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Awards Watch: A Mixed Bag of a Weekend

posted by Women & Hollywood
Monday, January 18, 2010 at 2:41pm CST

Kathryn Bigelow at the Broadcast Film Critics Awards

My weekend started out with a second viewing of The Hurt Locker. I had seen it so long ago and I needed a refresher on it as the awards season gets into high gear. It was actually better the second time than the first. I know that it’s a war film, that lots of things blow up, but it’s really a character study and it is done so beautifully.Then I watched the Broadcast Film Critics Awards. It was actually a very fun ceremnoy (especially with tivo) and I was pleased to see Mo’Nique win and surprised to see Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock tie. Very fun to see them both on the stage together. That probably won’t happen again. It’s kind of funny how a couple of months ago Sandra Bullock was nowhere in the awards conversation and now she is basically a shoo in for an Oscar nomination and she is probably Meryl’s biggest competitor. It’s very surprising how Carey Mulligan has faded of late.

But the ceremony was memorable to me because Kathryn Bigelow won the best director award. I had a goofy look on my face just seeing her as one of the nominees and then when she won it was very exciting. I know that she has won many major critics wards this season but this is the first televised award that I have seen (in at least my memory) where a woman has won the best director honors.

I thought for sure that this weekend was going to be sweep for Bigelow but the “king of the world” intervened and took the best director honors at the Golden Globes. And to top it off did you notice that when they said her name as a nominee they didn’t show her face but they showed the faces of all the guys. I’m sure it was just a camera issue of not being in the right place at the right time but COME ON. How often do we see a woman nominated for best director? Why wasn’t the camera ready?

Lots of people have tried to remind me that the Golden Globes don’t count towards the Oscars. Maybe they don’t, but how f**king cool would it have been to see a woman win the best director award? The Golden Globes are unique because TV and film people are in the same place.

Here are some other thoughts and news on the Globes:

Meryl Streep was won more Golden Globes than anyone else. She now has 7 wins and 25 nominations. She also things are getting better for women in Hollywood. Here’s what she said backstage:

Backstage at the Globes, after winning best actress for Julie & Julia, Meryl Streep said that Hollywood is improving for women. “Sandra Bullock is 45,” she said. “The perception is better for her than it was for me at her age.” She thanked the Globes for continuing to like her work after 30 years. “It’s hard to remain new,” she said. A hit like Julie & Julia “is a good signal to the financial end of the business,” she said, that a movie that reads uncommercial, about a middle-aged cook, is a big hit. “That’s good news.”

No matter what happened with Duplicity, Julia Roberts is still a big international star since she was picked to give out the best picture award.

That the best actress award is now a two way race between Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep both women over 40.

That Julianna Marguilies got her first Golden Globe for the very feminist The Good Wife after being nominated many times when she was in ER.

That James Cameron’s wife Suzy Amis hasn’t been in a movie since they got together. I still remember her performance in the Ballad of Little Jo which earned her an Independent Spirit nomination.

That I hope the creators of Cougar Town regret the unfortunate title because even though the show has evolved and is not about a woman dating younger men it is always going to be assumed it is and will be introduced with lines like “man eating woman on the prowl” when nominated for awards.

That Mo’Nique is probably going to get the only win for Precious in the Oscar race.

That Drew Barrymore is a lovely and humble young woman who I hope keeps directing because I loved Whip It as did so many people I know.

That it’s still a man’s world in animation. Did you hear the acceptance speech where the director thanked everybody’s wives? Was there not a single woman on the team who might have a husband to thank? Ugh.

Full list of winners