Shocking Golden Globe winners like 'Green Book' and Glenn Close confirmed we're in for a wild Oscar night
- The Golden Globes were full of surprise wins on Sunday night.
- They included "Bohemian Rhapsody" beating out "A Star Is Born" for best picture and Glenn Close beating Lady Gaga for best actress.
- In a year when the Oscar race is wide open compared to the past, Golden Globe wins are more important than ever.
You might have been scratching your head while watching the Golden Globes on Sunday night and wondering why a hyped movie like "A Star Is Born" didn't win any of the evening's major awards, but Glenn Close took home one for a movie you probably had to go onto IMDb to confirm actually existed.
But the surprise wins were just the latest sign that there won't be many sure things on Oscar night on February 24. And that's great news for ABC, which airs the biggest night in Hollywood, and for those of us who watch the marathon ceremony. It will be a welcome change.
Recent Oscar nights have played out (for the most part) as the Oscar pundits said they would, and we've needed a colossal fail, like the best picture envelope mix-up, to bring any juice to the telecast.
But why is this year so different than others?
Simply put, this Oscar season has no runaway hit movie, so it looks like it's going to be a pack of titles sprinting to the finish (especially in the best picture category), and spending a lot of money campaigning along the way.
Since September when the Venice, Telluride, and Toronto film festivals set the foundation for the movies that would be in the conversation the entire awards season - such as Netflix's "Roma," Warner Bros.' "A Star Is Born," Universal's "Green Book," Fox Searchlight's "The Favourite," and Annapurna's "If Beale Street Could Talk" - the contenders have only increased in number with Fox's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Annapurna's "Vice."
And unlike most years, there was also a crop of pre-September movies that have had legitimate Oscar campaigns. That is extremely rare. These include Disney's "Black Panther" (opened in February), Paramount's "A Quite Place" (April), and Warner Bros.' "Crazy Rich Asians" (August). All of these could be nominated in multiple major categories, including best picture.
With this mix of titles, it has been a bloated race to handicap this year (and shows why 2018 was such a successful year for movies). But until the Golden Globes, most of the "experts" had been confident that "A Star Is Born" was still the frontrunner when it came to best picture.
Historically, the industry has thought of the Globes as a fun night - but not the best indicator of what will happen at the Oscars. There are around 90 members who make up the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which votes on the Golden Globes winners, and none of them are Oscar voters. But in a year when it seems all conventional wisdom on Oscar season has gone out the window (I mean, Netflix has a legitimate chance for the first time ever to win multiple Oscars in major categories with "Roma"), what happened at the Globes Sunday night could have big ramifications.
Surprise wins for "Green Book" in the best musical or comedy category, as well as best screenplay (Mahershala Ali winning for best supporting actor was pretty likely), gave the movie an extra push as we go into the home stretch for Oscar season. And "Bohemian Rhapsody" getting the win for best drama over favorites like "A Star Is Born" and "Black Panther" took it from a title on the bubble to a real contender for a best picture nomination.
Read more: Netflix and FX won big at the Golden Globes, while HBO stumbled
And what made Sunday's wins all the more important was that Oscar voting for nominations opened on Monday (voting closes on January 14, with nominations announced on January 22). It's hard to imagine what happened at the Globes won't affect how some Academy members vote.
But if you still believe that this year is like any other, and the Globes don't mean squat, let's look at the Producers Guild Awards. The PGA, like many of the guild nominations (Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild, and Writers Guild) holds a lot more weight in the eyes of award season pundits because those members are also mostly Academy voters.
If you look at the 10 movies nominated for its top prize, "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Green Book" are among them. With Golden Globe wins and PGA nominations, these two titles look certain to receive best picture Oscar nominations.
With the best picture category likely going with the full 10 nominees this year, we are looking at the first year in a while when you can make a case that more than two contenders have a real shot.
With Glenn Close's surprise win for her performance in "The Wife" at the Globes on Sunday, there's now a three-way race for best actress. She's up against Lady Gaga for "A Star Is Born" and Olivia Colman for "The Favourite" (who won a Globe in the best actress in a musical or comedy category). And over on the best actor side, Bradley Cooper for "A Star Is Born" and Christian Bale for "Vice" (who won best actor in a musical or comedy at the Globes) now have competition from Rami Malek thanks to his win for playing Freddie Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the best actor in drama category on Sunday.
Perhaps it will be a good thing if there isn't an Oscar host this year, because it will bring more focus to the exciting races that some of the big categories of the evening will have. For once!