Golden Globes vs Oscars: Crash with Thandie Newton and Matt Dillon. A clear Academy favorite – with Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay nominations – Paul Haggis’ Los Angeles-set, race-obsessed drama Crash received a mere two Golden Globe nods: Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Matt Dillon. Dillon, in fact, is the only Crash actor to have been singled out this awards season. Besides Thandie Newton, his fellow players include Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Ryan Phillippe, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Esposito, and Terrence Howard (who did receive Oscar and Golden Globe nods for Hustle & Flow).
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: Los Angeles-set racially charged drama & ‘In Cold Blood’ tale among key differences
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: The 2006 Academy Award nominations were announced on Jan. 31. As usual, there were numerous similarities with the previously announced Golden Globe nominees (see further below); on the other hand, there were several major differences as well.
Here’s a notable one: whereas the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) voters included Paul Haggis’ Crash in only two categories – Best Supporting Actor (Matt Dillon) and Best Screenplay (Haggis and Bobby Moresco) – the Los Angeles-set race drama was shortlisted for no less than six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, in addition to nods for both Dillon and its screenplay.
The 2006 Oscars’ top nominee, however, was a Golden Globe favorite: Ang Lee’s gay cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain led the pack with eight nods. Next in line, with six nominations apiece, were Crash, George Clooney’s McCarthy Era-set drama Good Night and Good Luck., and Rob Marshall’s Kyoto-set period drama Memoirs of a Geisha.
Steven Spielberg’s 1970s-set Mossad political thriller Munich and Bennett Miller’s 1960s-set psychological/crime drama Capote, about flamboyant author/gossiper Truman Capote and the “making of” In Cold Blood, received five nominations each.
Of the aforementioned six films, Memoirs of a Geisha was the one left out of the Best Picture Oscar race.
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: Academy’s top contenders fared unevenly with HFPA voters
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: When the 2006 Golden Globe winners were announced on Jan. 16 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Brokeback Mountain ended up taking home four awards out of its seven nominations: Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana), and Best Song (“A Love That Will Never Grow Old”).
Significantly, Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal was bypassed by the Golden Globes. Since the Globes don’t cover any of the technical awards, Gyllenhaal turned out to be the only major talent in the “gay Western” left without a nod. (Anne Hathaway wasn’t really in contention this awards season.)
As for the remaining Academy favorites…
- Good Night, and Good Luck. was shortlisted in four top Golden Globe categories: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor (David Strathairn).
- Capote earned Philip Seymour Hoffman the Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama Golden Globe. That was the film’s only nomination.
- Strangely, Munich failed to be shortlisted for Best Motion Picture Drama even though both Steven Spielberg and screenwriters Tony Kushner and Eric Roth were in the running.
- Memoirs of a Geisha earned John Williams a Golden Globe for Best Original Score. Lead actress Zhang Ziyi had been the film’s only other nominee.
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: Best Picture mismatches
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: In all, Best Picture Oscar nominees Crash, Munich, and Capote failed to be shortlisted in either of the Golden Globes’ Best Motion Picture categories (“Drama” & “Musical or Comedy”).
That’s a somewhat rare occurrence, though a mere six years ago the same thing happened: Three Best Picture Oscar contenders – The Cider House Rules, The Sixth Sense, and The Green Mile – were nowhere to be found in the Golden Globes’ Best Motion Picture categories.
So far this century – including the year 2000 – the only previous mismatch took place when Ang Lee’s Mandarin-language Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) failed to be shortlisted for the Golden Globes, as the Best Motion Picture categories are reserved for English-language releases. Lee’s period martial-arts drama did ultimately win as Best Foreign Language Film.
Multiple nominee George Clooney
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: Notably, George Clooney received multiple nominations for both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, three in all.
At the Oscars, Clooney is in the running in the Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (with Grant Heslov) categories for Good Night and Good Luck., and as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as an unshaven, overweight CIA operative in Stephen Gaghan’s Middle East-set political thriller Syriana.
Clooney, in fact, has just made Oscar history by becoming the first performer-director to be nominated for different films in the directing and acting categories – unlike previous (needless to say, all male) hyphenates:
- Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, 1941).
- Laurence Olivier (Hamlet, 1948).
- Woody Allen (Annie Hall, 1977).
- Warren Beatty (Heaven Can Wait,* 1978; Reds, 1981).
- Kenneth Branagh (Henry V, 1989).
- Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves, 1990).
- Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, 1992; Million Dollar Baby, 2004).
- Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful, 1998).
At the Golden Globes, George Clooney lost Best Director and Best Screenplay to the Brokeback Mountain talent (see further below), but he did top the Best Supporting Actor category for Syriana.
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: Does that mean Clooney is this year’s likely Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner?
The simple answer is: Yes.
* Warren Beatty and Buck Henry co-directed Heaven Can Wait. Both Beatty and Henry were shortlisted for the Best Director Oscar.
A History of Violence with William Hurt: Golden Globes vs. Oscars. Back in the mid-1980s, William Hurt was an Academy favorite, receiving three consecutive Best Actor Oscar nods: Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Children of a Lesser God (1986), and Broadcast News (1987). He took home an Oscar statuette for the first title. Since that time, the Academy has invariably bypassed him despite several well-received and/or commercially successful efforts (The Accidental Tourist, The Doctor). This year, Hurt is once again an Oscar contender for his Golden Globe-snubbed portrayal of a psycho gangster in David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence.
William Hurt & ‘Munich’ in
There were no noteworthy surprises among the 2006 Academy Awards’ top nominees, except perhaps for William Hurt’s appearance in the Best Supporting Actor category for his humorous psycho gangster turn in David Cronenberg’s thriller A History of Violence.
A quasi-surprise was having the generally well-received Munich included on the Best Picture roster after it was snubbed by the Producers Guild.
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: William Hurt was bypassed by the Golden Globes, and as mentioned above, so was Munich in the Best Motion Picture Drama category.
Ralph Fiennes & Woody Allen + Viggo Mortensen among Oscar ‘snubs’
Among the most significant Oscar 2006 omissions were:
- Ralph Fiennes for his bereaved husband in Fernando Meirelles’ political/socially conscious drama The Constant Gardener (Fiennes is faring much better on the other side of the Atlantic).
- Woody Allen – as director; he did get a writing nomination – for the British-made, socially conscious crime drama Match Point.
- Director David Cronenberg, and actors Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello for A History of Violence.
- The Hidden / Caché talent, including screenwriter-director Michael Haneke, and actors Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche.
Also bypassed were Marie-Josée Croze (Munich‘s deadly Dutch temptress) and Randy Quaid (Brokeback Mountain‘s rough Wyoming rancher), though neither Croze nor Quaid, no matter how deserving their work, was ever perceived as a serious contender.
The Opposite of Fiennes: Keira Knightley failed to receive a Best Actress nod from the British Academy, but managed to land one on the other side of the Atlantic for her performance as Jane Austen heroine Elizabeth Bennet in Joe Wright’s British-made Pride & Prejudice.
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: More matches & mismatches
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: Ralph Fiennes was also bypassed by the Golden Globes, but Woody Allen did make the Best Director cut – possibly (?) because there were six nominees in that particular category.
As for A History of Violence, both Cronenberg and Mortensen failed to land a nomination, but Maria Bello was in the running for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama.
The Best European Film at the 2005 European Film Awards, Hidden didn’t even get a Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe nod.
Keira Knightley, for her part, was snubbed by the HFPA, while Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Actress winner Vera Farmiga (for the little-seen indie Down to the Bone) was snubbed by both the HFPA and the Academy.
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: Best Foreign Language Film
Golden Globes vs. Oscars: The Best Foreign Language Film eligibility rules for the Golden Globes are quite different than those for the Academy Awards. Yet this year three movies were shortlisted by both the HFPA an the Academy: Christian Carion’s Merry Christmas / Joyeux Noël (France), Hany Abu-Assad’s Paradise Now (Palestine), and Gavin Hood’s Tsotsi (South Africa).
The discrepancies: Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle and Chen Kaige’s The Promise were in contention for the Golden Globes; Marc Rothemund’s Sophie Scholl: The Final Days / Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage and Cristina Comencini’s The Beast in the Heart / La bestia nel cuore are in contention for the Academy Awards.
The controversial Paradise Now, about a couple of Palestinian suicide bombers, was the eventual Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe winner. Its chances at the Academy Awards, however, are less certain.
See below the full list of the 2006 Golden Globes’ winners and nominees in the motion picture categories.
And check out the 2006 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar submissions.
Golden Globes
Motion Pictures
Best Motion Picture – Drama
* Brokeback Mountain.
The Constant Gardener.
Good Night and Good Luck.
A History of Violence.
Match Point.Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Mrs. Henderson Presents.
Pride & Prejudice.
The Producers.
The Squid and the Whale.
* Walk the Line.Best Foreign Language Film
Merry Christmas (France).
Kung Fu Hustle (Hong Kong).
The Promise (China).
* Paradise Now (Palestine).
Tsotsi (South Africa).Best Director
Woody Allen, Match Point.
George Clooney, Good Night and Good Luck.
Peter Jackson, King Kong.
* Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain.
Fernando Meirelles, The Constant Gardener.
Steven Spielberg, Munich.Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama
Russell Crowe, Cinderella Man.
* Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote.
Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow.
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain.
David Strathairn, Good Night and Good Luck.Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama
Maria Bello, A History of Violence.
* Felicity Huffman, Transamerica.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Proof.
Charlize Theron, North Country.
Zhang Ziyi, Memoirs of a Geisha.Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Pierce Brosnan, The Matador.
Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale.
Johnny Depp, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Nathan Lane, The Producers.
Cillian Murphy, Breakfast on Pluto.
* Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line.Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Judi Dench, Mrs. Henderson Presents.
Keira Knightley, Pride & Prejudice.
Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale.
Sarah Jessica Parker, The Family Stone.
* Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line.Best Supporting Actor
* George Clooney, Syriana.
Matt Dillon, Crash.
Will Ferrell, The Producers.
Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man.
Bob Hoskins, Mrs. Henderson Presents.Best Supporting Actress
Scarlett Johansson, Match Point.
Shirley MacLaine, In Her Shoes.
Frances McDormand, North Country.
* Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener.
Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain.Best Screenplay
* Brokeback Mountain – Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana.
Crash – Paul Haggis, Bobby Moresco.
Good Night and Good Luck. – George Clooney, Grant Heslov.
Match Point – Woody Allen.
Munich – Tony Kushner, Eric Roth.Best Original Score
Brokeback Mountain – Gustavo Santaolalla.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – Harry Gregson-Williams.
King Kong – James Newton Howard.
* Memoirs of a Geisha – John Williams.
Syriana – Alexandre Desplat.Best Original Song
* “A Love That Will Never Grow Old” from Brokeback Mountain.
“Christmas in Love” from Christmas in Love.
“Wunderkind” from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
“There’s Nothing Like a Show on Broadway” from The Producers.
“Travelin’ Thru” from Transamerica.Cecil B. DeMille Award: Anthony Hopkins.
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont with Joan Plowright and Rupert Friend. Based on a novel by author Elizabeth Taylor (not the Cleopatra and Suddenly Last Summer actress), Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont is one Oscar-bait movie that has failed to generate much awards season buzz. A fall 2005 release in the U.S., Dan Ireland’s comedy-drama starring veteran Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Joan Plowright (Enchanted April, 1992) and Pride & Prejudice actor Rupert Friend has been all but completely ignored. Golden Globes vs. Oscars: That includes being bypassed by both the HFPA and the Academy.‘Buffalo Boy’ & ‘Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont’ among Palm Springs winners
Told in flashback, Minh Nguyen-Vo’s pre-World War II French Indochina-set The Buffalo Boy was the International Federation of Film Critics’ Best Foreign Language Film FIPRESCI Prize winner at the 2006 Palm Springs Film Festival, held from Jan. 5–16 in the Southern California desert resort. The Buffalo Boy chronicles the less-than-pristine coming-of-age journey of a Vietnamese teenager whose job is to transport his family’s buffaloes to safer pastures during the monsoon season.
A total of 232 films from more than 70 countries were screened at the Palm Springs festival. Among the highlights were:
- Dan Ireland’s Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, starring Joan Plowright and Rupert Friend as unlikely pals. The comedy-drama was the Audience Award for Narrative Feature co-winner with Klaus Härö’s Finnish-Swedish drama Mother of Mine.
- Cristi Puiu’s Romanian The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, a dark comedy about the sorry state of that country’s public health system. As the unlucky titular character, Ion Fiscuteanu was the winner of the Best Actor FIPRESCI Prize.
- Breno Silveira’s Two Sons of Francisco, one of Brazil’s biggest box office hits ever – and the cause of much consternation to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio da Silva (a.k.a. Lula), who was caught watching a pirated DVD of the film.
Palm Springs Film Festival Awards
Audience Award for Narrative Feature (tie): Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (U.K.); Mother of Mine / Äideistä parhain (Finland / Sweden).
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature: Five Days in September: The Rebirth of an Orchestra (Canada), dir.: Barbara Willis Sweete.
Best Foreign Language Film FIPRESCI Prize: The Buffalo Boy / Mua len trau (Vietnam).
Best Actor FIPRESCI Prize: Ion Fiscuteanu, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu / Moartea domnului Lazarescu (Romania).
Best Actress FIPRESCI Prize: Meltem Cumbul, Lovelorn / Gönül yarasi (Turkey), dir.: Yavuz Turgul.
New Voices / New Visions Award: Love + Hate (U.K.), dir.: Dominic Savage.
Special New Voices Jury Prize: Underground Game / Jogo Subterrâneo (Brazil), dir.: Roberto Gervitz.
John Schlesinger Award for Outstanding First Feature (Narrative or Documentary): Two Sons of Francisco / 2 Filhos de Francisco (Brazil).
Lifetime Achievement Award: Shirley MacLaine.
Visionary Award: David Cronenberg.
Breakthrough Performance Award: Felicity Huffman.
Desert Palm Achievement Award: Jake Gyllenhaal & Charlize Theron.
Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing: Thomas Newman.
Producer of the Year Award: Michael London.
Rising Star Award: Terrence Howard.
Golden Globes website.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website.
Palm Springs Film Festival website.
Thandie Newton and Matt Dillon Crash image: Lionsgate Films.
William Hurt A History of Violence image: New Line Cinema.
Joan Plowright and Rupert Friend Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont image: Cineville.
“Golden Globes vs. Oscars: Unusual Multiple Best Picture Mismatches + Palm Springs Winners” last updated in August 2018.