The first major film awards show of the New Year is done and dusted, as the Golden Globes (GG) were handed out on Jan. 5, 2025 (Los Angeles time). Mounted by the Golden Globes Foundation, basically the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the awards are decided upon by the votes of some 334 foreign entertainment journalists representing 85 countries.

With such a limited voting population, it’s often mentioned that while still prestigious, the GG is no barometer of how the voting will go with the other Awards handed out over the next three months. For example, none of the foreign correspondents are members of the various guilds - such as the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild of America, etc. - who make up the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and vote for the Academy Awards. Held later in March, as of 2024, AMPAS counts 9,905 voting members. And historically, only 50 percent of the Globes winners go on to snap up Oscars.

But that’s not to say the Golden Globes aren’t a great excuse for Hollywood to come out in force and celebrate. Global box office revenues count heavily in the success of any major film release, so the Golden Globes Foundation is a major player in the Hollywood scheme of things.

The 2025 Golden Globes was about spreading the wealth, honoring veteran actresses and actors, and reminding themselves that they’re made up of foreign journalists - emphasis on foreign. Think about those who went up to receive their statuettes, and you’ll see that for the most part, they fell under any of those three categories - with the third qualifier accounting for so many non-Hollywood types winning!

If there were clear big winners of the night, I would cite The Brutalist for Drama, Emilia Perez for Comedy/Musical, and Shogun for anything to do with television and streaming services. What was especially poetic for Shogun is how it matched the 4-for-4 sweep it accomplished in 1980. It picked up the Best Drama Series, Best TV Drama Actor for Hiroyuki Sanada, Best TV Drama Actress for Anna Sawai, and Best TV Supporting Actor for Tadanobu Asano. Sawai was cute saying that any show with Kathy Bates (nominated in the same category as Matlock) should be the clear winner.

Jodie Foster (True Detective), Colin Farrell (The Penguin), and Jean Smart (Hacks) were part of the trend of awarding veteran actors and actresses, as exemplified in the Television segment of the Globes. Baby Reindeer and Hacks picking up TV series wins.

For veterans in the film section, hands down, the star of the night would be Demi Moore, winning Best Comedy/Musical Actress for The Substance. Pretty crazy, as this was where her competition was the likes of Cynthia Erivo for Wicked, Mikey Madison for Anora, and Zendaya for Challengers - the younger ones! In the Best Comedy/Musical Actor category, Sebastian Stan romped off with the prize for A Different Man - well deserved!

In the Comedy/Musical categories, Emilia Perez stakes its claim as the one to watch in the following Awards shows. It took home Best Comedy/Musical, Best Original Song, Best Film in a Language Other Than English, and gave Zoe Saldana the Best Supporting Actress prize. That’s crazy cool, as it’s a musical with a transgender theme set in Mexico, sung in Spanish, but directed by a Frenchman, Jacques Audiard. Wicked did not go home without a Win, as it snagged the Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement.

Best Screenplay went to Conclave, and Brazilian Actress Fernanda Torres took home Best Drama Actress for I’m Still Here (a first for Brazil); but the rest of the Film Drama wins went to The Brutalist - the story of an emigre architect. Adrien Brody is Best Drama Actor, it’s the Best Drama, and Brady Corbet is Best Director. Kieran Culkin was another popular choice as Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain.

Nikki Glaser, known for her stand-up and roasting (her part in the Tom Brady roast being the most watched on social media), acquitted herself well. She had a nice routine mixing Wicked and Conclave with the song Pope-ular, made fun of Chalamet, got Adam Sandler to join her, and made some pointed Affleck jokes. Unlike Jo Koy of last year, when a joke didn’t hit the mark, she would just soldier on and not get defensive.

If you ask me who my personal favorite Big Winner is, it would be the Latvian Animated Feature Film winner Flow! That it won, besting the likes of Inside Out 2, Moana 2, and The Wild Robot, is the true outsider’s ‘dream come true’. I know I got curious about it, and I was happy to note that it’s in the line-up of films our FDCP is showing in March.

So again, I’ll reiterate how the Golden Globes has had a bearing on how the Oscars will go only half the time, but it was nice to see the stars on display, and it is a worthy kick-off to this year’s film Awards season.