Many of awards at the 2024 Golden Globes went exactly as expected. From the moment the new award for cinematic and box office achievement was announced, it was a foregone conclusion that Barbie would win. (Some Swifties thought Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour might pull an upset, but it was not to be.)
Likewise, no one was surprised that Billie Eilish and Finneas won the award for best original song for their contribution to Barbie, “What Was I Made For?” The hypnotic ballad is on the Oscar shortlist and is the front-winner to win that award on March 10. Eilish and Finneas won the Globe two years ago for writing the title song from the James Bond film No Time to Die and went on to win in the Oscar as well.
But, as always, there were some snubs and surprises along the way. Poor Things bested Barbie for best motion picture – musical or comedy, which means if the Globes had not added the new cinematic and box office achievement award, Barbie would have won just one Globe.
Oppenheimer won five Globes, the most by any film since La La Land swept seven awards seven years ago. Barbie, Poor Things, Anatomy of a Fall and The Holdovers each won two.
The top winner on the TV side was HBO’s Succession, with four awards, followed by FX’s The Bear and Netflix’s Beef, with three awards each.
Emmy-winning producing duo Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner of White Cherry Entertainment served as executive-producing showrunners of the 2024 Golden Globes. Weiss also directed.
Penske Media Corporation, Billboard’s parent company, is a part-owner of dick clark productions and has a partnership with Eldridge.
Barbie was the nominations leader on the film side, with nine nods, but won only two awards. Stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling’s losses weren’t unexpected, but in major surprises, Barbie lost best motion picture – musical or comedy to Poor Things, and screenwriters Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach lost best screenplay – motion picture to Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, the screenwriters of Anatomy of a Fall.
The Boy and the Heron won best motion picture – animated, beating Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Both of the latter films were also nominated in the new cinematic and box office achievement category. This is a case of David winning over two Goliaths.
Bradley Cooper’s performance as famed conductor Leonard Bernstein in Maestro lost best performance by a male actor in a motion picture – drama to Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer. That wasn’t exactly a surprise: It was expected to be close between these two front-runners. But the fact remains that Cooper has yet to win a Globe. His track record stands at 0-6.
Meryl Streep was expected to win her record-setting 10th Golden Globe Award for her role in Only Murders in the Building. But she lost in her category, best performance by a female actor in a supporting role on television, to Elizabeth Debicki, who played Princess Diana in The Crown. As a result, Streep remains in a three-way tie as the leading Globe winner with Barbra Streisand and Tom Hanks, each of whom have also won nine Globes (combining competitive awards and honorary prizes, such as the Cecil B. DeMille Award, which all three have won).
Past Lives went 0-5 for the night, the biggest shutout by any film. On the TV side, Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building had the biggest shutout, also going 0-5 on the night.
Ricky Gervais, a five-time Globes host, won the new award for best performance in stand-up comedy on television for Ricky Gervais: Armageddon. Chris Rock was expected to win for Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, his first comedy special since the infamous Academy Awards incident where he was slapped in the face by Will Smith.
Three years, the Globes were rocked by scandal about a lack of diversity in the organization and ethical lapses. It was so bad that Fey and Poehler, who hosted that year for the fourth time, openly criticized the show, while hosting the show. Fey said “We all know award shows are stupid. The point is, even with stupid things, inclusivity is important and there are no Black members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association … You have to change that.” Two years ago, the show was held as a private event, with no broadcast or streaming at all. After airing on NBC last year, the show moved to CBS for 2024 — and it lived up to its old reputation as Hollywood’s free-wheeling party of the year, with such A-listers as Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen in attendance.
Jo Koy is the least well-known Globes host in the past 15 years. Many of the hosts in this period have been very well-known, including Ricky Gervais (a five-time host), Tina Fey & Amy Poehler (four-time hosts), Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. Though this may have been many viewers’ introduction to him, Koy made a favorable impression during the three-hour telecast. This could be a big stepping stone for him.
The Golden Globes didn’t present their two signature honorary awards – The Cecil B. DeMille Award, named after the director of Samson and Delilah and The Ten Commandments, and the Carol Burnett Award, named after the star of TV’s last great weekly variety series. They barely mentioned the DeMille Award and never mentioned the Burnett Award. This is only the fourth time since the DeMille Award was first presented in 1952 (to DeMille, naturally) that it hasn’t been given. The Globes, which are working hard to rebuild their credibility after a series of scandals, may have had trouble attracting the level of artists they wanted for these awards. Let’s hope they revive these awards soon.