The Hollywood Film Awards have Twitter all a-twitter. They aren’t real awards, the complaining goes, but rather carefully orchestrated “wins” by publicists for movies many of them haven’t yet seen, like Still Alice or Unbroken. I myself have a different perspective on it and it goes something like this. IT’S ALL PUBLICITY, homies. Even the Oscars. Why do you think they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads? Most award wins get placed neatly on For Your Consideration ads to lend contenders prestige.
The Hollywood Film Awards are no different from the Palm Springs, Savannah, Napa, Hamptons and Santa Barbara film awards, which hand our honors to various contenders on the march towards Oscar. They are all in the name of publicity. Almost all are arranged by publicists. The Santa Barbara Festival is run very carefully by Roger Durling who does make an effort to seek out the best movies and leans a little closer to, or certainly is aiming for eventually being, more like Telluride.
At any rate, the same complaints for the Hollywood Film Awards have been circling the National Board of Review since the 1930s, and the Golden Globes since the 1950s – they’re not legit, the people cry. Who are these people? They scream. In the end, my friends, publicity is publicity. The critics are different. The industry votes are people seeing movies and voting on them. But we all know how the consensus is built and the consensus is built award by award.
I find myself somewhat annoyed at the “shocked, shocked – gambling is going on here” comments by people who are part of the Critics Choice awards. You know, the critics choice that has bloggers and various junket whores in its membership? The Critics Choice that expanded its awards to ensure maximum celebrity turnout for its television show? Sure, they see and vote on movies and I guess in that way they are legit – but come on, these lines get blurred.
Either way, I’m happy Gone Girl won two awards no matter what you haters think. And especially happy that Julianne Moore received a standing ovation. Here is Kristen Stewart handing out that award.
Hollywood Film Award
Gone Girl
Hollywood Actor Award
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
Hollywood Blockbuster Award
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hollywood Documentary Award
Mike Meyers (Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon)
Hollywood Actress Award
Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
Hollywood Career Achievement Award
Michael Keaton
Hollywood Animation Award
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (DreamWorks)
Hollywood Comedy Film Award
Chris Rock (Top Five)
New Hollywood Award
Jack O’Connell (Unbroken)
Hollywood Ensemble Award
Hollywood Director Award
Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game)
Hollywood Song Award
Janelle Monae (“What is Love,” from Rio 2)
Hollywood Screenwriter Award
Hollywood Breakout Performance Actor Award
Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
Hollywood Breakthrough Director Award
Jean-Marc Vallee (Wild)
Hollywood Supporting Actress Award
Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)
Hollywood Breakout Performance Actress Award
Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars)
Hollywood Supporting Actor Award