Blockbuster Oppenheimer and television series Succession won big at the 2024 Golden Globes - with Irish star Cillian Murphy, Emma Stone and indigenous actor Lily Gladstone bagging the top performance prizes of the night.
Awards season began in earnest on Sunday night with the 81st Golden Globes taking place in Hollywood with the likes of Margot Robbie and Robert Downey Jr also winning for their work on the big screen, with Matthew Macfadyen, Sarah Snook and Elizabeth Debicki receiving gongs for their television roles.
British filmmaker Christopher Nolan, the man behind historical epic Oppenheimer, was named best director for the first time after six nominations, while Irish actor Murphy took home best actor in a drama for his work as the father of the atomic bomb.
Murphy accepted the award with lipstick on his nose after his wife - Yvonne McGuinness - grabbed his face and kissed him as he was announced as victor. Oppenheimer was overall the biggest winner of the night, taking home five gongs. It was also named best drama motion picture, with best supporting actor going to Downey Jr for his role in the thriller – which also stars British actresses Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh.
Poor Things was named best musical or comedy and best female actor in a musical or comedy went to Stone.
Stone, who plays Bella Baxter - a sort of child/woman experiment created by a scientist - in the film, said: “Playing Bella was unbelievable, I think this is a rom-com, I see this as a rom-com. Bella falls in love with life itself, rather than a person.
“She accepts the good, that really made me look at life differently, that all of it counts, all of it is important… this means the world to me.”
The ceremony also saw a “historical win” for Killers Of The Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone, who began her speech in the Blackfoot language. Gladstone, the first Indigenous actor to be nominated and win the category, said: “I’m so grateful that I can speak even a little bit of my language.”
Robbie’s highly successful movie Barbie took home two awards of the nine it was nominated for, including the Golden Globe for cinematic and box office achievement and best original song for Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell.
Taylor Swift's Era Tour movie was lost out to Barbie for the inaugural achievement prize.
"This is a historic win, it doesn't belong to just me." - Lily Gladstone wins her first Golden Globe for Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama for #KillersoftheFlowerMoon at the 2024 #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/VMHA8rg7LC
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 8, 2024
Elsewhere at the star-studded event, hosted at the Beverly Hilton, TV show Succession - which dramatically came to an end last year - also proved a big hit, winning best TV drama series, while best female actor in a TV series drama went to Australian actress Snook.
British actor Macfadyen won best supporting actor and Kieran Culkin best actor in a TV series drama.
Debicki also picked up her first Golden Globe Award for her role as Diana, Princess of Wales, in The Crown.
She thanked her “pretend children” Ed McVey and Luther Ford, who play Prince William and Prince Harry on the show respectively in her acceptance speech.
The new stand up comedy performance award went to Ricky Gervais, who has previously hosted the Golden Globes, but he was not there to collect the gong.
Comedian Jo Koy - a last-minute pick for the hosting role - opened the Golden Globes with a monologue that drew a muted response from the star-studded audience.
He said: “I got the gig 10 days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Shut up! I wrote some of these and those are the ones you’re laughing at.”
He also joked about pop star Swift and her high-profile relationship with NFL star Travis Kelce. “The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” he said, which prompted the singer to take an unsmiling drink of wine.
Meanwhile, unlikely Hollywood couple Timothee Chalamet and reality star Kylie Jenner made their first official appearance at the Globes, where he was nominated for best actor in a musical or comedy in a motion picture for his role in Wonka.
Jenner - the half-sister of Kim Kardashian - was captured twiddling his necklace as the couple stared into each other’s eyes during the ceremony.
The night was a return to form for the Globes following the February 2021 investigation by the Los Angeles Times which found that the ceremony’s governing body, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, had no Black members and numerous corruption issues.
