'Wicked' And 'The Penguin' Bring Wonderful Wins To Oz At The 82nd Golden Globes
It was the 'Brutalist' night in awards show history
So if you care to find me, look to the Gotham skies. The 82nd Golden Globes were held Sunday night, hosted by Nikki Glaser, airing on CBS as the first major awards show of 2025 celebrating the best in movies and television. FX and Hulu’s Shogun was the big winner of the night on the television side, winning all four categories it was nominated in: Best Drama, Actor in a Drama Series, Actress in a Drama Series, and Supporting Actor. On the film side, The Brutalist won three of the seven categories it was nominated in, Best Director for Brady Corbet, Best Actor for Adrien Brody, and Best Motion Picture - Drama. But to cover the Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy side, that’s going to tread into those niches highlighted in the nominations article.
Emilia Perez won 4 of its 8 categories, including Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and Best Non-English Language Film, Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña, and “El Mal” for Best Original Song. Its victories in Best Musical or Comedy and Best Supporting Actress resulted in losses for Wicked, the movie itself, and Ariana Grande as G(a)linda. Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba lost Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy to Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle in The Substance. The film did not dance through the proceedings empty-handed, as it won the Globe for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. An exhilarating theater experience that brings the second-highest-grossing musical of all time to the big screen after as much as two decades of development from its earliest talks and becoming the highest-grossing movie musical of all time was enough to catapult to victory over Inside Out 2, which became the highest-grossing animated film of all time, as well as Alien: Romulus, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Gladiator II, Twisters, and Deadpool & Wolverine. It’s fitting the film won for being so green.
Of course, the land wasn’t the only Oz at the Golden Globes, as The Penguin had its own three nominations to settle at the big show. Colin Farrell won Best Actor – Miniseries or TV Movie as Oswald “Oz” Cobb”, defeating Richard Gadd as Donny Dunn in Baby Reindeer, Cooper Koch as Erik Menendez in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov in A Gentleman in Moscow, Andrew Scott as Ripley in, well Ripley, and Kevin Kline as Stephen Brigstocke in Disclaimer. The miniseries itself could not overtake Baby Reindeer as Best Limited Series, losing alongside True Detective: Night Country, Monsters, Ripley, and Apple TV+’s Disclaimer. True Detective also emerged victorious over The Penguin, with Jodie Foster winning Best Actress in a Miniseries as Liz Danvers over Cate Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft in Disclaimer, Sofia Vergara as Griselda Blanco in Griselda, Naomi Watts as Babe Paley in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans and Kate Winslet as Elena Vernham in HBO’s The Regime. Farrell did reappear on stage later in the night, reuniting with The Batman co-star Zoë Kravitz to present Best Drama Series.
There were several rather blatantly intentional presenter pairings, even kicking off with Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson, having Moore and her Substance half Margaret Qualley reunite, and two that introduce categories that contribute to DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot going home empty-handed despite being the most-nominated animated film of all time. The first was Captain America: Brave New World’s Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford, aka Captain America Sam Wilson and Red Hulk Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross presenting Best Animated Feature, where it, Inside Out 2, Moana 2, Memoir of a Snail, and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl lost to Flow. That film is completely dialogueless, and sees a biblical flood that has submerged everything in its path, including Cat’s home. Humans are gone, although their material legacy remains. Cat finds refuge on a boat full of other displaced animals and set sail. Then, Wicked’s Wizard and Madame Morrible, Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh, presented Best Original Song, which the aforementioned “El Mal” won over “El Camino” from the same film, “Beautiful That Way” from The Last Showgirl, “Compress / Repress” from Challengers, and “Forbidden Road” from Better Man. As for Best Score, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won that for Challengers, beating Kris Bowers, Volker Bertelmann for Conclave, Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist, and Clemént Ducol for Emilia Pérez.
Sebastian Stan being a double nominee for Best Actor, winning for Musical or Comedy as as Edward Lemuel / Guy Moratz in A Different Man meant he and Mackie got to reunite, and it was mostly through the latter crashing several of Stan’s post- victory interviews. With Access Hollywood, Stan said “There is no way that I would be here without Anthony. We go back a bunch of years now and he’s one of my favorite people I’ve ever worked with. He’s one person who’s been part of this that I get to celebrate with, so it’s great.” Of course, it began with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, appearing together several times and currently peaking by co-starring in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and they’re currently split up by respectively headlining Thunderbolts* and Brave New World. With Entertainment Tonight, Stan said “It’s a team effort,” Stan said with excitement. “Captain America and the Winter Soldier. We’re coming back! I do have to thank Anthony because, actually, back in the day when we were starting these press tours, they said, ‘This kid can’t talk, can’t smile, can’t say anything. We gotta put him with Anthony to get some life in him.’ And maybe I learned from [Mackie]. You have to keep smiling.”
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety