In a world where awards shows are becoming increasingly tame, thank goodness for Fernanda Torres, who caused the only upset of the night when she won for Lead Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, for I’m Still Here. She beat stars like Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman and Kate Winslet to the gong, and was unsurprisingly shocked when the news came out.
“My God, I didn’t prepare anything,” Torres said, during her speech. “This is such an amazing year for female performances. So many actresses here that I admire so much.”
For an extra bit of pathos: Torres’ mother Fernanda Montenegro was nominated for the same award in 1999, for Central Station. “I want to dedicate it to my mother,” Torres said. “You have no idea. She was here 25 years ago. And this is proof that art can endure through life, even in difficult moments like this.”
There may have been a slight misuse of The Substance. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley saw the perfect opportunity to riff off their body horror double act when presenting an award – and they took it.
“What are you doing here? Moore hissed as Qualley sidled up to the mic. “This is my week”. They were both nominated, Qualley pointed out, as Moore chided her to “respect the balance”.
Demi Moore won an award – take that Sue
Chris Pizzello/AP
Chuckles all around from the audience, who were probably grateful they didn’t come in character as Monstero Elisa-Sue and spray all those expensive outfits with Carrie-levels of blood. Moore went home with a statuette – her first ever acting award at the age of 62.
Colin Farrell continued to be an all round good egg by remembering to thank the lesser appreciated members of a film crew – the catering team. Carolina of craft services got a special shout-out for her services to actor hydration.
“On those cold winter nights in New York where I was the only one overheating, she’d be there with a coconut water every half an hour,” said Farrell. “Carolina, God bless you, she kept the whole crew going.”
Farrell won best male actor in a limited television show for his portrayal of Oswald Cobblepot in HBO’s The Penguin, which must have made all that sweating in a bald cap and prosthetics (including, allegedly, a comedy penguin-shaped fake penis) somewhat worth it.
The Wicked references kept coming, but the awards did not
The box office juggernaut that was Wicked failed to win big on the night – despite the incredible amount of references that host Nikki Glaser managed to squeeze in. She started off by quipping that she was “holding space” for television, performed a rendition of ‘Pope-u-lar’ – which riffed both on the song and on nominated film Conclave – and asked Ariana Grande to hold her finger.
Sadly, despite that – and despite Ariana Grande receiving her first ever acting nod, for Best Supporting Actress – the film only scooped one award, for Cinematic And Box Office Achievement. Well, we could have told you that ourselves.
Is there anything more adorable than stop-motion animation characters getting to walk the red carpet? Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl may have missed out on winning best motion picture (animated) but the stars got their moment to shine – with some assistance from co-directors Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham.
Our only quibble is that they didn’t dress up more for the occasion. Marcel the Shell managed to don a top hat for the Baftas in 2023. Surely some miniature black tie could have been sourced.
And the award for best heckle goes to…
Sofia Vergara, who lost out to five-time Golden Globe winner Jodie Foster. Foster scooped the prize for Best Female Actor in a Limited Series for her work in True Detective, and as she did, Vergara leapt up from her seat and shouted, “No, no! Not again! Give me one!”
“I know, I know,” Foster joked in response. And her speech proved there was no bad blood between the two actors: Foster made sure to praise her fellow nominees first of all.
Jodie Foster got lovingly heckled by Sofia Vergara
Chris Pizzello/AP
“The greatest thing about being this age and being in this time, is having a community of all these people, especially you Sofia.” Women supporting women: we love to see it.
Another amusing moment – when Anna Sawai won Best Actress – Drama, fellow nominee Kathy Bates could be seen ripping up a piece of paper, with much speculation that was the not-needed acceptance speech.
Ariana Grande seems to have started a trend for not showing hand in public. The Wicked star was often in gloves during the extensive promotional tour (her hand tats don’t quite match the Aubrey Hepburn vibe she’s currently channelling) and now everyone’s at it.
Kerry Washington, Ali Wong, Cristin Milioti, Janelle James and Pamela Anderson were all covered from finger to elbow. Grande wore a white pair, obvs, although along with her yellow empire-waisted gown she rather blended into the buttercream-coloured flower wall. Opera gloves in, manicures out.
She didn’t win for best actress, but Karla Sofía Gascón still managed to make a speech, when Emilia Pérez won the award for Best Picture. In the process, she made history, becoming the first trans person ever to accept the award: in this case, for a film in which a Mexican cartel leader decides to transition to being a woman.
Fittingly, her speech was a rallying cry. “The light always wins over darkness,” Gascón said. “You can put us in jail, you can beat us up, but you can never take away our soul, our resistance, our identity,” she said. “I want to say to you, ‘Raise your voice’ … and say, ‘I am who I am. Not who you want.’”
There has to be some kind of red carpet scuttlebutt to keep us gossiping, and Zendaya delivered with a suspiciously conspicuous ring on a certain meaningful finger. Fans were quick to point out that the gold band was at odds with the rest of her silver jewellery, and the internet has been ablaze with speculation that Tom Holland may have popped the question.
If it’s true, congrats to the happy couple. If she just felt like wearing a whacking great rock on her ring finger to mess with us, then also congrats to Zendeya. It must be a really fun low effort prank to play as a celeb and steal all those headlines.
Kylie Jenner and Timothee Chalamet went heavy on the PDA
CBS via Getty Images
All the attention centering on rings would have been a relief for Kylie Jenner, who has been dodging pregnancy rumours. She showed up on the arm of boyfriend Timothée Chalamet in a skintight and backless Versace 1999 spring/summer archive pull. No baby bump but plenty of PDAs.
All hail the Shogun team, who capped off a stellar awards season by again scooping some of the most prestigious awards of the evening, including Best TV series, Best TV Actor (for Hiroyuki Sanada), Best Supporting Actor (for Tadanobu Asano) and Best TV Actress – for Anna Sawai (read our interview with her here).
“Welcome to the 2nd Golden Globes – Ozempic’s biggest night!” Host Nikki Glaser started her roast off strong with an acknowledgement of how thin everyone in LA is looking now.
No-one thanked semaglutide in their acceptance speeches, but in a moment of (non) delicious irony a a weight-loss injection promo did play in one of the ad breaks for US viewers
Not a great night for Brits – mostly
It wasn’t a great year for British talent. Despite Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet all being nominated for a gong – alongside talent like Tilda Swinton and the Aardman team – the UK contingent mostly walked away empty handed on the big night.
All except the Baby Reindeer team, that is (did we expect anything else?). Richard Gadd clinched best limited TV or anthology series or TV movie, though not the acting award, while Jessica Gunning (who plays Martha) scooped the prize for Best Supporting Actress and stumbled on her way up to the stage.
Jessica Gunning did not flash her golden globes
Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
“I almost tripped up. You almost saw my golden globes there,” she joked, adding “this is an absolute honor, honestly.”
She followed it up with a speech that was brilliantly bonkers. “There’s a video of me when I was little, I was about eight years old, and my mum and dad got me a hamster for Christmas,” Gunning said. “They brought it out in this bin bag—in a cage—it wasn’t just in bin bag… And I just kept saying, ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me. I can’t believe this is happening to me.'”
“I realised this morning that has been kind of the soundtrack for my life this last year since Baby Reindeer came out. I can’t believe any of this is happening to me.” All together now: aww.