The 2024 Golden Globes have come and gone, with Christopher Nolan’s stellar epic Oppenheimer and Yorgos Lanthimos’ mind-bending dramedy Poor Things taking home the night’s top prizes for movies.
While comedian Jo Koy got poor notices for his opening monologue (including one from Taylor Swift), this year’s Globes ceremony did help us understand the pulse in the industry for this year’s Academy Awards just a bit better than we did before.
The night’s wins helped confirm some of our gut feelings and gave us a few other things to consider for the annual Oscar ceremony.
Let’s go through five big takeaways from the Globes, including which movie might deserve more attention than it’s been getting and which movie should be considered the Best Picture front-runner right now.
Oppenheimer is the front-runner for Best Picture
With multiple wins in categories like Best Motion Picture (Drama), Best Director, Best Actor (Drama), Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Score, Oppenheimer confirmed what many of us had assumed going into Sunday night: this is the front-runner for Best Picture.
It’s got so many of the boxes checked (starry cast, gravity to its theme, support from the actors and crafts branches, box office success, zeitgeist appeal), and it helps to have a Globes night like this in front of your peers if you’re the Oppenheimer crew.
Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon feel like its biggest competition, but everything is shaping up for Christopher Nolan’s historical epic to go the distance. However, it’s a long season, so expect the unexpected.
The acting categories are establishing their favorites
The Golden Globes are not always the best barometers for who will ultimately win the Oscars in the acting categories. However, they do give us a pretty good idea of who is separating from the field.
In the supporting categories, both Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) and Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer) both feel like the front-runners in their respective fields. However, we’re not ready to anoint either as de-facto favorites, particularly Downey Jr., who has Ryan Gosling’s beloved role as Ken in Barbie to contend with.
In the main acting categories, Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) topping Bradley Cooper (Maestro) in Best Actor (Drama) caught our attention, while Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone winning in the leading actress categories makes them the favorites for Best Actress. Gladstone has the momentum.
Don’t sleep on Best Actor (Musical or Comedy) winner Paul Giamatti from The Holdovers, however. He could give Murphy and Cooper a real challenge come Oscar night, and his speech was the kind that can earn a lot of favor.
Right now, Murphy feels like the best bet there, but you never know. The Screen Actors’ Guild Awards will be our next major barometer.
Christopher Nolan may finally get his Oscar
After years of coming just short of the prestigious Best Director Oscar, it may finally be Nolan’s year.
His win for Best Director came with a gracious speech from Nolan, which will go a long way with the people in the room who were already going to vote for him for his titanic work in crafting Oppenheimer.
We’re not ruling out Greta Gerwig (Barbie) and Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), but this one feels like Nolan’s to lose (and rightly so).
We’ll see how the Directors’ Guild feels later in the winter.
Anatomy of a Fall is gaining steam
The biggest eye-opener of the night was the French courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall winning the Best Screenplay award over big contenders like Oppenheimer, Barbie and Past Lives.
Justine Triet’s film also won the Non-English Language award, although it won’t be eligible for International Feature at this year’s Oscars.
Even so, it sure feels like Anatomy of a Fall having a moment at the Globes will only help its quest to sneak into the Best Picture field and surely heightens its already sound chances for Best Original Screenplay.
Could it actually win a screenplay Oscar? Could Triet (above) even surprise and earn a Best Director nomination? This win makes us curious.
Billie Eilish and Finneas should make room on the shelf
After winning just two years ago for their song for the James Bond film No Time to Die, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell sure look like they’ll win once more in Best Original Song for their tune “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie.
We’re betting Eilish will perform the song at the Oscars ceremony, and we’re betting she’ll become a two-time Oscar winner that night along with her brother Finneas. Barbie‘s “I’m Just Ken” feels like its only real competition.
