Millions of individuals gazed on from their living rooms to the TV, hoping to see their favorite celebrities grace the runway of the 2024 Golden Globes. Others hoped to see their favorite nominated actor or actress win their category or musicians win for their music used in nominated shows and films. This year’s award show was full of wins predicted by the press for certain categories, while some underdogs took the victory.
To start with the victories in the movie categories, the coupling of Barbie and Oppenheimer has stayed on track with the former winning Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and the latter winning Best Drama Motion Picture. The song composed for Barbie by famous songwriting duo Billie Eilish and her brother Phinneas entitled “What Was I Made For” won Best Original Song in a Motion Picture, inching the young musician further into the limelight of Hollywood at the young age of 22.
The absurdist film Poor Things won Best Musical or Comedy Motion Picture with its main actress Emma Stone winning Actress in a Musical or Comedy Motion Picture. Like Emma Stone, Paul Giamatti won the Actor’s Award for his work in The Holdovers. Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for her part in The Holdovers opposite Paul Giamatti.
Giving more praise to Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan won the Best Director of a Motion Picture award. In addition, main actor Cillian Murphy and supporting actor Robert Downey Jr. won their respective awards. Getting the film to a total of 5 Golden Globes was the film’s original score, composed by Ludwig Goransson. The French film Anatomy of a Fall earned Best Screenplay of a Motion Picture and Best Foreign Language Film, beating out many popular contenders.
Winning Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture award was Lily Gladstone, starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Killers of a Flower Moon. In her acceptance speech, Gladstone spoke in the native Blackfoot language, showing off her Indigenous heritage while she made history, being the first Indigenous person to win the award. In 2024, Gladstone will star in the TV miniseries Under the Bridge, a story about the character Reena Virk as she is thrown into a world filled with dark secrets and accused teenage murderers.
Beating viral movies like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the Studio Ghibli film The Boy and the Heron won best-animated motion picture.
As for the television categories, shows like The Bear, Succession, and Beef each took home many awards, with their actors getting praise for their outstanding performances. The Bear won Best Musical or Comedy Television Series with its very own Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri winning Best Performance by a Male and Female actor in a Musical or Comedy Television Series, respectively.
In the drama category for Best Television Series, Succession earned an award. At the same time, both Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin won best performances by both a male and female actor for a Drama television series. Matthew Macfadyen won best performance by a male actor in a supporting role on television for his role as Tom Wambsgan in Succession, giving the show 4 awards by the end of the night.
Telling the story of two strangers getting into a road rage accident, sowing chaos into their lives, Netflix’s Beef won Best Television Limited Series. Steven Yeun and Ali Wong won their respective categories for their performances in Beef, tying them with The Bear for awards that night. Rounding out the awards, Ricky Gervais won for his performance in Stand Up Comedy on Television with his show entitled Ricky Gervais: Armageddon.
While the movies and TV shows of the night were praised for their entertainment, opinions on Jo Koy’s hosting were divided. Although some people enjoyed his easy-going humor, others thought his jokes were uninspiring. It turned out to be a memorable night for all the wrong reasons when several of his jokes failed, gaining second-hand embarrassment from those in the crowd and many watching at home. Koy joked about Taylor Swift and her relationship with NFL star Travis Kelce saying The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” getting no reaction from the singer other than her sipping her drink. Another joke he made seemed to take a shot at Barbie, claiming, “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!” Koy did not leave a good impression for most tuning in. As his hosting gig went on with fewer and fewer laughs heard after each joke, Koy fell back onto blaming his lack of preparedness for the rough monologue. In addition, when the jokes would not land, he explained that he only “wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”
Between the night’s hits and misses, the 81st annual Golden Globes started the year out with a bang.
