Golden Globes: ‘1917’ Wins Top Prize, Now Oscar Frontrunner?

As I predicted yesterday afternoon, “1917” won Best Picture at the Globes.

Director Sam Mendes and Universal must be very happy this morning. The Golden Globe statues won during last night’s telecast will most definitely help them cruise into Oscar night as frontrunners. “1917” hasn’t even been released yet in wide theatrical distribution, it has, however, had a successful limited release earning $2.2 million in just 11 theaters since Christmas. It will roll out wide this Friday in mainstream theaters nationwide. What timing! Expect great box-office numbers.

Did “1917” win because its next best competitors (“The Irishman” and “Marriage Story”) just have too many detractors? Maybe. But how about Mendes winning Best Director over Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Bong Joon Ho? If anything, that’s an even more remarkable win than Picture. Yes, the HFPA (Globe voters) is just composed of 90 voters, compare that to the AMPAS and its 6000+ voting body, but, they no doubt influence the conversation, just look at last year’s “Green Book” win, nobody expected it and, yet, the Globes paved the Oscar road for Peter Farrely’s film.

Oscar voters now have less than 2 days before the deadline to submit their nomination ballots, “1917” will surely get a boost from those late votes, a Best Picture nomination already locked up and Mendes pretty much in the conversation now to win Best Director. All of this without mentioning the fact that Roger Deakins will also likely win his second Cinematography Oscar.

At this point, my worries have been met, the industry may not like “The Irishman” as much as critics do. It may be a case of Netflix bias or it may just be the fact that at 3 and a half hours, attention spans are just not what they used to be. Suffice to say, “Parasite” is on the upward and “1917” is the de-facto frontrunner.

Some major dates to write down; The PGA Awards nominations revealed on Tuesday (winner announced on Jan 18). The DGA Awards film nominees also revealed on Tuesday (a winner announced on Jan. 26).