'Green Book' by Writing Alumnus Peter Farrelly '86 Wins Three Golden Globes
At the 76th Golden Globe Awards, two films by Alumni were nominated, Green Book, directed and co-written by writing alumnus Peter Farrelly '86 and Ralph Breaks the Internet co-directed and co-written by film alumnus Phil Johnston '04.
Green Book received five nominations including Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. The film went home with three awards, Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture given to Mahershala Ali, and Best Screenplay, Motion Picture.
Green Book is a dramedy “about a tour of the Deep South in the 1960s by African-American classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) and Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), an Italian-American bouncer who served as Shirley's driver and bodyguard,” according to the film’s description. The film is named after The Negro Motorist Green Book, a mid-20th century guidebook for African-American travelers, written by Victor Hugo Green to help them find motels and restaurants that would accept them. The film premiered at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival where it won the People’s Choice Award and was released theatrically in the US by Universal Pictures in November 2018.
Green Book received a four star review from the Washington Post, which calls the film a “rare Hollywood crowd-pleaser that triumphs on all counts.” The film also garnered praise in the Rolling Stone, who called it a “timely feel-good movie.”
Peter Farrelly is a producer, writer and director known for comedies such as There’s Something About Mary and Dumb and Dumber. In a recent LA Times interview Farrelly said of Green Book “I hope it's a movie that can in some small way incrementally move the needle in the right direction in [terms of] race relations in this country.”
Ralph Breaks the Internet, by Film Alumnus Phil Johnston, received a nomination for Best Motion Picture - Animated.
Ralph Breaks the Internet was released nationwide by Walt Disney Studios on November 5. The film voiced by Sarah Silverman as Vanellope and John C. Reilly as Ralph, is about a villain from an imaginary 1982 game, Ralph - the hero, who is introduced to cyberspace. As described by The Guardian, which gave the film a four-star rating, “Ralph and Vanellope must find a replacement part for her game – and avoid being sabotaged by a virus that replicates its victims’ insecurities.” Ralph Breaks the Internet is a New York Times Critic's Pick and labels the film as an “incisive satire” while Variety calls it “an ambitious, all-around-satisfying sequel.”
Phil Johnston is a writer, producer and director known for Zootopia (2016) which won the “Best Animated Feature” Oscar in 2017, and Wreck it Ralph(2012) which was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category. Johnston was named one of Variety’s 10 screenwriters to watch in 2009. He worked as a journalist in Omaha, Nebraska before deciding to pursue an MFA at Columbia.
The Golden Globes Award ceremony took place January 6, 2019, 5:00 PM PST.