A lot of people are currently wondering (and some have even asked me) if there’s anything to be learned from the Golden Globe Awards ceremony. My response to them? In short…no, we haven’t. Not really, at least. That being said, the results of the Golden Globes were actually able to set up the narrative for a few interesting races at the Oscars. For me, the Globes are an interesting part of the awards season, but they’re hardly Academy bellwethers. The closest thing to an indicator we’ve seen of late is how the winner of Best Picture – Drama is all but assured to lose come Oscar time. Now that’s mostly coincidence, but in a way it could set up a situation where this emerging “curse” is potentially broken. As for the rest of the Globes’ importance, more than anything else they’re helpful in seeing who might actually be nominated for Oscars. That all being said, I’ll try and shed some light on what the results of the Golden Globes means for Oscar, if any. Here are a half dozen other things besides the “curse” that we learned from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s selections and what their translation to the Academy might be. Here goes nothing…

1. Best Picture at the Oscars still isn’t any clearer: Had the HFPA gone in an odd direction with one of their top categories (perhaps ‘The Ides of March’ winning in Drama or ‘Bridesmaids’ in Comedy/Musical), then you could have taken the film that lost and somewhat stacked the deck against it. However, neither ‘The Artist’ nor ‘The Descendants’ lost, keeping them the frontrunners for Oscar’s top prize. The former is still in the lead, but nothing is set in stone, especially with the Producer’s Guild just around the corner.

2. The men seemed poised for Acting honors but the women are still up in the air: Both George Clooney and Christopher Plummer did nothing to harm their frontrunner credentials with wins at the Globes, but vague frontrunners Viola Davis and Berenice Bejo stumbled a bit. Davis saw her main competition (Meryl Streep and Michelle Williams) both win awards, which Bejo now has more or less ceded the top spot to Octavia Spencer. To be fair, the Globes aren’t the Academy Awards, but the narrative of an unstoppable force moving towards Oscar glory can no longer be applied to the ladies in question.

3. Woody Allen could have Best Original Screenplay in the bag: One of the things I was very interested to see at the Globes was whether Allen’s original script for ‘Midnight in Paris’ could beat out the heavier adapted hitters for the Screenplay award. It did, and while this makes Adapted Screenplay still a question mark (likely between ‘The Descendants’ and ‘Moneyball’), Original Screenplay appears to be the Wood man’s to lose.

4. ‘War Horse’ is fading fast: A film that needed to desperately win something was Steven Spielberg’s ‘War Horse’. Already lapped by fellow master Martin Scorsese’s ‘Hugo’, this flick was tailor made for Oscar and needed to get on the winning path. It wasn’t able to, and while it’s too late for it to suffer at the Oscar nods (what’s done is done already there), it could struggle to pick up any wins at all if this continues.

5. We all underestimated ‘Hugo’ and Scorsese: A big Best Director win for Marty keeps Best Director wide open at the Oscars and makes the case for a potential split between Picture and Director.  Just remember, this film was considered a long shot in the not too distant past. I’m unconvinced that Scorsese can win a second Academy Award, but he put a dent in Michel Hazanavicius and his chances, while also knocking Alexander Payne down another peg. This could be the most interesting race to follow come the Oscar nods, since so many potential nominees could still win, but aren’t even locked for the nom yet.

6. We’re all still clueless about Best Original Song: Go figure, the winner at the Globes wouldn’t be an eligible song for the Academy. We could see ‘The Muppets’ have one of their songs win, as many have predicted, but there’s nothing really to go on here. We’ll know more when they finalists are announced at the nominations, but until then I’ll simply be scratching my head.

These 6 things are just a few things to take away from the Golden Globe Awards, but just keep in mind…it’s still the Globes. We talk about a “curse” with them, so really folks, they’re not exactly awards royalty. Look towards SAG and the PGA to inform you more fully and reliably about what the Oscars might turn out to be in the end. Just remember, a whole lot can and still will likely happen between now and the end of the road. For the moment, this is just the calm before the final storm, and I for one am very excited. Hopefully you all are as well!

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