In news that wasn't terribly surprising, the adaptation of Moneyball was awarded none of the four Golden Globe Awards for which it was nominated during the presentation ceremony on Sunday evening.
The screenplay, written by the uber-talented duo of Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, was probably the closest shot the film had of taking home an award. Critics were impressed at the crackling and engaging story that was crafted out of a story about statistics and otherwise dry numbers and sabermetrics. The voting members of the Hollywood Foreign Press (the governing body of the Golden Globes) probably would have been more impressed had they read the book that provided the source material. Regardless, the screenplay was up against that of Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, which is easily the best film that the prolific film icon has produced since the mid-1980s.
In the Best Supporting Actor category, Jonah Hill was always a long shot at best for his portrayal of the composite character of Peter Brand. This category was really a two-horse race between the critical favorite Albert Brooks for his villainous turn in Drive and Christopher Plummer appealing to the sympathy and nostalgia vote for the film Beginners. In the end, Plummer rode to victory on the strength of being Christopher Plummer, which few can find fault with.
For Best Performance in a Motion Picture -- Drama, the Best Actor award, Brad Pitt's turn as Billy Beane in Moneyball lost out to George Clooney, whose role in The Descendants has been fairly universally hailed as the performance of the year since the moment that film was released. Pitt probably had as close a shot at taking home the trophy as any of the other nominees, but this was a one-horse race.
In the Best Picture -- Drama category, The Descendants again took home the trophy. Between that film, a Martin Scorsese film (Hugo) and a Steven Spielberg film (War Horse) all being nominated in the same category, the Moneyball contingent probably could have packed it in early.
All in all, though, the film was definitely well-represented at the awards. Four nominations is nothing to sneeze at and it should pick up at least that many nominations when the nominees for the Academy Awards are announced. Moneyball has a far greater chance of taking home Oscars, since they include technical awards and the screenplay field is divided into original and adapted categories. At least in that instance, Moneyball will no longer be up against the formidable Woody Allen.