Two wildly audacious films — Brady Corbet’s 215-minute postwar epic “The Brutalist” and Jacques Audiard’s Spanish language, genre-shifting trans musical “Emilia Perez” — won top honors at the 82nd Golden Globes on Sunday.
The Globes, which are still finding their footing after years of scandal and makeover, scattered awards around to a number of films. But the awards group put its strongest support behind a pair of movies that sought to be unlike anything else.
“The Brutalist” was crowned best film, drama, putting one of 2024’s most ambitious films on course to be a major contender at the Academy Awards. The film, shot in VistaVision and released with an intermission, also won best director for Corbet and best actor for Adrien Brody.
“I was told that this film was un-distributable,” said Corbet. “No one was asking for a three-and-half-hour film about a mid-century designer in 70mm. But it works.”
“Emilia Perez” won best film, comedy or musical, elevating the Oscar chances of Netflix’s top Oscar contender. It also won best supporting actress for Zoe Saldaña, best song (“El Mal”) and best non-English language film. Karla Sofia Gascon, the film’s transgender star who plays a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender-affirming surgery, spoke for the film.
“The light always wins over darkness,” said Gascon, gesturing to her brightly orange dress. “You can maybe put us in jail. You can beat us up. But you never can take away our soul or existence or identity.”
“I am who I am. Not who you want.”
The night’s big actor winners included some surprises. One shocker was Moore’s win for best actress in a comedy or musical. Her comeback performance in “The Substance,” about a Hollywood star who resorts to an experimental process to regain her youth, landed the 62-year-old Moore her first Globe — a victory that came over the heavily favored Mikey Madison of “Anora.”
“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 by the Globes for a film role in 1991 for “Ghost.” “Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a popcorn actress.”
Best actress, in a drama film, was a surprise, too. The Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres won for her performance in “I’m Still Here,” a based-on-a-true-story drama about a family living through the disappearance of political dissident Rubens Paiva in 1970s Rio de Janeiro.
Best supporting actor in a musical or comedy went to Sebastian Stan for another movie about physical transformation: “A Different Man,” in which Stan plays a man with a deformed face who’s healed. Stan, who was also nominated for playing Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” noted that both films were hard to get made.
“These are tough subject matters but these films are real and they’re necessary,” said Stan. “But we can’t be afraid and look away.”
Glaser lightly roasts the Globes
Comedian Nikki Glaser kicked off the Globes, with a promise: “I’m not here to roast you.”
But Glaser, a stand-up whose breakthrough came in a withering roast of Tom Brady, made her way around the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on Sunday picking out plenty of targets in an opening monologue she had worked out extensively in comedy clubs beforehand.
While Glaser might not have reached Tina Fey and Amy Poehler levels of laughs, the monologue was mostly a winner, and a dramatic improvement over last year’s host, Jo Koy. Last year’s Globes, following a diversity and ethics scandal that led to the dissolution of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, were widely panned, but delivered where it counted. Ratings rebounded to about 10 million viewers, according to Nielsen. CBS, who waded in after NBC dumped the Globes, signed up for five more years.
Hosting the Globes two weeks before the inauguration of Donald Trump, 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,” said Glaser. “But it’s OK, you’ll get ’em next time … if there is one. I’m scared.”
The Globes are now owned by Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions, which acquired the award show from the now defunct Hollywood Foreign Press Association. After diversity and ethics scandals, the HFPA sold off the Globes and dissolved. However, more than a dozen former HFPA members are seeking to have the sale to Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions rescinded.
A win for ‘Wicked’
The Globes’ award for cinematic and box-office achievement went to Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked,” which has nearly collected $700 million in theaters. In a heavily arthouse Oscar field, “Wicked” is easily the biggest hit seen as having a chance to win best picture. Accepting the award, Chu argued for “a radical act of optimism” in art.
Though few film awards have been predictable this season, Kieran Culkin is emerging as the clear favorite for best supporting actor. Culkin won Sunday for his performance in Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” his second Globe in the past year following a win for the HBO series “Succession.” He called the Globes “basically the best date night that my wife and I ever have,” and then thanked her for “putting up what you call my mania.”
The papal thriller “Conclave” took best screenplay, for Peter Straughan’s script. “Flow,” the wordless Latvian animated parable about a cat in a flooded world, took best animated film, winning over studio blockbusters like “Inside Out 2” and “The Wild Robot.” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won best score for their thumping music for “Challengers.”
TV prizes
Most of the TV winners were oft-awarded series, including the Emmy champ “Shogun.” It won four awards, including best drama series and acting wins for Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai and Tadanobu Asano. Other repeat winners were: “Hacks” (best comedy series, actress for Jean Smart), “The Bear” (Jeremy Allen White for best actor) and “Baby Reindeer” (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.”
“I guess it’s prosthetics from here on out,” said Farrell.
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