Talking of success, the biggest one of the night was by far the four statuette of the glorious One Battle After Another from writer/director and cinema GOAT Paul Thomas Anderson. It won the Best Film Comedy or Musical which makes the it in a good position to possibly take Best Picture at the Oscars.
Another pre-Oscars victory went to Timothy Chalamet who, after four failed attempts, finally won his first Golden Globe for a magical performance in Marty Supreme.
In more obvious categories, KPOP Demon Hunter won best animated feature and best original song for Golden; a scenario that is very likely to happen many times in the near future.
The remaining fair success stories counted Jessie Buckley for Best Actress in Drama for Hamnet and, as expected, Ryan Gogler’s Sinners won Best Score. However, the film was also entitled to a surprise by winning best cinematic and box-office achievement, while all eyes were turned towards Avatar: Fire & Ash and Zootropolis 2.
...the second consecutive year a Brazilian movie wins a prize in an acting category...
But surprises were mostly present in the acting categories. The first one was Rose Byrne winning Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for If I had Legs I’d Kick You, even though she competed against icons such as Emma Stone and Julia Roberts. Regarding the male category, the award went to Brazilian actor Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent, with this being the second consecutive year a Brazilian movie wins a prize in an acting category.
Some surprises, in my opinion, included Sean Penn not winning Best Supporting Actor despite the funniest and scariest interpretation of his career in OBAA, losing against Stellan Skasgard from the heartwarming Sentimental Value. Additionally, Hamnet celebrated a win to the misfortune of the Iranian film It Was Just An Accident from the absolute genius of filmmaking and indestructible freedom soldier Jafar Panahi. Despite presenting an ingenious storyline, this is a film committed against the Iranian regime, filmed illegally in the territory where the crew took enormous risks just to send this story of freedom to the world, which earned the director more time in prison.
For me, the most tragic disappointment took place in the category Best Foreign Film, won by the Brazilian movie The Secret Agent. Regardless of the subjective value of the film, it won against It Was Just An Accident and The Voice Of Hind Rajab. The Voice Of Hind Rajab features unscripted real phone calls from a little girl in Gaza that was crying for help with a Palestine call center while her family car was attacked, which went well over usual filmmaking and seeing one of them winning this category could have been a significant message to the world. In current times, these movies deserve more visibility than the greatest movie of all time should ever have.