It’s the New Year, which means one thing: hella awards being given out. Award season has gone into full effect with the Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards already being finished but in movies we still await the Academy Awards, the most coveted prize in cinema, as well as in music The Grammys.
The biggest start off to awards season was the Critics Choice Awards. The top honor of the night for Best Picture went to the black and white ode to silent cinema “The Artist.” The movie’s director Michel Hazanavicius took home the award for Best Director. The film also took home the awards for Costume Design and Original Score.
“The Help,” the movie about African American maids and their treatment in Mississippi during the 60’s took home some of the top awards in the acting categories. Viola Davis took home the Best Actress honors while Octavia Spencer took home the Best Supporting Actress award. The entire cast won the award for Best Acting Ensemble for their portrayal of a racially tense time period.
Best Actor went to George Clooney for his role in “The Descendants, ” while Best Supporting Actor went to Christopher Plummer for his role in “Beginners.”
Less than a week after the Critics Choice Awards the Golden Globes were in full effect, and the Golden Globes are what many look towards to make their Oscar Predictions.
The big movie of the night was “The Artist,” yet again, winning three awards on the night in the comedy or musical category including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Score. “The Descendants” was the leader of the drama category, winning two awards for Best Picture and Best Actor- George Clooney, who played a befuddled father trying to connect with his daughters after his wife’s boating accident.
The cinema veteran, Meryl Streep, took home the award for Best Actress- Drama for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” while Michelle Williams took home the award for Best Actress- Comedy or Musical for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in “My Week with Marilyn.” Martin Scorsese won the award for Best Director. Once again, Christopher Plummer and Octavia Spencer took home awards for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, respectively.
The biggest winner in the television categories was once again Modern Family and Homeland taking home the Best Television Series awards.
The final warm-up round before the Oscars was the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Many familiar names and faces were once again on the stage making their contention for an Oscar more likely. Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jean Dujardin and Christopher Plummer all took home the awards in each of their categories. “The Help” took home the award for Best Cast Performance in a Motion Picture.
This leaves many people wondering what will happen at the Oscars. Will Meryl Streep add yet another award to her mantle (or closet for how many she’s won), or will Viola Davis surprise everyone and take home the award Meryl seems to take home year after year? Will familiar face George Clooney win Best Actor or will newcomer Jean Dujardin take home the coveted prize? And most importantly, who will take home Best Film? “The Help” and “The Artist” seem to be the frontrunner, but will there be surprises similar to last year’s Academy Awards celebrations? So many questions about movies left unanswered, but tune in on February 26th to find out all of the answers.
We’ve spent so much time on films, but The Grammys are just as big of a date when it comes to music. Each year, there are surprises at The Grammys that leave people taken aback. Will this year’s celebrations be the same?
Kanye West leads the pack at the Grammys with seven nominations, including two for Best Rap Album for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and his joint album with rap mogul Jay-Z Watch the Throne. The star who is causing the largest buzz preceding this year’s awards though is Adele, whose album 21 is an international best seller and has topped the Billboard Charts for weeks. Adele’s album has spent 49 weeks on the Billboard charts, constantly maintaining a position within the top five. It is no question that Adele should walk home with more than a few awards. But Adele is up against many previous Grammy winners for Album of the Year. Her competition includes the Foo Fighters, pop princesses Lady Gaga and Rihanna, and the up and coming soul artist Bruno Mars.
Song of the Year is another competitive category. Kanye West’s “All of the Lights” is one of the biggest songs of the year, but Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” is no lightweight either. Bruno Mars’ heart wrenching love song “Grenade” is also nominated along with Mumford and Sons’ “The Cave” and Bon Iver’s “Holocene.”
There is no doubt that the end to this awards season is to be a competitive one, because it already has been. Will there be surprises? Will your favorites win? Tune into the Grammys on February 12 and the Academy Awards on February 26to find out if your favorites took home the top prize.
