Yahoo News Golden Globes: ‘Oppenheimer’ Leads With Five Wins, Including Best Picture (Drama)
Oppenheimer was the top winner at the 81st annual Golden Globes on Sunday night, with the Christopher Nolan film taking home five wins including best picture (drama), best director, best actor, best supporting actor and best original score.
Anatomy of a Fall and Poor Things won two prizes each, with the former taking best non-English film and best screenplay, the latter winning best picture (musical or comedy) and best actress.
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Lily Gladstone won best actress in a drama for her breakout performance in Martin Scorcese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, becoming the first Indigenous performer to win a Golden Globe. She opened her speech with words said in the Blackfeet language, the tribe to which she belongs. “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 with and from each other,” said Gladstone.
Cillian Murphy won best actor in a drama for Oppenheimer, in which he played the eponymous role of Manhattan Project director J. Robert Oppenheimer. It’s his sixth collaboration with director Christopher Nolan — who also won for best director. “I knew the first time that I walked on a Chris Nolan set that it was different,” said Murphy in his acceptance speech. “I could tell by the level of rigor, the level of focus, the level of dedication, the complete lack of any seating options for actors that I was in the hands of a visionary director.”
“I took a beta blocker, so this is going to be a breeze,” joked supporting actor winner Robert Downey Jr., who earned his fourth Golden Globe for his role in Oppenheimer. “Folks have come up to me since the summertime saying that I was, quote, ‘unrecognizably subtle’ as Leonard Strauss,” he said, misstating his character Lewis Strauss’ name. “To my fellow nominees: Let’s not pretend this is a compliment,” he continued. “This is more of a most improved player thing.” He also ended his speech with a nod to the updated Golden Globes organization: “And lastly, Golden Globes journalists, thanks for changing your game, therefore changing your name.”
Oppenheimer auteur Christopher Nolan won his first Golden Globe, after six nominations, for his three-hour historical epic — but he noted it was his second time on stage at the ceremony after accepting Heath Ledger’s posthumous Golden Globe for best supporting actor in The Dark Knight in 2009. “That was complicated and challenging for me,” said Nolan of accepting Ledger’s award. “In the middle of speaking, I glanced up and Robert Downey Jr. caught my eye and gave me a look of love and support — the same look he’s giving me now, the same love and support he’s shown so many people and in our community over so many years.”
Emma Stone won her second Golden Globe for best actress, musical/comedy, for her performance in Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, with whom she worked on The Favourite. “I see this as a rom-com,” she said of Poor Things‘ Frankenstein-inspired tale. “But in this sense [that my character] Bella falls in love with life itself rather than a person, and she accepts the good and the bad in equal measure.”
Paul Giamatti won best actor in a musical or comedy for his performance in The Holdovers, his third win since he was first nominated in 2005 for Sideways, his first outing with Holdovers director Alexander Payne. “Surely this is the first time this award has been given to an actor who has played a man who smells like fish,” he joked at the top of his speech. He also thanked his director Payne: “Alexander the Great,” Giamatti called him, who says he “for some mysterious reason continues to have enormous faith in me, and why I don’t know.” He closed his acceptance speech to dedicate the win to teachers everywhere.
Giamatti’s co-star Da’Vine Joy Randolph won best supporting actress in a motion picture. After mistakenly thanking the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which no longer backs the Golden Globes, she turned to her collaborators. “To Alexander Payne, thank you for giving me the opportunity to portray this beautiful and flawed woman,” she said. She also dedicated her award to her character, Mary Lamb. “Oh Mary, you have changed my life,” said Randolph. “You have made me feel seen in so many ways that I have never imagined.”
Mark Hamill presented the Golden Globe for cinematic or box office achievement — a new category this year — to (unsurprisingly) Barbie, which earned over $1.4 billion at the global box office. Star and producer Margot Robbie accepted the award alongside writer-director Greta Gerwig. “We 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 theaters,” said Robbie, who also thanked “the brave individuals” at Mattel and Warner Bros. for taking risks and greenlighting the project. Gerwig also gave a shoutout to husband and writing partner Noah Baumbach for “showing his inner Barbie girl.”
Anatomy of a Fall won the Globe for best non-English film — which it will not repeat at the Oscars in March, as French film was not submitted by its home country (which went with the Juliette Binoche-starrer The Taste of Things). The Globes also honored the Palme d’Or-winning film with the prize for best screenplay for Anatomy of a Fall. Director Justine Triet accepted the award, noting that co-writer Arthur Harari is her romantic partner and that the pair wrote the script — about a woman accused of killing her husband — while stuck in their apartment during the pandemic. “Strangely, nobody died,” she joked.
Oppenheimer also won best original score for Ludwig Göransson, while Billie Eilish and brother/co-writer Finneas won best original song for Barbie’s “What Was I Made For.” Animation legend Hayao Miyazaki won his first Golden Globe for best animated feature with his latest (and possible final) film, The Boy and the Heron.
It was a good night for Netflix in the television categories, with The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki winning best supporting actress for playing Princess Diana. The streamer’s Beef won two key awards early in the evening, with stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong taking home their first Golden Globes for best actor and actress, respectively, in a limited series — a history-making win for Wong, who is the first actress of Asian descent to win in the category. Beef also won the top prize for best limited or anthology series.
HBO’s Succession was also a big winner of the night with four Golden Globes for its final season, including best drama series, best actor for Kieran Culkin, best actress for Sarah Snook and best supporting actor Matthew Macfadyen.
The Bear swept the TV comedy categories, taking home best comedy series. Jeremy Allen White won his second consecutive Golden Globe for his role in the FX series, while Ayo Edebiri won her first Globe for best actress, highlighting her managers’ assistants in her speech. “Thank you for answering my crazy, crazy emails!” she said.
“This is going to be the first time stand-up comedians are going to be acknowledged at a major award show,” said comedian Jim Gaffigan when introducing the new category for best stand-up performance on television. “For 80 years, good looking people threw a party, and then you guys finally decided to invite the talented people.” Ricky Gervais won the inaugural prize for his special Armageddon, but he was not present to accept the award — likely to the relief of the many celebrities in the room who were often the target of Gervais’ barbs when he frequently served as Globes host.
Comedian Jo Koy, who was tapped to host the ceremony less than two weeks ahead of time, frequently joked about his last-minute gig in his opening monologue — particularly when his jokes provoked minimal laughter in the Beverly Hilton ballroom. “I got the gig 10 days ago!” he told the audience early in his opening remarks. “You want a perfect monologue?”
The Golden Globes telecast moved to CBS this year, having left its longtime home at NBC after last year’s ceremony following years of controversy over the conduct of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The 2024 Golden Globes mark the first since the HFPA was replaced as the Globes’ backer.
In June 2023, Dick Clark Productions and Eldridge acquired all of the Globes’ assets, rights and properties from the HFPA. The resulting Golden Globes organization has since significantly revamped the Globes’ voting body, which is now made up of 300 journalists from around the world, representing 76 countries. DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge that also owns The Hollywood Reporter.
Read the full list of 2024 Golden Globe winners here.
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