Globe wins make cowboys, Cash favorites for Oscar

By Martin A. Grove

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – With “Brokeback
Mountain” and “Walk the Line” taking the top feature prizes at
the Golden Globes Awards, their Oscar prospects are greatly
enhanced in this last week of Academy voting.

While no one knows how many Academy members held off
returning their nomination ballots until after Monday’s Globes
telecast, it’s a good bet that some did since the deadline is
not until January 21 — 10 days before Oscar nominations are
announced.

The four Globe wins for “Brokeback Mountain” — best
picture (drama), director (Ang Lee), screenplay (Larry McMurtry
& Diana Ossana) and original song (“A Love That Will Never Grow
Old,” music by Gustavo Santaolalla, lyrics by Bernie Taupin) —
pretty much assures that Focus Features’ gay cowboy romance
will wind up being nominated in Oscar’s prime races.

Not only is “Brokeback” a likely Oscar nominee in all the
categories in which it won Globes, but it also stands to get
into Oscar races where it did not win Globes — including best
actor (Heath Ledger), supporting actress (Michelle Williams)
and original score (Santaolalla). “Brokeback’s” Globes success
could also rub off on Jake Gyllenhaal, who didn’t get a Globe
nomination for supporting actor, but could now springboard into
the Oscar supporting actor race.

Clearly, Focus Features has not lost its awards marketing
touch, which in the past has generated great success for such
films as Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” and Roman
Polanski’s “The Pianist.”

Monday’s other great Globes success story was 20th Century
Fox’s “Walk the Line,” which delivered three key wins — best
picture (musical/comedy), best actor (Joaquin Phoenix) and best
actress (Reese Witherspoon). Here, too, there should be a
definite correlation between Globe wins and Oscar nominations.

With box office sales of $98.3 million through Monday, the
Johnny Cash biopic has another advantage in that it’s one of
the few serious Oscar contenders with mainstream appeal. The
Academy needs such films to be nominated if it wants to
generate blockbuster ratings on March 5. (By contrast,
“Brokeback Mountain” has earned $32.1 million.)

Another film that should also benefit in the Oscar race
from its reception at the Globes is Sony Pictures Classics’
“Capote,” which took home the best actor (drama) Globe for
Philip Seymour Hoffman. That should not only catapult Hoffman
into the best actor Oscar race, but could also give “Capote” a
shot at additional nominations. (Unfortunately for the Academy,
“Capote” has earned just $13.2 million at the box office.)

“Capote,” “Brokeback Mountain,” and “Walk the Line” are
among the five feature contenders at the Producers Guild of
America Awards, which take place Sunday night. The winner
usually goes on to take the best picture Oscar. (The other
nominees are “Crash” and “Good Night, and Good Luck.”)

Felicity Huffman’s best actress (drama) win for playing a
preoperative transsexual in The Weinstein Co.’s “Transamerica”
is also likely to put her in Oscar’s best actress sweepstakes,
and it should propel the film past its current box office haul
of $511,000. And George Clooney’s best supporting actor win for
“Syriana” seems a good bet to translate into an Oscar nod for
him.

On the other hand, Clooney’s loss with Warner Independent
Pictures’ “Good Night, and Good Luck” in the Globes’ directing,
screenplay and picture categories, and David Strathairn’s loss
in the best actor (drama) race, suggests that film could have a
tougher time now on the Oscar nominations front.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter