Annual Golden Globes Awards from LA

World Today

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – JANUARY 11: General view of atmosphere at the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images/AFP

The Golden Globes in Hollywood marks the official start of the awards season. The star-studded show is hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press, for outstanding achievement in film and television. CCTV America’s May Lee reports from Los Angeles.

The 72nd Golden Globe Awards, given annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for outstanding achievement in film and television, take place Sunday night in Los Angeles, and it marks the official start of the awards season.

The Golden Globes is a chance for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to recognize the best in film and television. The televised awards show is also seen as a hint at how the Oscars might play out later this year.

“Next to the Oscars, the Golden Globes for America is the biggest awards that people pay attention to. For one thing, they get so many stars in a room. They recognize TV and film which is nice. It’s a little mysterious as to who the actual voters are. We’re told it’s approximately 90 members of the foreign press association, but there’s quite a bit of mystery to that,” Jennell Riley from Variety said.

Mystery, also, as to who will walk away with a globe in hand especially since many of the categories are just too close to call. One case is the competition of Best Actor in a motion picture drama, including Steve Carell in “Foxcatcher,” Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Imitation Game,” David Oyelowo in “Selma,” Jake Gyllenhaal in “Nightcrawler” and Eddie Redmayne as Steven Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.”

In the best actress drama category, Julianne Moore who stars in “Still Alice” is considered the favorite by film critiques, but Jennifer Aniston could score an upset. She plays a woman suffering from chronic pain in “Cake.”

Best motion picture drama is another tight race. Boyhood took 12 years to film as it chronologically follows a boy’s life in real time. Also nominated is Selma, the story of Martin Luther King Junior’s 1965 march to secure voting rights for African Americans. Ava DuVernay is the first African-America woman nominated for a best director Golden Globe.

Nominees for best foreign language film come from Israel, Russia, Poland, Sweden and, for the first time, Estonia country that only produces five or six films a year. But overall, the spotlight isn’t shining on international players this year that is unusual for the Hollywood Foreign Press which tends to favor diversity.

For the third year straight is the return of comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as hosts of the show.