2014 Golden Globes Nominees – Who would you like to win?
The nominees for the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards have been announced and while we all know how the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) doesn’t really deserve to be taken seriously, I still think these awards are fun to watch. They’re entertaining, get you pumped for the Oscars and it’s always somewhat of a good time. Among the top nominees this year there are Spike Jonze’s Her, 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips and Gravity. The official ceremony will take place on January 12th, 2014 at The Beverly Hilton and is hosted by Tina Fey & Amy Poehler. Take a look at the nominees in the film categories.
BEST DRAMA**
12 Years a Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Philomena
Rush
** At this point in the year, from what I’ve seen, my favorite drama is Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine.
ACTOR (DRAMA)**
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave
Idris Elba – Mandela
Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips
Matthew McConaghey – Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford – All Is Lost
** At this point in the year, from what I’ve seen, my favorite actor was Toni Servillo in The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza).
ACTRESS (DRAMA)
Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
Judi Dench – Philomena
Emma Thompson – Saving Mr. Banks
Kate Winslet – Labor Day
BEST MUSICAL OR COMEDY*
American Hustle
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
The Wolf of Wall Street
* Haven’t actually seen Spike Jonze’s Her yet, but as a big fan of the director the film will probably make my top ten of the year.
ACTOR (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)*
Christian Bale – American Hustle
Bruce Dern – Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
Oscar Isaac – Inside Llewyn Davis
Joaquin Phoenix – Her
* Tough category, a lot of great actors, but this seems like a career-best performance for Bruce Dern and it’s an Alexander Payne film, so you can’t go wrong with that.
ACTRESS (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Amy Adams – American Hustle
Julie Delpy – Before Midnight
Greta Gerwig – Frances Ha
Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Enough Said
Meryl Streep – August: Osage County
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Blue is the Warmest Color (France)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)
The Past (France)
The Wind Rises (Japan)
ANIMATED FILM**
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Frozen
** Of all the animated films this year I’ve only seen Despicable Me 2, wasn’t impressed, and I don’t feel I can properly judge this category.
SUPPORTING ACTOR*
Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips
Daniel Bruhl – Rush
Bradley Cooper – American Hustle
Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
* Though I’m not really interested in 12 Years a Slave (it looks very Oscar-baity), I am a big Michael Fassbender fan, so my nod goes to him. If I could nominate any supporting actor at all I’d vote for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for his performance in Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts – August: Osage County
June Squibb – Nebraska
DIRECTOR*
Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity
Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips
Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
Alexander Payne – Nebraska
David O. Russell – American Hustle
* I have not seen Nebraska yet, but based on the fact that director Alexander Payne has never made a bad movie and not being a fan of the other directors nominated I’m definitely hoping he wins. If I could nominate any director at all I’d vote for Sofia Coppola (The Bling Ring).
SCREENPLAY*
Spike Jonze – Her
Bob Nelson – Nebraska
Steve Coogan & Jeff Pope – Philomena
John Ridley – 12 Years a Slave
Eric Singer & David O. Russell – American Hustle
* Again, just based on the other nominees Spike Jonze is my favorite, I always love his romantic, melancholic style which has a lot of charm and wit to it as well.
ORIGINAL SCORE**
All is Lost – Alex Ebert
Mandela – Alex Heffes
Gravity – Steven Price
The Book Thief – John Williams
12 Years a Slave – Hans Zimmer
** We’ve had so many great film scores this year, but they clearly failed to acknowledge any of them. Right now my pick would be Ennio Morricone‘s score for The Best Offer (La migliore offerta). I love Hans Zimmer, but his score for Man of Steel, is what I would have nominated instead. Only Lovers Left Alive and Pain & Gain both had fantastic scores as well.
ORIGINAL SONG**
“Atlas” from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
“Let it Go” from Frozen
“Ordinary Love” from Mandela
“Please Mr. Kennedy” from Inside Llewyn Davis
“Sweeter Fiction” from One Chance
** Always a category I don’t care for, where’s Cinematography instead?
In blue (the warmest color) I’ve marked the nominees I’d like to see win. I haven’t seen a lot of these at this point, but based on the artist’s track record and knowing what kinds of movies I tend to gravitate towards I feel that I can confidently pick a favorite, though just in case I’ve marked them with an asterisk (*). For some of the categories I don’t care for any of the nominees (I would have picked other movies), so I’ve marked those with two asterisks (**). I’d be curious to hear what other people think. What are your favorites among these? Are happy with the nominees the HFPA selected? Who do you think was left out?
FROM AROUND THE WEB
- 2014 Golden Globe nominations: ‘American Hustle,’ ’12 Years a Slave’ lead pack (ctvnews.ca)
- Golden Globe Nominations: 2014 Surprises (wonderfultips.wordpress.com)
- ’12 Years a Slave,’ ‘American Hustle’ Lead Golden Globes Nominations (variety.com)
- The Carpetbagger: ‘American Hustle’ and ’12 Years a Slave’ Top 2014 Golden Globe Nominations (carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com)
- ’12 Years,’ ‘Hustle’ lead Golden Globes (toledoblade.com)
black is white 
It is difficult to know if you haven’t seen the films, I haven’t seen blue Jasmine but I have the great beauty and should watch that, I would have to get back to your list after seeing the films. Cate Blanchett is my favorite Nom but I am biased because she’s australian. I watched Gravity and even though the film is o.k. don’t believe the Hype. It’s not THAT good. I SHOUld watch La Dolce Vita again before watching the great beauty though. Watching it Now 🙂
Awesome! 🙂
Blanchett is fantastic, I can tell you that.
Well, I definitely want to hear your thoughts on the nominees and The Great Beauty. I totally agree with you on Gravity, by the way.
Yes she is a serious artist, a bit snobbish but we are not voting on her personality, 🙂 I have now seen the great beauty. I saw the great beauty last night and I would have to rate blue is the warmest color higher but I haven’t seen the past or the wind rises, I am not really into Hayao Miyazaki. There are so many films I need to catch up on but so little time 🙂 I also wrote the Jagten review last night when i was drunk so probably could have been a little more tactful in my response heehee
🙂 We can’t agree on every film, plus how boring would that be?
I’m glad you liked The Great Beauty. I can’t wait to see Blue is the Warmest Color (hopefully this week)!
Not familiar with Hayao Miyazaki’s work, as I’m not big on animated film.
Hmm… it sounds like I will have to see The Great Beauty and Nebraska. I’d see Blue Jasmine but I’ve gotten tired of Woody Allen of late.
Definitely. Why did you get tired of Woody? How’s that even possible? 🙂 He’s been putting out some of his best work lately with Midnight in Paris and Blue Jasmine.
I agree that Midnight in Paris was very good. To Rome with Love wasn’t great, though. It’s almost that he’s too prolific for me to keep up with haha. And the synopsis for Blue Jasmine didn’t interest me… Woody is primarily concerned with telling the stories of the 1%, I think. Nonetheless, it’s probably good, so I may stop being stubborn and just go see it 🙂
Yeah, he kinda doesn’t care, he just wants to work. As a fan getting a film a year from one of your favorite directors is pretty great (even his lesser films are enjoyable and interesting)!
Yes, usually his stories are about “rich white people”, but I think Blue Jasmine is about more than that. It’s one of his rare films where he discusses the “common man” as well, like in Small Time Crooks. Hope you like it 🙂
that is true, I can see what you mean about him being dependable because he puts out a movie every year. I haven’t watched Small Time Crooks but now I want to! “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” is my favorite overall (though it’s definitely about rich white people wandering around in Spain. The point was that they had 0 character development throughout the movie, in spite of everything they were exposed to. Love it. Hilarious ending scene in the airport that mirrored the opening one).
Nice! That’s actually the first Woody Allen film I watched and at that point I wasn’t a fan so I don’t think I “got it”. Definitely need to revisit it.
Some top films on the list, although I am ashamed to say I haven’t seen a lot of them! So I can only really say Gravity!
Yeah, me either that’s why I’m totally guessing here 🙂
If somebody like Julia Roberts or Natalie Portman had a personal blog where they posted pictures of their vacations or something, would you still take them seriously as actors? Do you think celebrities with personal blogs are less credible and taken less seriously than those who don’t? Furthermore, would you visit their blogs to see what they are up to?.
Very valid questions indeed! Aren’t Facebook, Twitter and Instagram already a bit like that though?