Well, the awards season is wrapping up, and the Golden Globes were first on the list. Ricky Gervais, the ceremony's first in 15 years, admitted that it is more of a party for the money-making freeloaders of Hollywood than an actual show. And in the end, the Hollwood Foreign Press Association showed their colors: they chose megahit Avatar as the best picture of the year and James Cameron as the best director. The same went for acting accolades: Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, and Robert Downey Jr. won for The Blind Side, Julie & Julia and Sherlock Holmes, respectively. The rest of the awards went to locks no matter how much of a crowd their film drew in: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart, Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds, and Mo'Nique for Precious. The Screen Actors Guild Awards the following weekend repeated the winners' successes, much to my chagrin. Let's see if the Oscar nominations next week reflect any impact from the Globes and SAG Awards.

As for new films, the 2010 Sundance Film Festival opened on Thursday, and I just thought I'd hash out summaries of the most anticipated films in a phrase or two: an anarchist (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) makes life for a grieving family even harder in Hesher; Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are a match made in indie heaven in Blue Valentine; Allen Ginsburg (James Franco) fights against obscenity charges in HOWL; Robert Duvall throws himself a funeral party in Get Low; Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) start the first teenage glam rock band in The Runaways; big-town sheriff Casey Affleck masks his murderous side in The Killer Inside Me; and John C. Reilly finds his budding romance with Marisa Tomei disrupted by her live-in son (Jonah Hill) in Cyrus.

And finally, we come to a sad note. Jean Simmons, the Oscar-nominated actress known for wowing critics early in her career and supporting major stars later on, passed away Friday from lung cancer at the age of 80. Simmons (no relation to the KISS singer) made a splash at an early age with featured roles in Great Expectations and Hamlet, but studio finagling and her contract's ownership by Howard Hughes (who prevented her from the lead in Roman Holiday) slowed her career's momentum. She rejected studios and became known as the romantic entanglement for Brando in Desiree and Guys and Dolls, Lancaster in Elmer Gantry, Peck in The Big Country and Douglas in Spartacus. She later shifted towards stage and television, content with life in Santa Monica. A recovering alcoholic, her stint in rehab was an encouragement to all movie stars with addictions that need breaking. Jean, you will be sorely missed.