The Brutalist, Emilia Perez, Shogun, Demi Moore triumph at Golden Globes

Two wildly audacious films – Brady Corbet's 215-minute postwar epic The Brutalist and Jacques Audiard's Spanish language, genre-shifting trans musical Emilia Perez – won top honours at the 82nd Golden Globes on Sunday evening (Monday morning Singapore time).

The Globes, which are still finding their footing after years of scandal and makeover, scattered awards around to a number of films. But the awards group put its strongest support behind a pair of movies that sought to be unlike anything else.

The Brutalist was crowned best film, drama, putting one of 2024’s most ambitious films on course to be a major contender at the Academy Awards. The film, shot in VistaVision and released with an intermission, also won best director for Corbet and best actor for Adrien Brody.

"I was told that this film was un-distributable," said Corbet. “No one was asking for a three-and-half-hour film about a mid-century designer in 70mm. But it works.”

Emilia Pérez won best film, comedy or musical, elevating the Oscar chances of Netflix’s top Oscar contender. It also won best supporting actress for Zoe Saldaña, best song (El Mal) and best non-English language film. Karla Sofía Gascón, the film's transgender star who plays a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender affirming surgery, spoke for the film.

“The light always wins over darkness," said Gascón, gesturing to her brightly orange dress. “You can maybe put us in jail. You can beat us up. But you never can take away our soul or existence or identity.”

“I am who I am. Not who you want.”

DEMI MOORE WINS HER FIRST GOLDEN GLOBE

Though the Globes audience was particularly starry, including nominees Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Angelina Jolie and Daniel Craig, most of the winners hailed from smaller, less seen films.

That included some surprises. One was Demi Moore's win for best actress in a comedy or musical. Her comeback performance in The Substance, about a Hollywood star who resorts to an experimental process to regain her youth, landed the 62-year-old her first Globe – a victory that came over the heavily favoured Mikey Madison of Anora.

"I’m just in shock right now. I’ve been doing this a long time, like over 45 years, and this is the first thing I’ve ever won as an actor," said Moore, who was last nominated by the Globes for a film role in 1991 for Ghost. “Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a popcorn actress.”

Best actress, in a drama film, was an even bigger surprise. The Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres won for her performance in I’m Still Here, a based-on-a-true-story drama about a family living through the disappearance of political dissident Rubens Paiva in 1970s Rio de Janeiro. Torres dedicated the award to her mother, the great actor Fernanda Montenegro, who appears in I'm Still Here, too.

“She was here 25 years ago," said Torres. "And this is like a proof that art can endure through life even through difficult moments.”

Best supporting actor in a musical or comedy went to Sebastian Stan for another movie about physical transformation: A Different Man, in which Stan plays a man with a deformed face who's healed. Stan, who was also nominated for playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice, noted that both films were hard to get made.

“These are tough subject maters but these films are real and they're necessary,” said Stan. “But we can't be afraid and look away.”

GLASER LIGHTLY ROASTS THE GLOBES

Comedian Nikki Glaser kicked off the Globes, with a promise: “I'm not here to roast you.”

But Glaser, a stand-up whose breakthrough came in a withering roast of Tom Brady, made her way around the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on Sunday picking out plenty of targets in an opening monologue she had worked out extensively in comedy clubs beforehand.

While Glaser might not have reached Tina Fey and Amy Poehler levels of laughs, the monologue was mostly a winner, and a dramatic improvement over last year’s host, Jo Koy. Last year's Globes, following a diversity and ethics scandal that led to the dissolution of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, were widely panned, but delivered where it counted. Ratings rebounded to about 10 million viewers, according to Nielsen. CBS, who waded in after NBC dumped the Globes, signed up for five more years.

Hosting the Globes two weeks before the inauguration of Donald Trump, Glaser reserved perhaps her most cutting line for the whole room of Hollywood stars.

“You could really do anything ... except tell the country who to vote for,” said Glaser. “But it’s OK, you’ll get ’em next time ... if there is one. I’m scared.”

The Globes are now owned by Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions, which acquired the award show from the now defunct Hollywood Foreign Press Association. After diversity and ethics scandals, the HFPA sold off the Globes and dissolved. However, more than a dozen former HFPA members are seeking to have the sale to Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions rescinded.

A WIN FOR WICKED

This year's best picture race, unlike last year's when Oppenheimer rolled, has been seen as uncertain. Most of the movies that are seen as having a chance – Conclave, Emilia Perez, The Brutalist, Wicked and Anora – came away with at least one award. The exception was Sean Baker's Palme d'Or-winning Anora, which went home empty handed.

The Globes' award for cinematic and box-office achievement went to Jon M Chu's Wicked, which has nearly collected US$700 million (S$958.6 million) in theatres. In a heavily arthouse Oscar field, Wicked is easily the biggest hit seen as having a chance to win best picture. Accepting the award, Chu argued for “a radical act of optimism” in art.

Though few film awards have been predictable this season, Kieran Culkin is emerging has the clear favourite for best supporting actor. Culkin won for his performance in Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, his second Globe in the past year following a win for the HBO series Succession. He called the Globes “basically the best date night that my wife and I ever have”, and then thanked her for “putting up with what you call my mania”.

The papal thriller Conclave took best screenplay, for Peter Straughan's script. Flow, the wordless Latvian animated parable about a cat in a flooded world, took best animated film, winning over studio blockbusters like Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won best score for their thumping music for Challengers.

TV PRIZES

Most of the TV winners were oft-awarded series, including the Emmy champ Shogun. It won four awards, including best drama series and acting wins for Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai and Tadanobu Asano. Other repeat winners were: Hacks (best comedy series, actress for Jean Smart), The Bear (Jeremy Allen White for best actor) and Baby Reindeer (best limited series).

Ali Wong won for best stand-up performance, Jodie Foster for True Detective and Colin Farrell for his physical transformation in The Penguin.

“I guess it's prosthetics from here on out," said Farrell.

Here's a list of winners at the 82nd Golden Globes:

MOVIES

Best motion picture, drama

The Brutalist

Best motion picture, musical or comedy

Emilia Pérez

Best performance by a female actor in a motion picture, drama

Fernanda Torres, I'm Still Here

Best performance by a male actor in a motion picture, drama

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

Best performance by a female actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy

Demi Moore, The Substance

Best performance by a male actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy

Sebastian Stan, A Different Man

Best performance by a female actor in a supporting role

Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

Best performance by a male actor in a supporting role

Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement

Wicked

Best motion picture, non-English

Emilia Pérez

Best motion picture, animated

Flow

Best director

Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

Best screenplay

Peter Straughan, Conclave

Best original score

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Challengers

Best original song

El Mal from Emilia Pérez music/lyrics by Clément Ducol, Camille, Jacques Audiard

TELEVISION

Best television series, drama

Shōgun

Best television series, comedy or musical

Hacks

Best performance by a female actor, drama

Anna Sawai, Shōgun

Best performance by a male actor, drama

Hiroyuki Sanada, Shōgun

Best performance by a female actor TV series, musical or comedy

Jean Smart, Hacks

Best performance by a male actor, TV series, musical or comedy

Jeremy Allen White, The Bear

Best limited series, anthology series or movie made for television

Baby Reindeer

Best performance by a male actor in a limited series, anthology series or movie made for television

Colin Farrell, The Penguin

Best performance by a female actor in a limited series, anthology series or movie made for television

Jodie Foster, True Detective: Night Country

Best performance by a female actor in a supporting role

Jessica Gunning, Baby Reindeer

Best performance by a male actor in a supporting role

Tadanobu Asano, Shōgun

Best performance in stand-up comedy on TV

Ali Wong, Ali Wong: Single Lady