My Reaction to the 2025 Golden Globe Winners

Demi Moore in The Substance

Like the last post about the Golden Globes, these are just the movies. I don’t really watch a lot of television. My reactions below are being written in real time during the broadcast, so let’s just lock in and get it going.


Best Supporting Performance in a Motion Picture – Actress
Selena Gomez – Emilia Pérez
Ariana Grande – Wicked
Felicity Jones – The Brutalist
Margaret Qualley – The Substance
Isabella Rossellini – Conclave
Zoe Saldaña - Emilia Pérez – WINNER

Thoughts: Man, I’m torn on this one. I love Saldaña and she’s definitely the best part of Emilia Pérez, but even as someone who hasn’t seen Wicked yet, I’m shocked Grande didn’t win. Really thought she was going to take it, and I know that my personal pick, Margaret Qualley, wasn’t going to win. Maybe this is the first step to Saldaña winning her first Oscar, which I honestly wouldn’t be mad at, but maybe I’ll block out that it’s a win for Emilia Pérez.

Best Supporting Performance in a Motion Picture – Actor
Yura Borisov – Anora
Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain – WINNER
Edward Norton – A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce – The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice
Denzel Washington – Gladiator II

Thoughts: Yeah, Culkin’s sweeping. Maybe there was a chance that Washington could win just because he’s Denzel Washington, or maybe Pearce since I’m shocked he hasn’t won any major awards in his career yet, but I think it was to no avail. I now need to watch A Real Pain as soon as possible, so I need to be caught up.

Best Screenplay
Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
Sean Baker – Anora
Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold – The Brutalist
Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Peter Straughan – Conclave – WINNER

Thoughts: I’m not mad at this, as much as I wanted The Substance to win. Conclave’s script is pretty great, but I can’t hide how much I was hoping for The Substance. I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up winning Best Adapted Screenplay, but it’d be a good pick either way.

Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language
All We Imagine as Light (USA/France/India)
Emilia Pérez (France) – WINNER
The Girl with the Needle (Poland/Sweden/Denmark)
I’m Still Here (Brazil)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (USA/Germany)
Vermiglio (Italy)

Thoughts: I basically have no thoughts. I think we all knew that Emilia Pérez was going to win because it’s been nominated in other categories, on top of it being the most nominated movie this year. Least surprising win of the ceremony.

Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical Actress
Amy Adams – Nightbitch
Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
Karla Sofia Gascón – Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison – Anora
Demi Moore – The Substance – WINNER
Zendaya – Challengers

Thoughts: YES!!!! I really thought it was going to be Mikey Madison, since she was winning everywhere. Man, I really hope Moore goes all the way. It really feels like a career-defining performance, even for a veteran like Moore. I also would’ve loved a Zendaya surprise, but Moore is a huge win. I’m not sure if this means she’s going all the way to the Oscars, but here’s hoping she does.

Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical Actor
Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
Hugh Grant – Heretic
Gabriel LaBelle – Saturday Night
Jesse Plemons – Kinds of Kindness
Glen Powell – Hit Man
Sebastian Stan – A Different Man – WINNER

Thoughts: WOAH!!! Another massive surprise here. Really thought that Stan was the least likely to win here, especially with how fun Hugh Grant was in Heretic. On top of that, how big was Glen Powell’s year? But holy shit, I really think they made the right choice here. Both Stan and Demi Moore are my two favorite performances of the year, and the fact that they both won (which you’ll see for Moore just below this) is mind-blowing.

Best Motion Picture – Animated
Flow – WINNER
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Moana 2
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

Thoughts: Really shocked at this one. I’ve only seen Moana 2, which went in one ear and out the other for me. I missed Flow in theaters, as well as Memoir of a Snail. I’m gonna try to watch both The Wild Robot and Inside Out 2 this week, though. Shoutout Wallace & Gromit too. Really just surprised that Flow won since the industry really went head over heels for The Wild Robot. Guess that means I need to watch it sooner rather than later. Big win for independent animation, even though the “animation is cinema” crowd is off parading Transformers One as its champion (I’ll review that soon too, don’t worry).

Best Director
Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
Sean Baker – Anora
Edward Berger – Conclave
Brady Corbet – The Brutalist – WINNER
Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
Payal Kapadia – All We Imagine as Light

Thoughts: I haven’t seen The Brutalist yet, but it does open in a couple weeks in my area. I’ve seen Corbet’s last movie, Vox Lux, and I’m glad that he’s receiving his flowers. Would’ve loved to see Fargeat win this given that The Substance is my favorite movie of the year, but this just makes me even more excited to see The Brutalist even more.

Best Original Score
Volker Bertelmann – Conclave
Daniel Blumberg – The Brutalist
Kris Bowers – The Wild Robot
Clément Ducol & Camille – Emilia Pérez
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Challengers – WINNER
Hans Zimmer – Dune: Part Two

Thoughts: Another great pick!! Probably the score I listened to the most this year outside of the movie. Hans Zimmer’s score for Dune was disqualified, so I’m genuinely excited to see that Challengers might actually win the Oscar for score. However, I’ve heard some bits of Daniel Blumberg’s score for The Brutalist, and I’m excited to hear that in an auditorium when it actually releases in my area in a couple weeks. Great to see Reznor and Ross win.

Best Original Song
“Beautiful That Way” (Miley Cyrus) – The Last Showgirl
“Compress / Repress” (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross) – Challengers
“El Mal” (Zoe Saldaña & Karla Sofia Gascón) – Emilia Pérez – WINNER
“Forbidden Road” (Robbie Williams) – Better Man
“Kiss the Sky” (Maren Morris) – The Wild Robot
“Mi Camino” (Selena Gomez) – Emilia Pérez

Thoughts: I guess I’m not surprised that it went to a song from Emilia Pérez, but I’m glad it was this one. “El Mal” was probably the only song I enjoyed and really showcased Saldaña in the movie, but I’m sad that it wasn’t “Compress / Repress.” I had hope for it when Challengers won for Best Original Score, but oh well.

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement
Alien: Romulus
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Deadpool & Wolverine
Gladiator II
Inside Out 2
Twisters
Wicked – WINNER
The Wild Robot

Thoughts: Okay, in my original reaction to the nominations, I said how Inside Out 2 was going to win because it made the most money this year. However, even if I did write this in that post, I completely forgot about the Barbie theory: Barbie really didn’t win any other awards except for Best Original Song, so they made this category to make up for it. I’m not surprised Wicked won, now that I think about it, but why even have this category? The only thing I got out of this was that hysterical Vin Diesel speech, though. What an ego on him.

Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Drama Actress
Pamela Anderson – The Last Showgirl
Angelina Jolie – Maria
Nicole Kidman – Babygirl
Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here – WINNER
Tilda Swinton – The Room Next Door
Kate Winslet – Lee

Thoughts: Huh??? I mean, cool, I guess? I’ve heard rumblings about Fernanda Torres and I’m Still Here, but damn, go off. Sony Pictures Classics are awful at releasing movies in my area, but there’s actually some showings next month for this. Gotta make some time for it. Really, though, I thought Nicole Kidman had this in the bag. I really enjoyed Torres’s acceptance speech, though. Huh…

Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Drama Actor
Adrien Brody – The Brutalist – WINNER
Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
Daniel Craig – Queer
Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
Sebastian Stan – The Apprentice

Thoughts: I guess I’m not surprised at this either. In my mind, it was either going to be Brody or Chalamet (but I’d welcome a Craig surprise), but I’ve just heard so many things about Brody and The Brutalist as a whole that I can’t say I was surprised. His speech was also excellent, I’m a sucker for award winners talking about their parents. Again, makes me even more excited to see The Brutalist in a couple of weeks.

Best Motion Picture – Drama
The Brutalist – WINNER
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nickel Boys
September 5

Thoughts: I guess I’m not surprised. Conclave and Dune: Part Two were fun to see nominated, even if I didn’t think Dune would win. Like the other Brutalist wins I mention below, I’m very excited to watch it. I’m going to see A Complete Unknown this week, so maybe that could change how I feel about this category.

Best Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical
Anora
Challengers
Emilia Pérez – WINNER
A Real Pain
The Substance
Wicked

Thoughts: Well. Pretty disappointed over this one, especially since two of my favorite movies of the year, The Substance and Challengers, were nominated here. I just feel like I’m being gaslit by the industry's love for Emilia Pérez. I still need to see A Real Pain and Wicked, and I wasn’t even as high on Anora as many other people, but at least the movies I’ve seen in this category are much better than Emilia Pérez. 

Wow, that was a lot. So many great winners here (Moore, Stan, Challengers for score), some that I expected (Conclave for screenplay, Emilia Pérez for international film), a few shocks (Flow for animated feature, Torres), and some that were downright depressing to me (Emilia Pérez in comedy/musical feature). I honestly have no idea how the Oscars are gonna go, especially since the Critics Choice Awards and the BAFTAs are on the way. I’m not gonna do full-on posts like the Golden Globes for this. Maybe I’ll do recap posts of the winners, I’m not entirely sure yet. In the entire runtime, I did enjoy the Golden Globes, and in terms of awards season, we’re off to the races.