Unfortunate Golden Globe Awards

Movie fans worldwide missed one of the glamorous award nights when actors/actresses boycotted the Golden Globe Awards night which was held on 13 Jan 2008.

The Writers Guild of America ("WGA") (representing 10,500 screenwriters) which has the rights to movies somehow went on strike over some agreements with Dick Clark Productions (linked to Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a not-for-profit California corporation comprised of journalists, which wholly owns the Golden Globe Awards).

The Screen Actors Guild that acted as a representative body for Hollywood actors/actresses agreed to stand on WGA's side. What a mess!

This caused, NBC, the broadcasting company for the event has to return US$20M back to advertisers that have bought advertising time during the event's commercial break.

Besides that, it was understood that a single awards night like this could generate around US$70M to US$80M and the following stakeholders were affected one way or another:-
* Party caterers - parties hosted by movie and TV studios could run up to US$200,000 each
* Limousine drivers
* Stylists & Beauticians
* Hotels
* Photographers (hundreds of them)
* Magazines (due to no pictures from photographers)
* TV shows
* Security guards
* Parking attendants
* Gown designers
* Bling-jewelry renters
* Last but not least - the red carpet supplier.

In order to continue with the programme, even though it was a low profile event, the Golden Globe winners were announced without any fanfare at Beverly Hilton. Sorry, ladies can't watch the latest gown designs for the yearrrrrrrrr.

Now, the producers for the 50th Grammy Awards, scheduled on 10 Feb 2008, are sweating too. Are they going to be hit by the boycott too? The 80th edition of the Oscars night scheduled on 24 Feb 2008 could be affected as well. No more awards shows for year 2008?

Reading: Scrapped Golden Globe ceremony hits Hollywood hard - Reuters
Reading: Striking Hollywood union weighs Grammys show plea - Reuters

Tags: Golden Globe Awards, Writers Guild of America, WGA, Dick Clark Productions, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Screen Actors Guild, Hollywood, Grammy Awards, Oscars, Beverly Hilton

Zee Cine Awards 2007

Of late, the Indian movies industry prefers to hold their awards show in Malaysia. Good work by the Ministry of Tourism in drawing such an event to Malaysia and it augurs well for the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 at the same time. This time it's the Zee Cine Awards 2007 that was held on 2 April 2007 in Genting Highlands.

Click here for Zee Cine Awards' winners.

Previously, the GIFA Awards was held in Dec 2006.

Tags: Movies, India, Indian, Bollywood, Zee Cine Awards, Ministry of Tourism, Visit Malaysia Year 2007, Genting, Entertainment

Academy Awards / Oscars

After numerous awards in the last few months which were sort of a preview to the Academy Awards (a.k.a. Oscars), the following movies garnered the most votes to win the coveted Academy Awards:-

Best Picture - The Departed
Best Actress - Helen Mirren, The Queen (have watched this and will blog abt it soon)
Best Actor - Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Best Supporting Actress - Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Best Supporting Actor - Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Rest of the Oscar winners, click here.

Tags: Academy Awards, Oscar, The Departed, Helen Mirren, The Queen, Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland, Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls, Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine

Movie Awards

More awards for past year's movies, TV series, dramas, documentaries:-

* Directors Guild of America Awards - "The Departed" won the feature film catergory.

* Writers Guild of America Awards - under movies category, "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Departed" have emerged as winners.

* British Academy Film Awards (officially known as the Orange British Academy Film Awards) - where "Last King of Scotland" and "The Queen" won major honours.

If you are into music, Grammy Awards have just announced the winners yesterday.

Tags: Movies, Film, Directors, Writers, Academy, Entertainment, Directors Guild of America Award, DGA Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards, British Academy Film Awards, Music, Grammy Awards, Awards

Razzie Awards

You may be wondering what's a Razzie Awards after being put through a number of postings on awards. You will like this too as it's an award given to the Worst Films ever produced. They have an annual event too like the Critics' Choice Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Academy Awards (a.k.a Oscars) . This award will be the 27th Annual Golden Raspberry (Razzie) Award to be held on 24 Feb 2007, one day before the Academy Awards.

Nominations have been given for the worst films produced in 2006. Earlier postings were for those movies/films that you shouldn't miss out. Well, this will be a guide to ensure that you don't waste your time on such movies. But some people will still watch it to see how bad it is. The nomination listing is out just one day before the nomination list for the Academy Awards. In this award, instead of having the best of this and that, it will show you the worst of this and that.

Below are some of the worst films/movies being nominated:-

Basically, It Stinks, Too - 7 Nominations
Worst Picture, Actress, Supporting Actor, Director, Sequel, Screenplay and Screen Couple

Little Man - 7 Nominations
Worst Picture, Actor (2) Remake/Rip-Off, Director, Screenplay and Screen Couple

Bloodrayne - 6 Nominations
Worst Picture, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Director and Screenplay

Wicker Man - 5 Nominations
Worst Picture, Actor, Screenplay, Remake and Screen Couple

Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause - 5 Nominations
Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment, Worst Actor, Supporting Actor, Sequel and Screen Couple

Lady In The Water - 4 Nominations
Worst Picture, Supporting Actor, Director and Screenplay

Deck The Halls - 3 Nominations
Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress

The Shaggy Dog - 3 Nominations
Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment, Worst Remake and Worst Actor
Tags: Movie, Review, Awards, Razzie Awards, Golden Raspberry Awards, Worst Film, Nominees, Basically, It Stinks, Too, Little Man, Bloodrayne, Wicker Man, Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Lady In The Water, Deck The Halls, The Shaggy Dog, Academy Awards, Oscars

Golden Globe Awards

In yesterday's Golden Globe Awards event, the following winners were announced....some were unexpected but nevertheless all were good movies as it was nominated and won.

Now you know which movies you cannot miss at all:-
Cecil B. DeMille Award - Warren Beatty

Best Motion Picture - Drama - Babel

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
- Helen Mirren – The Queen

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
- Forest Whitaker – The Last King Of Scotland

Best Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy - Dreamgirls

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
- Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy
- Sacha Cohen – Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
- Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
- Eddie Murphy – Dreamgirls

Best Animated Feature Film - Cars

Best Foreign Languge Film - Letters From Iwo Jima (Japan, United States)

Best Director - Motion Picture - Martin Scorsese – The Departed

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture - The Queen

Best Original Score - Motion Picture - The Painted Veil (Desplat)

Best Original Song - Motion Picture - "The Song Of The Heart" – Happy Feet

Best Television Series - Drama - Grey's Anatomy

Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy - Ugly Betty

For the full listing of the other nominees, you can view it under the Nominations.
I have watched The Devil Wears Prada (click for my review) too. The Happy Feet movie is with me. I think I will watch it soon.
Tags: Golden Globe Awards, Beverly Hilton, Babel, The Departed, The Queen, The Last King of Scotland, Dreamgirls, Borat, The Devil Wears Prada, Cars, Letters From Iwo Jima, Happy Feet, Greys Anatomy, Ugly Betty, The Painted Veil, Movie, Cinema, TV Series

Critics' Choice Awards

In order to have a better guide on which movies to see or buy, the following movies have been declared winners in their respective categories in the recent Critics' Choice Awards:-

Winners 2006 Best Picture: The Departed

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress: Helen Mirren - The Queen

Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls

Best Acting Ensemble: Little Miss Sunshine

Best Director: Martin Scorsese - The Departed

Best Writer: Michael Arndt - Little Miss Sunshine

Best Animated Feature: Cars

Best Young Actor: Paul Dano - Little Miss Sunshine

Best Young Actress: Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine

Best Comedy Movie: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Best Family Film (live action): Charlotte's Web

Best Picture Made for Television: Elizabeth I

Best Documentary Feature: An Inconvenient Truth

Best Foreign Language Film: Letters From Iwo Jima

Best Song: "Listen", Beyonce - Dreamgirls

Best Soundtrack: Dreamgirls

Best Composer: Phillip Glass - The Illusionist

If you want to have more movie selections, see the full listing of nominees for the respective categories. Winners from this award are normally favourites for the Golden Globe Awards which is scheduled to be held on the nite of 15 Jan at the Beverly Hilton.

As for me, I have watched The Departed, Cars & Borat (click these names to read my reviews).

Tags: Movies, Critics Choice Awards, Broadcast Film Critics Association, Winners, Nominees, The Departed, Golden Globe Awards, Beverly Hilton

Innovation, Research & New Technologies

Six of Univesiti Sains Malaysia's professors did the country proud by winning in their respective categories in the recent 55th World Exhibition of Innovation, Research & New Technologies held in Brussels, Belgium from 25 to 27 Nov 2006.

Following are the winners:-
* School of Biological Sciences lecturer, Prof Darah Ibrahim, beat 350 scientists to win the Jury’s Best Award and a gold medal for her invention called Fermsostat
* Prof Rahmah Noordin (who won the World International Property Organisation Special Award and gold medal)
* Prof Chan Lai Keng (gold)
* Associate Prof R. Sureswaran (gold)
* Azlan Osman (gold)
* Dr Mohd Rizal Arshad (silver)
* Dr Kamal Zuhairi Zamli (silver)

Brussels-Eureka's public exhibition drew more than 500 participants from more than 30 countries which presented about 600 innovations.

I wonder why the Malaysian newspaper only highlighted USM's achievements but not other Malaysians who have obtained top prizes in the same Brussels Eureka. The following Malaysian participants also gained Awards for their efforts:-

* Gold medal with mention given by the Jury to Malaysia
Invention: Compressed Natural Gas Direct Injection Passenger Vehicle
Inventor: Barkawi Sahari, Fakhru'l Razi Ahmadun, Yusoff Ali, Shahrir Abdullah, Ishak Aris (all UKM), Masjuki Hj. Hassan (UM), Muhd. Adlan Abdullah (PRSS), V. Chelliah (Petronas), Mohd. Fauzy Ahmad (Proton), Norman Mariun (UPM), Chuah Teong Guan

* Price of Christian DUPONT, Belgian Minister of the Public Function and Social Integration
Invention: Low Cost Solid Propellant Rocket
Inventor: Wan Mazlina Wan Mohamed, Mohd Izmir Yamin & Mohd Nizar Zainaldin

* Prize of COMINTERN (I wonder why this word was used as this word is related to COMmunist INTERNational. Even by doin a search via Google / Webster / Wikipedia, it's all related to communism)
Invention: Non-Destructive Microwave Technique for Characterization of Transdermal Patch
Inventor: Wong Tin Wui, Mohd Nasir Tai, Nor Khaizan Anuar & Deepak K. Ghodgaonka

* Price of Polish Association of Inventors given by the Vice President Adam Rylski
Invention: Compressed Natural Gas Direct Injection Passenger Vehicle
Inventor: Barkawi Sahari, Fakhru'l Razi Ahmadun, Yusoff Ali, Shahrir Abdullah, Ishak Aris (all UKM), Masjuki Hj. Hassan (UM), Muhd. Adlan Abdullah (PRSS), V. Chelliah (Petronas), Mohd. Fauzy Ahmad (Proton), Norman Mariun (UPM), Chuah Teong Gua
Tags: Innovation, Research, New Technologies, Science, Brussels Eureka, Belgium, Exhibition, Awards, Technology

FIFA World Player Gala 2006

Shortly after being judged as the best in World Soccer and Ballon d'Or, Fabio Cannavaro was yet again chosen as the best again for the FIFA World Player but the latest recognition was awarded by the world football body i.e. FIFA. The gala was held in the Zurich Opera House where the commemoration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was celebrated as part of Monday evening's entertainment to mark the 250th anniversary of the Austrian composer's birth.

FIFA Women's World Player went to Marta, a Brazilian. (source: FIFA)

Tags: Sports, Football, Soccer, FIFA, FIFA World Player, Zurich Opera House, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Fabio Cannavro, Italy, Marta, Brazil

GIFA 2006

The keenly anticipated G.I.F.A. Awards 2006 is being held in Kuala Lumpur from 7- Dec 2006. Glam-brand Provogue has been roped in as the Title Sponsor of Global Indian Film Awards 2006. G.I.F.A. - a global brand and the brainchild of Popcorn Entertainment and Global Events - has been re-christened as PROVOGUE G.I.F.A. 2006 AWARDS.

GIFA 2006 promises to be a slick show with a galaxy of Bollywood superstars performing to a worldwide audience in Malaysia. The three-day extravaganza began on 7 December 2006 with a World Premiere of B R Films and Ravi Chopra's Baabul at TGV cinemas, KLCC, in Kuala Lumpur. The Baabul World Premiere was attended by the lead star cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Salman Khan, Rani Mukherjee and John Abraham. The Awards function, scheduled on 9 December 2006, will have mega performances by Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif and Ameesha Patel and the master of ceremonies will be Arshad Warsi and Amrita Arora. Leading Indian film stars and personalities from the sports and corporate world will be gracing this International Mega Event.

Tags: GIFA Awards, Global Indian Film Awards, Popcorn Entertainment, India, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Provogue, Baabul, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Salman Khan, Rani Mukherjee, John Abraham, Shah Rukh Khan

FIFPro Player of the Year

Ronaldinho, the Barcelona star, won the most votes to win the FIFPro Player of the Year from the 43,000 players who were invited to make their vote on the best players of last year. The Brazilian international enjoyed a fantastic season last term helping Barcelona win both La Liga and the UEFA Champions League.

Ronaldinho's Camp Nou team-mate Lionel Messi took ASPIRE Young FIFPro Player Player's Award and that was not the end of the success for Barcelona as Samuel Eto'o was handed the FIFPro Merit Award for his contribution to the sport. Manchester United ace Cristiano Ronaldo claimed the ASPIRE Young Player Fan Award.

Italy's World Cup winning squad dominated the FIFPro Team of the 2005-06 season with four players making the side. Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta and Andrea Pirlo were the four Azzurri players to make the team. World Cup runners-up France had three players in the shape of Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry and Lilian Thuram in the team. Chelsea's John Terry, Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Milan's Kaka made up the rest of the team.

Tags: Sports, Football, Soccer, FIFPro, Barcelona, La Liga, Manchester United, Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto'o, Cristiano Ronaldo

Shakira & Ricky Martin

Looks like Shakira did quite well in the recent Latin Grammy Awards. Shakira dominated the Latin Grammy Awards as she won five trophies, including album of the year for "Fijacion Oral Vol. 1", song and record of the year honors for "La Tortura", the best female pop vocal album and the best engineered album.
Her smoldering duet with Alejandro Sanz, on Thursday night stole the spotlight at the event - gyrating her way through a rendition of "La Tortura".

Thursday's show was broadcasted by Univision (Latin website) television for the second straight year. Musicians from Puerto Rico earned 33 Latin Grammy nominations, including all the nominations for best urban music album and best salsa album.

As for Ricky Martin, he was accorded the 2006 Latin Recording Academy Person Of The Year Tribute in honour of his accomplishments as a world-renowned entertainer, consummate performer and passionate humanitarian. I did blog about Ricky Martin in an earlier blog of mine here.
Tags: Music, Entertainment, Shakira, Ricky Martin, Alejandro Sanz, Latin Grammy Awards, Univision

Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award

Mercy Malaysia president Datuk Dr Jemilah Mahmood was conferred the 'Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award' on Thursday, making her the first Malaysian recipient. She was conferred the international award by the Martin Luther King Jr International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Dr Jemilah was an exemplary human being who has caught our attention with her undying efforts in providing medical and humanitarian aid through Mercy Malaysia to those suffering, regardless of race, colour and creed," said Dr Lawrence Edward Carter Carter.

On Saturday, Malaysian Interfaith Network chairman Datuk Anwar Fazal has also been conferred of this year’s Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award. Dr Carter described Anwar as the “people’s defender of health and welfare, a fighter of justice and a prince of peace”.

The Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award symbolises the tradition of peace-work based on non-violence that Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Dr Daisaku Ikeda shared.

Tags: Awards, Mercy Malaysia, Datuk Dr Jemilah Mahmood, Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award, Martin Luther King Jr International Chapel, Morehouse College, Malaysian Interfaith Network, Datuk Anwar Fazal, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Dr Daisaku Ikeda