Golden Globes offer plenty of surprises and some disappointment
Jan 06, 2025, updated Jan 06, 2025
The Golden Globes offered surprises, nostalgia and plenty of disappointment for Australia’s nominees.
While movies The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez shaped as leading Oscars contenders by dominating their categories, the historical drama Shogun led the TV winners.
Australia’s Guy Pearce, a star of The Brutalist missed out on a best supporting actor award to Kieran Culkin for A Real Pain.
Two other Aussies – Cate Blanchett, nominated for her role in Apple TV thriller Disclaimer, and Naomi Watts for the series Feud: Capote vs The Swans – also missed out.
And while Nicole Kidman earned a special mention for her prolific 2024 in host Nikki Glaser opening, she also missed out on a best actress award for Babygirl.
The Brutalist, a 215-minute postwar epic, was crowned best drama putting one of 2024’s most ambitious films on course to be a major contender at the Academy Awards.
The Brutalist also won best director for Bradey Corbet and best actor for Adrian Brody. The film, about a Jewish artist in the aftermath of World War II, bears similarities to Brody’s most renown film, The Pianist.
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The Brutalist could earn Brody another Oscar. Photo: AAP
Genre-shifting trans musical Emilia Pérez won best film, comedy or musical, handing Jacques Audiard’s movie a major prize and elevating the Oscar chances of Netflix’s top Oscar contender.
Emilia Pérez also won best supporting actress for Zoe Saldaña, best song (El Mal) and best non-English language film. French director Audiard said through an interpreter that he hoped the film is “a beacon of light” in dark times.
Perhaps one of the major surprises of the awards came for Demi Moore, who claimed best actress in a comedy or musical for the satirical horror movie The Substance.
“I’m just in shock right now. I’ve been doing this a long time, like over 45 years, and this is the first thing I’ve ever won as an actor,” said Moore, who was last nominated for a movie Globe in 1991 for Ghost.
“Thirty years ago I had a producer tell me that I was a popcorn actress,” she added.
A shocked Moore proved she is more than a ‘popcorn actor’. Photo: AAP
Best actress in a drama film was a surprise, with Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres claiming the award for her performance in I’m Still Here based-on-a-true-story about a family living through the disappearance of a political dissident in 1970s Rio de Janeiro.
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Best supporting actor in a musical or comedy went to Sebastian Stan for A Different Man.
Comedian Glaser kicked off the Globes, with a promise: “I’m not here to roast you.”
But Glaser picked out plenty of targets in an opening monologue she had worked out extensively in comedy clubs beforehand.
Just two weeks before the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president, Glaser reserved perhaps her most cutting line for the whole room of Hollywood stars.
“You could really do anything… except tell the country who to vote for,” she Glaser.
“But it’s OK, you’ll get ’em next time … if there is one. I’m scared.”
The Golden Globe for cinematic and box-office achievement went to Wicked, which has collected almost US$700 million ($1.1 billion) in box-office takings.
The papal thriller Conclave took best screenplay, while Flow, a Latvian animated parable about a cat in a flooded world, took best animated film over studio blockbusters like Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot.
Shogun dominates
Historical tv drama Shogun won four awards, including best drama series and acting wins for Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai and Tadanobu Asano.
The series Hacks claimed best comedy series and a a best actress award for star Jean Smart.
The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White won best actor and Netfliz sensation Baby Reindeer earned best limited series.
Ali Wong won for best stand-up performance, Jodie Foster for True Detective and Colin Farrell for his physical transformation in The Penguin.