The Golden Globes have officially kicked off the 2025 awards season. It was a triumphant night for director Brady Corbet his ambitious epic The Brutalist, and there were several other noteworthy wins, not to mentions snubs. Keep on reading to find out more.
1. The Brutalist is the lead Oscar contender with three Globes wins
The Brutalist channels the birth of contemporary America through the prism of one immigrant man. Adrien Brody (Oscar winner for The Pianist) plays the humble Hungarian architect who is determined to bend the American Dream to his will, arriving in sight of Lady Liberty in New York and establishing a hugely successful career as an architect.
However, the price of materialistic success doesn't come without cost. Brody's performance is the lynchpin of the sprawling, four-hour-long movie and his contribution was recognised with a Golden Globe win for Best Actor - Drama, Brody's first (he was Globe-nominated for The Pianist but lost to Jack Nicholson for About Schmidt).
Brody's win puts him ahead of competitors Timothée Chalamet, nominated for the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown (released January 17th), and Sebastian Stan, who got a nod for Donald Trump drama The Apprentice. That said, Stan capped off a banner year with a win in a separate category: Best Actor - Comedy or Musical for A Different Man.
The Brutalist is orchestrated on an epic scale by director Brady Corbet whose similarly baroque feature film debut The Childhood of a Leader turned heads in 2016. Corbet's ambitious sense of scale saw The Brutalist recognised with key wins for Best Film - Drama and Best Director.
This likely establishes The Brutalist as the pack leader at the forthcoming Oscar nominations. However, it's not a sure-fire bet – quite often the Globes and the Oscars stand apart. Examples of Golden Globe-winning individuals who weren't even nominated at the Oscars include Nicole Kidman for To Die For (1995), Aaron Taylor-Johnson for Nocturnal Animals (2016) and Argo director Ben Affleck.
2. Kieran Culkin wins for A Real Pain
Due for release on January 8th, A Real Pain details the bittersweet, Euro-centric journey undertaken by two mismatched cousins in honour of their late grandmother. Jesse Eisenberg directs and stars as David, but the show is stolen by Kieran Culkin (the man who was once Fuller in the Home Alone movies) as Benji.
Culkin's fractious, comedically sharp performance perfectly counters Eisenberg's characteristic neurosis, conveying elements of fragility and vulnerability. Culkin has scored his first Golden Globe win for a theatrical movie, winning in the Best Supporting Actor category. (In 2024, he won Best Actor in a TV series - Drama for Succession.)
Culkin did wait to beat popular favourite Denzel Washington for Gladiator II, although there's every chance the latter will come surging back in the Oscar nominations. Washington is an Oscars favourite, having won Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1989) and Best Actor for Training Day (2001). This may give him an advantage over Culkin as awards season develops.
Watch Culkin's acceptance speech below and book your tickets for A Real Pain via the link below.
3. Demi Moore clinches her first Golden Globe win for The Substance
Fortunately, The Substance's Monstro Elisasue didn't crash the party at the Golden Globes – that would have made a grisly and splatterific entry in the ceremony's long history. However, the film's star Demi Moore cemented her triumphant comeback with her first-ever Golden Globe win. (Moore had previously been nominated for her breakout role in 1990's blockbuster Ghost.)
Moore is pivotal to the impact of The Substance, which is helmed with gonzo and outrageous bravado by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat. Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, an Oscar-winning actor who is informed that she's washed up at 50. She then partakes in the titular substance and births a second, younger version of herself who can soak up all the fame that misogynistic Hollywood is capable of throwing out.
The film's blend of piercing satire and jaw-dropping body horror has yielded critical and financial success. One imagines that Moore will now score a Best Actress nomination for the Oscars – if there's one thing awards bodies in Hollywood love, it's a sentimental comeback. Expect Moore's win isn't simply nostalgic – it's well-earned, and aligned with a movie that had us all memorably squirming in our seats.
Moore triumphed in a particularly competitive category including Cynthia Erivo for Wicked (more on which below), Mikey Madison for Anora (which was snubbed all round) and Zendaya for Challengers. Moore's win is all the more notable because horror films are routinely ignored by Hollywood awards bodies – an Oscar nomination would therefore be historically notable both in terms of the performer and the movie itself. (A rare example would be Sigourney Weaver's Best Actress nom for Aliens in 1986.)
4. Wicked wins the 'Popular' vote
If any blockbuster defied gravity in 2024, it was Wicked. The sensationally successful Stephen Schwartz adaptation took the magic ingredients of the long-running Broadway production and sprinkled some fairy dust on them, not least in the central casting.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are utterly winning as frenemy witches Elphaba and Galinda (later to become Glinda). Director Jon M. Chu utilises the cinematic canvas to reconfigure showstopping hits like 'The Wizard and I' and 'I'm Not That Girl' while composer John Powell ably incorporates Schwartz's original melodies into the film's underscore.
It's a winning combination of factors that has resulted in the film being a blockbuster success. Little wonder it walked away with the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award at the Golden Globes – this is designed to acknowledge the crowd-pleasing blockbusters that may otherwise be shut out of the more 'artistic' categories.
Vin Diesel presented the award to Jon M. Chu and the film's producers – check it out below. And if you can't wait to watch Wicked again, there's still time. Book your tickets via the following link.
5. Conclave wins Best Screenplay
Papal thriller Conclave, adapted from Robert Harris' bestseller, gripped us with all manner of twists and turns, so it's little wonder the film's labyrinthine screenplay is the recipient of Golden Globes success. The award goes to Peter Straughan who has past form in adapting tricky subject matter: in 2011, he presented us with the tricksy and riveting screenplay for John le Carre adaptation Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Straughan's screenplay allows Conclave actors Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow to feast on juicy dialogue and scandalous revelations, the plot revolving around the fraught search for a new Pontiff. The script blends the personal crisis of faith felt by Fiennes' character Cardinal Lawrence with a wider look at culpability and the Roman Catholic church's role in the modern world.
It's a challenging blend of elements brought off with the page-turning speed of the best pulpy thriller. Watch Straughan's acceptance speech below.
6. Challengers wins Best Original Score
Luca Guadagnino's sweaty and sultry tennis drama Challengers serves up a volley of mind games, sexual politics and irresistibly hot performances. Despite all that, it didn't get the pulses of Globes voters racing, but composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross scored a slam dunk with their win for Best Original Score.
The duo's pulsating and energetic synth soundscape powers the courtside sequences and insidiously plays with our expectations during the more intimate moments, making us question who is leading who. It's another acclaimed win for the compositional team who have already scored an Oscar win for David Fincher's The Social Network (2010).
When are the BAFTAs and Academy Awards taking place?
The BAFTA and Oscar nominations are announced on January 15th and 17th, before the all-important ceremonies on February 16th and March 3rd, respectively.
Has all this awards talk whetted your appetite for more movies? Then visit the link below to discover 25 unmissable movies coming your way in 2025.
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