Golden day for Canada as awards season heats up
 
By Gayle MacDonad
The Associated Press
Globe and Mail Update - Toronto, Ontario
 
Canadian-made films, TV shows, actors and filmmakers scored an impressive number of nominations yesterday when the names were unveiled for the 65th-annual Golden Globe Awards to take place in Hollywood in the new year.

Topping the Canadian pack was Toronto director David Cronenberg, whose Russian-mafia thriller, Eastern Promises garnered three Golden Globe nods, including best picture (drama), best actor (Viggo Mortensen) and best score (by Toronto-born composer Howard Shore).

It's up against stiff competition including American Gangster, Atonement, The Great Debaters, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood.

British actress Julie Christie - who stars in Toronto-based Sarah Polley's feature-film directorial debut, the Alzheimer drama Away from Her - received a nomination for best dramatic actress. Canadians Ellen Page and Ryan Gosling also racked up Golden Globe acting nods for their performances in Jason Reitman's (born in Montreal but a long-time resident of L.A.) comedy Juno and Craig Gillespie's Lars and the Real Girl.

Halifax-born Page, 20, was nominated for best actress in a comedy or musical for her work in the critical favourite, Juno, about a pregnant teen (the picture also received a nomination as did writer Diablo Cody). Recently the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures gave Page its award for the year's best breakthrough performance. She has also been nominated for best actress at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

London, Ont.-born Gosling was up for an Oscar last year for his role as a drug-addicted school teacher in Half Nelson.

Overall, Joe Wright's period drama Atonement - starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy - took home the most nominations, receiving seven.

Reached at his home in Toronto's Forest Hill neighbourhood yesterday, Cronenberg said he was thrilled with the trilogy of nominations. "We have a wonderful group of young filmmakers and actors, who are emerging. It's taken a long time, but it's inevitable," says Cronenberg, who also directed Crash and Spider.

"Of course, we've always had wonderful talent - from Neil Young to Joni Mitchell and all the comedy people. So the invisible invasion [of Canadians into the American and global entertainment front] continues. Traditionally, we haven't been as strong in feature filmmaking until now. This year marks one of the strongest moments for Canadian film."

The awards will be handed out on Jan. 13. It will be Cronenberg's second trip to the Golden Globes, which he attended last year when A History of Violence was nominated for best picture and best supporting actress (Maria Bello).

Long snickered at, the Golden Globes have raised their profile (and reputation) in the industry, and are now regarded as a harbinger for the Academy Awards.

"Frankly, Focus films [Eastern Promises's distributor] has made it clear to me that the nominations mean money," Cronenberg observed. "So from a business point of view, the Golden Globes are now absolutely serious. We will sell more DVDs, and that's the bottom line."

On the TV side, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, an HBO movie-of-the-week (shot in and around Calgary) took three nominations, including best miniseries or TV movie, and actor nominations for two Canadian cast members, lead Adam Beach and supporting player Anna Paquin.

The Ireland/Canada co-production The Tudors (airing on CBC and involving Toronto's Peace Arch Entertainment) also received two nominations, for best dramatic TV series and for Irish lead actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Robert Lantos, whose Toronto-company co-produced Eastern Promises with Britain's Paul Webster, said the swell of Canadians in various Golden Globes categories marks what has been "a terrific year for Canada." His 2000 film Sunshine was the first English-Canadian film to be nominated in the best-picture category in 2000.

Several Canadian titles have been nominated over the years under the Golden Globes best-foreign-language-film category, including Barbarian Invasions, The Red Violin, Jesus of Montreal, The Grey Fox, Quest for Fire, Atlantic City, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and Lies My Father Told Me (which took the prize in 1976). The Fox won best English-language foreign film in 1968.

Yesterday, Cronenberg applauded the nominations for Shore and Mortensen, adding "for me, there was only one actor who could powerfully convey the lead character Nikolai's many subtleties ... and only one composer [Shore] who could provide the aural context for Nikolai's world."

Then Cronenberg did a very Canadian thing and added that he wasn't sure if he would make the final cut and actually get a spot at one of Focus Features' two tables at the Golden Globes.

"Since I wasn't personally nominated, I'm not sure there will be room for me. To be honest, I'm not yet sure I can go."

Major nominees

The drama Atonement is the most-nominated film on this year's Golden Globes list, with seven nods; Charlie Wilson's War received five. This year's nominees in major categories:

Film

Picture, Drama: American Gangster, Atonement, Eastern Promises, The Great Debaters, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood.

Actress, Drama: Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age; Julie Christie, Away from Her; Jodie Foster, The Brave One; Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart; Keira Knightley, Atonement.

Actor, Drama: George Clooney, Michael Clayton; Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood; James McAvoy, Atonement; Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises; Denzel Washington, American Gangster.

Picture, Musical or Comedy: Across the Universe, Charlie Wilson's War, Hairspray, Juno, Sweeney Todd.

Actress, Musical or Comedy: Amy Adams, Enchanted; Nikki Blonsky, Hairspray; Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd; Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose; Ellen Page, Juno.

Actor, Musical or Comedy: Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd; Ryan Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl; Tom Hanks, Charlie Wilson's War; Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Savages; John C. Reilly, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

Television

Series, Drama: Big Love, HBO; Damages, FX Networks; Grey's Anatomy, ABC; House, Fox; Mad Men, AMC; The Tudors, Showtime.

Actress, Drama: Patricia Arquette, Medium; Glenn Close, Damages; Minnie Driver, The Riches; Edie Falco, The Sopranos; Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters; Holly Hunter, Saving Grace; Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer.

Actor, Drama: Michael C. Hall, Dexter; Jon Hamm, Mad Men; Hugh Laurie, House; Jonathan Rhys Meyers, The Tudors; Bill Paxton, Big Love.

Series, Musical or Comedy: 30 Rock, NBC; Californication, Showtime; Entourage, HBO; Extras, HBO; Pushing Daisies, ABC.
 
TheGlobeandMail.com
Originally published December 14, 2007
 
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