Race Wide Open

JANUARY 22: As Tinseltown prepares to celebrate the 57th annual Golden Globe awards, the only certainty is the uncertainty over who will e...

JANUARY 22: As Tinseltown prepares to celebrate the 57th annual Golden Globe awards, the only certainty is the uncertainty over who will emerge as the big winners. Hollywood has never been as sophisticated as it is now and there is no clearer proof of this than American Beauty becoming an early favourite with nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in six categories 8212; Best Picture Drama, Best Director, Best Motion Picture Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Actor and Best Actress.

The film, directed by British theatre export Sam Mendes, whose first film this is, defies nearly all the odds: Mendes has no Hollywood track record, the film is a a darkly comic tale of mid-life crisis played out in suburban America, and it stars Kevin Spacey, who is not exactly Tom Hanks. What8217;s ironic is that the film has been released by Spielberg8217;s DreamWorks SKG.Good writing seems much appreciated in the Golden Globes this year.

There8217;s Alan Ball8217;s biting screenplay in American Beauty which made an amazing 71 million, Neil Jordan8217;s acclaimed The End Of The Affair based on Graham Greene8217;s novel, and Anthony Minghella8217;s The Talented Mr Ripley. Minghella8217;s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith8217;s novel stars pretty boy Matt Damon in the untypically subtle title role, playing a chameleonic New York bellboy sent to Italy to persuade the son of a powerful shipping magnate to return home. Climaxing in the canals of Venice, The Talented Mr Ripley boasts a promising cast of photogenic young stars but as The Guardian put it, 8220;slyly wrongfoots its audience8217;s expectations8221;.

8220;This is one of the strangest years I8217;ve ever experienced,8221; Helmut Voss, Association President, told The Hollywood Reporter. 8220;The spectrum of movies was simply astounding.8221; 8220;Considering that this is an industry which is said to cater to the lowest common denominator, I must say that there was a remarkable amount of movies for every taste this year, big and small,8221; Voss told the trade journal.

The Golden Globes 8212; watched by 24.3 million television viewers last year 8212; are widely seen as a preview for the even more highly coveted Oscars, to be presented on March 26 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Critics usually give some clue. But this year they8217;re all over the map. The National Board of Review gave its nod for best 1999 film to American Beauty. Los Angeles critics preferred The Insider by Michael Mann, while critics in Boston and New York chose Three Kings and Topsy-Turvy 8212; two titles not even in the running for the Globes.

Based on nominations, other leading contenders are The Insider, based on the true story of a man who confronted the powerful US tobacco industry, and The Talented Mr Ripley. Each of the latter two film has nominations in five categories. American Beauty, The Insider, and The Talented Mr Ripley will face off with Neil Jordan8217;s The End of the Affair and The Hurricane, the story of boxer Ruben Carter, starring Denzel Washington and directed by Canadian Norman Jewison. The story is based on a boxer who spent 20 years in jail for a murder he did not commit. Jewison hasn8217;t been this close to mainstream success in some years; aside from a close shave with Best Picture for Moonstruck in 1987, his real moment of glory came 20 years earlier with In The Heat Of The Night.

The five directors 8212; all foreigners save The Insider8217;s Michael Mann 8212; are also nominated for best director. Six of their actors 8212; Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening American Beauty, Russell Crowe The Insider, Matt Damon The Talented Mr Ripley, Denzel Washington The Hurricane and Julianne Moore The End of the Affair are in the running for a Globe for Best Dramatic Acting. The Best Actress nominations for a film drama were, along with Bening, Julianne Moore The End of the Affair Hilary Swank Boys Don8217;t Cry Sigourney Weaver A Map for the World and Meryl Streep Music of the Heart.

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Unlike the Academy8217;s Oscars, the Golden Globes have separate categories for drama and comedy, and also recognise television. In the comedy category Being John Malkovich four nominations 8212; the story of someone who finds a way to enter the brain of actor John Malkovich 8212; will compete against Analyse This, Notting Hill, Toy Story 2 and Man in the Moon. All About My Mother, by Spain8217;s Pedro Almodovar, goes against French films East-West and Girl on the Bridge, Canada8217;s The Red Violin and Aimee and Jaguar from Germany in the foreign film category.

The only person certain not to go home empty-handed on Sunday night is Barbra Streisand, the most honoured artist in the history of the Golden Globes. Streisand will receive the first Cecil B. De Mille prize for 8220;outstanding contributions to the entertainment field8221;. On the television side, Martin Sheen, who plays a fictional US President in NBC8217;s The West Wing, is nominated for Best Actor in a television drama, along with co-star Rob Lowe. NBC8217;s ER and ABC8217;s The Practice are up for Best Dramatic Television Series, along with The Sopranos, Once and Again and The West Wing.