress in a television drama for TNT's The Closer while the award for best actor went to Hugh Laurie, the star of House on FOX.
Alec Baldwin won the award for best actor in a television musical or comedy for NBC's 30 Rock.
Tom Hanks presented the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement to Warren Beatty, who won Golden Globe recognition as most promising newcomer 45 years ago.
Beatty, who hasn't directed a movie in nine years and hasn't acted in one since 2001, drew laughs for noting that Eastwood made two movies simultaneously last year, two years after winning the Oscar for best picture (for Million Dollar Baby) and then asking: "How do you think that makes me feel?"
"Of course I'm going to make another movie," Beatty added.
Considering the awards are determined by a mere 90 people — the Hollywood correspondents of foreign publications — the Golden Globes has achieved an extraordinarily high profile.
Its popular televised awards ceremony attracts top stars, partly because it is an effective marketing tool and partly because the freewheeling banquet is a fun party.
By contrast, the Motion Picture Association of America, which gives out the Oscars, is comprised of 5,800 voting members.
Oscar nominations will be announced Jan. 23. Awards will be presented Feb. 25.
posted by Svala Nocov | 10:24 AM
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