‘Emilia Pérez,’ ‘The Brutalist’ Take Awards-Season Pole Positions as Golden Globes Hand Them Top Prizes
A pair of dramas exchanged haymakers at the 2025 Golden Globes on Sunday night, as Emilia Pérez and The Brutalist finally emerged as the two lead contenders in an unruly awards season.
Jacques Audiard’s trans-themed Spanish-language musical Emilia won four Golden Globes, including best comedy or musical, while Brady Corbet’s immigrant epic The Brutalist won three, including best drama and best director, clarifying what until now had been an unusually murky picture filled with a half-dozen contenders making their case.
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“The light always wins over darkness,” Emilia Perez star Karla Sofía Gascón, the first openly trans performer to be nominated for a Globes lead actress prize, said as the Netflix film won best comedy or musical. “You can maybe put us in jail, you can beat us up. But you can never take away our soul.”
For his part, Corbet noted some artists had been shunted aside in Hollywood. “I just want to leave everyone with something to think about,” he said, making a plea to corporate executives in the room at the Beverly Hilton. “I was told this film was undistributable. I was told no one would come out and see it. I was told the film wouldn’t work. And I don’t resent that. But I want to use this as an opportunity to lift up filmmakers…. Films don’t exist without the filmmakers. Please, let’s support them. Let’s prop them up.”
Corbet’s immigrant epic starring Adrien Brody came out of nowhere at the Venice Film Festival, where it bowled over audiences and critics and was soon bought by A24. In his best director speech, Corbet said that “a few short months ago [this movie] had the odds very much stacked against it,” as he also paid tribute to filmmaker Jeff Baena, who died this weekend, and Baena’s widow, Aubrey Plaza.
Brody would go on to win best actor in a drama Sunday, defeating fellow frontrunners Timothée Chalamet from A Complete Unknown and Ralph Fiennes from Conclave. He gave viewers a taste of the impassioned words he’s offered on behalf of immigrants at events throughout this award season: Brody on Sunday lauded his immigrant “mother and grandmother for their sacrifice. I hope this work stands to lift you up and give you a voice.”
The Globes on Sunday brought some much-needed tea leaves to a season notably lacking in them. The race has been particularly wide open, as movies as disparate as Wicked, Anora, Emilia Perez, Conclave, September 5 and The Brutalist have all been at the front of the pack at one time or another.
Another good sign for Emilia on Sunday came when star Zoe Salda?a also took the prize in the supporting actress category for her role as the lawyer who assists a drug kingpin (Gascón) transition.
“My heart is full of gratitude,” Salda?a said in her tearful speech, as she saluted the “strength, complexity and undeniable talent” of co-stars Selena Gomez and Gascón as well as director Audiard. Having starred in Avatar and other box office juggernauts, Salda?a notched her first Globes win the prize.
Netflix bought Emilia at Cannes. The company has never won the best picture Oscar.
Non-English-language honors also went to Emilia, in an award that, at least last year, did not overlap with the Oscars. In accepting the award, Audiard gave one of the more political speech of the night on behalf of feminism and trans rights, noting that the American audience will need “nerves of steel” in 2025, ahead of the new Donald Trump administration, which he did not specifically name.
Audiard also said that “if there were more sisters in the world it might be a better place,” paid homage to “a woman as powerful and passionate as Karla Sofía Gascón” and dedicated the win to trans people, urging them “to keep their heads held high and continue to fight.” As with Brody’s immigrant remarks, Audiard’s and Gascon’s speeches could introduce a political element into the race and galvanize Academy members who might be inclined to send a message to the incoming administration.
The voting body for the Globes was retooled ahead of last year’s show, with more than 330 international journalists replacing the clubbier 85 or so voters from the defunct Hollywood Foreign Press Association. While there is virtually no overlap between Globes and Oscars awards bodies, the visibility afforded by the former tends to give contenders heat. Last year’s show proved a relatively strong predictor of the Oscars, with winners for best drama (Oppenheimer), lead actor in a drama (Cillian Murphy), lead actress in a comedy (Emma Stone), director (Christopher Nolan), screenplay (Anatomy of a Fall) and animated movie (The Boy and the Heron) all going on to win corresponding top prizes at the Oscars.
Emilia Perez took a fourth prize as it won best original song for Camille’s thumping anthem “El Mal,” deployed as Saldana’s character calls out hypocrisy in fighting the drug trade. “Songs are butterflies and we need butterflies even if it’s to denounce corruption in the world,” Camille said from the podium.
Other Oscar hopefuls had to make do with fewer prizes Sunday night. Conclave won one big award when Peter Straughan’s script beat Emilia’s for best screenplay, giving Focus Features’ twist-heavy papal thriller a small boost.
And after failing to convert on a pair of acting nominations, Wicked won its only prize of the night when it took the Globes’ newish cinematic and box office achievement award. The prize is somewhat of a mixed blessing though, at least judging by last year, when Barbie won the inaugural Globes award but then went on to win only one Oscar, for song.
In accepting this year’s prize, Wicked director Jon M. Chu noted “how important making movies like this is; at a time when cynicism and pessimism rule this planet we can still make art that is a radical act of optimism.” (Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge that also owns The Hollywood Reporter.)
Another standout speech came when Demi Moore notched her first ever Globes win, taking best actress in a comedy or musical for her turn as an aging celebrity who tries an unusual pharmaceutical gambit in The Substance.
“In these moments when we we don’t think we’re enough,” she said, “just know you will never be enough. But you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.”
Moore said a producer who 30 years ago told her she was a “popcorn actress” had done a number on her psychologically. “It corroded me over time,” she said. Only when the Substance script crossed her desk did she regain her confidence.
Soon after, Sebastian Stan won best actor in a comedy or musical for his role in A Different Man, like The Substance another black comedy with body-transformation elements. “Our ignoring and discomfort around disability and disfigurement has to end now,” he said, also citing his Trump origin story The Apprentice, which he has said many actors don’t want to talk about.
“These are tough subject matters, but these films are real and necessary and we can’t be afraid and look away,” he said.
I’m Still Here star Fernanda Torres staged an upset of sorts winning best actress in a drama for her role as the gritty wife of a disappeared politician in Walter Salles’ fact-based Brazilian period drama. “This is a film that helps us to think how to survive in tough times like this,” she said. Torres seemed genuinely surprised by the honor, saying, “This is an amazing year for female performances.”
Animated honors went to Flow, the dialogue-free, feline-focused environmental parable with serious indie cred, directed by Gints Zilbalodis. The film came out of Latvia and bested far more capitalized productions from Pixar and Universal.
“Thank you for embracing our little cat film,” he said.
Supporting actor film kudos went to Kieran Culkin for his role as a free-speaking drifter on a Holocaust-history tour in Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain released by Searchlight. Culkin is a heavy favorite for the Oscar, and the Globes win continued to augur well for him. It’s been a good 12 months for Culkin at the Globes — he’s now won two prizes after also picking up best actor in a drama a year ago for his role in Succession.
Culkin had previously been nominated four times at the Globes without winning, dating back to his turn in indie-film darling Igby Goes Down in the early 2000s. “The first-ever acknowledgement I got as an actor was a Golden Globes nomination when I was basically a kid,” he said, referencing that moment.
Original score honors went to Challengers and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ nerve-jangling beats in the tennis-set suspense thriller.
Shogun was the big television winner Sunday night, taking best TV drama series and three actor prizes. The Disney/FX series continued its hot streak from the Emmys, where it won a record-breaking 18 prizes including the top one of best drama.
Co-creator Justin Marks said that Saturday he and wife and fellow co-creator Rachel Kondo were searching for a tortoise they adopted in the bushes of their house “and now here we are and Han Solo is looking at us,” as the camera cut to Harrison Ford. Marks saluted the executives at the company and called the Japanese-language historical epic a show that “you should never have said yes to.”
Shogun’s Anna Sawai won best actress in a dramatic TV series and Hiroyuki Sanada won the lead actor honor. Tadanobu Asano won for best supporting actor in a TV series. “You don’t know me. I’m an actor from Japan. My name is Tadanobu Asano,” the latter effused in a jubilant speech.
Elsewhere on the TV front, Jodie Foster won lead actor in a miniseries or movie for her role in HBO’s True Detective: Night Country, her fifth Globes win, while Colin Farrell won in the same category on the male side for his shapeshifting turn in The Penguin, also from HBO.
Hacks star Jean Smart won for lead performance by an actress in a TV comedy or musical, continuing the momentum from her win for best actress in a comedy series at the Emmys in September. The Max show Sunday night also won best comedy, as it did at the Emmys. Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning landed best supporting actress for her turn in Netflix’s intense stalker drama after taking that prize at the Emmys as well; Richard Gaad’s show also won best best miniseries, movie or anthology series Sunday night. (Here is a complete list of Globes winners.)
Host Nikki Glaser opened the show inside the Beverly Hilton with a monologue that, give or take a weird Harrison Ford moment, seemed to go over better than last year’s hastily arranged performance by comedian Jo Koy.
“I am not here to roast you tonight. How could I?” Glaser asked, noting how powerful everyone in the room was. “You could really do anything, except tell the country who to vote for.”
The monologue was Wicked-heavy. “We can’t talk about movies tonight without talking about Wicked,” she said, before taking a few pokes at the musical blockbuster.
But the night belonged to Emilia and Brutalist.
“No one was asking for a three-and-a-half-hour film about a midcentury designer on 70mm,” Corbet said of his film as he made his plea to the room on behalf of auteurs. “But it works. So please just think about it, and have a great night.”
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