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BEVERLY HILLS, California: British movie Slumdog Millionaire emerged
as the big winner at the 66th Golden Globes on Sunday, scooping four
awards to underline its credentials ahead of next month’s Oscars.
Late Australian actor Heath Ledger earned a
posthumous Golden Globe for his performance in Batman blockbuster
The Dark Knight, while British star Kate Winslet won two awards for
best drama actress and supporting actress.
But, ironically, on a star-studded night in
Beverly Hills, it was Slumdog Millionaire the rags-to-riches love
story about an orphan who fights his way out of Mumbai slums on an
Indian television game show.
The film—featuring a cast of virtual
unknowns—won best drama and also picked up honors for British
director Danny Boyle, as well as honors for best screenplay and best
music.
After a disastrous event last year that was
reduced to a celebrity-free zone by the entertainment industry’s
writers’ strike, this year’s Globes red carpet read like a
who’s who of the movie industry’s A-list.
Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo
DiCaprio were just a handful of the A-listers in attendance at the
Beverly Hilton.
Staging post
Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes—which are
chosen by around 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association—have separate best picture awards for dramas and
musicals.
In the past four years, the Globes have failed
to accurately predict the best picture winner at the Academy Awards
but overall, some 67 percent of Oscars best picture winners had
first received a Golden Globe.
As such the Globes are seen as an important
staging post ahead of the Academy Awards, offering clues to which
films would be successful at the Oscars, which take place at
Hollywood’s Kodak Theater on February 22.
Acting awards
The acting awards on Sunday saw Australian
heartthrob Heath Ledger honored as expected for his portrayal of
arch-villain the Joker in The Dark Knight.
Director Christopher Nolan accepted Ledger’s
award, saying the actor’s death at the age of 28 had “ripped a
hole” in the future of cinema.
“All of us who worked with Heath on The Dark
Knight accept this with an awful mixture of sadness but incredible
pride,” Nolan said.
“For any of us lucky enough to work with him,
I think for any of us lucky enough to enjoy his performances, he
will be eternally missed, but he will never be forgotten,” he
added.
The victory cements Ledger’s status as the
odds-on favorite to win a best supporting actor award at next
month’s Oscars.
Winslet’s moment
The other big winner in the acting categories
was Kate Winslet, who scooped best actress in a drama for her
performance in Revolutionary Road and best supporting actress for
The Reader.
Winslet, 33, who had been overlooked after five
previous nominations, was overcome following her double win,
apologizing to her rival nominees and thanking Revolutionary Road
co-star DiCaprio.
“I’m so sorry, Meryl [Streep], Anne
[Hathaway], Kristin [Scott-Thomas], the other one . . . Angelina
[Jolie],” Winslet gasped.
“Thank you so much . . . thank you soooo
much,” before adding to longtime friend and fellow Titanic star
DiCaprio: “I love you with all my heart. I really do!”
It was only the third time in Golden Globes
history that an actor or actress had been honored with two awards on
the same night.
Winners and losers
In the men’s acting categories there was an
emotional victory for Mickey Rourke, who won best actor in a drama
for his heart-wrenching portrayal of a washed-up prizefighter in The
Wrestler.
“This has been a very long road back for
me,” said Rourke, whose career nose-dived through much of the
1990s after an ill-advised spell as a professional boxer.
But it was a disappointing evening though for
Brad Pitt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which had started
the night with five nods alongside Frost/Nixon and Doubt. All three
films came away empty-handed.
-- AFP
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