Golden Globes Snubs and Surprises: ‘Anora’ Shut Out as Demi Moore, Colin Farrell and Fernanda Torres Nab Acting Wins
Sunday night’s Golden Globes Awards was a delightful mix of expected (but still great!) wins — from Kieran Culkin and Zoe Salda?a to “Shōgun” and “Baby Reindeer” — and genuine (and genuinely fun!) surprises. Along with a reminder of what a relief it is when the show has a terrific host, which Nikki Glaser turned out to be, the Globes featured upsets in both film and TV, with veterans Demi Moore and Colin Farrell earning awards while “Anora” and “The Wild Robot” went home empty-handed. Several winners expressed shock in their speeches, like “I’m Still Here” star Fernanda Torres and “Emilia Pérez” director Jacques Audiard. With wins for best drama, director and actor in a drama, meanwhile, “The Brutalist,” emerged more or less anointed as the frontrunner for this awards season.
Of course, what these surprises mean for awards season overall remains to be seen — there’s no real overlap between Globes and Academy Awards memberships — though some of the better speeches, as always, may have an effect on voters, even if they would never want to admit it. Oh, and Variety parent company PMC owns Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Prods. in a joint venture with Eldridge.
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Fernanda Torres Stuns Everyone With a Win for Actress in a Drama
The shock of the night was easily Fernanda Torres winning for her performance in “I’m Still Here,” as a woman who has to endure after her husband is disappeared during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Torres’ deeply affecting, understated work in the film stands outs against her fellow nominees — Angelina Jolie sings opera in “Maria”! Nicole Kidman bares everything in “Babygirl”! — all of whom, as presenter Viola Davis put it, are iconic in their own rights. This year’s best actress race is an impossibly packed field, and Torres’ win here (a surprise to just about everyone other than Variety’s awards editor Clayton Davis) makes this race that much more exciting.
The Musical or Comedy Category Surprises with Wins for Demi Moore and Sebastian Stan
In one of the more fun — and gratifying — surprises of the night, Demi Moore beat presumed frontrunners Cynthia Erivo and Mikey Madison for her role in the body-horror shocker “The Substance.” In her moving speech, Moore said that during her decades-long career, this is the first time she’s won anything for her acting, and went on to say that a producer had told her earlier in her career that she was a “popcorn actress,” something that had always made her think she was limited in her choices. But that producer was dead wrong — as anyone who’s seen Moore’s stunning performance in writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s film knows. In “The Substance,” Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging actress who, in desperation, takes extreme measures to — well, you just have to see the movie to believe it! Best actress is extremely competitive this year, but Moore may have delivered the kind of speech that guarantees her an Oscar nomination.
Immediately following Moore’s win, Sebastian Stan was invited to the stage to accept for his performance in “A Different Man,” in which Stan plays a neurotic actor with the disfiguring condition neurofibromatosis who undergoes an experimental procedure that cures him so thoroughly that he winds up looking like the Winter Soldier. Most pundits had Stan as a dark horse in this category, with Jesse Eisenberg the leading contender for his affecting performance in his movie “A Real Pain.” But Stan was a double nominee this year — he shouted out his other film, the Donald Trump biographical drama “The Apprentice” — so perhaps that put him over the top.
“Emilia Pérez” Beats “Anora” and “Wicked” for Musical/Comedy
In one of the most wide open categories in an extraordinarily wide open awards season, “Emilia Pérez” wound up dancing away with the top Golden Globe for best musical or comedy. While the unconventional operetta — about the head of a Mexican cartel (nominee Karla Sofía Gascón) who transitions to a woman after undergoing gender-affirming surgery — is the most nominated musical in Globes history, its win here was by no measure guaranteed. The stripper comedy-drama “Anora” has been charming audiences ever since it won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival; the blockbuster Broadway musical adaptation “Wicked” has been breaking box office records for weeks; the pitch black satire “The Substance” has emerged as one of the biggest word-of-mouth hits of the season; and the poignant “A Real Pain” has charmed just about everyone who’s seen it. (It’s saying something about this year’s crop of contenders that Luca Guadagnino’s electrifying “Challengers” is the also-ran here, pretty much only because it opened way back in April.)
In the end, “Pérez” leapt past all of the competition, and its multiple wins — supporting actress, original song and film not in the English language in addition to the best comedy or musical win — has officially placed the Netflix film at the forefront of the awards season.
“Wicked” Wins Only Box Office Achievement
“Wicked” is in many ways the movie of the year, in that it’s been a massive box office success, a critically praised awards season movie and a galvanizing cultural event. And though director Jon M. Chu was overlooked for his work, the Globes voting body did nominate the movie for four awards, with both Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande representing in the actress and supporting actress categories, and the movie itself being nominated in both best musical or comedy and the newish box office achievement category. And in the end, box office achievement is the Golden Globe award “Wicked” is walking away with — beating Ryan Reynolds’ “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which was the favorite — as awards season kicks into high gear.
“Anora” Wins Nothing at All
Going into tonight’s Globes, “Anora” was the only film among the top nominees to have won a major film award, namely the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. With nominees for picture (musical/comedy), director, actress, supporting actor and screenplay, most had expected the fizzy, deeply felt dramedy — about what happens to the titular exotic dancer and sex worker (Mikey Madison) when she gets swept up into the extravagant lifestyle of a Russian oligarch’s spoiled son (Mark Eydelshteyn) — would at least win something. Instead, “Anora” was the highest profile nominee to go home empty-handed.
Colin Farrell Ices Out “Baby Reindeer” Star Richard Gadd With Win for “The Penguin”
The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. may have been dismantled after its various scandals and open-secret corruption were exposed by the Los Angeles Times, but some of the voting quirkiness has endured — and that’s fun! In this case, Colin Farrell pulled out a win for HBO’s “The Batman” offshoot, “The Penguin.” Farrell played Oswald Cobb under layers of prosthetics, which didn’t stop him from delivering a surprisingly heartbreaking performance as Oz ascended to the top of Gotham’s criminal underworld, at great cost. Farrell’s victory stopped Emmy-winner “Baby Reindeer” from sweeping, even though Richard Gadd’s limited series did go on to win in the series category and in the supporting actress category, in which Jessica Gunning was awarded for her performance of the stalker, Martha.
Tadanobu Asano of “Shōgun” Slices Through the Supporting Actor Competition
For his scene-stealing performance as the opportunistic warlord Yabushige, Japanese star Tadanobu Asano had lost the Emmys drama supporting actor race in September, even as “Shōgun” dominated that night. But against formidable competition at the Globes — especially Ebon Moss-Bachrach of “The Bear,” who won the comedy supporting actor Emmy — he pulled out a surprise win in this category, which includes drama, comedy and limited shows. And he seemed delighted during his speech, even introducing himself to the audience: “Maybe you don’t know me. I’m an actor from Japan, and my name is Tadanobu Asano!” Maybe there’s a way to bring Yabushige back for Season 2? Come on, “Shōgun” creators!
Ali Wong Bests Jamie Foxx, Adam Sandler and Globes Host Nikki Glaser in the New-ish TV Stand-up Category
This is just the second year for this category recognizing stand-up specials as its own category — Ricky Gervais won last year — so there isn’t much precedent to go by. That said, even Ali Wong seemed surprised to win for her Netflix special “Ali Wong: Single Lady” over several heavy hitters, especially Jamie Foxx for “Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…” — which offered his first public comments about the stroke he suffered in 2023. The evening’s emcee, Nikki Glaser, was also a favorite to win for her HBO special “Nikki Glaser: Someday You’ll Die,” but she did have the (literal) last laugh. “I may not have won tonight,” Glaser said. “But on the bright side, I just made $11,000 betting on Ali Wong on a European gambling site.”
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