The Hollywood what awards, you ask? Yeah, well, last night the 17th Hollywood Film Awards were held and televised for the first time ever, which meant a bunch of stars actually showed up. But, the event itself is pretty much a joke, since obviously very few people have seen the movies yet, and these prizes they give out are chosen by a group of 12 anonymous people. Seriously, nobody knows who they are or what they do. Shady as all get out, right? So it's basically a two hour ad for the movies that are going to be coming out soon, but sometimes they do honor a bunch of eventual nominees and even winners. So here's who got some free publicity last night:
Best Picture- Gone Girl
Best Actor- Benedict Cumberbatch "The Imitation Game"
Best Actress- Julianne Moore "Still Alice"
Best Supporting Actor- Robert Duvall "The Judge"
Best Supporting Actress- Keira Knightley "The Imitation Game"
Best Director- Morten Tyldum "The Imitation Game"
Best Writing- Gone Girl
Best Ensemble- Foxcatcher
Best Animated Feature- How to Train Your Dragon 2
Best Breakthrough Actor- Eddie Redmayne "The Theory of Everything"
Best Breakthrough Actress- Shailene Woodley "The Fault in Our Stars"
Best Breakthrough- Jack O'Connell "Unbroken"
Best Breakthrough Director- Jean Marc Vallee "Wild"
Best Comedy- Top Five
Best Blockbuster- Guardians of the Galaxy
Hollywood Career Achievement Award- Michael Keaton
Best Cinematography- Birdman
Best Score- The Imitation Game
Best Costumes- The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Editing- Fury
Best Sound- Gone Girl
Best Visual Effects- Transformers 4
Best Make Up- Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Production Design- Maleficent
My guess is 20th Century Fox paid a lot of money to get Gone Girl that Best Film prize, since it's on the cusp of Oscar recognition, if at all. But the The Imitation Game did very well here, collecting Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, and Score, and that film is predicted to score big with Oscar as well, so maybe they're right on that one. Either way, it is the official kickoff to awards season, since these shady little trophies are the first to be given out. From here on in, it's a long road ahead.
At least Ben Affleck's speech was pretty funny, acknowledging the general sham of this awards group:
And here's Johnny Depp, clearly drunk on stage as he presents Best Documentary:
