Golden Globes
The 81st annual Golden Globes kickstarted a riveting awards season on January 7th, with the spotlight on blockbuster movies such as Barbie and Oppenheimer, as well as popular shows across various streaming platforms. The night featured an array of celebrities that dazzled the audience, along with some scandals as well.
Amongst the big winners were Robert Downey Jr for his role in Oppenheimer, Elizabeth Debicki for her role in the Netflix series The Crown, Emma Stone for Poor Things, Billie Eilish for her original song “What Was I Made For?” in Barbie, and The Bear as an overall best comedy series. Another highlight was Lily Gladstone’s acceptance speech: being a Native American woman, some of her speech was made in the Blackfeet language, honoring the role she won in Killers of the Flower Moon. Oppenheimer won the most awards in the show, while Barbie came in with more nominations.
The evening was not all celebration, however. Jo Koy, a standup comedian, took the role of the host and opened with a very controversial monologue. His jokes went from ribbing celebrities such as Taylor Swift to even offending the movies on the bill for the night. One joke directed at Barbie in particular sparked an outlash, being cited as misogynistic. Jo Koy responded with, “Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago, you want a perfect monologue?” also stating that he was “hurt” so many people disliked his introduction (Lang).
Despite some speed bumps, this Golden Globes was a particular success, as it was the first one hosted after various Hollywood Foreign Press scandals. While some fans were disappointed in the results, the night honored many successful films and shows from the year, spotlighting some up-and-coming new stars as well.
Emmy Awards
The Primetime Emmys took place on January 15th, 2024, after having been postponed due to the writer’s strike in Hollywood. The purpose of the 2024 Emmys was to award shows that came out from the summer of 2022 to the summer of 2023.
The Emmys cover a large number of genres in television, from comedy to drama, to anthology series, awarding screenplays, directing, acting, and the best shows overall. Succession, an HBO-original smash-hit drama, came into the Emmys with a whopping 27 nominations, winning six including Outstanding Drama Series.
Some acting forerunners were Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson (who won for lead actress in a comedy), Jeremy Allen White (who won for lead actor in the same category), and Niecy Nash-Betts for Dahmer. Despite the popularity of Abbott Elementary, FX’s The Bear won for best comedy series, beating out other popular series such as Wednesday, Ted Lasso, and Only Murders in the Building.
This year’s host was Black-ish star, Anthony Anderson.
Oscar Nominations
January 23rd, this year’s nominees for the long-anticipated Oscar’s award show have been announced. Fans had been speculating on potential nominees ever since the results of the Golden Globes. In many aspects, people are satisfied in seeing many of their favorites take a place amongst the honored–in others, people are disappointed at certain perceived “snubs.”
Films nominated in the Golden Globes are making frequent appearances in the “Best Picture” category, including blockbusters Oppenheimer and Barbie, who were the main focus of the earlier awards season. Amongst them are other hits from earlier in the year, such as Maestro, with Bradley Cooper earning a nomination for best lead actor.
Lily Gladstone, winner of the Golden Globe for her category, has now been nominated again for best lead actress at the Academy Awards. Other nominees in the Best Actress category include Emma Stone and Sandra Hueller. While fans generally agree on these nominations, it is in the supporting actress and best director categories that opinions begin to differ.
While Barbie stars America Ferrara and Ryan Gosling were recognized for their work, lead Margot Robbie and director, Greta Gerwig were absent from the nominee lists. For fans and actors alike this sparked outrage, especially considering their contributions to the success of the major film. Even actors from other films, such as Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer) believe Robbie and Gerwig aren’t “getting enough credit” (Reed). Robbie’s response, however, was that she didn’t feel sad for herself, but wished Gerwig could’ve received due credit for her accomplishments.
The actual ceremony is to be held on March 10th.
Grammy Awards
The 66th Grammy Awards took place on February 4th, resulting in an onslaught of record-breakers, new winners, and exciting announcements. With special guests presenting the awards (including Celine Dion, who has been seldom seen in lieu of her medical troubles), the night proved to be a fantastic celebration of music’s top hits today.
Unsurprisingly, Taylor Swift took home the prestigious album of the year for Midnights, taking the opportunity to announce her new album, Tortured Poets Department, to be released in April. Taylor Swift went into this year’s Grammys with six nominations, one of which ended up going to Miley Cyrus for her first Grammy win. This was the best pop solo performance, awarded for her song, “Flowers.” The award was presented by Mariah Carey, and the closing of her speech included a quick, “Not everyone in the world will get a Grammy, but everyone in this world is spectacular, so please don’t think that this is important,” before taking her spot among the rich collection of Grammy award winners (Morrow).
In a more serious tone, was Jay-Z calling out the Recording Academy for what he viewed as a snub. After winning the Dr. Dre Global Impact award, he stated, “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year. So even by your metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that. The most Grammys, never won Album of the Year” (De Guzman). This is a reference to his wife, Beyonce, and how despite holding the record for 32 Grammys, she has still yet to win the most coveted Grammy. While the speech did result in a few shocked gasps from the audience, it ended optimistically and was little noted afterward.
All in all, the Grammys was a gratifying night for Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Miley Cyrus fans, resulting in general good feelings and well-wishes for the award-winners. For the most part, viewers were satisfied with the results.
