Well, folks, it’s that time of year once again! The end of 2023 means that award season is officially in full swing. And like any year, The Golden Globes are the first to kick things off. The show was held on January 7th and had some great, but also not-so-great moments. Want to find out what they are? Well then, Trill has got you covered.
The Golden Globes have had a pretty notable past few years. They were bought by Dick Clark Productions last summer, and its voting body is now made up of 300 entertainment journalists from all around the world. And thankfully, the newly-diverse membership was reflected in the winners in more ways than one.
But, as always, the show wasn’t perfect. Before we get into all that, though, let’s talk about some of the best moments from the Golden Globes.
Highs: Oppenheimer, Succession, and Lily Gladstone
By the end of the Golden Globes, Oppenheimer reigned supreme with the most awards, taking home five in total. The film won Best Score and Best Drama Motion Picture. Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy won their respective categories, and Christopher Nolan won his first-ever Golden Globe for Best Director.
Oppenheimer is clearly starting off the season very strong. Will this momentum last through to the Oscars in March? We’ll have to wait and see.
On the television side, Succession picked up four wins in total for the show’s final season. Matthew Macfadyen won Best Supporting Actor, Sarah Snook won Best Drama Actress, and the show itself went on to win Best Drama Series.
Kieran Culkin also won Best Drama Actor for his role as Roman Roy in Succession. His speech gave us one of the funniest moments of the night, in which he spotted his fellow nominee Pedro Pascal in the crowd and said, “suck it, Pedro. . . It’s mine.”
And finally, one of the last awards of the night was Best Drama Actress, which went to Lily Gladstone for her role as Molly Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon. Gladstone became the first person of Native descent to win a Golden Globe, and she opened by speaking a bit of the Blackfeet language.
She went on to talk about her Indigenous heritage, and the pride she holds towards it as a performer. She dedicated her award to, “Every little res kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream.”
So, the Golden Globes had some great moments overall, especially when it came to the winners. And yet, there was one massive low point that almost put a damper on the rest of the show.
Lows: Jo Koy’s Opening Monologue
Stand-up comedian Jo Koy was selected to host The Golden Globes this year. Hosting one of these awards shows is no small feat, and the reactions from the crowd can be pretty brutal. And while Koy’s opening monologue started fine enough, things quickly plummeted when he made some below-average jokes about Taylor Swift and two of the highest-grossing movies of last year.
Koy first took shots at Oppenheimer’s lengthy runtime (a silly joke, really — Killers of the Flower Moon is a whole 30 minutes longer). If that wasn’t bad enough, he then went on to say that Barbie was a movie about a doll with big boobs. The camera immediately cuts to Greta Gerwig with a sour look on her face, and rightfully so.
Fortunately for us, and I’m sure everyone else in the room, Koy didn’t do many other bits throughout the rest of the show. This brings us to some of the biggest WTF moments from the Golden Globes.
WTFs: Anatomy of a Fall and The Boy and the Heron Win Major Awards
The first big shock of the night came when Anatomy of a Fall won Best Screenplay, beating out strong contenders like Barbie and Past Lives.
Anatomy of a Fall is a French film directed by Justine Triet that’s been generating a lot of buzz in recent months. So, keep an eye out: a screenplay win at the Golden Globes might just indicate some major love for it later in the season.
Another big surprise came in the Animated Feature category. Many critics were predicting this to be an easy win for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which was one of the highest-grossing movies of 2023.
The award ended up going to The Boy and the Heron, the newest movie from Studio Ghibli. The Boy and the Heron has been riding a steady wave since its release in December. Will it end up beating Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse for the Oscar? Who knows, but it’s officially looking to be a tight race between the two for the win.
So, there you have it: all the big moments from the 2024 Golden Globes. This awards season is already looking to be one for the books. Let’s only hope it continues through the Emmys and Oscars in the coming months.
