Hollywood's all quiet on the best film front

A SILENT film from France has confirmed its status as the darling of a quiet Hollywood awards season.

Meryl Streep

A SILENT film from France has confirmed its status as the darling of a quiet Hollywood awards season after winning three Golden Globes yesterday.

The Artist, set during Hollywood's transition to the "talkies" in the 1920s, was named best motion picture comedy or musical and its star, Jean Dujardin, best actor in awards run by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

A number of favourites came home in the film field, though any suspense was largely dissipated by the Globes' tradition of splitting these awards into drama and comedy/musical categories.

Meryl Streep's performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady earned her an eighth Globe from her 25th nomination. Her competitor in coming awards will be Michelle Williams, named best actress in the comedy/musical category for her performance as Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn. Hugo's Martin Scorsese was named best director.

The Hawaiian-set drama The Descendants picked up two Golden Globes in key categories: best drama and best actor (drama) for George Clooney, who will vie with Dujardin for the Oscar.

A quiet awards season for Australians continued, with the only Aussie Globe nominee, Guy Pearce, not adding to his Emmy Award for his performance in the US miniseries adaptation Mildred Pierce. He was beaten by Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage among TV awards that were shared by a number of new shows, including Homeland, Enlightened, American Horror Story and Downton Abbey.

The dominance of a silent film was apt in a ceremony in which returning host Ricky Gervais was seemingly nobbled. After an insulting but humorous performance last year, the English comedian returned after milking the "treat 'em mean to keep 'em keen" strategy. While the HFPA was outwardly horrified at Gervais's job last year, it couldn't wean itself off the publicity he brought the awards, which he described yesterday as "just like the Oscars but without all that esteem".

Gervais chose his victims more wisely this year: absent stars and the hosts themselves, the eccentric closed shop of foreign journalists and the ceremony's US broadcast network NBC, which has earned millions from its adaptation of his creation The Office.

"The Golden Globes are to the Oscars what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton," he said. "A bit louder, bit trashier, bit drunker and more easily bought -- allegedly. Nothing's been proved."