Good as Gold: The people
   Award show season has begun, and so has the confusion that abounds when movies that the average person hasn’t heard of win many of the awards. At Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards, it became apparent that Baton Rouge theaters are lacking award-winning material.    Since the awards have passed, and the winners have been announced, it is the time that people start wondering what the phantom films are and who the winning actors are.
   Sissy Spacek, who won the award for Best Actress in a Drama for her performance in “In the Bedroom,” plays Ruth Fowler the wife of a doctor in Maine living a simple life.    However, things take a turn for the worse when their college-age son (Nick Stahl) becomes romantically involved with a single mother, portrayed by Marisa Tomei, until a tragedy strikes causing their relationship to end. The meat of the story is found in how each character copes with the tragedy that.
   The Best Foreign Language Film award was captured by Bosnian film “No Man’s Land” which tells the story of two soldiers during the war in Bosnia in 1993. Ciki is Bosnian, and Nino is Serbian; during their struggle, a group of French soldiers counters the commands from above beginning a media circus.
   Best Actor in a Drama award-winner Jim Broadbent is no newcomer to the cinema. Winning for his portrayal of John Bayley in “Iris”, he also appeared in “Moulin Rouge.” “Iris” tells the true love story of novelist Iris Murdoch and John Bayley from their first meeting throughout Murdoch’s fight with Alzheimer’s. The film constantly splits between scenes of their young lives where Kate Winslet and Hugh Bonneville portrayed Murdoch and Bayley.
   The Best Director award went to Robert Altman for “Gosford Park” which starred Kristin Scott Thomas and Michael Gambon. Set in England in 1932, the film follows the events of a shooting party at the Gosford Park Estate. Called “part comedy of manners and part mystery” on the film’s Web site, the film portrays universal themes from sex to tragic histories that reveal the complex relations between the affluent society and the servant class.
   On the television side of the awards, overall, names were more familiar. However, several winners were from cable networks. “Six Feet Under” a new series to HBO, won Best Television Drama. From the writers of “American Beauty,” the series starring Rachel Griffiths and Jeremy Sisto is a dark comedy set around a family that runs an independent funeral home, and discovers the dysfunctional relationship of the family.
   HBO also won with their miniseries “Band of Brothers” which was directed by Tom Hanks. With a cast including Donnie Wahlberg, Damian Lewis, and Ron Livingston, the story follows an Army rifle company that parachutes into France on D-Day.
   With the mystery behind these winners uncovered, look for these, as well as the other Golden Globe nominees, when it comes Oscar time in March.
Christina Beard