Beverly Hills, Jan 17: The Howard Hughes epic `The Aviator` and the road-trip romp `Sideways` earned Best-Picture Golden Globes, boosting their status as front-runners for the upcoming academy awards.
`The Aviator` won yesterday for best dramatic film, giving it an edge at the Oscars, which favour heavyweight drama. `Sideways` won for comedy film.
Jamie Foxx of the Ray Charles film biography `Ray,` Hilary Swank of the boxing saga `Million Dollar Baby,` Annette Bening of the showbiz comedy `Being Julia` and Leonardo Dicaprio of `The Aviator` also boosted their Oscar odds by winning the top acting Globes.
`The Aviator` ended up with three Golden Globes, while `Sideways,` `Million Dollar Baby,` and `Close` won two apiece.
``Can I just tell you that I am having the ride of my life right now?`` said Foxx, considered the favourite to win the Best-Actor Oscar for his uncanny emulation of Ray Charles, who died last year. ``I wish I could take what I`m feeling right now and put it in the water system, and we would all love each other a whole lot more.``
Earning a record three Globe nominations, Foxx lost in his other two categories, Supporting Movie Actor for `collateral` and Actor in a TV movie or mini-series for `Redemption.`
Bening won for Best Actress in a movie musical or comedy, playing an ageing stage diva in 1930s London who plots gleeful revenge against the men in her life.
Underdog Swank won the Golden Globe and Oscar for `Boys Don`t Cry` over Bening, who had been considered the favourite for `American Beauty.`
In ``Million Dllar Baby,`` Swank plays a determined boxer whose life takes a tragic turn. Swank paid tribute to Director and co-star Clint Eastwood.
As Hughes in ``The Aviator,`` Dicaprio reunited with his ``Gangs of New York`` Director Martin Scorsese.`` Dicaprio said that for all his good fortune in Hollywood, the ``pinnacle of all that is to work alongside one of the greatest contributors to the world of cinema of all time, and that is the great Martin Scorsese.``
Eastwood won the directing honour for ``Million Dollar Baby,`` solidifying his chances to win the same honour at the Oscars.
Natalie Portman and Clive Owen won Supporting-Actor honors for the sex drama ``Closer,`` their wins coming as something of a surprise.
The oddball romance ``Sideways`` won the screenplay honour for Jim Taylor and Director Alexander Payne, who thanked the cast for ``servicing our screenplay so beautifully.``
``The Aviator`` earned composer Howard shore the Globe for film score, while Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart won the song honor for ``Old Habits Die Hard`` from ``Alfie.``
Spain`s ``The Sea Inside`` -- starring Javier Bardem in the real-life story of Ramon Sampedro, a paralysed man who fought a decades-long battle for his right to die – was picked Best Foreign-Language Film.
Bureau Report
