Takeaways from the Golden Globes 2024

original-written date: 1/6/25

The Golden Globes aired on Sunday January 5, giving us our first preview of Awards season before the Oscars on March 2nd.  The show itself was about what I expected - far too many commercials, lots of tears, awkward interactions, and lots of too-long acceptance speeches.  Here I will break down my biggest takeaways from the night, as well as my winners and losers and what these results mean going into the Oscars in a couple months.

Let Nikki Glaser Host Every Year

As a St. Louisan myself, perhaps I’m biased on the subject. But Nikki Glaser crushed her monologue last night and had a handful of funny moments in between (Albeit a bit cheesy, I liked the Pope-ular bit). I’m a Ricky Gervais Stan and think he’s the best awards show host of all time (go watch all his Golden Globes monologues if you don’t believe, he’s hysterical and pushes the envelope), but he’s not coming back and Nikki Glaser was fantastic filling the void. They should bring her back every year until she inevitably offends the wrong person and gets blacklisted. 

Emilia Perez Makes Waves

I anticipated there being a really good chance of Zoe Saldana bringing home the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture (despite picking Ariana Grande to win it - I thought the category was weak enough elsewhere and more people would prefer Wicked to Emilia Perez).  What I didn’t expect was for this trainwreck of a movie to win the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Comedy/Musical. The signs were there, it’s done well in the Oscars and BAFTA shortlists, but I truly saw nothing competing with Anora and Wicked. When it won for International Feature, the bread crumbs were being dropped for this win. So whether this is an indication for what’s to come in The Oscars, I’m not sure. But it’s extremely surprising to me that a divisive movie where the majority of people and sources I trust do not like it, and don’t know the meaning of it, can beat out critical darlings like Wicked and Anora. 

The Brutalist Surges

Another big winner last night was Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist. The 3 ½ hour epic about an immigrant coming to America chasing that “American Dream,” clearly resonated with the 300 voters tasked with giving out these awards.  They won the 3/4 majors - Best Director, Best Male Actor (Adrien Brody), and Best Picture Drama.  Best Drama wasn’t a hugely competitive field, but Conclave had a strong case after winning Best Screenplay, having a very likeable cast including Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow, and having an objectively-compelling case as a movie lots of people saw in theaters with a big twist in the story.  But it’s fun to see a Director in Brady Corbet, who’s never won an award at the Globes or Oscars, who made this movie on less than a $10 million budget, and essentially had full creative control over his vision.  And I love Adrien Brody, so I was very happy to see him win (Despite picking Timothee Chalamet to win it for his Bob Dylan embodiment). 

The Biggest Surprises

To me, there were 2 shocking wins in the Best Actor/Actress categories (aka not including Emilia Perez’s win for Best Picture).  Fernanda Torres took home the Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her role in I’m Still Here, which was an utter shock to me.  I didn’t see this film, I didn’t even know who Torres was before they announced her name. And despite the weakness of the category as a whole, I never saw this coming. 

The other shocker to me was Sebastian Stan’s win for A Different Man.  Another category that was weaker on paper than others, but there were standouts like Hugh Grant (Heretic), Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain, where Kieran Culkin was honored in Supporting), and Glen Powell (Hitman, my pick to win). But despite my love for Glen Powell and wanting him to win so badly, I’m really happy for Stan. He was nominated for this film and as lead actor in The Apprentice - two very divisive films that critics and media didn’t want to talk about for very different reasons. But after Stan’s been essentially black-balled by other actors for taking the role in The Apprentice, and taking a role in which he’d be in severe prosthetics about a man with neurofibromatosis, I think he is so deserving of this win. 

The Expected Winners

For the movie categories, there weren’t many clear-cut winners that could be predicted before the show began. However, one that I think I and many others foresaw was Kieran Culkin winning for Best Supporting Actor in A Real Pain.  Ever since season 1 of Succession I’ve been closely following Culkin and have had this one marked for a long time as a movie I’m pumped to see.  He’s unlike most other actors with his approach to the work - seeing him and Succession co-star Jeremy Strong’s differing styles is so fascinating to me.  Strong, known for being near-method if not fully, throws himself into every role he plays and is very meticulous in his approach to each character.  Culkin is much more relaxed, free-flowing approach in which he memorizes his lines quickly and disappears into the scene. Jesse Eisenberg, the director and co-star of A Real Pain, noted it was difficult at times to work with him because he didn’t take feedback/criticism well.  He’s unable to take a note on what he just did in a scene because he himself doesn’t know what he did.  It’s absolutely fascinating to me, and it reflects in his roles.  And clearly whatever he's doing works, because people love him. I also expected to see Conclave win in best screenplay as the only film with a true twist and the most plot-on-page script. I didn’t necessarily expect Challengers to win for Best Original Score - especially going against big dogs like Hans Zimmer for Dune Part Two and Blumberg for The Brutalist, but was very happy they did. I think they had the most unique and best-sounding score this year. 

Shogun Sweep

I did a much better job predicting the television awards at this year’s Golden Globes, and a large part of that was simply riding Shogun in every nomination they received.  No disrespect to the other shows nominated in the Drama categories, but it wasn’t a fair fight this year. Shogun was the Yankees and the rest of the nominees were AA minor league teams.  Among the winners this incredible show brought home were Best Drama TV Series, Best Actress in a Drama Series (Anna Sawai, aka Mother), Actor in a Drama Series (Hiroyuki Sanada), and Male Actor in a Supporting Role (Tadanobu Asano).  These are all incredibly well-deserved awards for the best show of 2024 by a landslide - a show so good that the network begged them to create a 2nd season despite it being intended to be a limited series.

The Bear’s 3rd Season Reflected 

FX’s The Bear is inarguably one of the best TV shows of the 2020’s if not the best.  The Golden Globe and Emmy results of the past couple years reflect that reputation - they’ve won bundles of awards since their debut season in 2022 including 3 wins for Jeremy Alan White for Lead Actor, Ayo Adebiri for lead actress, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Liza Colon-Zayas for Supporting actor/actress, and Best/Outstanding Comedy for the Globes and Emmys. This year - with their 3rd season as the consideration, they walked away with just one win (JAW for Male Lead Actor).  I think this is a fair reflection for what is widely considered the weakest of the 3 seasons of The Bear. I also think it’s difficult to evaluate this show in the comedy category because there are clearly a lot of dramatic themes and deeper meanings than in most comedies. But I’m glad Hacks got their much deserved award as Best Comedy, and it was good to see Jean Smart recognized. 

Controversial Results in MiniSeries 

I have some pretty strong feelings about how the miniseries/TV movie results played out. As much as I personally enjoyed Ripley (and Andrew Scott in general, guy rocks), it was a two horse race between Baby Reindeer and The Penguin for Best Limited Series.  Baby Reindeer deservingly won for what I think is a much more daring, risky, compelling project despite it’s dark subject material as opposed to a comic book show (One I liked very much, but is not close to the achievement that is Baby Reindeer).  Jessica Gunning was recognized as the winner of Supporting Actress across all TV categories, rightfully so as she was incredible in this show.  And I was happy for Colin Ferrell (and The Penguin as a whole for being recognized) getting the nod for Best Actor in a Limited Series, even if it meant Richard Gadd had to lose (he got his moment as creator of Baby Reindeer when it won Best Limited Series).  What I take issue with is Jodie Foster winning Best Actress in a Limited Series.  True Detective: Night Country is a truly bad show. The first episode was kind of interesting, the rest was terrible. Jodie Foster was the best part of it, but that’s like giving the MVP award to Cam Thomas averaging 25 points on a 20-62 Nets team.  Cristin Milioti deserved to win by a landslide, and if not her Sofia Vergara or Cate Blanchett.  This was a travesty and made me so angry while watching.

Winners of the Night

• Demi Moore: crushed her speech and is making herself a better case for the Oscars. Wasn’t someone I considered to win her category and will likely become the odds-on favorite in March.

• Zoe Saldana: if she was going to lose one of these races, it would’ve been at the Globes. Her win cements her winning at the Oscars to me.

• The Brutalist: it’s only recently released in theaters, so there was a lot of mystery surrounding how it would do.  Sweeping the 3 majors at the Globes is a strong sign going into the Oscars - I especially could have seen Chalamet or Fiennes beating out Brody for Best Actor, now with two more months for people to see The Brutalist, I imagine he’s going to lock this up at The Oscars.

• Richard Gadd: He had the best speech of the night by far in my opinion when they won Best Limited Series, and I hope this isn’t a one-hit-wonder situation and he’s able to sustain this success.

• Shogun: Obviously, it won every important award it was nominated for. Best show of the year and it’s not remotely close.

• Emilia Perez: had several wins throughout the night which, in theory, is a sign of success to come at the Oscars.  I don’t understand it, I don’t support it, and I whole-heartedly hope it doesn’t win another Best Picture at the Oscars (it won’t).

• Nikki Glaser: crushed it as host 

• Michael Keaton: quick and to the point doing his presenting. King shit.

• Jennifer Coolidge: Crushed her presentation as well.

Losers of the Night

• Anora: was utterly shocking to see Anora strikeout. Maybe it’s a lack of campaigning (which is stupid, you shouldn’t have to vouch for yourself when everyone that sees your movie loves it) or maybe it’s lack of well-known names, but it’s disgusting to see a great movie like this lose everything.

• Timothee Chalamet: Really really thought he’d win Best Actor at the Globes.  He campaigned well, he was great by all accounts in the film, and he still couldn’t beat out Brody.  I think the winds left his sails and The Oscar buzz for Lisan Al-Gaib may die out.

• Wicked: Yes, it won the Box Office Achievement Award, essentially a participation ribbon like they gave Barbie the previous year. 

• Conclave: Only win was best screenplay, lost all major actor/director/picture categories. I still think it has legs for The Oscars, but needs to campaign/market it better and get more eyeballs.

• Dune Part Two: I think recency bias and the fact that it’s a sequel took away from what a great movie this was. I think Denis Villenuve got screwed out of a Director nomination, I think they had a case for score, and got no actor nominations.

• Ralph Fiennes: not that he was a favorite to win Best Actor, but he certainly had a good case. And I fear he will fall to 3rd fiddle behind Chalamet and Brody going into The Oscars race if Conclave doesn’t start getting more love.