by Imran Anwar

It was not so long ago that Titanic was sinking its competition at the Oscars. In almost every major category the long lost ship was finding new victories. Even if it did not win every award, being nominated as often as it was, ensured the movie generated even more intense interest for repeat viewers, and especially for international audiences.

This year, though there was no movie with quite the same "tonnage" as Titanic, there is still a lot of great fare to be expected, and the major studios are beginning to vie for position in the nominations race.

For example, the Golden Globe awards are increasingly being used to gauge who Oscar night winners are likely to be. The Golden Globe awards are given annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. While the people choosing the Globe winners are very different from the Oscar winner selectors, there has been a pattern emerging, with many performers and movies doing well at the Globes going on to greater glory at the Oscars.

The movies to watch for great drama include Saving Private Ryan, with the always talented Tom Hanks, promising to save the day for Hollywood. In particular we would expect Elizabeth to rise to the challenge or not to be amused if Shakespeare in Love offers audiences greater drama and entertainment.

In the long run, between the time the Golden Globe awards are given out in late January, and when the Oscars ceremony comes around, in March, the industry has plenty of time to crow about with its winners. At the same time, those who may not win the Globes can make a bigger appeal to be selected for Oscar nominations, which are still THE award anyone in the movie industry can get or want.

We can be certain we will see opportunities for the talents of Steven Speilberg, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, and many others to be recognized in March. For example, Robin Williams' Patch Adams was recently displaced at the top of the box office list of Variety by A Civil Action with John Travolta and a pretty strong cast and story.

While on the subject of box office hits, there are no surprises in You've Got Mail, the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan love comedy, Stepmom with Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts, doing well. The interesting new celebrities are, well, sort of inhuman.

For example, is the movie going public trying to show its dissatisfaction with human actors - why else do movies like Babe, and now, A Bug's Life, Mighty Joe Young, and even the animated Th Prince of Egypt do so well? Who know? All that matters is, people want entertainment, and there is plenty of it going around, even if all of it will not win awards all around the globe!

HR 1/17/99

© Imran Anwar, 1999