Thursday, January 21, 2010

Last Sunday evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California were the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards hosted by English comedian Ricky Gervais. The choice of Gervais as host was a move to increase viewership which declined to 15 million viewers last year from 27 million in 2004. Canadian director James Cameron—who previously won in 1997 for his film Titanic—and his high-grossing 3D epic Avatar seemed to dominate the ceremony, taking home the awards for Best Director and Best Picture respectively.

This annual event—which is often considered a preview of the Academy Awards—is conducted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to recognize achievements by those within both the motion picture and television industries internationally.

In the midst of the festivities, the earthquake in Haiti was still on the minds of many attendees. For instance, some wore lapel ribbons to honor the victims, while others noted how strange it was for them to be enjoying something like an award ceremony in the midst of such tragedy.

On incident of this was when American actress Meryl Streep got emotional while accepting the Best Actress award for her portrayal of chef Julia Child in the film Julia & Julia, “I am really honestly conflicted about how to have my ‘happy movie self’ in the face of everything that I’m aware of in the real world.” She went on to mention her late mother, who Streep said would have told her to be grateful that she does in fact have the money to donate to people of Haiti.

Following this, American actor George Clooney officially announced his intention to coordinate a telethon that would air on NBC, among other networks worldwide, on January 22 to raise money for those affected by the quake.

Below is a complete list of Sunday night’s award recipients: