The Golden Globes: A Recap on a Glamorous Night

By Ella Ilg, Staff Writer

As the bright golden awards of the evening clashed heavily against the black dresses and tuxedos, the 75th Annual Golden Globes provided an interesting visual for viewers across the country. The night of Jan. 7th found hundreds of celebrities from movies and television present at the Beverly Hilton Hotel ballroom for the ceremony.

The major winner in the movie realm was “Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri,” taking home 4 awards for Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, Best Motion Picture: Drama and Best Lead Actress in a Drama. The winner for Best Lead Actress, Francis McDormand, made a statement, in addition to her black dress and Times Up pin, by not wearing any makeup to the award show. The runner ups in the movie world are “Shape of Water” and “Lady Bird,” with Shape of Water winning Best Motion Picture Director and Best Original Motion Picture Score, and Lady Bird winning Best Picture and Lead Actress for Comedy.

Differing from the Oscars, the Golden Globes also has a television section, awarding miniseries and television shows that often don’t receive the same recognition as films. The big winner in the world of TV was “Big Little Lies,” receiving the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series, Best Actress in a Limited Series, Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series and Best Limited Series. The runner ups were “The Handmaid’s Tale” which won Best Television Series for Drama and Best Actress in a TV Series for Drama, and the new Amazon Prime series, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which won Best TV series for Comedy and Best Actress in a TV series for Comedy.

Besides the award ceremony, a pertinent part of the Golden Globe experience is viewing the critiques and drama after the show is over. A majority of the critiques were about the numerous award winners who acknowledged the sexism and racism present in Hollywood and award shows, but seemingly not doing much about it. Acknowledgment is the first step in solving a problem, but many were frustrated with how there was a lot of talk and no action. There were only 10 nominees of color, compared to 79 white nominees, and only 2/10 POC nominees received an award. Many were also upset that “Get Out,” a movie loved by audiences and critics alike and one that provided an important racial commentary, was snubbed, with only two nominations and no wins.

On the gendered side, as Barbara Streisand presented Best Motion Picture for Drama, it was mentioned in the introduction that she is the only female winner of the Best Director Award (back in 1984). She expressed her frustration during her speech, that it had been 34 years since that win, and only 6 women have been nominated for best director since 1984. On a positive note though, there were 3 women nominated for Best Screenplay and a good deal of the winners in TV and film were very women-focused, such as “Lady Bird,” “Three Billboards,” “Big Little Lies,” “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” It shows progress on the acceptance of women and women’s stories in Hollywood.

The other winners at the Globes included Gary Oldman for Best Actor in a Drama, James Franco for Best Actor in a Comedy, Allison Janney for Best Supporting Actress, Sam Rockwell for Best Supporting Actor, Guillermo del Toro for Best Director, Martin McDonagh for Best Screenplay, “Coco” for Best Animated Film, “In The Fade” for Best Foreign Motion Picture, Alexandre Desplat for Best Original Score, “This is Me” for Best Original Song, Ewan McGregor for Best Actor in a Limited Series, Sterling K. Brown for Best Actor in a Dramatic TV Series, Aziz Ansari for Best Actor in a Comedy TV Series, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement went to Oprah Winfrey.