There was no glamorous dinner, no spectacular evening dress; there were no elegant smoking jackets. This year had to be without the red carpet and without tinsel, but Spain’s Javier Bardem walked away with a new prize, the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the bad guy in the film No Country for Old Men by the Coen brothers. This is added to the New York Film Critics Circle Award he received a few weeks ago and brings him that much closer to a nomination for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Bardem, who was nominated for the Academy Awards statuette for Best Actor in a Leading Role as the Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in Before Night Falls, had tough competition in his run for the Golden Globe: Ben Affleck’s brother, Casey, for playing the cowardly assassin of Jesse James, Robert Ford, John Travolta dressed as a woman in Hairspray, the veteran actor Tom Wilkinson for his role as the nutty lawyer of Michael Clayton, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson’s War. The character played by Bardem, bringing him such acclaim in awards and recognition, is that of Anton Chigurgh, one of the most evil characters and with one of the worst haircuts to appear on the big screen – a psychotic unscrupulous murderer in pursuit of a man who has found two million dollars which belong to him. Other Winners
There were no big surprises with regard to the remaining categories. The British film Atonement (released in Spain on 11th January) won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture. The intense but not so prolific Daniel Day Lewis (British-born, but obtaining Irish citizenship in 1993) has won the prize for Best Actor for his role as an ambitious oil prospector in There Will Be Blood (to be released in Spain on 15th February). The British actress Julie Christie has been awarded the Best Performance by an Actress Golden Globe for her role in Away from Her, playing a woman who is ill with Alzheimer’s disease.