2020 Golden Globe Awards: A Mixed Bag

Every year, awards season is full of messy discourse, debates over who really deserved it, and surprising snubs. This year’s Golden Globe Awards were no different. Hosted for a fifth and final time by the ever controversial Ricky Gervais, the award show honoring both television and film featured a mix of very predictable wins and several shockers. In film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and 1917 were the big winners, while Fleabag and Succession each won two awards on the television side. From a crazy opening monologue to some memorable speeches, here are some of the notable moments from the 77th Golden Globes.

The Host

The ceremony certainly opened with a bang as Ricky Gervais tore the room apart with his monologue. There were lots of clever, “safer” jokes (if that’s even possible for him), such as his remark about Martin Scorsese‘s criticism of “theme park movies,” saying, “I don’t know what he’s doing hanging around theme parks. He’s not big enough to go on the rides.” Other jokes seemed to be taken straight from Film Twitter, such as his joke about Leonardo DiCaprio: “Leonardo DiCaprio attended the premiere and by the end, his date was nearly too old for him. Even Prince Andrew was like, ‘C’mon, mate.'”

Gervais ended the monologue by saying “So if you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a political platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything, you know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. So, if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent and your God and f*ck off. OK?”

Some have interpreted this as Gervais‘ hatred for “PC” culture, but actually he seems to be annoyed by the most privileged people in the world speaking about issues without actually doing much. Recently there has been an influx of celebrities posting on social media about specific issues without donating their wealth. Although it is worth noting that while some of last night’s jokes were funny, Gervais has a history of taking his scathing attitude too far, especially when it comes to the transgender community.

Memorable Speeches

Gervais’ advice did not prevent winners from speaking out. One of the most powerful moments came early on when Russell Crowe won Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series for The Loudest Voice. Crowe was not present, due to the Australian bushfires, but urged the audience in a prewritten message to “act based on science.” Fosse/Verdon winner Michelle Williams brought the house down with an extremely personal speech about the right to choose. She emphasized the importance of women voting in 2020, urging them to “vote…in your own self interest. It’s what men have been doing for years.” Somewhat similarly to Gervais, although a bit nicer, Joaquin Phoenix, after winning for Joker, also called out hypocrisy when it comes to climate change, asking everyone to try and do better.

Two lifetime achievement awards were given out this year as well, with Ellen Degeneres receiving the Carol Burnett Award for outstanding work in television, and Tom Hanks receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Degeneres’ speech was both hilarious and emotional, but perhaps even more powerful was the introduction given by Kate McKinnon. Her gratitude to Degeneres for coming out on television was a rare personal moment for McKinnon, and you bet it was a tear jerker. It’s impossible not to be happy for Hanks, because who doesn’t love him? Through an apparent cold, he became emotional when thanking his family and telling the room of actors, “Show up on time, know the text, and have a head full of ideas.” He also became a meme for his reactions to Gervais’ monologue, so there’s that.

The Winners

As the show went along, the energy on Twitter and in the room seemed pretty positive. Expectedly, people like Laura Dern, Brian Cox, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Renée Zellwegger won their respective awards. No one can argue with Parasite’s win for Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language. In his speech, director Bong Joon-Ho asked people to get past subtitles in order to give more foreign films a chance. After winning for The Farewell, Awkwafina mentioned her mother, Tia, who passed away when she was very young. Brad Pitt continued to steal hearts by earnestly asking viewers to be kind to people when given the opportunity.

But the big shockers came in the categories of Best Director and Best Drama, which went to Sam Mendes’ 1917. Most predicted Scorsese and his epic The Irishman to take these, but instead the film went home empty handed. What was even more shocking about Best Director was that Mendes wasn’t even considered a second or third choice to win. Quentin Tarantino, Bong Joon-Ho, and even Todd Phillips came up more often than he did.

Another big shocker was the Laika film The Missing Link winning the award for Best Motion Picture, Animated, beating out three Disney films; Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, and The Lion King. Though Phoenix’s win for Joker was not a surprise, it didn’t stop people from criticizing the win, especially because he beat out Adam Driver’s powerful performance in Marriage Story.

Golden Globes 2020: Conclusion

As for whether or not these winners will affect the Academy Awards, it’s hard to say. While they do overlap often, the voting bodies do not overlap in any way and many consider the Golden Globes to be fairly arbitrary. In reality, it’s just a big Hollywood party that just so happens to be on television.

Overall, though, the show was as entertaining as it needed to be. Ever since last year’s Oscars there’s been much discussion about how to make the average 3 hour award show feel shorter. But really, there’s only so much you can do. The people who care are going to watch, and those who don’t, won’t.