Sunday night’s Golden Globes Awards were a delicious mix of expected (but still awesome!) wins — from Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldaña to “Shōgun” and “Baby Reindeer” — and genuine (and really fun!) surprises. Besides serving as a reminder of what a relief it is when the show has a terrific host, which Nikki Glaser turned out to be, the Globes featured upsets in film and television, with veterans Demi Moore and Colin Farrell won awards while “Anora” and “Le Robot Sauvage” went home empty-handed. Several winners expressed shock in their speeches, such as “I’m Still Here” star Fernanda Torres and “Emilia Pérez” director Jacques Audiard. With awards for Best Drama, Best Director and Actor in a Drama Series, “The Brutalist” has become more or less the favorite this awards season.
Of course, what these surprises will mean for awards season as a whole remains to be seen – there’s no real overlap between memberships at the Globes and Oscars – although some of the best speeches, as always, may have an effect on voters, even if they would never wish it to. to admit it. Oh, and Variety parent company PMC owns Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Prods. in a joint venture with Eldridge.
Fernanda Torres surprises everyone with an acting win in a drama
The shock of the evening was Fernanda Torres’ easy victory for her performance in “I’m Still Here,” playing a woman who must endure the disappearance of her husband during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Torres’ understated, deeply moving work in the film stands out from that of her fellow nominees: Angelina Jolie sings opera in “Maria”! Nicole Kidman reveals all in “Babygirl”! – all of which, as presenter Viola Davis said, are iconic in their own right. This year’s Best Actress race is incredibly crowded, and Torres’ win here (a surprise to almost everyone except VarietyPrices Editor Clayton Davis makes this race even more exciting.
The musical or comedy category surprises with victories for Demi Moore and Sebastian Stan
In one of the most fun — and rewarding — surprises of the night, Demi Moore beat out presumptive frontrunners Cynthia Erivo and Mikey Madison for her role in the body horror shocker “The Substance.” In her emotional speech, Moore said that in her decades-long career, this was the first time she had won Nothing for his acting, and went on to say that a producer had told her earlier in her career that she was a “popcorn actress”, which had always made her think she was limited in her choices. But that producer was dead wrong — as anyone who saw Moore’s superb performance in writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s film knows. In “The Substance,” Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging actress who, in desperation, takes extreme measures to… well, you just have to see the movie to believe it! The best actress category is extremely competitive this year, but Moore may have given the kind of speech that guarantees her an Oscar nomination.
Immediately after Moore’s victory, Sebastian Stan was invited on stage to accept his performance in “A Different Man,” in which Stan plays a neurotic actor with neurofibromatosis, a disfiguring disease, who undergoes an experimental procedure that cures him so completely that he ends up finding himself. resembling the Winter Soldier. Most experts considered Stan a dark horse in this category, with Jesse Eisenberg being the leading contender for his moving performance in his film “A Real Pain.” But Stan was double nominated this year — he shouted out his other film, the Donald Trump biographical drama “The Apprentice” — so maybe that put him over the top.
“Emilia Pérez” beats “Anora” and “Wicked” for musical/comedy
In one of the most open categories of an extraordinarily open awards season, “Emilia Pérez” ended up dancing with the top Golden Globe for best musical or comedy. Even though the unconventional operetta — about a Mexican cartel leader (candidate Karla Sofía Gascón) who becomes a woman after undergoing gender-affirming surgery — is the most nominated musical in history of the Globes, his victory here was by no means guaranteed. The stripper comedy-drama “Anora” has been wowing audiences since winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival; hit Broadway musical adaptation “Wicked” has been setting box office records for weeks; the dark satire “The Substance” became one of the biggest word-of-mouth hits of the season; and the poignant “A Real Pain” charmed just about everyone who saw it. (It says a lot about this year’s crop of contenders that Luca Guadagnino’s electrifying “Challengers” is also featured here, pretty much only because it opened in April.)
In the end, “Pérez” topped all the competition, and its several wins – supporting actress, original song and non-English film in addition to best comedy or musical – officially placed the Netflix film at the forefront of awards season.
“Wicked” achieves only box office success
“Wicked” is in many ways the movie of the year, in that it was a huge box office success, a critically acclaimed awards season movie and a galvanizing cultural event. And although director Jon M. Chu was overlooked for his work, the Globes voting body nominated the film for four awards, with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande represented in the actress and supporting actress categories, and the film himself being nominated in the two best categories. musical or comedy and the new category of box office achievements. And ultimately the box office success story is the Golden Globe Award that “Wicked” wins – beating out Ryan Reynolds’ “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which was the favorite – as awards season kicks into high gear.
“Anora” wins nothing at all
Premiering tonight at the Globes, “Anora” was the only film among the top nominees to win a major film award, namely the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. With the nominees for film (musical/comedy), director, actress, supporting actor and screenplay, most were expecting a sparkling, deeply felt comedy-drama – about what happens to the dancer titular exotic sex worker (Mikey Madison) when she gets sucked into the extravagant lifestyle of a Russian oligarch’s spoiled son (Mark Eydelshteyn) — would at least win something. Instead, “Anora” was the hottest candidate to go home empty-handed.
Colin Farrell ices ‘Baby Reindeer’ star Richard Gadd With Win for “The Penguin”
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association. may have been dismantled after its various scandals and secret corruption were exposed by the Los Angeles Times, but some of the weirdness of the vote endured — and fun it is! In this case, Colin Farrell scored a win for HBO’s “The Batman” offshoot, “The Penguin.” Farrell played Oswald Cobb under layers of prosthetics, which didn’t stop him from delivering a surprisingly heartbreaking performance as Oz rose to the top of Gotham’s criminal underworld, at great cost. Farrell’s victory kept the Emmy winner “Baby Reindeer” from taking home the title, although Richard Gadd’s limited series won the series and supporting actress categories, in which Jessica Gunning won. was rewarded for her portrayal of the stalker Martha.
Tadanobu Asano of “Shōgun” stands out in the supporting actor competition
For his stunning performance as the opportunistic warlord Yabushige, Japanese star Tadanobu Asano lost the dramatic supporting actor race at the Emmys in September, even as “Shōgun” dominated that night. But facing formidable competition at the Globes — including Ebon Moss-Bachrach of “The Bear,” who won the Emmy for supporting actor in comedy — he scored a surprise win in that category, which includes drama , comedies and limited shows. And he seemed delighted during his speech, even introducing himself to the audience: “Maybe you don’t know me. I’m a Japanese actor and my name is Tadanobu Asano! » Maybe there is a way to bring back Yabushige for season 2? Come on, creators of “Shōgun”!
Ali Wong beats Jamie Foxx, Adam Sandler and Globes host Nikki Glaser in the New-ish TV Stand-up category
This is only the second year this category has recognized stand-up specials as its own category — Ricky Gervais won last year — so there isn’t much precedent to follow. That said, even Ali Wong seemed surprised to win for her Netflix special “Ali Wong: Single Lady” over several heavy hitters, particularly Jamie Foxx for “Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…” – who offered his first comments public information about stroke. he suffered in 2023. The evening’s host, Nikki Glaser, was also one of the favorites to win for her HBO special “Nikki Glaser: Someday You’ll Die,” but she got the last (literally) laugh . “I might not have won tonight,” Glaser said. “But on the bright side, I just bet $11,000 on Ali Wong on a European gambling site.”
