The excitement surrounding Barbenheimer from the previous summer carried over to Sunday’s Golden Globes.
At the year’s first major awards ceremony, Barbie took home the best cinematic achievement award, Oppenheimer won best drama, and Yorgos Lanthimos’s eccentric comedy Poor Things was named best comedy.
International films Anatomy of a Fall and The Boy and the Heron also won awards, and the highly acclaimed TV shows Succession and The Bear and Beef emerged victorious in the television categories.
The 81st Golden Globes represented a welcome return
After an investigation by the Los Angeles Times in February 2021, the 81st Golden Globes represented a welcome return. The investigation found that there were multiple corruption concerns and a dearth of Black members in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is in charge of the Globes.
This three-hour event, held at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, marked a major turning point. It was the first event following the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s dissolution and sale to Dick Clark Productions and a private equity firm. The organization then experienced a change of heart and accepted a broad coalition of 300 foreign members from 76 different nations.
Jo Ko hosted the Golden Globes
Jo Koy, a comedian from the Philippines who was chosen at the last minute and announced two weeks prior to the ceremony, honored his pledge to host a ceremony free of controversy.
Unlike Jerrod Carmichael’s somewhat audacious hosting style from the year before, Koy avoided talking about politics and instead made light jokes about the nominees.
Among his lighthearted remarks were criticisms of Oppenheimer (“It needed another hour”), Robert DeNiro (“How’d you get her pregnant at 80? CGI?”), and Barbie’s transition from flawless beauty to less glamorous features (“The key moment in Barbie is when she goes from perfect beauty to bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet – or what casting directors call ‘character actor'”).
Barbie became the star of the evening
Taylor Swift, who was nominated for her wildly popular concert film, lost out to Barbie for the inaugural Oscar for cinematic and box office achievement. Barbie, the first film directed by a woman and to gross over $1 billion at the box office, took home the title.
Barbie star Margot Robbie dedicated the prize to everyone who dressed up and went to the movies, referring to theatres as the best place on earth. British comedian Ricky Gervais took home the best stand-up comedy performance on TV award of the evening for his special Armageddon.
Barbie, who received the most nominations (nine), won the Best Original Song award for her and her brother Finneas’s moving song “What Was I Made For?”.
Despite losing out in the best director and screenplay categories. The best comedy prize went to Poor Things, which shocked everyone. Emma Stone won Best Actress for her nontraditional coming-of-age performance as Bella Baxter.
Oppenheimer was the big winner of the evening
Oppenheimer was the big winner of the evening, taking home five awards, including Best Drama, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr., Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, and Best Score for Ludwig Göransson.
The best director for Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan, thought back on his acceptance of a Golden Globe for his work on The Dark Knight, which starred the late Heath Ledger.
Nolan stated that even though it seemed easier to accept the award for himself, he could only do so on behalf of everyone who worked on the project. He stressed the importance of directors in uniting people and inspiring them to perform to the best of their abilities.
One prize was given to Lily Gladstone for best actress in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, a major contender in the dramatic competition. Gladstone began her acceptance speech in Blackfeet, making history as the first Indigenous actor to be nominated in the category and to win it.
She thanked God that she could speak at least a little bit of her native tongue and brought attention to the custom of Native actors historically having their English lines performed backward as Native speech.
