Golden Globes 2024, Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ wins Best Picture, Director. ‘Succession’ and ‘The Bear’ win top TV honours

We had no doubts, we’ve been saying it since last August: Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ is the best film of the year, and the Golden Globes have just confirmed it. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awards, considered the prelude to the Academy Awards, honoured the epic about the physicist who masterminded the ‘Manhattan Project’ with five major awards: Best Drama, Best Director for Nolan, Best Actor in a Drama for Cillian Murphy, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Robert Downey Jr. and for Ludwig Göransson’s score. Oppenheimer’ was one of the biggest blockbusters of 2023, along with Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster ‘Barbie’. Nolan has made what is arguably his most impressive, multi-layered and gripping film to date, and the accolades are starting to roll in. As for the Academy Awards’ orientations, we will have to wait until 23 January.

‘Poor Things’, the bold vision of director Yorgos Lanthimos, winner of the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival, won two prestigious awards at the Golden Globes, including Best Comedy – unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes divide films into “drama” and “musical or comedy”, thereby awarding more prizes – and Best Actress for Emma Stone, who gave a truly outstanding performance that would seem to promise her a second Oscar after the one for La La Land in 2017.

‘Me Captain’’s dream gives way to Justine Triet’s victory

One of the most eagerly awaited categories for Italy was Best Foreign Language Film. Matteo Garrone’s ‘Me Captain’ (winner of the Silver Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival) was chosen as Italy’s entry. Justine Triet’s ‘Anatomy Of A Fall’, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes76, won Best Foreign Language Film and Best Screenplay at the Golden Globes. Triet’s film was highly praised in the United States, where it competed with four other major nominees at the Golden Globes. It should be noted, however, that Triet’s film won’t be representing France at the forthcoming Oscars. In fact, France will be competing with ‘The Taste of Things’, which gives more chances to Garrone’s film. Needless to say, the “opponents” are formidable: ‘Perfect Days’ (Japan, by W. Wenders), ‘Fallen Leaves’ (Finland, by A. Kaurismäki) and ‘The Zone of Interest’ (UK, by J. Glazer). The fateful five will be announced on 23 January.

‘The Holdovers’ success and ‘Barbie’’s slim rewards

In the Comedy category, two films stood out. Firstly, Alexander Payne’s ‘The Holdovers. Lessons of Life’, recently reviewed, which recalls the coming-of-age drama along the lines of ‘The Dead Poet’s Society’ (1989), won two prestigious awards, for Best Actor Paul Giamatti and Supporting Actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph. The movie’s progress towards the next Oscar nominations is thus increasingly solid. Next up is the Barbie phenomenon by director Greta Gerwig, who has already been chosen as the next president of the Cannes jury. “Barbie” did win at the Golden Globes, but it only won 2 of the 9 awards for which it was nominated, namely the inaugural award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, and Billie Eilish’s hit “What Was I Made For?” for Best Original Song.

Other awards included Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama, won by Lily Gladstone (‘Killers of the Flower Moon’) who became the first Native American to win the award. Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron’ won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film.

‘Succession’ and ‘The Bear’ win top TV honours

Los Angeles was not only the venue for cinema awards, but also for TV shows and television limited series. Critically acclaimed and well-received series Succession (HBO, Sky) and The Bear ( FX, DisneyPlus) took the top prizes. The former, in the drama category, was unrivalled with its grand finale, the fourth and final season. Jesse Armstrong’s “Succession” was crowned Best Drama, with Kieran Culkin winning Best Actor, Sarah Snook Best Actress in a TV Drama and Matthew Macfadyen Best Supporting Actor. Somewhat surprisingly, the 2023 hit ‘The Last of Us’ (HBO, Sky) went home empty-handed, as did ‘The Diplomat’ and ‘The Crown’ (Netflix). On closer inspection, ‘The Crown”s Elisabeth Debicki won Best Supporting Actress for her powerful performance as Lady Diana Spencer.

In the comedy category, the second season of Christopher Storer’s ‘The Bear’ took home three awards at the Globes: Best Comedy Series, with Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White also taking home acting honours. Well-deserved awards for a beautifully written, directed and acted show.  The surprise winner was Netflix’s ‘Beef’, which won Best Limited Television Series and Best Actor for Steven Yeun and Ali Wong. Regrettably, the equally deserving ‘Chemistry Lessons’ (Apple TV+) and ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ (Prime Video) were completely ignored. Finally, Best Stand-Up Comedy Show went to British genius Ricky Gervais for his irreverent and caustic humour in ‘Armageddon’ (Netflix).