The Political Awards …
VOCABULARY
In January, we can watch the Golden Globe Awards, followed by the Bafta Awards in February and the highlight, for me anyway, is the Oscar Awards which will take place at the beginning of March. These film award ceremonies are supposed to be about handing out awards for the best film; best actor in a leading role; best producer/director; best foreign film, best music etc. This is always a great honour for the person or film that is being awarded because it usually means that that particular film will become a box office hit. However, the award ceremonies are not just about films as actors, presenters and every Tom, Dick and Harry can take advantage of their moment in the limelight and give their political views on any given subject. Some actors and producers choose to boycott the awards altogether, like last year when the Iranian film director, Asghar Farhadi, boycotted the Academy Awards and didn’t pick up his Oscar for the best foreign language film, "The Salesman" out of respect for all the Iranians who had been banned from entering the USA.
There were also many political speeches directed at Donald Trump especially when Meryl Streep gave a long speech critising the new president, for which she received a standing ovation. Mr. Trump retaliated by sending out a tweet, which he seems to be doing quite a lot just lately, calling one of America’s best and most versatile actors, "overrated", even though she has starred in over fifty films including "Out of Africa", "The Iron Lady" (Margaret Thatcher) and my personal favourite "The Bridges of Madison County" (keep the tissues handy) and has won over 160 awards and 409 nominations. Now that’s an achievement!
However, many people were surprised at the outpour of solidarity that happened during this year’s 75th Golden Globe Awards when the stars were asked to dress in black, in solidarity with women who had been harassed or sexually abused during their careers in Hollywood. This was to be expected as the Golden Globes was the first chance for the stars to express their disgust at the way the film producer, Harvey Weinstein, and actor, Kevin Spacey, (who had to be replaced by Christopher Plummer in the film "All the Money in the World", due to the sex scandals surrounding him) and maybe many other men in powerful positions had abused women and young men over decades. Almost all of the nominees turned up in beautiful black evening gowns and tuxedos, which caused a huge problem for the designer fashion houses of Chanel, Dior or Prada that had prepared wonderful brightly-coloured evening gowns for the stars to wear and had to find hundreds of elegant black dresses at such short notice.
The highlight of the evening came when the American billionaire and chat show hostess, Oprah Winfrey, gave the most incredible speech as she accepted the Cecil B DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. She spoke passionately and eloquently about her pride at becoming the first black women to receive this prize and about the sexual harassment scandal that erupted in Hollywood a few months ago. She spoke about this problem not only affecting women in the entertainment business but women from any culture, race, religion, politics and workplace. She expressed gratitude to all women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they had children to feed, bills to pay and dreams to pursue. Oprah Winfrey’s speech was so amazing and she is such an incredible person, building up her empire from rags to riches, that many Americans are seriously calling for her to become the next President of the United States, in 2020! highlight – Höhepunkt to be awarded – einen Preis bekommen to mean – bedeuten particular – speziell a box office hit – ein Kassenschlager Tom, Dick and Harry – Krethi und Plethi to take advantage of – ausnutzen in the limelight – im Rampenlicht any given subject – jedes vorgegebene Thema directed at – gerichtet auf to retaliate – zurückschlagen just lately – kürzlich versatile – vielseitig overrated – überschätzt to star – die Hauptrolle spielen keep the tissues handy – Taschentücher bereithalten! achievement – Leistung outpour – Erguss harassed – belästigt sexually abused – sexuell missbraucht to be expected – erwartet werden disgust – Abscheu to be replaced – ersetzt werden to surround – umgeben evening gowns – Abendkleider tuxedos – Smoking to prepare – vorbereiten at short notice – kurzfristig billionaire – Milliardär passionately – leidenschaftlich pride – Stolz to affect sbd. – jmd. schaden gratitude – Dankbarkeit to endure – ertragen bills to pay – Rechnung bezahlen dreams to pursue – Träume verwirklichen rags to riches – vom Tellerwäscher zum Millionär