Golden Globes 2025 recap: Shogun and Baby Reindeer score as Nikki Glaser roasts ‘Ozempic’s biggest night’

Challengers, the threesome tennis thriller starring Zendaya, had its flaws but one thing that was perfect was its now Golden Globe-winning score.

In his speech, Trent Reznor said he thought he and Atticus Ross would get the call to tone down the film’s intense score, but it never came. Phew.

Original Score – Motion Picture

Volker Bertelmann, Conclave

Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist

Kris Bowers, The Wild Robot

Clement Ducol and Camille, Emilia Perez

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Challengers

Hans Zimmer, Dune: Part Two

God bless Elton John, who turned up to play. In presenting the award for motion picture score, he made a joke about himself.

“I don’t know if you know that there’s been a lot of stories going on about my regressive eyesight, and I wanted to reassure everybody that it’s not as bad as it seems.

“So, I’m pleased to be here with my co-host, Rihanna.”

It was most definitely not Rihanna. It was singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile.

What a good sport.

The Brutalist’s Brady Corbet, who is only 36 years old, just won in the directing category.

The film was a massive effort that took him seven years to mount, and is the story of a Hungarian architect who migrates to the US after the second world war and tries to realise his American Dream.

The three-and-a-half-hour film has a 15-minute intermission encoded into its file. How old school is that.

Corbet gave a classy speech thanking his collaborators and, at the end, recognised three people he lost in his life during the making of the film, including his grandfather.

He also acknowledged the death of filmmaker Jeff Baena. “Tonight my heart is with Aubrey Plaza and Jeff’s family.”

Director in a Motion Picture

Jacques Audiard, Emilia Perez

Sean Baker, Anora

Edward Bergere, Conclave

Brady Corbet, The Brutalist Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine As Light

Flow was an underdog but a favourite here, a small, independent Latvian film up against big Hollywood studios such as Disney.

The film is silent, as in without dialogue, and is about the adventures of a cat after a massive flood.

Flow won’t be released in Australia until March.

Motion Picture - Animated

Flow

Inside Out 2

Memoir of a Snail

Moana 2

Wallace & Gromit

The Wild Robot

Someone did have to follow Moore and Sebastian Stan rose to the occasion.

A double nominee this year, this win was for A Different Man. Unlike the women’s category this year where a lot of the favourites were, the comedy or musical best actor is not expected to be that competitive in the Oscar nominations stakes in 2025, it’s more like a bonus category.

Stan’s speech was also very good, and he also referenced the other film he was nominated for, the Donald Trump biopic, The Apprentice.

In the peculiar A Different Man, he plays a man with a disability.

He said, “Our ignorance and discomfort around disability and disfigurement has to end now. We have to normalise it and continue to expose ourselves to it and our children, encourage acceptance.

“One way we can do that is by continuing to champion stories that are inclusive. This was not an easy movie to make, neither is The Apprentice, the other film I was lucky to be a part of and proud to be in.

“These are tough subject matters but these films are real and necessary and we cannot be afraid and look away.”

He dedicated the award to his mum, “who left Romania in search of a better life and gave me everything, and for my stepfather Tony who took on a single mother and a grown-up kid, thank you for being a real man.”

Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain

Hugh Grant, Heretic

Gabriel Labelle, Saturday Night

Jesse Plemons, Kinds of Kindness

Glen Powell, Hit Man

Sebastian Stan, A Different Man

After a decades-long career, Demi Moore has won her first Golden Globe (it’s her third nomination).

She won for a very revealing and raw performance in the body horror movie The Substance.

She acknowledged her tenure in the industry in her speech, and that she had been told she wasn’t a serious actor.

Moore gave a rousing speech, and one that could very well catapult her onto the Oscars nominee list. The nominations period opens later this week, and a moment like the one Moore just had is exactly the value of a Globes victory, in creating momentum.

“I am in shock right now,” Moore said. “I have been doing this a long time, over 45 years,” she said. “This is the first time I have ever won anything as an actor. I am so humbled and so grateful.

“Thirty years years ago, I had a producer told me I was a popcorn actress. At that time I thought it meant (an award) was something I was not allowed to have. I bought in and I believed that. That prompted me over time to the point where I thought, years ago, maybe this was its. Maybe I was complete. Maybe I had done what I was supposed to do.

“As I was at a low point. I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk, called The Substance. The universe told me you are not done. I am so grateful for them trusting me to play this woman. For Margaret (Qualley) by being the other half of me I could not have done without. For looking out for me.

“For the people that have been with me for over 30 years, Jason Weinberg, everybody, all the people that stood by me especially the people that believed in me when I have not believed in myself.

“I would just leave you with one thing I think this movie is imparting is in those moments when we don’t think we’re smart enough are pretty enough or skinny enough or are basically just not enough, I had a woman say to me ‘Just know you will never be enough but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick’.

“I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness and of the love that is driving me and for the gift of doing something I love and being reminded I do belong, thank you so much.”

As Kerry Washington said after Moore’s speech, “Good luck to the next person that has to do a speech”.

Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Amy Adams, Nightbitch

Cynthia Erivo, Wicked

Karla Sofia Gascon, Emilia Perez

Mikey Madison, Anora

Demi Moore, The Substance

Zendaya, Challengers

You’d be silly to bet against Jodie Foster, she’s an institution, and for good reason.

Female Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Made for TV Movie

Cate Blanchett, Disclaimer

Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country

Cristin Milioti, The Penguin

Sofia Vergara, Griselda

Naomi Watts, Feud: Capote vs The Swans

Kate Winslet, The Regime

We love seeing the very Irish Colin Farrell onstage. He’s such a charismatic speech-giver. He just won for his role on streaming series The Penguin.

He gave a special shout-out to Carolina from craft services, which is the catering crew on a set. That’s so lovely.

He started with a joke, “No one to thank on this one, I did it all by myself. Just a raw performance.”

In all seriousness, he added, “So many people to thank. We all know it takes a village whether it is on the small screen or the big screen. Here on the backs of the talent of the many people through the years. Maybe this one more than others because of the extraordinary make-up team.

“All it took was three hours in the chair in the morning, I’d drink black coffee, listen to 80s music and I became a canvas for that team’s vision. I want to thank the whole cast, Sarah Aubrey, Matt Reeves, thank you for employing me.”

Back to the more jovial part of his speech, “I guess it’s prosthetics from here on out.”

He also gave a shout-out to fellow nominee and Irishman, Andrew Scott - “Who I did my first film with 25, 30 years ago, it doesn’t even exist on Betamax.”

Male Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Made for TV Movie

Colin Farrell, The Penguin

Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer

Kevin Kline, Disclaimer

Cooper Koch, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

Ewan McGregor, A Gentleman in Moscow

Andrew Scott, Ripley

Emilia Perez is proving it has a lot of love among Globes voters.

While the film is a force on the awards circuit, its victory was not guaranteed because sometimes when an international feature is popular, voters split the statues and award a movie that may not do as well in the main categories.

There are also some formidable rivals in the category, including The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

Emilia Perez is certainly a very international production with its director and writer hailing from France, as well as its producers and financiers, but it is set in Mexico and is primarily in Spanish.

The film’s French director Jacques Audiard accepted the award with the help of a translator.

He said, “I don’t have sisters and that might be the reason I made this film about sisterhood. If there were more sisters in the world, the world would be a better place.”

He paid tribute to the film’s star, Karla Sofia Gascon, a transgender actor.

“In these troubled times I hope Emilia Perez will be a beacon of light. For those of us are not lucky enough to count amongst their friends, a woman as powerful and passionate as Gascon (...) this price is also dedicated to them. I urge them to keep their heads held high. To continue to fight.”

Motion Picture – Non-English Language

All We Imagine As Light (France/India/Netherlands/Luxembourg)

Emilia Perez (France)

The Girl with the Needle (Poland/Sweden/Denmark)

I’m Still Here (Brazil)

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (USA/Germany)

Vermiglio (Italy)

Ali Wong has picked up her second consecutive Golden Globe, this time for her comedy special, Single Lady, in which she goes into detail about her post-divorce dating adventures and misadventures.

She thanked her best friend, Mia, who is her date to the ceremony, and gave a shout-out to the Masonic Theatre in San Francisco for giving her stage time when she was starting out as a stand-up.

Wong last year won a Globe for her role in streaming series Beef.

Performance in a Stand-Up Comedy – Television

Jamie Foxx, What Had Happened Was

Nikki Glaser, Someday You’ll Die

Seth Myers, Dad Man Walking

Adam Sandler, Love You

Ali Wong, Single Lady

Ramy Youssef, More Feelings