The Golden Globes are fun. Hollywood’s most beautiful are sitting at dinner tables, drinking and laughing. The awards themselves are arguably more appealing to the common viewer, separating the dramas, thus including some movies they may have actually seen that year in the comedy category (Deadpool). They are the younger sibling to the Academy Awards, an introduction to the award season, and the first indicator of what buzz is really paying off.
The 2017 Globes took place over a month ago and the Oscars are coming up this weekend. The stage was set for a La La Land filled award season. It took home the major Globe categories and promptly followed that showing with 14 nods on nomination day. It has become boring to talk and speculate about the performance of La La Land. It will be noteworthy if it breaks the record for total Oscars won by a single movie. It will be noteworthy if it ends up taking home just a few awards. I instead want to focus on something that caught my attention as it pertains to the linking of the Golden Globes and Oscars: The 2016 best supporting Actor category.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor for his performance in Nocturnal Animals. While the globes do not always predict the Oscar winners, you would think the guy who won one would be a decent bet for the other. However, ATJ did not even get nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar. One voting body believed he was the best among those in his field, while another did not even believe he was in the top 5. You may read that and think, ok, well there are 2 different voting bodies, they are bound to differ. The next natural place to turn is history, and that is when ATJ’s situation in 2016 enters rarefied air.
Dating back to 1956*, ATJ becomes only the 7th actor in history to win the best supporting actor Globe and not be nominated for an Oscar. It also marks the first time since 1975 that this has happened, when Richard Benjamin won for The Sunshine Boys, only to not receive an Oscar nod and watch his co-star George Burns take home the honor. That is 40 years of best supporting actor Oscars and Globes without this happening.
*1956 is the first year in which the category had 5 nominees*
It is fun to look into the years past and see the circumstances around this occurrence. What stands out the most is that this happened to Sir Richard Attenborough in consecutive years! His performances in The Sand Pebbles and Doctor Doolittle earned him Globes in 1966 and 1967 respectively, only to go unnoticed by the Academy.
History could actually repeat itself in a more extreme(and complicated) way this Sunday. In the aforementioned year 1975, Richard Benjamin won the Globe and was not nominated for the Oscar. George Burns won the Oscar, and was not nominated for a Golden Globe. Both awards were for the actors’ performances in The Sunshine Boys. This year, ATJ won for Nocturnal Animals, and his co-star Michael Shannon is Oscar nominated, despite not being nominated for a Golden Globe.
I cannot help but wonder how Aaron Taylor-Johnson feels about this. This was the only category for which I did deep dive research, so I cannot speak for what has occurred in higher profile categories historically, but the best comparison is Ben Affleck winning best director for Argo in 2012, only to not be nominated for an Oscar. He seemed bothered by that. It is possible ATJ simply does not care. I know it would bug me.
**Update: I can now confirm that this has never happened in the best supporting actress category.
Now for the obligatory Oscar picks. I do want this blog to have more unique opinions and viewpoints, but I want to weigh in on the big topics of the year. Below are my picks for who I think will win, and I have denoted where I personally believe it should be someone else winning.
Best Picture: La La Land
Best Actor: Case Affleck
Best Actress: Emma Stone
Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali (it gets complicated here. Of the nominees, I think Lucas Hedges should win for Manchester by the Sea; However, it is absurd that Ben Foster was not recognized for Hell or High Water. He would be my pick if there were no nominees; and yes, I realize I just wrote a post about 2 totally different actors in this category. It was a good year for the category)
Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis (Should be Michelle Williams for Manchester by the Sea, but the academy will not be able to look past the Snot Acting of Viola Davis. Why is Davis even nominated for supporting actor? With her amount of lines and screen time, she should be in the lead category, and leave this category to the scene stealers. And there is no bigger scene this year than Michelle Williams and Casey Affleck re-uniting in Manchester by the Sea)
Best Director: Damien Chazelle for La La Land
Do you agree or disagree? What did you think of Aaron Taylor-Johnson missing out on the Oscar nomination after winning the Golden Globe? Let me know in the comments.
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