The first big Hollywood party since the (writers’) strikes”. That’s how Ozark actor Julia Garner chose to describe the 81st Golden Globe Awards, held on Sunday night (US time) in Los Angeles. The stars trooped into the Beverly Hilton for an evening of awards and accolades, laughter and cheer as the best in Hollywood in the year gone by were honoured. Here’s what we loved....

BIG SCREEN WINNERS

Barbie may have gone into the 2024 Golden Globes with nine nominations, the highest this year, but it was its co-release-day competitor Oppenheimer that stole a march in the top categories. Christopher Nolan’s vision and scale in the thought and execution of his film, which was much more than the story of the man who invented the atomic bomb, won him the golden statuette for Best Director and the Oppenheimer Team Best Motion Picture: Drama, beating out extremely strong contenders like Anatomy of a Fall, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives and The Zone of Interest.

(L-R) Matthew Macfadyen, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin with their golden statuettes for Succession

As expected, Cillian Murphy, the favourite to win, took home the trophy for Best Actor in a Motion Picture: Drama, saying on stage: “I knew the first time I walked on a Christopher Nolan set that it was different. I could tell by the level of rigour, the level of focus, the level of dedication, the complete lack of any seating options for actors that I was in the hands of the visionary director and master.” There were also wins for Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr. and Ludwig Goransson’s rousing musical score.

Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos’ feminist Frankenstein riff, pulled off an upset over the more-fancied Barbie, winning for Best Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy, while Emma Stone, who plays a Victorian-era woman named Bella brought back to life and experiencing a surreal sexual awakening, bagged the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy. “I see this as a rom-com,” said Stone. “But in the sense that Bella falls in love with life itself, rather than a person. She accepts the good and the bad in equal measure, and that really made me look at life differently.”

French courtroom thriller, Anatomy of a Fall, won in two major categories — Best Picture in the Non-English Language and Best Screenplay: Motion Picture, both for director Justine Triet. This makes the film — the winner of the Palme d’Or and the Palm Dog Award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival — a favourite to snag quite a few Oscar nominations, alongside Oppenheimer and Poor Things.

SMALL-SCREEN CHAMPS

TV biggie Succession — that bowed out last year after a glorious four-season run — converted its nine nominations to four wins, the most in the small-screen medium. Kieran Culkin, who played Roman Roy in the series about a media mogul and his sons battling it out for the family business, was named Best Actor, an award previously won by his Succession co-stars Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong. “I was nominated for a Golden Globe like 20 years ago,” recalled Kieran, “and when that moment passed, I thought, ‘I’ll never be in this room again.’”

Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White won big for The Bear

His co-star Sarah Snook was named Best TV Actress (and gushed how the show “had changed her life”) while Matthew Macfadyen won Best Supporting Actor.

The Bear star Jeremy Allen White whipped up a second straight win for Best Actor in a Television Comedy. “I love this show,” said White, who turns in a remarkable act as an award-winning chef who returns to his hometown roots in the FX/ Hulu hit. “I love you guys so much. I must have done something right in this life to be in your company.” The show also won Best Comedy Series and the Lead Actress award for Ayo Edebiri.

HISTORY MAKERS

Lily Gladstone put herself in the history books, becoming the Golden Globes’ first indigenous Best Actress winner. The power performer of Killers of the Flower Moon, who is of Piegan Blackfeet, Nez Perce and European heritage, started her speech in Blackfeet and then switched over to English saying: “This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told — by ourselves, in our own words — with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from and with each other.”

Gladstone won for her portrayal of real-life figure Mollie Kyle, the indigenous wife of World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), in the Martin Scorsese film.

Netflix’s road rage comedy Beef drove into the record books and swept the awards in all the three categories it was nominated in. While Ali Wong and Steven Yeun took home trophies for their central acts, the show won in the category of Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made For Television, with creator Lee Sung Jin present to accept the trophy. Wong created history by becoming the first actress of Asian descent to win in the limited series/TV movie category.

Barbie may not have landed many wins, but it did become the first film to win in the newly introduced category of Cinematic and Box-Office Achievement. The Greta Gerwig-directed live-action reimagining of the empowering journey of the popular Mattel doll has not only grossed $636 million in North America and $1.4 billion worldwide but also secured its place as producer Warner Bros’ highest-grossing release.

Robbie, who played the lead role and also co-produced Barbie, went up on stage with Gerwig and said: “I would like to dedicate this to every single person on the planet who dressed up and went to the greatest place on earth... the movie theatres,” even as she added: “Thank you so much to the Golden Globes for creating an award that celebrates movie fans. This is a movie about Barbie, but it’s also a movie about humans. We made it for you and we made it with love.”

The pink-splattered film that sparked off a one-of-a-kind worldwide marketing campaign also won Best Song for What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell.

The other new category introduced this year was Best Performance in Stand-up Comedy on Television, with longtime Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais winning for his Netflix special Ricky Gervais: Armageddon.
The 81st Golden Globe Awards can be streamed on Lionsgate Play