January
12
Golden Globes: Slumdog Wins All
Fox Searchlight's party at Craft was the place to watch the Golden Globes Sunday night if you weren't at the Beverly Hilton awards dinner. I was sitting with the folks who marketed the hell out of Slumdog Millionaire, the big winner of the night, four for four, including best score, director, screenplay and drama, as well as the night's other big winner, The Wrestler, which won two out of three awards, including best actor Mickey Rourke and best song Bruce Springsteen. Here's the full list of winners.
Cheers kept going up all around; the mood was giddy. And it was a great night for Bollywood, with Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman a Slumdog winner, and Globes presenter Shah Ruk Kahn introducing Slumdog. The Slumdog team is heading for India next to open the movie there. They will be welcomed as champions.
Slumdog and The Wrestler pick up a box office boost from their wins. So do The Reader and Revolutionary Road, which both won awards for emotional first-time Globes winner Kate Winslet, for supporting actress and best actress, respectively. She grabs momentum going forward in the Oscar race. And The Weinstein Co., which often does well with the Globes, was basking in its wins for The Reader and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which won best comedy.
Final Oscar ballots are being walked into the Academy Monday; the nominations will be announced on January 22. At this point, Slumdog and Winslet look like faves in their categories.
Israeli animated doc Waltz with Bashir, the foreign film winner, will also gain a b.o. and Oscar boost. Writer-director Ari Forman said after the show that when he made the film people wondered if it would be timely. He told them it would. Unfortunately, he was right. He said he had wanted to keep his acceptance speech message subtle: he cited eight production babies who were born during the shooting of the film: "I hope one day they grow up and we watch the film together and see the war in the film look like ancient videogame that has nothing to do with life whatsoever."
In his Globes speech, C.B. DeMille award-winner Steven Spielberg sounded a note of concern in these economically trying times: he asked the studios not to just try to make movies for more people, he said, but for "an audience of individuals." He warned them not to lose "that very thing that none of us can live without: inspiration."
Style notes: Sting is too handsome to waste his looks on a beard. Ralph Fiennes should grow his hair. John Adams Globe-winner Laura Linney was an elegant standout among a field of glamorous actresses. And strangely, Jessica Lange looked younger than her co-presenter and co-star in the upcoming Grey Gardens, Drew Barrymore.
The parties back at the Hilton for HBO and Universal/Focus Features were more subdued. By far the most intense party of the weekend was Saturday night's Paramount's Chateau Marmont pre-party for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which went home from the Globes empty-handed. But the Globes are not predictive of the Oscars: they are voted on by 83 idiosyncratic people.
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Anne, did whatever Rourke say to or about Tomei during the sound drop out at the :42 mark (the counter runs backwards, it's time remaining, not time into the clip) make it into the NY feed? I don't know why she puts up with him acting like Evan was the co-star.
http://www.nbc.com/golden-globes/video/clips/surprise-win-of-the-night/927021/
Posted by: T.Holly | January 12, 2009 at 11:27 AM
whaaaat? Slumdog hasn't even opened in India yet? That surprised me.
Posted by: Ugly Deaf Muslim Punk Gurl! | January 12, 2009 at 11:28 AM
Shah rukH khan.
And he singlehandedly did more damage to Slumdog's oscar chances by holding forth on the "indian film fraternity".
People don't award countries or industries (unless they be lifetime oscars, and not even then.
It's not helpful to look at AR's score as a "bollywood" win. it's entirely AR's win.
Maybe slumdog was a tribute to Bollywood. the oscar awards need not be. the voters should just evaluate Slumdog against other offerrings and vote.
Anything that will aid this would be welcome promotion from the ...guys who usually do promotions.
It's also not helpful to predict Indian box office success for slumdog. At the very best I see it as a multiplex hit. (too english, too different from Bollywood films)
Posted by: Ramesh | January 12, 2009 at 04:01 PM
Somewhat agree with Richardson. This may slightly increase awareness but won't do much to increase respect for Bollywood.
OTOH, was SRK at Globes really part of the marketing effort directed not at us but at India, where SD has yet to open? He gives a sort of Bwd seal of approval and probably vastly increases the mainstream audience awareness of this "multiplex film."
Posted by: David C. | January 13, 2009 at 06:13 AM
I'm so happy for Kate Winslet (how many times luck?) and also to those guys behind the Slumdog millionaire success - great investment and performance. Kudos to Bollywood , next time it will be Nollywood. Ken Smart
Posted by: ken smart otukoya | January 13, 2009 at 01:18 PM
Shah rukh's Golden globe appearance was a ombination of convenience(he was shooting my name is Khan in LA with karan johar, just about then) and shameless self promotion (he's a movie star what's he gonna do?! ) It takes a stretch to imagine that his Golden globe appearance would promote slumdog in India.
With the film winning a GG, though, it is now "required wtching" for the types tht watch such movies, and that will probably bring in a couple of ten million people to the theaters, othervice, it's like selling a starbucks chai latte in an indian streetside tea shop (IOW, Aint hapenning).
I sawSRK's appearance as signalling to the types in the US that start off their harangue against "foreign" types getting rewarded at the oscars, that they can start their dog and pony show. (I remember this happenned when Gandhi swept the Awards show when ET ws up against it. A certain eminent director then went to India..errr...srilanka and shot "temple of doom" in reaction.
Posted by: Ramesh | January 13, 2009 at 03:03 PM