Awards season in Hollywood kicked off earlier this month with the People’s Choice Awards on Jan. 9, with “The Big Bang Theory’s” Kaley Cuoco hosting for her second consecutive year.
The popular book series-turned movie phenomenon “The Hunger Games” dominated the show with a total of five awards including Favorite Movie and Favorite Action Movie, Favorite Movie Actress and Favorite Face of Heroism for female lead Jennifer Lawrence and Favorite Movie Franchise.
Sandra Bullock accepted the first Favorite Humanitarian Award and said that the work she does doesn’t compare to the work other volunteers do on a daily basis. She also said, “I am simply blessed to be able to do what I do because of what you allow me to do, and that allows me to write a check, and to be a really good cheerleader. And that’s all.”
Taylor Swift, wearing a more lower-cut than usual white dress, took home the award for Favorite Country Artist and presenter Olivia Munn momentarily refused to give Swift the award to which Swift replied, “This always happens,” obviously referring to the Kanye West incident at a previous awards show.
According to the Associated Press, more than 475 million votes were casted for this year’s event.
Not long after, Hollywood’s hottest celebrities gathered in Beverly Hills for the 70th Annual Golden Globes, which honors the year’s best in film and television.
Ricky Gervais, host for the previous three years, was not asked back and instead, former “Saturday Night Live” cast members Tina Fey and Amy Poehler co-hosted for the first time. Between their on-screen chemistry, flawlessly-written script and Jody Foster’s slightly confusing but humorous acceptance speech, the audience laughed and cheered from the opening dialog to the end of the show.
Nearly 20 million people watched the show, up 17 percent from last year, the highest ratings in six years, according to Nielsen.
Fey and Poehler also received much positive feedback from numerous stars and online blogs including those of Olivia Munn, Julianne Moore and Jeff Daniels.
Ben Affleck took home both the Best Director award and Best Motion Picture- Drama for his film “Argo” after being snubbed for any Oscar nominations for the film.
Other big winners included the film “Les Miserables” with three awards, Showtime’s television series “Homeland,” with three awards, and HBO’s television show “Girls,” with two awards.
But the trophy presentations are only part of the glamour of awards season. Fashions continue to be a huge part of the ceremony and the shows are always kicked off with stars arriving to step on to the red carpet.
Like the carpet itself, red seemed to be the big color for celebrities. Zooey Deschanel, Jennifer Lawrence, Claire Danes and co-host Amy Poehler were all spotted wearing the color.
Deschanel took it a step further and had pictures painted of a vintage camera and film on her nails for the Golden Globes event.
Awards season continues this Sunday with the Screen Actors Guild awards, which have been said to be an insight to the winners of The Oscars.
Between the SAG awards and the Oscars comes the Grammy Awards. The biggest names in music will converge on one night to honor the best, and enjoy performances by The Black Keys, Mumford and Sons, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Fun.
Frank Ocean and the new group Fun are tied for the most nominations, with 6 each.
Awards season wraps up with the Oscars (also called the Academy Awards) on Sunday, Feb. 24, arguably the biggest and best awards show of the season.
“Amour,” “Argo,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Django Unchained,” “Les Misérables,” “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Zero Dark Thirty” are all up for Best Picture, the most coveted award of the season for films as a whole.
Public Relations major Audra Rodriguez favors “Django Unchained” in this category. “I love action films, and ‘Django’ had a lot of just really good action scenes,” Rodriguez said.
The other two major categories at the 85th Annual Academy Awards are Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Leading role.
Between Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook,” Joaquin Phoenix in “The Master,” Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln” and Hugh Jackman in “Les Miserables,” studio arts major Sara Davila predicts that Hugh Jackman’s performance will earn him the trophy.
“It’s between him and Daniel Day-Lewis, but for some reason I think Hugh Jackman will take this one,” Davila said.
Davila made her prediction for Best Actress in a Leading Role as well. Between Jessica Chastain in “Zero Dark-Thirty,” Jennifer Lawrence in “Silver Linings Playbook,” Naomi Watts in “The Impossible” and Emmanuelle Riva in “Amour,” Davila said Jennifer Lawrence deserves to win.
“She seems so cool, and just like any other normal person. And she’s an amazing actress. I love her,” Davila said.