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The Golden Globes Gave Three Serious Films a Big Oscar Boost
Wagner Moura wins for The Secret Agent. Photo by Tommaso Boddi/GG2026. If awards season is useful for anything, it’s to provide a distraction. Bombarded as we are by bleak headlines, there’s something soothing about watching a lot of very famous people collect trophies and crack jokes for a few hours. At the 83rd Annual Golden Globes, host Nikki Glaser set the tone for a fun celebration. But there was substance too. Those of us looking for clues to Oscar outcomes (I don’t mean Polymarket bettors, but, hey, they’re welcome too) were left with plenty to chew on.Warner Bros.’ One Battle After Another continued its hot streak, taking best picture (musical or comedy), best director and screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson and best supporting actress for Teyana Taylor. Two other sure-things were the animated feature and original song awards for Netflix’s kid-friendly juggernaut, KPop Demon Hunters. (Might as well engrave those two Oscars at this point and get it over with.) The bigger surprise was in the drama category, where Focus Features’ Hamnet won best picture. I expected Sinners to prevail there, and its win in the “box office and cinematic achievement” category felt to me like a bit of a backhanded compliment. (Sinners did pick up a deserving win for Ludwig Göransson’s score.)
Coupled with Jessie Buckley’s expected win for drama actress, the two trophies for Hamnet suggest that Chloe Zhao’s Shakespearean drama has more juice than some thought. Whereas Rose Byrne’s win for best actress in a musical or comedy was legitimately surprising. Byrne stars in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Mary Bronstein’s intensely stressful tale of a woman whom the world seems intent on crushing. It’s not exactly a light, breezy tale, and it feels like an odd fit in the musical or comedy category. “I didn’t sing in this movie, guys,” Byrne said at the top of her acceptance speech, which was given off-the-cuff as she didn’t write a speech and evidently hadn’t expected to win. If Buckley is leading the best actress race, Byrne is right on her heels.
The best actor race, meanwhile, is still a toss-up. Marty Supreme’s Timothée Chalamet won in the comedy category, beating out such elder megastars as Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney, while The Secret Agent’s Wagner Moura took the prize for drama. Suddenly Moura, like Byrne in lead actress, has scooted to the top of the Oscar field. But both Globes winners will have to contend with a slew of impressive performances from DiCaprio, Michael B. Jordan, Ethan Hawke, Jesse Plemons, and Joel Edgerton. (Less likely are Clooney and Dwayne Johnson.)
The Globes that went to Moura and Stellan Skarsgård, who won best supporting actor for Sentimental Value, countered last week’s surprising nominations for SAG’s Actor Awards, where no performers from non-English language films were nominated. The Globes membership is (presumably) still more international than the SAG nominating committees, as is the Academy membership. If the Globes can help identify a trend, it’s that NEON’s foreign-language titles are still on the board and can likely pick up numerous nominations (and potential wins) beyond the international category.
For an event that’s historically been the wackiest awards show of the season, this year’s Globes felt somewhat reverent. Considering how the recent turmoil in Minneapolis has darkened the collective mood, that’s understandable. But other than a lot of black dresses fit for a funeral (well, an extremely glamorous funeral), the show’s guests kept things pretty light and cheerful. There was a glaring lack of competitive spirit on display; winners were shouting out their peers left and right. Chloe Zhao praised Ryan Coogler in her best picture speech, while Jessie Buckley gushed over Julia Roberts. Roberts, adding some tension as after opening the envelope that would reveal best comedy, stopped to heap praise on her fellow nominee Eva Victor and implored the audience to watch Sorry, Baby before announcing the winner.
The other recurring sentiment was the love of movie theaters and the importance of keeping the theatrical experience alive, kicked off by Stellan Skarsgård’s rousing acceptance speech in which he touted the magic of cinema. (It did feel slightly like an audition to replace Nicole Kidman as the face of AMC theaters.)
Netflix’s two film awards went to KPop Demon Hunters, which had a brief theatrical release after its premiere on streaming. On the TV side, its series Adolescence extended its One Battle–style streak, winning best limited series as well as prizes for supporting players Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty. HBO Max’s The Pitt and Apple’s The Studio both repeated their Emmy wins for drama and comedy series, respectively, along with lead actors Noah Wylie and Seth Rogen. And Better Call Saul fans got a lift when Rhea Seehorn won for best drama actress, for Vince Gilligan’s new Apple TV series, Pluribus.
Globes weekend in Los Angeles has become an exhilarating and exhausting marathon of events, including the Spirit Awards brunch, the star-studded AFI awards luncheon and the BAFTA Tea. Given what’s happening in the world outside Hollywood, it can all feel a bit crass and self-indulgent. Yet the tone of last night’s festivities and its collective love for a creative artform that connects so many is a reminder that entertainment can still be a medium—as Hacks star Jean Smart said in her acceptance speech for best comedy actress, quoting Spike Lee—to do the right thing.
