Gabourey Sidibe Gets Nothing, and Four More Surprises From the Golden Satellites' Bizarro Awards Universe
The Golden Satellites -- the annual awards fest held at the Century City InterContinental and voted upon by a consortium of over 100 entertainment journalists calling themselves the International Press Academy -- is noteworthy for being one of the first out of the gate, and a bit spazzy with their nominations. This year's list is no exception, but nonetheless offers some interesting and overlooked choices, while snubbing some other favorites -- including the unknown actress who stunned as Precious' titular fried chicken bandit.
The IPA is often accused of nominating films they haven't even screened or seen. This year, however, they insist they did show most of the films in contention, including Invictus and The Lovely Bones -- neither of which earned nominations. Nine nabbed the most categories -- earning nine-plus-one nominations, including Best Picture (Comedy or Musical), Best Director, and acting nods for Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard and Penelope Cruz.
Some other notable trends:
The Best Picture (Drama) Nominees Were All From Mini-Majors
Suggesting a comeback of sorts for independent cinema and/or trumpeting the death of the big-budget studio drama, the five films vying for their top drama awards -- The Hurt Locker, Bright Star, An Education, The Messenger, Precious and surprise longshot The Stoning of Soraya M. -- were all small films from specialty distributors.
Three of the Six Best Director Nominees Were Women
Lone Scherfig, Kathryn Bigelow and Jane Campion were all recognized for their work this year -- as was young South African/Canadian wunderkind Neill Blonkamp, for his amazingly sophisticated work on District 9.
Snubtastic!
Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Christopher Plummer, Julianne Moore, Gabourey Sidibe, Quentin Tarantino, Jason Reitman, and the Coens were among those whose efforts were politely given the press-group equivalent of the finger. Thanks for playing!
Congratulations, Hugh Dancy and Catalina Saavedra!
On the other hand, two actors virtually off the radar -- Adam's Dancy and The Maid's Saavedra -- were singled out, both deservedly so.
The full list of nominations:
Motion Picture, Drama
The Hurt Locker
Bright Star
An Education
The Messenger
Precious
The Stoning of Soraya M.
Motion Picture, Comedy/Musical
Julie & Julia
The Informant!
A Serious Man
It's Complicated
Up in the Air
Nine
Actress, Drama
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Abbie Cornish, Bright Star
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Shohreh Aghdashloo, The Stoning of Soraya M.
Catalina Saavedra, The Maid
Penélope Cruz, Broken Embraces
Actor, Drama
Johnny Depp, Public Enemies
Hugh Dancy, Adam
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Michael Sheen, The Damned United
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Actress, Comedy/Musical
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Zooey Deschanel, (500) Days of Summer
Katherine Heigl, The Ugly Truth
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Actor, Comedy/Musical
Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine
Bradley Cooper, The Hangover
Matt Damon, The Informant!
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Supporting Actress
Emily Blunt, Sunshine Cleaning
Mozhan Marno, The Stoning of Soraya M.
Mo'Nique, Precious
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Penélope Cruz, Nine
Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Alfred Molina, An Education
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
James McAvoy, The Last Station
Timothy Spall, The Damned United
Director
Neill Blonkamp, District 9
Rob Marshall, Nine
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jane Campion, Bright Star
Lone Scherfig, An Education
Original Screenplay
Jane Campion, Bright Star
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Bob Peterson & Pete Docter, Up
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, (500) Days of Summer
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Adapted Screenplay
Nora Ephron, Julie & Julia
Nick Hornby, An Education
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Neill Blonkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Foreign Language Film
Red Cliff
The Maid
The White Ribbon
Broken Embraces
I Killed My Mother
Winter in Wartime
Animated or Mixed Media Film
Up
Where the Wild Things Are
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Princess and the Frog
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
Documentary
Every Little Step
The Cove
It Might Get Loud
The September Issue
The Beaches of Agnes
Valentino: The Last Emperor
Score
Elliot Goldenthal, Public Enemies
Rolfe Kent, Up in the Air
Michael Giacchino, Up
Carter Burwell & Karen O, Where the Wild Things Are
Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant!
Gabriel Yared, Amelia
Song
"Almost There," Randy Newman, The Princess and the Frog
"I Can See In Color," Mary J. Blige, Precious
"Down in New Orleans," Randy Newman, The Princess and the Frog
"Cinema Italiano," Maury Yeston, Nine
"The Weary Kind," Ryan Bingham & T-Bone Burnett, Crazy Heart
"We Are the Children of the World," Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Cinematography
Nine
Public Enemies
It Might Get Loud
Red Cliff
A Serious Man
Inglourious Basterds
Visual Effects
Transformers: Rise of the Fallen
Red Cliff
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Fantastic Mr. Fox
District 9
2012
Editing
It Might Get Loud
Red Cliff
District 9
2012
The Hurt Locker
Nine
Sound
Terminator: Salvation
Transformers: Rise of the Fallen
It Might Get Loud
Red Cliff
2012
Nine
Art Direction
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Public Enemies
Red Cliff
The Road
2012
A Single Man
Costume Design
Red Cliff
Cheri
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
The Young Victoria
Nine
Comments
I'll give Gabourey Sidibe an award. 1st place in the Cleveland Brown Jr. lookalike contest.
Seriously.