Due to the Writer’s Guild of America strike, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has officially abandoned plans to present the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony. Winners in 25 categories will instead be announced during an hour-long press conference to be held at The Beverly Hilton on January 13. NBC News will cover the conference live beginning at 6 p.m. (PST), but viewers shouldn’t expect the usual glitz and glam.
‘We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007’s outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television,’ says Jorge Camara, president of The Hollywood Foreign Press Association. ‘We take some comfort, however, in knowing that this year’s Golden Globe Award recipients will be announced on the date originally scheduled.’
As a show of solidarity with the striking writers, a number of film and television stars pledged to not cross the picket line for a televised ceremony, which would have made for a disappointing awards show.
Up for Best Animated Feature this year are DreamWorks Animation’s Bee Movie, Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille and Twentieth Century Fox’s The Simpsons Movie. Sony Pictures Classic’s Persepolis is competing in the Best Foreign Language Film category, and Disney’s partially animated Enchanted garnered nominations for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture’Comedy or Musical (Amy Adams) and Best Original Song (‘That’s How You Know”music and lyrics by Alan Menken). In addition, Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg will receive the coveted Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award, minus all the fanfare that usually accompanies the honor.
In other awards’ season news, Brad Bird’s acclaimed feature Ratatouille won the Best Animated Feature Critics Choice Award last night, while Kevin Lima’s Enchanted was singled out as Best Family Film by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. The Coen brothers’ dark opus No Country For Old Men won the award for Best Drama.
