2017 Golden Globe Winners

In most years, the final award given out at the Golden Globes (Best Motion Picture – Drama) is the most important prize of the evening and the strongest Oscar predictor. This year, however, was all about the Comedy/Musical category, which wrapped up about 20 minutes earlier.

The movie of the night was clearly Damien Chazelle’s musical ‘La La Land’, which swept all seven of the categories it was nominated in. By the time the Drama winner was announced, it seemed almost like an afterthought, and a crapshoot as to which of the five nominated movies would win. The title that took the prize, ‘Moonlight’, did not take home any other trophies.

As much as ‘Moonlight’ is also a highly acclaimed film, and will no doubt continue to rack up nominations throughout awards season, I fully expect ‘La La Land’ to storm the Oscars as well. If there’s one thing Oscar voters adore above all else, it’s a movie about Hollywood itself.

Random Thoughts

Jimmy Fallon did a pretty lousy job of hosting the ceremony. I’m not a Fallon detractor (although I don’t watch ‘The Tonight Show’ regularly, I don’t have anything against him), but both his intro skit and very short opening monologue were really lame, and he was hardly present at all after that point. Deprived of the opportunity to play silly games or make goofy viral videos, he floundered at telling standup-style jokes, which has never been one of his strengths. I know that a lot of people loathe Ricky Gervais, but at least he tries to take the piss out of the ridiculous pomp and circumstance of Hollywood award shows. Fallon basically didn’t do anything memorable at all the entire evening. He might as well have not even been there.

The current president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association looks and sounds a lot like Gru from ‘Despicable Me’. I wonder if that character was based on him.

Sofia Vergara made an awkward anal sex joke while introducing Sylvester Stallone’s three daughters as this year’s new Miss Golden Globes girls. This is a very sexist tradition that needs to end (the Miss Golden Globes, not the anal sex jokes).

Looking back at a year that was basically a bloodbath of notable celebrity deaths, the Globes’ In Memoriam montage paid tribute only to Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, but no one else at all.

One of the most surprising winners of the night was Paul Verhoeven’s controversial rape/revenge thriller ‘Elle’, which claimed both the Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language prize and Best Actress – Drama for star Isabelle Huppert. I suppose I wouldn’t be too surprised if Huppert were nominated for an Oscar next, but I seriously doubt the Academy voters will reward that movie otherwise.

Meryl Streep, introduced as “The Most Celebrated Actress of Our Time,” was celebrated some more with a Cecile B. DeMille lifetime achievement award. Strangely, the clip montage before her speech featured a lot of less than stellar moments from her career, including multiple clips from ‘Mamma Mia!’ and ‘Death Becomes Her’. Streep opened her acceptance speech by repeating a joke that Hugh Laurie had already told earlier, as the lead-in to a lengthy political harangue against the country’s incoming President-Elect, which I’m sure changed the minds of precisely zero of his supporters.

On the Television side of the awards, the top prizes went to the FX comedy ‘Atlanta’ and the Netflix drama ‘The Crown’, neither of which I’ve seen. ‘Atlanta’ creator/star Donald Glover gave very heartfelt speeches for both of his trophies (Best Series and Best Actor).

Best Motion Picture – Drama

  • ‘Hacksaw Ridge’
  • ‘Hell or High Water’
  • ‘Lion’
  • ‘Manchester by the Sea’
  • ‘Moonlight’

Winner: ‘Moonlight’

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

  • ’20th Century Women’
  • ‘Deadpool’
  • ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’
  • ‘La La Land’
  • ‘Sing Street’

Winner: ‘La La Land’

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

  • Casey Affleck, ‘Manchester by the Sea’
  • Joel Edgerton, ‘Loving’
  • Andrew Garfield, ‘Hacksaw Ridge’
  • Viggo Mortensen, ‘Captain Fantastic’
  • Denzel Washington, ‘Fences’

Winner: Casey Affleck

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

  • Amy Adams, ‘Arrival’
  • Jessica Chastain, ‘Miss Sloane’
  • Isabelle Huppert, ‘Elle’
  • Ruth Negga, ‘Loving’
  • Natalie Portman, ‘Jackie’

Winner: Isabelle Huppert

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

  • Colin Farrell, ‘The Lobster’
  • Ryan Gosling, ‘La La Land’
  • Hugh Grant, ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’
  • Jonah Hill, ‘War Dogs’
  • Ryan Reynolds, ‘Deadpool’

Winner: Ryan Gosling

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

  • Annette Bening, ’20th Century Women’
  • Lily Collins, ‘Rules Don’t Apply’
  • Hailee Steinfeld, ‘The Edge of Seventeen’
  • Emma Stone, ‘La La Land’
  • Meryl Streep, ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’

Winner: Emma Stone

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role – Any Motion Picture

  • Mahershala Ali, ‘Moonlight’
  • Jeff Bridges, ‘Hell or High Water’
  • Simon Helberg, ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’
  • Dev Patel, ‘Lion’
  • Aaron Taylor-Johnson, ‘Nocturnal Animals’

Winner: Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role – Any Motion Picture

  • Viola Davis, ‘Fences’
  • Naomie Harris, ‘Moonlight’
  • Nicole Kidman, ‘Lion’
  • Octavia Spencer, ‘Hidden Figures’
  • Michelle Williams, ‘Manchester by the Sea’

Winner: Viola Davis

Best Director – Motion Picture

  • Damien Chazelle, ‘La La Land’
  • Tom Ford, ‘Nocturnal Animals’
  • Mel Gibson, ‘Hacksaw Ridge’
  • Barry Jenkins, ‘Moonlight’
  • Kenneth Lonergan, ‘Manchester by the Sea’

Winner: Damien Chazelle

Best Motion Picture – Animated

  • ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’
  • ‘Moana’
  • ‘My Life as a Zucchini’
  • ‘Sing’
  • ‘Zootopia’

Winner: ‘Zootopia’

Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language

  • ‘Divines’, France
  • ‘Elle’, France
  • ‘Neruda’, Chile
  • ‘The Salesman’, Iran & France
  • ‘Toni Erdmann’, Germany

Winner: ‘Elle’

Best Television Series – Drama

  • ‘The Crown’
  • ‘Game of Thrones’
  • ‘Stranger Things’
  • ‘This Is Us’
  • ‘Westworld’

Winner: ‘The Crown’

Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy

  • ‘Atlanta’
  • ‘Black-ish’
  • ‘Mozart in the Jungle’
  • ‘Transparent’
  • ‘Veep’

Winner: ‘Atlanta’

Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

  • ‘American Crime’
  • ‘The Dresser’
  • ‘The Night Manager’
  • ‘The Night Of’
  • ‘The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story’

Winner: ‘The People vs. O.J. Simpson’

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama

  • Rami Malek, ‘Mr. Robot’
  • Bob Odenkirk, ‘Better Call Saul’
  • Matthew Rhys, ‘The Americans’
  • Live Schreiber, ‘Ray Donovan’
  • Billy Bob, ‘Goliath’

Winner: Billy Bob Thornton

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama

  • Caitriona Balfe, ‘Outlander’
  • Claire Foy, ‘The Crown’
  • Keri Russell, ‘The Americans’
  • Winona Ryder, ‘Stranger Things’
  • Evan Rachel Wood, ‘Westworld’

Winner: Claire Foy

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

  • Anthony Anderson, ‘Black-ish’
  • Gael Garcia Bernal, ‘Mozart in the Jungle’
  • Donald Glover, ‘Atlanta’
  • Nick Nolte, ‘Graves’
  • Jeffrey Tambor, ‘Transparent’

Winner: Donald Glover

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy

  • Rachel Bloom, ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’
  • Julia Louis-Dreyfus, ‘Veep’
  • Sarah Jessica Parker, ‘Divorce’
  • Issa Rae, ‘Insecure’
  • Gina Rodriguez, ‘Jane the Virgin’
  • Tracee Ellis Ross, ‘Black-ish’

Winner: Tracee Ellis Ross

Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture for Television

  • Riz Ahmed, ‘The Night Of’
  • Bryan Cranston, ‘All the Way’
  • Tom Hiddleston, ‘The Night Manager’
  • John Turturro, ‘The Night Of’
  • Courtney B. Vance, ‘The People vs. O.J. Simpson’

Winner: Tom Hiddleston

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture for Television

  • Felicity Huffman, ‘American Crime’
  • Riley Keough, ‘The Girlfriend Experience’
  • Sarah Paulson, ‘The People vs. O.J. Simpson’
  • Charlotte Rampling, ‘London Spy’
  • Kerry Washington, ‘Confirmation’

Winner: Sarah Paulson

For the complete list of nominees and winners, go to the official Golden Globes web site.

4 comments

  1. NJScorpio

    Josh – You hit the nail on the head…no matter what Streep said, it wasn’t going to change anyone’s political or social opinion. It may impact their opinion of her, but that is about it.

  2. William Henley

    So, I have seen two movies and one TV show from the nominees this year. Better than most years! Most of these, I hadn’t even heard of (although I have heard of more than in years past).

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