The Golden Globes kicked off awards season with a bang last night, hailing Oppenheimer, one of the two most talked about blockbusters of 2023, as the bomb, in what could be the start of it sweeping all aside in the run to the Oscars this March.
While Barbie – its counterpart in the Barbenheimer phenomenon of last summer – was largely ignored beyond a newly created participation award and a song, Oppenheimer won Best Film – Drama, Best Director for Christopher Nolan, Best Actor – Drama for Cillian Murphy and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr.
Barbie lost out in the Best Film – Musical or Comedy category to Poor Things, directed by The Favourite’s Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone, but did win Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, which is fair enough given it took over $1.4bn.
While another of the most talked-about films of the year, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, was also mostly overlooked, Native American star Lily Gladstone was named the Best Actress – Drama.
Anatomy of a Fall won the Palme D’Or at Cannes and won the Best Screenplay and Best Foreign-Language Film here, surprisingly beating the heavily feted Past Lives, and now looks an absolute shoo-in for the equivalent category at the Baftas and the Oscars.
These awards are notable as they combine film and TV – unlike, say, the Baftas – and the big winner of the small screen was Succession, a result that is hard to argue with. Not only was the gloriously sweary billionaire family psychodrama named the Best TV Series – Drama, Kieran Culkin, Matthew Macfadyen and Sarah Snook (soon to be seen on the West End) all picked up acting awards.
Slotting brilliant restaurant drama The Bear into a different category meant it too could (deservedly) walk away with an armload of statuettes, winning Best TV Series – Musical or Comedy, with Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White picking up acting awards in a show that really is the crème de la crème.
Just to ensure one of 2023’s other word-of-mouth hits wasn’t ignored, Ali Wong and Steven Yeun won the acting awards in the Limited Series, Anthology Series or TV Movie category for the hilarious, and hilariously dark revenge comedy Beef.
While recent series of The Crown have not been laden with quite the acclaim, or the awards, of previous years, one actor continues to take the plaudits. And once again, for this sixth and final season Elizabeth Debicki was named Best Supporting Actress – Television for playing Princess Diana, again expertly batting those eyelids and giving great doe eye.
All in all it was a good night for British and Irish talent – from Nolan to Macfadyen, Murphy and Ricky Gervais, who won Best Stand-Up Comedian on Television – and a very good night for Succession and Oppenheimer, looking set to dominate awards seasons in their respective fields for the rest of the year.
