The Oscar-tipped musical love-letter to Los Angeles, La La Land, has become the most successful film ever at the Golden Globes, winning all seven of the categories in which it was nominated.
As well as being named the Best Film in the musical-or-comedy, its stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone took home trophies, and the film also won for its screenplay and direction – both by Damien Chazelle, its score and the best song.
But it’s less of a signpost to Oscar success than previous years at the Golden Globes, because as a musical, it wasn’t directly up against its main Academy Award rivals, Manchester By The Sea and Moonlight, which were nominated – and won awards – in the drama categories. Moonlight was named the Best Drama Film, while Casey Affleck’s performance as a bereaved brother in Manchester By The Sea won him the Best Actor in a Drama award. The Golden Globe for the Best Actress in a Film Drama unexpectedly went to Isabelle Huppert, for Elle, the French film that also took the Best Foreign Language prize, perhaps reflecting the more international make-up of the membership of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organisation made-up of about ninety LA-based journalists who choose the winners.
The other film awards saw the Best Supporting Actress honours going to Viola Davis for her turn in Denzel Washington’s Fences, an adaptation of a Broadway play. And the British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson was another surprise winner, being named the Best Supporting Actor in a feature film for playing a psychopathic rapist in Nocturnal Animals.
British actors had considerably more success in the TV categories, with Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman all receiving awards for their parts in the BBC’s mini-series adaptation of the John Le Carre novel The Night Manager, while Claire Foy was named the Best Actress in a TV drama, for playing the Queen in Stephen Daldry and Peter Morgan’s The Crown, which was also named the Best Drama series.
Despite a number of snubs and surprises, perhaps the most controversy came – predictably – from comments about the election of Donald Trump as US President. The ceremony host Jimmy Fallon joked, in his opening monologue, that the Golden Globes were one of the few places where the winner was the one with the most votes, referring to the fact that Hillary Clinton’s margin of victory in California was so great, that although she won only 20 of America’s 50 states, she received more votes in total. This being the case, it’s perhaps not surprising that Hollywood – many of whose biggest names openly campaigned against Donald Trump – might use such an event to get their own back. Accepting his award, Hugh Laurie, who’s best known in the US for playing an American doctor in House, joked that this could be the last Golden Globes, pointing out that Mr Trump is no friend of Hollywood, foreigners or the press – the three elements that make up the event’s organisers.
But most cutting in her criticism was one of the most honoured actresses in Hollywood history, Meryl Streep, as she accepted the Cecil B DeMille award for lifetime achievement. Often a point of controversy in the ceremony, one of the most powerful women in Hollywood used her speech to criticise someone who had no means to defend himself at the event, observing that “When the powerful use their position to bully people, we all lose.” And less than a year after the Academy was prompted to address concerns about the lack of diversity of its membership after being unable to nominate a single non-white actor or actress, Streep remarked that “Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners and if you kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts.”
But while he had no right of reply at the Beverly Hilton hotel at the time, Donald Trump’s itchy Twitter finger was quick off the mark; his swift response labelled the 3-time Oscar-winning and 8-time Golden Globe-winning Streep “one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood” and “a Hillary flunky who lost big.” Many of his supporters joined him on social media to remind what they branded the Hollywood elite, who – they observed – had spent more on their dresses than some of them earn in a year, that it was their attitude that persuaded them to vote for Trump in the first place.
And as awards watchers consider how useful this year’s Golden Globes will be as an Oscar predictor, with the big winner not being in competition against its likely Oscar rivals, here’s a reminder of the full list of winners:
Film categories
Best motion picture – drama
- Moonlight
Best motion picture – comedy or musical
Best performance by an actor in a motion picture – drama
- Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
Best performance by an actress in a motion picture – drama
- Isabelle Huppert – Elle
- Ryan Gosling – La La Land
Best performance by an actress in a motion picture – comedy or musical
- Emma Stone – La La Land
Best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson – Nocturnal Animals
Best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a motion picture
- Viola Davis – Fences
- Damien Chazelle – La La Land
Best screenplay – motion picture
- Damien Chazelle – La La Land
Best animated feature film
- Zootopia
Best foreign language film
- Elle
Best original score – motion picture
- Justin Hurwitz – La La Land
Best original song – motion picture
- City of Stars – La La Land
TV categories
Best television series – drama
- The Crown
Best television series – comedy or musical
- Atlanta
Best mini-series or motion picture made for television
- The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story
- Billy Bob Thornton – Goliath
Best performance by an actress in a television series – drama
- Claire Foy – The Crown
Best performance by an actor in a television series – comedy or musical
- Donald Glover – Atlanta
Best performance by an actress in a television series – comedy or musical
- Tracee Ellis Ross – Black-ish
- Tom Hiddleston – The Night Manager
Best performance by an actress in a mini-series or motion picture made for television
- Sarah Paulson – The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story
Best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, mini-series or motion picture made for television
- Hugh Laurie – The Night Manager
Best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a series, mini-series or motion picture made for television
- Olivia Colman – The Night Manager