It may yet fall short of triumph at the 2016 Oscars, despite star Vin Diesel’s confident position on the matter, but blockbuster street-racing sequel Fast and Furious 7 nevertheless found itself in pole position at the annual Golden Trailer awards last night, taking the top Best in Show prize.
James Wan’s film, which also took the award for best action movie, was rewarded for a trailer titled Family that was released in February. The near three-minute promo highlights new villain Jason Statham and flags up the fact that Fast & Furious 7 is the late Paul Walker’s “final ride” as Brian O’Conner. It also showcases some of the film’s more radical stunts, such as a scene in which Diesel “pilots” a sports car through a skyscraper.
Other big winners on the night included American Sniper and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, both of which took home five separate awards. More than 70 prizes were handed out during the ceremony at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, which has been running since 1999. Fast and Furious studio Universal emerged on top with 15 awards overall, followed by Warner Bros/HBO with 11 prizes, Disney and Lionsgate with nine each and Twentieth Century Fox with six.
Fast and Furious 7 recently overtook Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 to become the fourth highest-grossing movie of all time at the global box office, with $1.43bn on total receipts. The film has also benefited from positive reviews, and currently boasts an 82% “fresh” rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Starring series regulars Diesel, Walker and Dwayne Johnson with returning favourites Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Elsa Pataky and Lucas Black, the new film sees the crew facing off against Statham’s British ex-special forces bad guy Deckard Shaw.
The full list of winners can be found here.
