Kate Winslet in The Reader. Double Golden Globe nominee Kate Winslet is in the running as Best Actress – Drama for her performance as Leonardo DiCaprio’s dissatisfied suburban housewife in Sam Mendes’ 1950s-set Revolutionary Road and as Best Supporting Actress for Stephen Daldry’s (partly) 1950s-set The Reader, in which she portrays an illiterate German woman who, some time after becoming emotionally and physically intimate with a teenager (David Kross), learns both to read and to grasp what should have been obvious to anyone regardless of literacy level: the Nazi regime was really, really monstrous – and so was her own participation in it.
Golden Globes: Double nominee Kate Winslet while Sam Mendes gets some awards season recognition
Following, among others in recent years, Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge! & The Others, 2001), Meryl Streep (The Hours & Adaptation, 2002; more on Streep further below), and Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed & Blood Diamond, 2006), Kate Winslet is the latest performer to receive two nominations in the Golden Globes‘ Motion Picture categories:
- Best Actress – Drama for the 1950s-suburbia-set marital turmoil tale Revolutionary Road, directed by Winslet’s husband – and Best Director Golden Globe nominee – Sam Mendes.
- Best Supporting Actress for Stephen Daldry’s mostly 1950s-set, Holocaust-themed psychological drama The Reader.
Winslet has the biggest chance in the supporting category, especially considering that, unlike the competition, she has the female lead – in fact, the title role – in Daldry’s film.
Adapted by David Hare from Bernhard Schlink’s 1995 novel, The Reader also features David Kross as Winslet’s teenage lover, two-time Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes (as Best Supporting Actor for Schindler’s List, 1993; as Best Actor for The English Patient, 1996) as the older Kross, plus Jeanette Hain, Susanne Lothar, Alissa Wilms, and Florian Bartholomäi. Stephen Daldry, David Hare, and the film itself have also been shortlisted for this year’s Globes.
Also of note, The Reader was the last film produced by recently deceased filmmakers Anthony Minghella (Best Director Oscar winner for The English Patient, 1996) and Sydney Pollack (Best Director Oscar winner for Out of Africa, 1985).
Check out: “Oscar Luncheon + Kate Winslet Lead or Supporting + Did Bette Davis Name the Oscars?,” “Revolutionary Road images” & “Gay Murder & Political Life That Rocked California: WGA Awards + Academy Names Holocaust Drama Producers.”
‘Revolutionary Road’ gets four nods
As for Revolutionary Road and director Sam Mendes, they have been mostly bypassed this awards season, though Kate Winslet, and to a lesser extent Leonardo DiCaprio and supporting player Michael Shannon have been mentioned – whether as winners or nominees/runners-up – by several groups.
At the Golden Globes, Revolutionary Road is in contention for four trophies. Besides Winslet and Mendes, also nominated are DiCaprio in the Best Actor – Drama category and the film itself. Shannon was bypassed.
Adapted by Justin Haythe from Richard Yates’ 1961 novel, Revolutionary Road also features Best Actress Oscar winner Kathy Bates (Misery, 1990), Kathryn Hahn, David Harbour, Richard Easton, Dylan Baker, Zoe Kazan, Max Casella, and Jay O. Sanders.
For the record, the 2009 Golden Globes’ top films are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt, and Frost/Nixon, each with five nominations. Like The Reader and Revolutionary Road, critics’ fave Slumdog Millionaire received four nods.
Update: Kate Winslet is the only Revolutionary Road performer shortlisted for the 2009 SAG Awards.
More Golden Globes: Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt + veteran Clint Eastwood squeezes in
Besides Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes, another movie couple that made it onto the Golden Globes’ roster is Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt – for, respectively, Clint Eastwood’s period drama Changeling and David Fincher’s period drama/fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Neither one has much of a chance of winning. Jolie is the dark horse in the Best Actress – Drama race, while the Best Actor – Drama Golden Globe will surely go to either of this awards season’s faves: Sean Penn (Milk) and Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler).
This year’s Best Foreign Language Film nominees are all among the usual suspects. Indeed, four of the five titles will probably end up getting Academy Award nods. The one exception is Philippe Claudel’s I’ve Loved You So Long / Il y a longtemps que je t’aime, which is ineligible in that particular Oscar category.
And if the revered Clint Eastwood failed to be shortlisted in the Best Actor – Drama (Gran Torino) and Best Director (either Gran Torino or Changeling) categories, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made sure to have him somewhere: Best Original Score (Changeling) and Best Song (“Gran Torino”).
Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia!. Phyllida Lloyd’s ABBA-inspired musical Mamma Mia! and John Patrick Shanley’s film version of his own disturbing play, Doubt, earned Meryl Streep two nominations in the Golden Globes’ Best Actress categories. As a result, Streep is now the performer with the highest number of Golden Globe (film & TV) nominations ever – with a total of 23 nods, she has surpassed former record-holder Jack Lemmon (21 nods + one Special Golden Globe as a cast member of Robert Altman’s ensemble piece Short Cuts).Meryl Streep breaks Golden Globes record
Academy Award record-holder Meryl Streep – 14 nominations in the acting categories – has just made Golden Globe history as the most nominated – 23 times; both film & TV – performer ever. Now in second place, Jack Lemmon had 22 nods.
It helped that, like Kate Winslet, Streep is a double 2009 Golden Globe nominee – both nods in the Best Actress (Motion Picture) categories: John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt (Drama) and Phyllida Lloyd’s Mamma Mia! (Comedy or Musical).
To date, Streep has taken home six Golden Globe statuettes: Kramer vs. Kramer (Best Supporting Actress, 1979), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (Drama, 1981), Sophie’s Choice (Drama, 1982), Adaptation (Best Supporting Actress, 2002), Angels in America (Best Actress in a TV Movie/Mini-Series, 2003), The Devil Wears Prada (Comedy or Musical, 2006).
Nicole Kidman out, Tom Cruise in
In other Golden Globe news, exes Nicole Kidman & Tom Cruise were less lucky than Kate Winslet & Sam Mendes and Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt.
In fact, the 2008 Golden Globe nominations’ biggest surprise was the absence of Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann’s sprawling Australia, which was totally shut out.
Kidman’s “snub” is particularly surprising when one considers that former husband Tom Cruise did receive a Best Supporting Actor nod for his portrayal of the gross-looking, gross-sounding Les Grossman – reportedly inspired by either Ben Stiller’s producing/business partner Stuart Cornfeld or Viacom chair Sumner Redstone (or both) – in Stiller’s hit comedy Tropic Thunder.
Cruise’s nomination, by the way, elicited laughter from journalists present at the Golden Globes announcement ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Laughter also greeted James Franco’s nomination – not as Best Supporting Actor for Milk, mind you, but as Best Actor – Comedy or Musical for David Gordon Green’s Pineapple Express.
Movie celebrities among TV nominees & British talent everywhere
But if Nicole Kidman was nowhere to be found on the Golden Globes’ roster, big-screen celebrities were just about everywhere – including among the television nominees. Such as the following Oscar winners/nominees:
Anna Paquin. Sally Field. Emma Thompson. Susan Sarandon. Kristin Scott Thomas.
Ralph Fiennes. Judi Dench. Shirley MacLaine. Laura Linney. Catherine Keener. Kevin Spacey.
And Tom Wilkinson, who, like Kate Winslet, is a double nominee – but in the TV categories: Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television for Jay Roach’s Recount and Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or Motion Picture Made for Television for Tom Hooper’s John Adams.
Moreover, there are lots and lots of British and (to a lesser extent) Irish talent just about everywhere.
In addition to Kate Winslet, Sam Mendes, Emma Thompson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ralph Fiennes, Judi Dench, David Hare, Stephen Daldry, and Tom Wilkinson, also in contention are Sally Hawkins, Eileen Atkins, Peter Gabriel, Danny Boyle, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and several others.
Golden Globes’ snubs
And finally, besides Nicole Kidman, notably missing in action from the 2009 Golden Globes’ list of nominees are the following:
- Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale for The Dark Knight.
- Michael Sheen for Frost/Nixon.
- Gus Van Sant for Milk.
- Melissa Leo for Frozen River.
- Josh Brolin for either Milk or Oliver Stone’s box office dud W.
- Richard Jenkins for The Visitor.
- Cate Blanchett for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
- Rosemarie DeWitt & Debra Winger for Rachel Getting Married.
- Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or winner The Class / Entre les murs in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
We should add that Gus Van Sant’s generally well-regarded Milk, about slain gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, and Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed – and immensely successful – Batman movie The Dark Knight nearly got completely shut out: Milk has Sean Penn in the Best Actor – Drama race, while Best Supporting Actor contender (and shoo-in winner) Heath Ledger is the only The Dark Knight talent in the running.
Check out: “How to Make-Up? Oscars’ Artists & Hairstylists Show How + Spanish & London Film Critics’ Winners.”
Kate Winslet. A potential Academy Award double nominee for Revolutionary Road (as Best Actress) and The Reader (as Best Supporting Actress), Kate Winslet will be receiving the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s Montecito Award for her “series of classic and standout performances.” Well-received Kate Winslet portrayals include those in Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility (1995), James Cameron’s Titanic (1997), Richard Eyre’s Iris (2001), Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), and Todd Field’s Little Children (2006) – all of which earned her Oscar nominations.
Kate Winslet to receive Santa Barbara Film Festival Montecito Award
In other Kate Winslet news…
The 2009 Santa Barbara Film Festival has announced that Kate Winslet will be handed its Montecito Award, honoring “a performer who has given a series of classic and standout performances in his/her career.”
The Winslet tribute will be held on Friday, Jan. 23, at Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre.
Why (not) Kate Winslet?
Now, for how long has Kate Winslet been around?
However prestigious, her film career has yet to reach the two-decade mark. In fact, it has yet to reach the 15-year mark.
But see, Winslet is one of the frontrunners for the 2009 Academy Awards for both The Reader and Revolutionary Road.
When it comes to awards season festival honors in Southern California, that’s (nearly) all that matters.
And really, if local film festivals are going to be honoring someone who hasn’t enjoyed a truly lengthy career, why not five-time Oscar nominee Kate Winslet?
In the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan writes:
It is Kate Winslet’s face and Kate Winslet’s face alone that looks out from the cover of the new ‘now a major motion picture’ paperback edition of Bernhard Schlink’s exceptional novel, The Reader, and that’s as it should be.
For though The Reader co-stars the gifted Ralph Fiennes and gives a lot of screen time to a young actor named David Kross, it is Winslet’s haunting performance that gives the film what success it has.
Kung Fu Panda: DreamWorks Animation’s box office hit is the top contender for the Annie Awards, having received 16 nominations – more than twice the number of nods (7) that went to Disney/Pixar’s critical favorite WALL-E. Mark Osborne and John Stevenson directed Kung Fu Panda.Annie Awards: ‘Kung Fu Panda’ way ahead of ‘WALL-E’ & ‘Waltz with Bashir’
From Kate Winslet to kung-fu-fighting pandas: The International Animated Film Association’s 2009 Annie Awards’ nominations are in.
Mark Osborne and John Stevenson’s Kung Fu Panda, a DreamWorks Animation release, is up for 16 Annie Awards, among them Best Animated Feature and Best Directing in an Animated Feature Production.
Critics’ fave WALL-E, a Disney/Pixar release directed by Andrew Stanton, received a relatively modest seven nominations. Like Kung Fu Panda, WALL-E is in the running for Best Animated Feature and Best Directing in an Animated Feature Production.
More Best Animated Feature nominees
The Annie Awards’ three other Best Animated Feature nominees are the following:
- Byron Howard and Chris Williams’ Bolt, another Disney production – but without direct Pixar involvement despite John Lasseter’s executive producer role. Bolt has been shortlisted in five categories.
- Ari Folman’s Israel-Lebanon War-set Waltz with Bashir. A likely Academy Award nominee and this year’s National Society of Film Critics Best Film winner, the Israeli production received four nods.
- Tatia Rosenthal’s $9.99, an Australian/Israeli stop-motion animated feature written by Rosenthal and Etgar Keret (the director of Jellyfish), from Keret’s short stories.
The Annie Awards list below has been updated to include the winners in each category. (Feb. 2011 update: Check out “Controversial Annie Awards.”)
Annie Awards winners & nominations
Production Categories
Best Animated Feature
Bolt.
* Kung Fu Panda.
$9.99.
WALL-E.
Waltz with Bashir.Best Animated Home Entertainment Production
Batman: Gotham Knight.
Christmas Is Here Again.
* Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs.
Justice League: The New Frontier.
The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning.Best Animated Short Subject
Glago’s Guest.
Hot Dog.
Presto.
Sebastian’s Voodoo.
* Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death.Best Animated Television Production
King of the Hill.
Moral Orel.
Phineas and Ferb.
* Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II.
The Simpsons.Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children
A Miser Brothers Christmas.
* Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, “Destination Imagination.”
The Mighty B!.
Underfist: Halloween Bash.Individual Achievement Categories (Animated Feature Production only)
Best Animated Effects
Alen Lai, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.
* Li-Ming Lawrence Lee, Kung Fu Panda.
Fangwei Lee, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
Kevin Lee, Bolt.
Enrique Vila, WALL-E.Best Character Animation
* James Baxter, Kung Fu Panda.
Jeff Gabor, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.
Philippe Le Brun, Kung Fu Panda.
Victor Navone, WALL-E.
Dan Wagner, Kung Fu Panda.Best Character Design
Valerie Hadida, Igor.
Sang Jun Lee, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.
* Nicolas Marlet, Kung Fu Panda.Best Directing
Sam Fell, Rob Stevenhagen, The Tale of Despereaux.
Ari Folman, Waltz with Bashir.
Tatia Rosenthal, 9.99.
* John Stevenson & Mark Osborne, Kung Fu Panda.
Andrew Stanton, WALL-E.Best Music
Kevin Manthei – Batman: Gotham Knight.
John Powell – Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.
Max Richter – Waltz with Bashir.
William Ross – The Tale of Despereaux.
* Hans Zimmer & John Powell – Kung Fu Panda.Best Production Design
Ralph Eggleston, WALL-E.
Paul Felix, Bolt.
* Tang Heng, Kung Fu Panda.
Evgeni Tomov, The Tale of Despereaux.
Raymond Zibach, Kung Fu Panda.Best Storyboarding
Alessandro Carloni – Kung Fu Panda.
Ronnie Del Carmen – WALL-E.
Joe Mateo, Bolt.
* Jennifer Yuh Nelson – Kung Fu Panda.
Rob Stevenhagen – The Tale of Despereaux.Best Voice Acting
Ben Burtt – Voice of WALL-E – WALL-E.
* Dustin Hoffman – Voice of Shifu – Kung Fu Panda.
James Hong – Voice of Mr. Ping – Kung Fu Panda.
Ian McShane – Voice of Tai Lung – Kung Fu Panda.
Mark Walton – Voice of Rhino – Bolt.Best Writing
* Jon Aibel & Glenn Berger – Kung Fu Panda.
Etan Cohen and Eric Darnell & Tom McGrath – Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
Ari Folman – Waltz with Bashir.
Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio – Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.Juried Awards
Winsor McCay Award:
Mike Judge, John Lasseter, and Nick Park for career contributions to the art of animation.June Foray Award:
Bill Turner for significant and benevolent, or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation.Certificate of Merit Award:
Amir Avni.
Mike Fontanelli.
Kathy Turner.
Alex Vassilev.
Annie Awards website.
Golden Globes website.
Kate Winslet headshot via the Santa Barbara Film Festival website.
Kate Winslet The Reader image: The Weinstein Company.
Meryl Streep Mamma Mia! image: Universal Pictures.
Kung Fu Panda image: DreamWorks Animation.
“Kate Winslet Golden Globes Double Dose + Meryl Streep Breaks Record & Nicole Kidman Snubbed” last updated in November 2018.