Oscars 2020 - What We Learned From The Golden Globes

After a pretty rough year in terms of winners last year (Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book), I was pleasantly surprised by how not terrible the Golden Globes were this time around, though I undoubtedly still have my reservations.

1917 exceeded expectations in terms of awards play and took home prizes for Best Picture Drama and Best Directing. A film that's already been praised as a technical achievement and one of the best of 2019, ensuring its place as a major awards player, and perhaps multiple Oscar wins and nominations. The film's composer, Thomas Newman, still couldn't get a break, however, with Joker's composer, Hildur Gu∂nadóttir, taking the Original Score globe instead, but chances are he's still taking him the Oscar come February 9th.

Speaking of Joker, Joaquin Phoenix further boosted his position as Lead Actor frontrunner with his win for Drama. Also given that his work is being lauded as perhaps the year's best by those in the industry (aka Academy voters), it seems like the Oscar is in his grasp, even with him being a bit of a wild card.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood had an excellent night, taking awards for Best Picture Comedy/Musical, Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Brad Pitt's performance, who, after already leading in precursor wins for his category, appears to be a solidified frontrunner for the race. The film is likely to be our new frontrunner for Best Picture also, with industry and precursor love, Tarantino being one of the most beloved filmmakers in history, and with these victories all more than solidifying its impact for this awards season.

What it didn't win was the Lead Actor Comedy award for Leonardo DiCaprio, which ended up going to Taron Egerton for his role as Elton John for Rocketman instead (which also won Best Original Song). Whether he has an Oscar nomination on the way next week or not is still up in the air, but with a SAG nomination also and a very likely BAFTA nomination tomorrow, he's for sure worth considering.

Netflix wasn't so lucky, as Laura Dern's performance in Marriage Story was the only film prize they could achieve, though this could easily be the beginning of a sweep for the long overdue actress. Their big heavy hitter from Martin Scorsese, The Irishman, shockingly went home empty-handed, which doesn't destroy its possible awards impact, with an Adapted Screenplay win still seeming very likely and past Best Picture winners not having any globe wins (ex. Spotlight), but it definitely harms its chances which were originally seen as huge.

For the actress awards, Renée Zellweger (Judy) and (Awkwafina) won Best Actress Drama and Comedy respectively, with Zellweger's win setting up a possible sweep for her and Awkwafina's surely helping her chances, but Oscar nomination still isn't quite guaranteed right now, but if she gets a BAFTA nomination, it could very well happen.

Parasite winning Best Foreign Language film was no surprise, nothing more to say there.

Finally, Missing Link took everyone's predictions and tore them to pieces with a Best Animated Film win that no one saw coming, and one in which it was the only original film (not a sequel/remake) nominated for that category. A victory most likely attributed to tons of awards consideration advertisements, but right now its still Toy Story 4 leading the pack, but if this stop-motion film from Laika continues getting awards (Critics Choice, BAFTAs), then an underdog winner could be on the way.

With our first awards show of the season said and done, we've been left in a position that both concerns me and reassures me. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood possibly being the new frontrunner is all good by me and I'm honestly up for Phoenix winning Best Actor, but the shade that The Irishman could get is worrying, and Zellweger winning in a year with Ana de Armas and Saoirse Ronan can't help but leave me feeling underwhelmed. But the globes have been disregarded by other awards shows before, and chances are something similar will happen this year also, so maybe The Irishman will prevail and that Scarlett Johansson will win Lead Actress instead.