The 75th annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony was held Sunday evening, January 7, and along with putting the recent wave of sexual harassment allegations in Hollywood in the spotlight once again, the event also reiterated the high profile of streaming content providers in the industry.
Hosted by Seth Meyers, the Golden Globe Awards heaped honors on streaming content services Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, with the three studios winning five of the 11 Golden Globe Awards for television projects. Comedian and actor Aziz Ansari won the Golden Globe for “Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Television Series” for his work in the Netflix series Master of None, while the award for “Best Television Series – Drama” went to Hulu’s critically acclaimed series The Handmaid’s Tale. The series’ lead, Elisabeth Moss, took home the “Best Actress” award.
Amazon continued its tradition of success at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony by taking home two awards: One for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in the “Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy” category, and one for the show’s lead, Rachel Brosnahan, in the “Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy” category.
While it was a big night for streaming video companies, HBO — which has its own, popular subscription-based streaming service — also won big at the ceremony. The cable channel won four awards for its limited series Big Little Lies.
On the big-screen side, writer-director Martin McDonagh’s dark drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was the biggest winner, receiving six nominations and four awards over the course of the night. The film won the “Best Motion Picture” award in the drama category, and sent star Frances McDormand to the stage as winner of the “Best Actress” award in a drama. McDormand echoed the sentiments of the night in her speech, touching on the issues of sexual harassment and gender inequality that had prompted many of the ceremony’s attendees to wear black as a show of solidarity.
“As many of you know, I keep my politics private, but it was really great to be in this room tonight and to be part of a tectonic shift in our industry’s power structure,” said McDormand. “Trust me, the women in this room tonight are not here for the food. We are here for the work.”
McDonagh’s script and supporting actor Sam Rockwell also took home awards for Three Billboards.
Guillermo del Toro also took home an award in the “Best Director” category for his dark fantasy The Shape of Water, telling the crowd, “Since childhood I’ve been faithful to monsters. I believe they are patron saints of our blissful imperfection.”
Conspicuously absent from the spotlight were any honors for Steven Spielberg’s politically charged drama The Post, which is expected to do well at the upcoming Academy Awards, as well as Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and the controversially categorized thriller Get Out, which was nominated as a comedy.
In one of the most emotional moments of the night, Oprah Winfrey spoke to all of the young women watching the ceremony while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award in honor of her long and successful career.
“I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon,” said Winfrey. “Winfrey said. “And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me too’ again.”
The full list of nominees and winners is available at the Golden Globe Awards website.
