Canadian viewers who follow the careers of our Northern stars had lots of reasons to watch and were rewarded when Montreal-born Jason Reitman was given the award for best screenplay. Sharing the honour with co-writer Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air, Reitman thanked his family and had both mom and dad in the audience to cheer him on.

Other nominees in the category included the moving war drama The Hurt Locker from screenwriter Mark Boal, Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, the charming love story for the Cialis Generation, It's Complicated and the sci-fi feature District 9 from writers Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell. Up in the Air despite a total of six nominations including Best Actor (George Clooney) and two Best Supporting Actress nominations for Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, would, by the end of the night, receive just the one Golden Globe Award.

There was some tension later in the proceedings when the Best Director category was announced. Reitman and James Cameron had been nominated, which just might be the first time that two Canadian-born directors had faced off in such a high profile category. Also in the running were Clint Eastwood for Invictus, Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker and Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds. The heavy money was on Avatar and James Cameron was gracious and low-key in his acceptance speech.

Like all such awards shows, the big prize is the Best Picture award and the same films that had dominated most of the night were vying again for the most coveted Golden Globe. The five nominated films were The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire, Up in the Air and Avatar, which was given the Golden Globe. No one in the room seemed surprised when Julia Roberts made the announcement and once again, Cameron seemed genuinely grateful thanking the large contingent of people who had worked for years on the film. It was fun to see him wield a bit of that old-fashioned Hollywood power when he ordered the orchestra not to cut him off if he went on too long. They didn't, but he kept his remarks short anyway.

It wasn't a sweep for Avatar by any stretch of the imagination. It had been nominated in only four categories, losing out to the Pixar animated film Up in the Best Original Score category and to Crazy Heart for Best Original Song.

The Golden Globe Awards often foreshadow how the Academy Awards® will unfold, but there is no guarantee. Some years the Oscars® have mirrored the Golden Globes and in other years the hopes of Golden Globe winners have been dashed when the Academy Awards were announced. Nominations for the Academy Awards will be made this coming Saturday, January 23rd.