Here’s what you need to know:
Ricky Gervais is hosting the night’s festivities.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Hollywood’s self-congratulatory season kicked into high gear on Sunday, as the caustic British comedian Ricky Gervais opened the 77th Golden Globes with a plea for celebrities to forgive him for off-color jokes: “We’re all going to die soon, and there’s no sequel.”
Gervais then went on to mock Joe Pesci by likening him to Baby Yoda, cracked an extremely vulgar joke that involved the “Cats” star Judi Dench licking herself, poked fun at Hollywood’s focus on diversity and pronounced that “no one cares about movies anymore.”
“Everyone is watching Netflix,” Gervais said. “This show should just be me coming out going: ‘Well done, Netflix. You win everything tonight.’”
Tom Hanks seemed to sum up the response in the audience. When the camera showed him, he had both cheeks filled with air and a get-me-out-of-here look on his face.
The night’s first award amounted to a showdown between old and new Hollywood, with HBO’s Bill Hader (“Barry”) going up against Hulu’s Ramy Youssef, the Egyptian-American star of the little-seen “Ramy,” for best actor in a TV musical or comedy. Youssef won. “Look, I know you guys haven’t seen my show,” he said from the stage, to polite laughter in the star-studded ballroom.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”) collected the Globe for best actress in a television musical or comedy. “Thank you for picking up this little scrap of a show,” she said to Amazon, which runs the series on its streaming service.
Jared Harris was expected to collect the Globe for best actor in a limited series for his “Chernobyl” scientist, but the award went to Russell Crowe (Showtime’s “The Loudest Voice”), who skipped the ceremony amid wildfires in his native Australia. Jennifer Aniston, presenting the award with Reese Witherspoon, shared a statement from Crowe, which read in part, “Make no mistake, the tragedy unfolding in Australia is climate-change based.”
The Golden Globes are nothing if not maddeningly mixed in their messaging. For the first time, a Netflix movie viewed mostly on TV sets and mobile devices, “The Irishman,” is expected to win the best drama prize. But the givers of the Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, also hand out a trophy for best comedy or musical. An old-fashioned studio movie, Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” (Sony), is likely to win that contest. Tarantino collected the Globe for best screenplay, beating Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” (Netflix).
Can a moment be half a watershed?
The foreign press association, which has fewer voting members than your local P.T.A., does like to have it both ways — right down to the way it plans the festivities at the Beverly Hilton. Citing the climate crisis, the group will serve a meal consisting entirely of plants (mushroom “scallops,” cold beet soup).
The flowers came by jet from Ecuador and Italy, though.
“All vegetables,” Gervais said of the dinner at one point. “As are the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press.”
Yes, the Globes operate in their own little universe. The prizes are not taken seriously as markers of artistic achievement, but Hollywood covets the red-carpet spectacle, which comes during nomination balloting for the Academy Awards. (Voting for the Oscars started on Thursday and concludes on Tuesday; nominations will be announced on Jan. 13.) Studio marketers will use Globe wins to promote winter films. NBC, which broadcasts the ceremony live, makes a fortune on ad sales.
Over the last 10 years, the Globes and the Oscars have agreed on best picture winners only 50 percent of the time — although they did match last year, when “Green Book” was the big winner at both ceremonies.
Netflix has a chance to dominate.
Streaming video services collected 50 nominations, a 100 percent increase from last year. Netflix went into the night with 34 nods, including six for Noah Baumbach’s searing “Marriage Story,” the most of any movie, and five for “The Irishman,” Martin Scorsese’s leisurely gangster yarn. Another Netflix drama, the well-reviewed two-hander “The Two Popes,” was recognized in four categories.
But the hard-campaigning streaming giant has spoilers from traditional studios in its midst. Competing against the three Netflix films for best drama are “Joker” (Warner Bros.), which portrays the DC Comics villain as sharing the psychological traits of real-life mass shooters, and “1917” (Universal), Sam Mendes’s visually stunning World War I epic.
Be prepared for audible gasps in the room if it doesn’t go Scorsese’s way.
Netflix also has a shot in the comedy category with the Eddie Murphy vehicle “Dolemite Is My Name.” But legacy studios are represented by Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” (Sony), the Nazi satire “Jojo Rabbit” (Fox Searchlight), the whodunit “Knives Out” (Lionsgate) and the musical fantasia “Rocketman” (Paramount).
Renée Zellweger and Joaquin Phoenix are likely to win.
Nothing is certain when it comes to the Globes, but Renée Zellweger is as close to a sure thing as it gets. She is nominated for best actress in a drama for her heartbreaking portrayal of a middle-aged Judy Garland in “Judy.” Other nominees in the category are Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”), Charlize Theron (“Bombshell”), Scarlett Johansson (“Marriage Story”) and Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”).
On the men’s side, Joaquin Phoenix should be prepping his sure-to-be-awkward acceptance speech for his demented transformation in “Joker.” He’s up against Christian Bale (“Ford v Ferrari”), Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”), Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”) and Jonathan Pryce (“The Two Popes”) for best actor in a drama.
Nail-biters include supporting actress, where Jennifer Lopez, nominated for her savvy stripper in “Hustlers,” will square off against Laura Dern, who plays a fancy divorce lawyer in “Marriage Story.” The category is filled out by Margot Robbie (“Bombshell”), Kathy Bates (“Richard Jewell”) and Annette Bening (“The Report”).
Murphy is the favorite to win best comedic actor for playing a struggling comedian who comes up with a blaxploitation hit in “Dolemite.” But some awards handicappers were expecting an upset, with either Taron Egerton (“Rocketman”) or Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood”) called to the stage. Other candidates in the category are Daniel Craig (“Knives Out”) and the young Roman Griffin Davis (“Jojo Rabbit”).
Ellen DeGeneres and Tom Hanks receive accolades.
In recent years, stars like Oprah Winfrey and Meryl Streep have appeared on the Globes stage to accept lifetime achievement awards and have unleashed cris de coeur about politics and sexual harassment. This time around, the foreign press association seemed to make a statement about a need for niceness. The lifetime achievement honorees were Tom Hanks and Ellen DeGeneres, both of whom are known more for uniting than for dividing.
In presenting the Globe to DeGeneres, the “Saturday Night Live” star Kate McKinnon spoke about what it meant to her, as a young lesbian, to see DeGeneres come out of the closet. “The only thing that made it less scary was seeing Ellen on TV,” McKinnon said. “Attitudes change, but only because brave people like Ellen DeGeneres jump into the fire to make them change.”
DeGeneres fought back tears, thanked McKinnon and joked the same was true for her watching Carol Burnett: “Every time she pulled her ear, I knew she was saying, ‘It’s O.K. I’m gay, too.”
‘Parasite’ wins best foreign film.
The foreign press association was beaten to a pulp on social media for putting forward an all-male slate of director honorees and overlooking women like Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”) and Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), among others. The lack of awards recognition for female filmmakers is a problem that extends beyond the 88-member foreign press association; women could also be excluded by Oscar voters this year.
But with giants like Scorsese and Tarantino in the mix, there has been little oxygen left for any other filmmakers on the awards trail.
Globe voters, however, could throw a curve ball and award the best director trophy to Bong Joon Ho for “Parasite.” Bong, the 50-year-old Korean filmmaker, created a genre-defying gem that dazzled critics. Globe rules bizarrely restrict foreign-language films from competing in best-picture categories, so honoring Bong’s direction would be the next-best available option. “Parasite” did win best foreign film. “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Bong said, speaking in Korean with the assistance of an onstage translator.
HBO’s “Succession” wins best TV drama.
Apple, which is hoping to become a player on the awards scene, had two chances in the best actress in a drama category. Jennifer Aniston and her “Morning Show” castmate Reese Witherspoon were both nominated. But this may be the toughest-to-call category of the night. Olivia Colman was nominated for her stiff-upper-lip portrayal of Queen Elizabeth on “The Crown.” Jodie Comer, who won the best actress in a drama Emmy in September, was nominated for “Killing Eve,” as was the five-time Globe winner Nicole Kidman (“Big Little Lies”).
In the comedy category, the second and final season of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s off-kilter show “Fleabag” should come out on top, beating Ryan Murphy’s “The Politician,” about ruthlessly ambitious teens, as well as last year’s winner, “The Kominsky Method.” The other comedy contenders are “Barry” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
John Koblin contributed reporting from New York.
