Moore’s performance as a TV personality sidelined in favor of a younger replacement (Margaret Qualley) is strong, but an Oscar campaign needs more than that, and she won the kind of comeback narrative award that voters prefer. have been acquired. She wisely emphasized that during her acceptance. speechstarted with the fact that she had never won an award for acting in her long career. She talks about her own insecurities and how a producer told her 30 years ago that she was a “popcorn actress” who made money but wasn’t taken seriously. It was a good idea, and it was humbling in a good way. And she said this: “When I was feeling down, a creative and outrageous script called “The Substance” came across my desk.” This kind of resurgence puts direct influence in the hands of voters, as when Ke Hui Quan won an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once after decades away from acting. give. And it helps that “Substance”’s themes of Hollywood vanity and the need and high cost of stardom resonate with voters.
Torres is a veteran actress but not a Hollywood star, which made her win all the more surprising, but well-deserved. Her fierce yet understated performance is at the heart of Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, in which she plays a woman whose ex-politician husband is a victim of the disappearance of Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s. She plays a woman who is one of the people. Mr. Torres speech The film included a touching dedication to her own mother, Fernanda Montenegro. Fernanda Montenegro, who plays her character’s mother in the film, was nominated for a Globe and an Oscar 25 years earlier for another Salles film, Central Station. And Ms. Torres was one of the few honorees to comment obliquely on world conditions in her speech, bringing the requisite resilience of her character to today. “Something very frightening is happening in the world right now, and this film helped me think about how to survive in such difficult times,” she said. It’s a hopeful message delivered with tact that Hollywood will welcome.
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Of course, these upsets only reminded Moore and Torres in the minds of Oscar voters (and for Moore, BAFTA voters as well). she made the longlist). The Globes can be a terrible predictor because splitting the major categories into comedy and drama doubles the number of nominees. But Moore and Torres survived the toughest competition. Moore beat out three potential Oscar front-runners: Mikey Madison (“Anora”), Carla Sofia Gascón (Emilia Perez) and Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked”). In Torres’ category were Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Angelina Jolie (Maria) and Tilda Swinton (The Room Next Door). All eight of these actresses are currently participating in the Oscar musical chairs game, but a few days ago Moore and Torres weren’t necessarily participants.
Another acting upset, Sebastian Stan’s win for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for “Different Man,” is unlikely to have a similar impact. The real competition there was in the drama category, pitting Oscar nominees Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) against Timothée Chalamet (Completely Unknown), with Brody winning. Stan’s unexpected victory, in the face of weak competition, is likely to vindicate his career and cost him the award. Glen Powell in “The Hitman” and Gabriel LaBelle in “Saturday Night” seem like moves that fill that category. After all, it’s rare for a Golden Globe to stir up as much excitement over the race as Best Actress. More often, it’s the ones that solidify their Oscar chances, like Kieran Culkin, who won Best Supporting Actor for Real Pain and appears to have the key to winning an Oscar.
The most important thing about this year’s Golden Globe Awards may be its timing. Voting for Oscar nominations closes next Sunday, January 12th. That means the Globes have arrived just in time for voters to ponder the new awards landscape.
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