Golden Globes live blog

Tonight is all about the party! While I don't think many people harbour hope that Jimmy Fallon will be any more than adequate, he can't be any worse than last year's host.

The bigger expectation is that La La Land dominates, what with having no competition within its Comedy/Musical categorization. But I wouldn't put it past the HFPA to go a different route in Best Director, and maybe even Actor in a Comedy/Musical (go Colin Farrell!).

UPDATE:

La La Land did even better than expected, winning all seven of its nominations, setting a new Golden Globes record. Movie winners and thoughts on them after the jump.

But fist, some best dressed honours:

OH MY RUTH. NEGGA. 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌 #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/LSE96GbFFs

— jen yamato (@jenyamato) January 8, 2017

Janelle Monae stars in 101 DAYUMations. pic.twitter.com/qimZHTboF9

— Glen Weldon (@ghweldon) January 9, 2017

Blake Lively is the Queen #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/8Ele0OKJSQ

— opfavestyles (@opfavestyles) January 9, 2017

Hailee Steinfeld is breathtaking. #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/1efA8VlpwP

— Music News & Facts (@musicnews_facts) January 9, 2017

Golden Globe nominees

The Golden Globe nominees for 2016 landed this morning. Leading the pack was (surprise, surprise) La La Land with seven, followed closely by fellow frontrunner Moonlight with six.

Let's take a looksee at what else the HFPA liked, plus some quick takes...

MOTION PICTURE DRAMA
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell Or High Water
Lion
Manchester By The Sea
Moonlight
Can't endorse Hacksaw's inclusion here, though it always felt easily like a Globes movies. The other four, however, are all fine selections.

MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
20th Century Women
Deadpool
La La Land
Florence Foster Jenkins
Sing Street
Pretty obvious win for La La Land.

Golden Globes live blog

Only a couple of hours until the festivities begin. I'm not going to publish official predictions -- never been very good at this particular show -- but I'll tweet my guesses in real time as they're presented.

When you put a BAWDY in a dress pic.twitter.com/0qtlFTagV5

— Lemon Head (@missleighcarter) January 11, 2016

7:36 My rum-and-coke is empty already. Gonna need a refill before Ricky takes the stage. Best dressed so far are Saoirse Ronan in flowing white, Brie Larson in golden chain-mail, and JLo in mustard yellow.

Time's Up

Oscar voting closed today, capping off a busy week of industry nominations. I won't parse through them all, but merely highlight that the critical favour of Carol has not converted the way its fans (yours truly among them) hoped that it would, while sleeper contenders Straight Outta Compton, Ex Machina, and especially Sicario have turned up the heat at the tail end of this fertile voting phase.

What it all means in the Best Picture race... Hard to tell with that maddening variable-number-of-nominees system. All I know is that in five of the last six years, at least two PGA nominees have missed the Academy's cutoff, and at least one PGA-snubbed contender always squeaks in.

The good news: Carol seems a likely candidate to be this year's squeaker. The bad news: It could just as easily be something like Trumbo. I'm keeping the former in my predicted lineup for now, but it may be wishful thinking -- I've long since given up on Inside Out, Steve Jobs, Son of Saul, Room and Creed (looks like minimal overlap between me and AMPAS this year).

Golden Globe nominations

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association sounded off this morning on the heels of yesterday's SAG nominations, adding fuel to the campaign fire of many a project. Flagging contenders like The Martian, Joy, and various acting hopefuls got some badly needed exposure, while the unlikely Oscar player Mad Max: Fury Road kept its engines purring with a pair of citations in top categories. The nomination leader: Critics' pet Carol, which continues its maddening lethargic roll-out. It had damn well better speed up after this successful showing.

Check all the feature film categories with some quick thoughts of mine:

Best Picture - Drama
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight
Looking more and more like Spotlight is the only movie in this scattered season with enough widespread approval to make it a frontrunner. It may be that everybody else is just playing for nominations now, but there are important battles to be won in that contest; The Globes have been proving themselves far cooler than the Academy for a few seasons now, and here's AMPAS's chance to keep in step. Putting these five on the Oscar Best Picture ballot would be a good start (I know I say this without having seen Carol or The Revenant yet, but I have high hopes, and the other three are highly deserving).

Golden Globes live blog

6:44
The stars are arriving. The show will start in an hour and a bit. Pumped up!!!

(You can read lots of fashion snark on Twitter, including from me, but I'll keep this space clear until the show starts)

Golden Globe Preview

The Globes are tonight (yay!!!), starring Tina Fey and Amy Poeller in their last hosting gig for the show (no!!!).

I'll be live blogging the event same as I have the last two years, because this show is just so much more fun than the Oscars lately! And contrary to popular belief, their winners have been pretty respectable. I mean, just look at this year's Best Director lineup: Anderson, DuVernay, Fincher, Inarritu, and Linklater. How do you choose a bad winner amongst those? You can't!

The proceedings start around 7:00 p.m. EST, so check back here for the post and refresh it throughout the night. Below I've listed my sure-to-be-inaccurate predictions, but what else is knew.

Golden Globe nominations: Big gain for 'Selma', death knell for 'Unbroken'?

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association have announced the their nominees for the Golden Globe Awards, adding fuel to the campaign fires of some borderline contenders, but also dousing those of others.

I'll mention my specific commentaries for each individual category after the cut, but for now, a few immediate observations:

-Yesterday's SAG shutout of Selma proved merely to be a byproduct of its late entry into the race, as it popped up in four categories today (including Picture and Director).

-Conversely, Unbroken pulled up a big ole goose egg with both organizations. If any group was gonna chomp at the bit for Angelina Jolie's celebrity, it was the HFPA. It could still squeak out a Best Picture nomination a la War Horse -- another perfect-on-paper Oscar bait movie that disappointed on arrival -- but its hopes are dwindling fast.

-All of yesterday's SAG nominees repeated except for Naomi Watts, which means it'll be hard to anticipate who gets edged out come Oscar time. There's no way we're gonna have a perfect match-up across all three groups.

-The most unhappy snub of the day: John Carney's wonderful Begin Again being completely shut out of the Comedy/Musical categories and even Best Song! Criminal.

Check out all the film nominees and my quick thoughts below:

Sunday Top Ten: Pet peeves and highlights of the 2013-14 Oscar season

The big show is coming up on being only a week old, but it feels like ages ago, so I think it's high time for me to finally put the season to bed. 2014 is now here, with its own slate of hotly anticipated Oscar hopefuls in the pipeline, and it's time to get to work on scoping out those, but not before capping off the awards derby that was with my annual list of highs and lows.

Golden Globes live blog

The Golden Globes are starting in about 15 minutes, and I'll be updating with my commentary on developments as they happen.

7:50 Got my port poured and ready to go. Let's end these inane red carpet interviews and get the show rolling.

8:00 And we're off!

Globe predix and blogging preview

I must confess that with Oscar nominations less than a week away, I'm starting to feel the crunch. There are still movies I haven't seen yet (including the possible Best Picture winner American Hustle), and many more which I have seen but haven't had time to review (including Her and Short Term 12, both of which will make my top ten, so I want to write proper pieces for them). This is to say nothing of the movies I'll have to seek out and catch up with if there are surprise nominations on Thursday, which there will almost certainly be.

In addition, there are my award nominations to get done. Some categories are pretty well finalized and may be announced as early as this week, but most of them won't appear until after the Academy unveils their own nominations. Thank you for your patience.

But for tonight, I'm devoting my attention to a different set of awards entirely: The Golden Globes! Tina Fey and Amy Poeller were such a notable improvement over Ricky Gervais, if they're half as funny tonight as they were last year, we're guaranteed a good time. As usual, I'll be live blogging the ceremony because this relatively breezy two hour affair simply lends itself to live blogging much more easily than the Oscars.

You can check out my predictions below, not that I'm ever any good at predicting the Globes, but that's part of what makes them so much fun to watch!

Golden Globe nominees

Been a busy week for precursor announcements. Right on the heels of yesterday's SAG nominations, the Hollywood Foreign Press has dropped the list of contenders for this year's Golden Globe Awards.

Unsurprisingly, 12 Years a Slave leads the pack with seven nods, but it is also joined in that echelon by American Hustle. David O. Russell's much awaited ensemble piece scored nominations in all four acting categories for which it was eligible, and for four actors who have all been Oscar nominated in his last two films.

Full list of Motion Picture nominees (plus brief thoughts) after the cut. Then bring on Tina and Amy!

Sunday Top Ten: Pet Peeves and Highlights of the 2012/13 Awards Season

I decided for this last piece of Oscar coverage to split the difference between stuff that bugged me and stuff that made me happy. I could probably come up with ten highlights and ten pet peeves, but it feels cleaner to go with five of each. I will however acknowledge some things that just missed the peeves list (the Lincoln makeup snub and Global TV's SAG Awards snafu) and just missed the highlights list (Argo making history and Barbara Streisand).

And now, my top five pet peeves, and top five highlights of the 2012/13 awards season:

Golden Globes recap

Ben Affleck's Argo triumphed in Best Director and Best Picture at the Golden Globes, making good on the buzz it had accummulated before it disipated upon last Thursday's Academy snub for Directing. I think we still need to consider it a legit contender for the big prize, even without that important Directing nod. It'll pull in lots of #2 and #3 votes, a huge plus with the preferential ballot.

Over in the Musical/Comedy category, I was thrilled to see Les Mis triumph when most had written the category off as an obligatory win for Silver Linings Playbook. The divisive musical also won for Anne Hathaway (expected) and Hugh Jackman (less expected, but very welcome).

The biggest moment of the night, however, came from Jodie Foster, who "officially" came out while accepting her Cecil B. DeMille Award. NBC seemed to prudishly mute that portion of her speech, but they couldn't silence the main message. She also waxed philosophic on lack of privacy in celebrity life and loneliness in her middle age. It was a rapidly fired off speech, but it felt vaguely significant. I'd love to listen to it again.

As for the show itself, hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler killed it. Their opening dialogue landed big laughs, and despite being sadly underused throughout the rest of the evening, they clearly set a high bar for Seth MacFarlane to try and top in six weeks' time.

Full list of movie winners after the cut.

Golden Globes live blog

So yeah, like everyone else on the net, I'll be live-blogging the Golden Globes when they begin in about three and a half hours time. Check back for updates throughout the evening.

7:33 - Usual banter on the red carpet. The women look cold. Apparently it's chilly out on the West coast tonight.

7:53 - Got my laptop. Got my port. Let's get this party started.

7:55 - Shameless Quartet plug by Dustin Hoffman. Supose I shouldn't prejudge (but I heard it's awful).

8:04 - "When it comes to torture, I trust the women who spent three years married to James Cameron" ZING! Fey and Poeller were great. Laughed at almost every joke.

8:09 - Supporting Actor: Goes to... Christoph Waltz in  Django Unchained. Weinstein at work, as always.

Golden Globe nominees

Busy week for precursor nominations. First the Critics Choice Awards, then the Screen Actors Guild, and now this morning we have the slate from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. With all three groups, Lincoln leads in the nomination tally (though it's tied with Silver Linings Playbook and Les Miz for SAG).

For all the annual allegations about the Globes' "star-f***ing" tendencies, no one can ever accuse them of being a group without an identity. With all the critics likely to line up behind the same names over and over, it's refreshing to see some nominations spring up here that we're not likely to see repeated again this season. They're the first group to support Django Unchained in a big way, handing it five nominations after it was shut out by SAG. And I highly doubt we'll see Salmon Fishing in the Yemen mentioned by any more awards bodies this year.

Full list of motion picture nominees with accompanying commentaries after the cut.

Best Motion Picture - Drama
"Argo"
"Django Unchained"
"Life of Pi"
"Lincoln"
"Zero Dark Thirty"

Django is the surprise here. This is a much needed boost for its flagging Oscar prospects.

Best Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical
"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"
"Les Miserables"
"Moonrise Kingdom"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
"Salmon Fishing in the Yemen"
I would have anticipated all of these but for Salmon Fishing. It played TIFF last year, so I'm surprised it got remembered.

The Artist, Descendants triumph at Globes

The Artist took three and The Descendants took two.

I went nine for fourteen with my predictions, and of the five I got wrong, four of them were my alternate guesses. But we know how easy it is to predict the Globes. I should probably have done better. The notable discrepancy from my predix and the final results was Meryl Streep usurping Viola Davis' Best Actress (Drama) award, robbing her of the chance to give what could have been another deal-sealing acceptance speech. Weinstein has the HFPA wrapped around his not-so-little finger. The SAG showdown next Sunday will prove to be an important tiebreaker.

Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners Another classy and witty acceptance speech
Original Score: The Artist As if we didn't already know, Oscar is sewn up
Original Song: "Masterpiece", W.E. Well, this does little to clear up the Oscar picture
Actress, Comedy/Musical: Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
Sly throw-in by presenter Seth Rogen; "...the hysterical comedy My Week with Marilyn"
Animated Feature: Tintin! Sweet!!!
Screenplay: Midnight in Paris Woody "couldn't" be here tonight
Foreign Film: A Separation I'm still iffy on its Oscar chances
Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help
Her speeches could use some work, but the Oscar could be hers. Besides, save the killer speeches for Davis
Director: Martin Scorsese, Hugo One that Weinstein let get away
Actor, Comedy/Musical: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
His toughest competition is in the Drama category
Actress, Drama: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady Hmmmm... Weinstein at work
Picture, Musical/Comedy: The Artist Naturally
Actor, Drama: George Clooney, The Descendants No surprise
Drama: The Descendants Overrated

Golden Globes preview

The Golden Globe Awards take to the air tonight, and it should hopefully be a less cluttered outing than last Thursday's Critics Choice Awards. I'll have plenty of opportunities to replenish my beverage whenever they announce those boring TV categories (tee hee), or whenever Ricky Gervais opens his gob. I know some people have dug his boldly abusive humour the last two years running, but don't count me among them. There are ways to make fun of celebrities without sounding so spiteful, as Billy Crystal will likely demonstrate at the Oscars in six weeks time, so my television will be happily muted when Mr. Gervais takes the stage.

As for the awards, my predictions are outlined below. Should be an easy win for The Artist in Musical/Comedy, but the Drama category promises to actually be exciting this year. I'll be back here tonight to comment on the proceedings as they happen.

Best Picture, Drama
The Descendants
alt: The Help

Best Picture, Comedy or Musical
The Artist
alt: Bridesmaids

Golden Globe nominees

It's hardly a surprise to see the Hollywood Foreign Press Agency tow the party line by honouring The Artist with a field-leading six nominations. It'll probably tap dance its way to an easy Best Picture win in the Musical/Comedy category. What interests (and pleases) me more is their wave of support for George Clooney's terrific The Ides of March, which has thus far been rudely ignored by the precursor circuit. Even if its four nominations have more to do with Clooney's star power than the merits of the film, I won't object. Here's hoping the Academy will stick up for it somewhere.

Best Picture, Drama
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

Best Picture, Comedy or Musical
50/50
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
My Week with Marilyn

Foreign Film shortlist

Nine finalists for Best Foreign Language Film have been selected by the Academy; Six based on scores given by the general committee of volunteer voters, and three chosen by the hand-picked executive committee.

Algeria Outside the Law
Canada Incendies
Denmark In A Better World
Greece Dogtooth
Japan Confessions
Mexico Biutiful
South Africa Life Above All
Spain Even the Rain
Sweden Simple Simon

The big surprise here is the inclusion of Yargos Lanthimos' bizarre black comedy Dogtooth, which I can only guess had to be helped along by the executive committee. I'll eat my hat if ends up nominated.

The other titles are not so surprising. It certainly bodes well for Golden Globe nominees Biutiful and In A Better World, the latter of which won.

The nine films will screen this weekend for a randomly selected committee of 30 Academy members who will then determine the five nominees.