There were a few big surprises at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, and even though George Clooney claimed that everyone in the room was a winner during his Cecil B. DeMille speech, let’s be real: There are always winners and losers at Hollywood awards shows.
Sadly we won’t be seeing Amy Poehler and Tina Fey crack Bill Cosby jokes on stage next year, so that’s a loss for everyone – including Meryl Streep. And Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is clearly a winner, taking both Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Motion Picture, Drama. Ava DuVernay and Selma didn’t win any major awards (except for Original Song), but that doesn’t make the film a “loser” – it’s a beautifully directed, powerful movie – it just happened to be up against Boyhood.
Regardless of whether they earned statuettes or not, here’s a rundown of some of the real winners and losers at this year’s Golden Globes.
The Winners
Wes Anderson: Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel won the screenplay award, which wasn’t a huge shock, but it beat out Birdman for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, which no one saw coming. Except maybe the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. It certainly won’t hurt the film’s chances come Oscar time, though a Best Picture win at the Academy Awards seems unlikely.
Amazon Studios: Transparent became the first online show to win Best TV Comedy or Musical, which is a huge win for Amazon. Jill Soloway’s touching, groundbreaking show also led to an acting award for Jeffrey Tambor, who dedicated his statuette to the transgender community, saying, This is much bigger than me.
Amal Clooney: Tina and Amy reminded George Clooney that he was the one getting a lifetime achievement award even though his wife is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, an advisor to Kofi Annan on Syria and was appointed to a three-person commission investigating rules of war violations in the Gaza Strip. And when Clooney said he was proud to be her husband during his speech, you could feel women around the world swoon quietly in front of their TVs.
Gina Rodriguez: First-time nominee Rodriguez beat Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lena Dunham, Edie Falco, and Taylor Schilling for Lead Actress in a TV Comedy or Musical, and the Jane the Virgin star gave a shocked, emotional speech that immediately inspired a slew of memes. This award is so much more than myself. It represents a culture that wants to see themselves as heroes, she said. Eloquent and inspiring.
The Losers
Birdman: Michael Keaton was a sure thing to win Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, and it seemed like Birdman was a sure thing too – until The Grand Budapest Hotel stepped in and stole their thunder. It likely won’t hurt the film’s Oscar chances, but it was definitely an unexpected loss.
Bill Cosby: Not that Cosby should be winning anything at all these days, but Amy Poehler and Tina Fey really went there during their opening monologue. In Into the Woods, Cinderella runs from her prince, Rapunzel is thrown from her tower for her prince and Sleeping Beauty just thought that she was getting coffee with Bill Cosby, Poehler said. So a big win for Amy and Tina, and not so much for Cosby.
The LEGO Movie: How did The LEGO Movie – a huge box office and critical hit – not win Best Animated Feature? You’d have to ask the HFPA, who crowned How To Train Your Dragon 2 instead. It was a pretty big snub, since The LEGO Movie seemed like the clear frontrunner. It’s too bad, but it’ll be surprising if they don’t take home the Academy Award.
Take a look at the fill list of Golden Globe winners here.