HISTORICAL drama Oppenheimer dominated the Golden Globe awards on Sunday (Jan 7) and gothic comedy Poor Things upset summer blockbuster Barbie, as Hollywood threw its biggest party since labour disputes shut down much of show business last year.

Oppenheimer, about the making of the atomic bomb, landed five honours, including the coveted best movie drama prize and acting awards for stars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr.

Christopher Nolan won his first Golden Globe award for best director for the film, which was distributed by Comcast’s Universal Pictures.

“I am so pleased that Chris has been acknowledged, because I just think that what he does is unlike anything anyone else is doing,” Oppenheimer producer Emma Thomas said on stage.

She said Nolan, who is her husband, “brings the best out in people by being the very best himself”.

Poor Things, starring Emma Stone as a deceased woman revived by scientists, won best movie musical or comedy.

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Awards watchers had widely expected that honour to go to Barbie, the female empowerment story inspired by the iconic doll that topped 2023 box office charts and went into the night with a leading nine nominations. Stone also was named best actress in a movie comedy or musical.

Barbie went home with just two awards, for Billie Eilish’s song What Was I Made For and for a new category called cinematic and box office achievement, created for widely seen films.

The winners were chosen by roughly 300 entertainment journalists who voted on the honours as a part of a new organisation, created after an ethics and diversity scandal among Globe voters.

Lily Gladstone, best actress winner for her role in Killers of the Flower Moon began her acceptance speech by introducing herself in the Native American language she learnt in school.

“This is an historic win,” Gladstone continued in English. “It doesn’t belong to just me. I am holding it right now with all my beautiful sisters.”

She thanked director Martin Scorsese as well as Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, her co-stars in the story about the murders of members of the Osage Nation in the 1920s.

“You are all changing things,” Gladstone said.

Other acting winners included Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers, a comedy set at a boys boarding school.

In television categories, Succession was named best drama and led all series with four wins, including a lead acting honour for Kieran Culkin. “Suck it, Pedro!” Culkin joked to competitor Pedro Pascal from The Last of Us.

The Bear, about the struggles of owning a restaurant, won best TV comedy and acting trophies for stars Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri.

Road rage story Beef landed the Globe for limited series.

The glitzy ceremony at the Beverly Hilton kicked off Hollywood’s annual awards season, which culminates with the Oscars on Mar 10, and brought top stars together for the first time after six months of strikes by actors and writers in 2023.

The event gave performers the chance to mingle and to publicise their movies and TV shows after months when red carpets and other promotion were prohibited.

Jo Koy, a comedian hosting his first major awards show, opened the ceremony, broadcast live on CBS, with jabs at some of the A-list stars and their projects.

Oppenheimer, running three hours long, “needed another hour”, Koy joked. “I felt like it needed some more backstory.”

Known as a boozy celebration more relaxed than the Academy Awards, the Globes nearly disappeared. A 2021 Los Angeles Times report revealed ethical lapses and a lack of diversity among the roughly 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that previously voted on the Globes. The 2022 ceremony was scrapped while the organisation made reforms.

Sunday’s turnout showed Hollywood had re-embraced the Globes as a key stop on the awards campaign trail. In the crowd were several Hollywood legends from Meryl Streep to De Niro and Jodie Foster, all Globe nominees vying for Oscars this year.

Pop superstar Taylor Swift joined the crowd as a nominee for her recent concert film. Oprah Winfrey presented the night’s top prize to Oppenheimer.

Several winners commented that the talent in the room made the crowd “intimidating”.

“I can’t believe I’m in this room with all these people I have loved so much, admired so much, for so long,” The Bear star White said as he accepted his award. “It’s unreal.”

The complete list of winners

Best Motion Picture - Drama: Oppenheimer

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy: Poor Things

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers

Best Television Series - Drama: Succession

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series – Drama: Sarah Snook, Succession

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy: The Bear

Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television: Beef

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement: Barbie

Best Original Song - Motion Picture: What Was I Made For? Billie Eilish, Finneas O’Connell, Barbie

Best Original Score - Motion Picture: Ludwig Goransson, Oppenheimer

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: Emma Stone, Poor Things

Best Director - Motion Picture: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

Best Motion Picture - Animated: The Boy and the Heron

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series – Drama: Kieran Culkin, Succession

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy: Ayo Edebiri, The Bear

Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language: Anatomy of a Fall

Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television: Ricky Gervais, Armageddon

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy: Jeremy Allen White, The Bear

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture: Justine Triet, Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role on Television: Matthew Macfadyen, Succession

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role on Television: Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television: Steven Yeun, Beef

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television: Ali Wong, Beef

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture: Robert Downey Jr, Oppenheimer

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG