Winners of the 2009 Golden Globes
By Rama Gaind
IT was no surprise when Australia’s Heath Ledger was honoured posthumously with a Golden Globe, but the shock of winning two awards astonished Kate Winslet at the 66th Golden Globe Awards ceremony on January 11.
However, accolades were heaped on Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ which won four awards including best drama and best director. ‘Slumdog’ has now emerged as the potential film to beat at the Academy Awards next month.
This is an unpredicted situation for a film with a cast of unknowns and a story set among orphans and criminals on the streets of Mumbai. Not only that, but central to that is the story of an orphan boy who grows up through hardships, reunites with his childhood sweetheart and becomes a champion on India’s version of ‘Who Wants to Be A Millionaire’.
Proving to be a solid box-office success, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ was favoured over best-drama nominees that included Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘Revolutionary Road, Ron Howard’s ‘Frost/Nixon’ and Brad Pitt’s ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’.
Tying for the lead with five nominations – ‘Frost/Nixon’, ‘Benjamin Button’ and Meryl Streep’s ‘Doubt’ – went away with nothing.
Woody Allen’s Spanish romance ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ won for best musical or comedy film.
Winslet, previously nominated five times without winning at both the Globes and Oscars, won for her role as a woman in a crumbling marriage in ‘Revolutionary Road’, which was directed by her husband Sam Mendes, and as a former Nazi concentration camp guard in ‘The Reader’.
British actress Sally Hawkins was chosen best actress in a comedy or musical as an eternal optimist in ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’. Among the stars Hawkins beat was Streep, who had a nomination for musical or comedy actress for ‘Mamma Mia!’
Colin Farrell took the comedy or musical actor prize as a hit man in ‘In Bruges’ and Mickey Rourke returned from the wilderness to earn the Globe for best dramatic actor in ‘The Wrestler’ which also won the best-song Globe for Bruce Springsteen, who wrote the film’s title tune.
Heath Ledger won the prize for his role as the Joker in the Batman blockbuster ‘The Dark Knight’.
