Scott's World -- UPI Arts & Entertainment

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- "Hooray for Hollyw ..." better make that "Hooray for Australia," whose sons and daughters carried off an armful of Golden Globe awards Sunday.

It was a Down Under celebration for the Australian film industry and its stars, with Baz Luhrmann winning the award for best director of a musical.

Tall, beautiful Nicole Kidman won the Globe for best actress in a comedy or musical for her seductive performance in "Moulin Rouge."

Russell Crowe, winner of the Academy Award for best actor last year playing the title role in "Gladiator," triumphed with a Golden Globe for best actor in "A Beautiful Mind."

Judy Davis won a Globe for best actress in a mini-series or motion picture made for television playing the role of Judy Garland in "Life With Judy Garland: Me and my Shadows."

Luhrmann won his award for best director of a musical or comedy for his dazzling magic in the plush, fast-paced "Moulin Rouge."

Appropriately, the final spokesman for the three-hour TV presentation of the 59th annual Golden Globes ceremony was former winner, superstar Mel Gibson.

And what did all these glittering movie celebrities have in common?

They are all Australians, each bursting with pride that their faraway country had so dominated a major show business awards presentations.

If, as Hollywood has long believed, the Golden Globes are a January bellwether of the March Academy Awards winners, then it would appear the Aussies will be heard from again when the Oscars are distributed in two months.

The front-runners would seem to be Crowe and Kidman for best actor and actress with Crowe almost a prohibitive favorite to repeat with an Oscar unless Tom Wilkinson ("In The Bedroom") upsets his apple cart.

Among the most significant auguries accruing from this year's Golden Globes was the absence of the year's two biggest Hollywood hits in the winner's circle.

Both of the most gaudy, magical movies of the special effects arts with epic scenes in magical settings forged from the largest budgets, failed to impress voting members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which sponsors the Globes.

Neither "The Lord of the Rings: Brotherhood of the Ring" nor "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" won any important awards at the presentations, which were televised by CBS at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

While both fantasy films continued their record-breaking box-office runs, buttressed by universal praise by critics, they did not cause much of a stir at the awards season's opening blast.

Clearly, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association favored substance over glitz and special effects.

Both Crowe and Sissy Spacek, who won for best actress in a motion picture drama ("In The Bedroom"), starred in heavy dramatic stories requiring both performers to portray deeply disturbed individuals struggling to maintain their sanity in tragic circumstances.

Gene Hackman, previous winner of a Globe, captured the award for best performance by an actor in a motion picture musical or comedy for his antics as the scatter-brained father in "The Royal Tenenbaums."

Jennifer Connelly, who grew up in Brooklyn, won the award for best supporting actress in "A Beautiful Mind," adding weight and beauty to Crowe's superlative performance.

Crowe acknowledged his appreciation for Connelly's performance in this landmark film, a study of hope and courage for the mentally disturbed.

In the most telling acceptance speech of the awards, Crowe said, "'A Beautiful Mind' is just a movie; just a piece of entertainment at the end of the day, folks.

"But hopefully it opens our hearts, gives us more understanding and compassion and the belief that in our lives something extraordinary can always happen."

His was a popular victory for one of the most subtle, substantive performances in screen history.

"A Beautiful Mind" is based on the life of John Forbes Nash Jr., a mathematics genius who won the Nobel Prize but who suffered from schizophrenia all his life.

Akiva Goldsman, who wrote the script for "A Beautiful Mind," won the Golden Globe for best screenplay of the year.

The motion picture academy, aware of the importance of the box office, has frequently rewarded low-budget movies that merit awards for excellence.

"Marty" in 1955 is an example.

While "A Beautiful Mind" may never attain the profits of the two Homeric fantasies of 2001, it may well win the Oscar for best picture.

It is an impactful human story that stays with an audience long after people leave the theaters. It certainly has established Russell Crowe among the screen's most versatile actors. From "Gladiator" to "A Beautiful Mind" in consecutive years is an awesome achievement.

As for winner Kidman, who may also be nominated for "The Others," hooray for Hollywood. It has produced another astonishing superstar who should give Julia Roberts a run for her money.