The Fabelmans and The Banshees of Inisherin were the top winners at the 2023 Golden Globes on Tuesday night.
The Steven Spielberg film won best picture, drama, while the Martin McDonagh film was named best picture, musical or comedy.
Elvis star Austin Butler picked up the award for best actor in a drama, expressing gratitude to Presley’s widow Priscilla Presley and daughter Lisa Marie Presley for their support of the project and his performance. He also thanked Denzel Washington for “championing me when you did not have to.” Washington personally recommended Butler, with whom he starred in a Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh, to Elvis director Baz Luhrmann.
Cate Blanchett won best actress in a drama, her fourth career win, for her lead role in Tár. The actress did not attend the ceremony to collect the prize, but joined Ingrid Bergman, Jane Fonda and Meryl Streep as one of the four most-awarded drama actresses.
Colin Farrell won best actor in a musical or comedy for his role in The Banshees of Inisherin, his second win in the category. After complimenting presenter Ana de Armas on her Globe-nominated performance in Blonde (“The night that I saw your film, I cried myself to sleep”), he then addressed his Banshees director Martin McDonagh, who also directed Farrell in 2008’s In Bruges, the first pairing between the actor and Banshees co-star Brendan Gleeson: “Martin McDonough, I owe you so much man. Fourteen years ago, you put me working with Brendan Gleeson, my dance partner, and you changed the trajectory of my life forever in ways that I begrudgingly will be grateful to you for the rest of my days.
Everything Everywhere All at Once‘s Michelle Yeoh also picked up her first Golden Globe for her lead role in the comedy film. Reflecting on her long career, she recalled arriving in Hollywood — “It was a dream come true, until I got here,” she quipped. Remembering being told it was surprising that she could speak English, she joked, “Yeah, the flight here was about 13 hours long, so I learned.” She also expressed her gratitude for her Everything Everywhere role: “I was given this gift of playing this woman who resonated so deeply with me and with so many people, because at the end of the day, in whatever universe she was at, she was just fighting for love, for her family.”
Yeoh’s Everything Everywhere All at Once co-star Ke Huy Quan won best supporting actor in a motion picture. He immediately thanked fellow nominee — and one time boss — Spielberg for giving him his first onscreen role. “When I started my career as a child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I felt I felt so very lucky to have been chosen,” said Quan. “As I grew older, I started to wonder if that was it. If if that was just luck for so many years, I was afraid I had nothing more to offer. That no matter what I did, I would never surpass what I achieved as a kid thankfully, more than 30 years later.” The actor thanked writer-director team Daniels for tapping him for the award-winning role. “They remembered that kid, and they gave me an opportunity to try again,” added Quan. “You have given me more than I could have ever hoped.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Angela Bassett won best supporting actress in a motion picture, her second win after her leading role in What’s Love Got to Do With It. She recalled the night decades ago when she picked up her first Golden Globe. “Toni Morrison said that your life is already a miracle of chance, just waiting for you to to order its destiny,” said Bassett. “But in order for that destiny to manifest, I think that it requires courage to have faith. It requires patience … and the true sense of yourself is not easy because the past is circuitous. And it has been unexpected detours. But by the grace of God, I stand here grateful.”
Spielberg won best director, his third win, for The Fabelmans. Speaking about the film, which is based on his own childhood and experiences as a budding filmmaker, Spielberg said, “I’ve been hiding from this story since I was 17 years old. … I told this story, in parts and parcels, all through my career, but I never had the courage to hit the story head on.” The famed director added, “I think everything I’ve done up to this point has made me ready to finally be honest about the fact that it’s not easy to be a kid, the fact that everybody sees me as a success story, and everybody sees all of us the way they perceive us based on how they get the information, but nobody is courageous enough to tell everyone who we are. And I spent a lot of time trying to figure out when I could tell that story. When I turned about 74 years old, I said, ‘You better do it now.’”
Best original score went to Justin Hurwitz, composer of Babylon, who earned his fourth Globe this evening after previously best original score for First Man and La La Land and best original song for La La Land. M. M. Keeravani accepted the award for best original song for RRR‘s “Naatu Naatu,” sharing the win with co-writers Rahul Sipligunj and Kala Bhairava. Guillermo del Toro, a four-time Globe nominee, picked up his first trophy for animated feature for his stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio. Argentina, 1985 won the award for best non-English film. Martin McDonagh won best original screenplay for The Banshees of Inisherin, his second Globe after winning for 2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Tracy Morgan presented Eddie Murphy with the Cecil B. DeMille Award, telling his fellow SNL alum, “It’s one of my greatest honors of my life to be here for you tonight, Eddie.” Everything Everywhere All at Once star Jamie Lee Curtis joined Morgan on stage to honor her Trading Spaces co-star Murphy.
Accepting the award, Murphy said, “To all the new up-and-coming dreamers and artists that are in the room tonight, I want to let you know that there is a definitive blueprint that you can follow to achieve success, prosperity, longevity and peace of mind. There’s a blueprint, and I followed it my whole career — it’s very simple. You just do these three things: Pay your taxes, mind your business and keep Will Smith’s wife’s name out of your fucking mouth.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, himself a former actor, offered a pre-taped message, presented by actor Sean Penn. Zelensky reflected on the timing of the 80th Globes ceremony, as the first awards were presented in 1943 in the middle of World War II. “The second world war wasn’t over yet, but the tide was turned [and we] all knew who would win. There were still battles and tears ahead. It was then when the Golden Globe Award appeared to honor the best performers of 1943,” said Zelensky. “It is now 2023. The war in Ukraine is not over yet, but the tide is turning and it is already clear who will win.”
Pose star Billy Porter presented the Carol Burnett Award to prolific writer-director-producer Ryan Murphy, a co-creator of the FX series that earned Porter three Globe nominations. “When my Black ass decided to come out to Hollywood and try my luck at this film and television thing for the first time, I discovered on day one that Hollywood wasn’t having all this Black boy joy — yet,” said Porter. “As I spent many a year teetering on the precipice of obscurity, it was you, Ryan, and your fearless art that spoke to me, comforted me and let me know that if I could just hold on for a little while, my time would come.”
Accepting the award, Murphy mentioned Pose star Michaela Jae Rodriguez, who in 2022 was the first transgender individual to win a Golden Globe for best actress in a drama during the non-televised ceremony; Murphy asked Rodriguez to stand for the ovation she was unable to receive last year. He also noted Pose star Porter, Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story star Niecy Nash-Betts, The Normal Heart’s Matt Bomer and Hollywood’s Jeremy Pope, all openly queer performers who have appeared in Murphy productions. “I’ve dedicated most of my lifetime achievement speech here tonight to these wonderful actors I’ve worked with to make a point of hope and progress,” said Murphy. “I never, ever saw a person like me getting an award or even being a character on a TV show. It’s hard being an LGBTQ kid in America — in fact all over all over the world, and now I have one word for you: Florida. You were often told you will never become anything you have to hide your life to survive. But for those kids watching tonight, I offer up MJ, Billy, Niecy, Matt and Jeremy as examples of possibility.”
In the television categories, Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon won best drama series. Abbott Elementary took home best comedy series — the first network show to win the prize in nine years — and stars Quinta Brunson and Tyler James Williams won best actress in a comedy series and best supporting actor in a television series, respectively. Yellowstone‘s Kevin Costner won best actor in a drama series, and The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White picked up best actor in a comedy series. Zendaya won best actress in a drama series for Euphoria, while Julia Garner won best supporting actress in a television series for Ozark.
The White Lotus won best limited/anthology series for its second season. “You all passed on this show,” said writer-director Mike White to the execs in the audience. “So, yes, it’s very gratifying to have this moment.” Evan Peters won best actor in a limited/anthology series for Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, noting that the series “was a difficult one to make a difficult one to watch, but I sincerely hope some good came out of it.” Amanda Seyfried, who was not at the ceremony, won best actress in a limited/anthology series for The Dropout. Black Bird‘s Paul Walter Hauser and The White Lotus‘ Jennifer Coolidge won best supporting actor and actress, respectively, in a limited/anthology series.
Host Jerrod Carmichael didn’t waste time addressing the elephant in the room at the 2023 Golden Globes. “I’m here ’cause I’m Black,” he said at the top of his monologue. “This show, the Golden Globe Awards, did not air last year because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association which … I won’t say they were a racist organization, but they didn’t have a single black member until George Floyd died, so do with that information what you will.”
After recounting the early calls with Globes producers in which he weighed the “moral dilemma” he faced when deciding to take the gig (to awkward laughs from the audience), Carmichael ultimately ended on a somewhat positive note — by invoking the show’s guests as the reason for taking the job. “Truly because all of you, I look out into this room and I see a lot of talented people, people that I admire, people that I would like to be like, people that I’m jealous of and people that are actually really incredible artists,” said Carmichael. “And regardless of whatever the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s past may be, this is an evening where we get to celebrate, and I think this industry deserves evenings like these.”
The Golden Globes telecast returned to NBC after the network declined to air it last year in the wake of a Los Angeles Times exposé in 2021 that revealed the HFPA contained no Black members and had engaged in unethical conduct and suspect financial practices. That sparked a boycott from the entertainment industry and also spurred several reforms by the HFPA, including banning members from accepting gifts and the addition of 103 internationally based voters.
Read the full list of 2023 Golden Globe winners here.
The HFPA, which presents the Golden Globes, is owned by Eldridge Industries. The Hollywood Reporter is owned by PME Holdings, LLC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge.
This story was originally published on Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 6:03 p.m.
Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
HollyWood
