US: The Oscars got their front-runners on Monday: Dreamgirls and Babel are likely to fight it out for best film, while Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker take the lead in the fight for best actress and best actor.
All won Golden Globes and with that the vital momentum needed to move toward the big prize, the February 25th Oscars.
The Globes, produced by the minuscule Hollywood Foreign Press Association, may not always predict the final Oscar winners, but they help set the debate in the weeks leading up to the industry's highest honours.
The list of Globe winners this year pretty well complied with conventional wisdom, although some Oscar voters may find the selection of Babel as the best drama for 2006 a bit too gut-wrenching. A story about the globalisation of pain and suffering, Babel was filmed in five languages in four countries and is far from traditional Hollywood fare.
It is expected to go up against Dreamgirls, director Martin Scorsese's gangster drama The Departed, quirky family film Little Miss Sunshine, and The Queen, which stars Mirren, when Oscar nominations are announced on January 23rd.
Scorsese left the Globes a happy man - he was named best director for The Departed, giving his film a chance for wider glory.
Although he has created classic films such as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, Scorsese has never won an Oscar for best film or best director, and the Hollywood that denied him those prizes may be ready to show its sentimental side.
Mirren stopped a reporter when he tried to ask a question about her Oscar chances. She won the best actress in a drama award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen.
"No stop," she told the reporter. "It's the big O. I never had a big O. They say the earth moves. I can't wait."
Dreamgirls won three awards, more than any other film, including best supporting actor and actress for Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson, respectively.
Babel earned only one award but it was a big one - best film drama. The movie's director, Mexico's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, noted the long and trying journey to get his movie made across three continents - Africa, North America and Asia.
"I think the power of cinema is universal and at the end, emotion doesn't need translation and that's the beauty of it." - (Reuters)