AFI honorees toast each other ahead of first awards – Will Hollywood party at Globes?

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Is Hollywood in the mood to party?

On Sunday, the movie industry will gather for the Golden Globes, which are regularly one of the most freewheeling and frothiest award shows of the year. Champagne will flow. Punchlines will fly.

But the tone of this year’s ceremony may be different, and not just because it will be the first time in nearly a decade that someone other than Ricky Gervais or the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler duo is hosting.

Jimmy Fallon will emcee this year’s show, to be broadcast live from Beverly Hills, Calif, by NBC at 8 pm EST Sunday. But the transition on the minds of Hollywood is the one taking place in Washington on Jan 20. The election of Donald Trump has loomed over this year’s awards season, where the movie industry’s usual self-congratulatory toasting has been mixed with a foreboding sense of dread.

“We are living in very troubled times,” Kenneth Lonergan, writer and director of one of the season’s favorites, “Manchester by the Sea,” said Wednesday at the National Board of Review Awards. “How troubled, we don’t know yet. It’s going to be a lot of trouble, or it might be bad trouble like we’ve never seen.”

Such speeches have been commonplace throughout the litany of awards that lead up, ultimately, to the Feb 26 Academy Awards.

At Tuesday’s New York Film Critics Circle Awards, “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah compared the lauded “O.J.: Made in America” to the election: “another bad decision based on fame and race.” At the Gotham Film Independent Film Awards in November, Damian Lewis archly intoned, “The film that receives the most votes … is the winner. It’s a brilliant idea,” referring to Trump’s loss of the popular vote.

Barry Jenkins, the writer-director of the tender coming-of-age tale “Moonlight”, said at the National Board of Review Awards: “As we make America great again, let’s remember some inconsiderable things in our legacy, because there was a time when someone like me was just not considered.”

Fallon, who was criticized for what was considered a soft-ball interview of Trump on the “Tonight Show” during the campaign, isn’t likely to set a very political tone for the evening. But speaking to The Hollywood Reporter , Fallon promised Trump jokes at what he called “the first and maybe the last party that we’ll have in 2017.”

The late-night host will also be trying to turn ratings back in a positive direction. Last year’s ceremony, hosted by Gervais, drew 18.5 million viewers, down about 4 percent from the year before. Among the presenters on tap for the show, put on by the Hollywood Foreign Press, are Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Stone, Ben and Casey Affleck, Viola Davis, Amy Schumer, Sting and Matt Damon.

Advantages

Award show TV audiences have generally been slumping, but the Golden Globes have certain advantages. Aside from their generally boisterous vibe, the Globes are distinct in honoring both film and television. Its TV awards have long been second to the movie honors, which have more significance coming shortly before Oscar nominations. But the TV awards are increasingly on equal footing at the ceremony.

This year’s categories are full of recent shows that weren’t eligible for September’s Emmy Awards, including “The Night Of”, “Westworld”, “Atlanta”, “This Is Us” and “Insecure.”

On the film side, Damien Chazelle’s Los Angeles musical “La La Land” leads all nominees with seven nods, including best picture, comedy or musical. Its primary Oscar competition, “Moonlight” and “Manchester by the Sea”, will be separated by the Globes’ split between drama and comedy.

And surely many attendees will be thinking of those absent. After a year full of notable deaths, the back-to-back passing over the holidays of Debbie Reynolds and her daughter Carrie Fisher, was felt particularly in a Hollywood that revered them both. Reynolds and Fisher were to be laid to rest Friday in Los Angeles.

Sunday night’s biggest question may between whether to let loose or sober up.

 

The Golden Globes will be handed out Sunday, but many nominees got a practice run through the awards process Friday at the American Film Institute’s annual luncheon.

Like the Globes, the AFI Awards celebrate outstanding work in film and television. Unlike the Globes, though, there is no competition: All 11 films and 10 TV shows recognized by AFI are considered winners.

AFI president Bob Gazzale said nothing was expected of the honorees other than to “embrace and applaud each other as colleagues.”

With no television cameras and no agenda other than to schmooze and nosh, guests happily obliged.

Sarah Paulson, an Emmy winner and Golden Globe nominee for her portrayal of Marcia Clark in “The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” chatted with “Atlanta” creator and star Donald Glover, whose show and performance are up for awards on Sunday.

AFI also recognized TV’s “Veep”, “Game of Thrones”, “The Crown”, “Stranger Things” and “This Is Us” — all Golden Globe nominees — along with “Better Call Saul”, “The Americans” and “The Night Of.”

John Lithgow, a Golden Globe nominee for “The Crown,” hung around with Jeff Bridges, who’s nominated for his supporting role in “Hell or High Water.”

Former flames and fellow Globe nominees Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield socialized a bit before lunch. Garfield is nominated Sunday for his performance in Mel Gibson’s “Hacksaw Ridge;” Stone is a lead actress nominee for her work in Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land.” AFI recognized both films Friday. Gibson and Chazelle are also Globe nominees for best director. (AP)

Recognized

Chazelle sat between his two leads, Stone and Ryan Gosling, on Friday. Gosling, also a Golden Globe nominee, quietly left the Four Seasons Hotel ballroom before “La La Land” was recognized onstage.

AFI’s other film winners included Golden Globe nominees “Hell or High Water,” “Moonlight,” “Manchester By the Sea” and “Zootopia,” as well as “Sully,” “Silence,” “Fences” and “Arrival.” The documentary “O.J.: Made in America” received a special award.

AFI officials praised and showed clips from each honored production, but there were no acceptance speeches. Instead, producers, directors and stars of the winning films and shows sat with each other and cheered from their tables. Each received a framed certificate.

Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris, both up for Golden Globes for their supporting roles in “Moonlight,” walked side by side to claim theirs.

The only star to take the stage was “Fences” director and star Denzel Washington, whom Gazzale introduced as “someone greater than an icon in the community.” Gazzale also noted that Washington’s son, Malcolm, recently graduated from the AFI Conservatory, which announced a new Audi-sponsored scholarship for female directors Friday.

“I’m hoping that one day he hires me,” Washington quipped after being welcomed with a standing ovation.

But when it came to talking about “Fences,” he was almost speechless.

“It’s just a privilege, a responsibility, a duty and an honor to help in some small way to bring August Wilson’s genius to the screen,” Washington said. “I don’t like to use the word proud, but (I’m) proud of it, and humbled by it all.”

By Jake Coyle

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