Hollywood is getting dressed up as the Golden Globes return for their annual champagne-soaked celebration of film and television workers at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. The show serves as the ceremonial start to the 2025 awards season.
The audacious musical “Emilia Pérez” leads all nominees with 10. Other nominees include “The Bear,”“Shōgun,”“Wicked” and “Challengers.” Comedian Nikki Glaser will be emceeing the ceremony.
Here’s the latest:
First stop: Security checks, plus bomb squad sweeps
The line of cars to get to the Golden Globes red carpet is the great democratizer.
Everyone entering the venue has to go through an elaborate and time-consuming security check from the bomb squad. Trunks popped. Windows open. Security dog does the round in the trunk.
One member of the team told The Associated Press that security hasn’t necessarily increased from years past and that they always treat the checks with the same level of seriousness.
Attendees are known to grumble about the backlog it can cause, but this year’s event is following terror incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas. There’s a heightened appreciation for the rigor, even if the line of big black SUVs is already long and slow three hours before the show.
Keep your eyes on Kris Bowers
Kris Bowers, one of The Associated Press’ Breakthrough Entertainers of 2023, is nominated for his first Golden Globe.
His work on “The Wild Robot,” the tear-inducing, fish-out-of-water-but-starring-a-robot animated tale, is up for original score. It may be a new honor for him, but Bowers is far from a novice: The Emmy- and Grammy-nominated composer has created moving compositions for prominent filmmakers, including Ava DuVernay and Justin Simien, and Oscar-winning films like “King Richard” and “Green Book.”
He’s quickly becoming Hollywood’s favorite composer — and a name that cannot be ignored.
▶ Read more about Kris Bowers
What’s in a name?
There are two men named Brody hoping to go home with a Globe on Sunday. And both those actors happen to share the same initial of their first names — A.
Adrien Brody was nominated as best male actor in a movie drama for his work on “The Brutalist,” while Adam Brody got a nod for best male lead in a TV comedy or musical for “Nobody Wants This.”
The works are very different even if the stars’ names are similar. Adrien Brody stars as a Hungarian architect who escaped the Holocaust and sails to the United States to find his American Dream. Adam Brody’s comedy explores the relationship between a charming rabbi and an agnostic sex-positive podcaster.
No less a star than Kim Kardashian has mixed them up. She recently offered a shoutout on Instagram gushing over “Nobody Wants This” but tagged Adrien Brody instead of Adam.
Sharing a last name at awards shows is most common among famous siblings, like Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal or Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave. But the whole same-last-name-and-same-first-initial could happen if Raini Rodriguez from “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” gets nominated the same year as “Modern Family” star Rico Rodriguez.
It’s a pop star melee in the best song category
There are six songs up for best original song at the 2025 Golden Globes:
- 1. “Beautiful That Way” by Andrew Wyatt, Miley Cyrusand Lykke Li from “The Last Showgirl” 2. “Compress / Repress” by TrentReznor, Atticus Ross and Luca Guadagnino from “Challengers” 3. “El Mal” by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard from “Emilia Pérez” 4. “Forbidden Road” by Robbie Williams, Freddy Wexler and Sacha Skarbek from “Better Man” 5. “Kiss the Sky” by Ali Tamposi, Delacey, Jordan K. Johnson, Maren Morris,Michael Pollack and Stefan Johnson for “The Wild Robot” 6. “Mi Camino” by Ducol and Camille, once again for “Emilia Pérez.”
Some things to note:
- 7. This is Cyrus’ second Golden Globe nomination. Her first was 16 years ago, for the song “I Thought I Lost You” from the animated film “Bolt.” 8. There will be justice for Take That fans! This is Williams’ first Globe nomination. And after “Forbidden Road” was deemed ineligible for Oscars’ consideration, it’s quite a big deal. 9. This is also country star-turned-pop powerhouse Morris’ first Globe nomination.
No Oscars for ‘Dune 2’ score
The larger-than-life “Dune: Part Two” score, composed by the Academy Award-winning Hans Zimmer, is up for a Golden Globe but will not compete at the Oscars this year.
The Academy rules state: “In cases such as sequels and franchises from any media, the score must not use more than 20% of pre-existing themes and music borrowed from previous scores in the franchise.”
Because the “Dune: Part Two” score pulls from the first, it qualifies as preexisting music and therefore cannot compete in that contest.
Will it win tonight? Lisan al Gaib says … hopefully!
Who’s up for best original score?
The original score nominees are a collection of newer voices and long-established talent: “Emilia Pérez” by Clément Ducol and Camille, “The Brutalist” by Daniel Blumberg; “Dune: Part Two” by Hans Zimmer, “The Wild Robot” by Kris Bowers, “Challengers” by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and finally, “Conclave” by Volker Bertelmann. What to know:
- 10. Ducol has been nominated three times. If he wins, it will be his first-ever win. 11. Ditto Camille — three nominations, no wins. 12. This is both Blumberg’s and Bowers’ first Golden Globe nomination. 13. This is Bertelmann’s second Golden Globe nomination. His first was in 2017, for the “Lion” score. 14. Zimmer has won three Golden Globes and boasts of 16 career nominations. 15. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have two Globes and 7 career nominations.
‘Better Man’ won’t go down a forbidden road at the Oscars
The Golden Globes are not a perfect predictor for what will happen at the Oscars, and no one should appreciate that more than Robbie Williams.
The English pop star who launched his career in the British boy band Take That knows a little something about writing a big pop tune. But according to Variety, the song “Forbidden Road” from his cheeky monkey biopic, “Better Man” was disqualified from the Oscars shortlist — after initially making the 15-song cut — because it “incorporates material from an existing song that was not written for the film” and is therefore ineligible.
No matter! The song is still up for the original song trophy at the Globes.
TV fights upstream
If you want to watch all the nominated TV dramas this year, prepare to dig into your wallet — the category is split among a lot of streaming services.
You’ll need Peacock for “The Day of the Jackal,” Netflix for both “Squid Game” and “The Diplomat,” Prime Video for “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and Apple TV+ for “Slow Horses.” The only linear channel in the bunch is FX’s “Shōgun,” but all episodes also stream on Hulu.
Streaming viewership exploded during the pandemic and hasn’t looked back. Nielsen says streaming accounted for 40.5% of TV use in October 2024, with broadcast at 24% and cable at 26.3%.
Over a decade ago in 2010, just for comparison, broadcast networks were still making a strong showing, with wins for network programs like “Glee” on Fox, “30 Rock” on NBC and “The Good Wife” on CBS. Basic-cable shows like “Mad Men” on AMC and pay-cable offerings, including “Dexter” on Showtime, were viable options.
No more. In 2020, all commercial broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, The CW — were shut out completely during Golden Globes nominations.
The irony is the Globes telecast has always been on a legacy network. This year it is CBS, with a streaming option for customers who have Paramount+ with Showtime.
Are the Golden Globes here to stay?
After a tumultuous few years for the annual award show, the Golden Globes have secured their future — for now, at least.
In March, the Globes and CBS reached a five-year deal to broadcast the show and stream it live on Paramount+.
CBS stepped in to air the 81st Golden Globes last January and was rewarded with a rating boost. The telecast pulled in an average of 9.4 million viewers, up about 50% from 2023, when NBC moved the Globes to a Tuesday.
For years, the Globes had resided at NBC before scandal enveloped the organization behind the awards, leading NBC to give them up.
The Golden Globe nominations’ surprises
The Golden Globes have always had quirks, like A-lister tunnel vision, and while there might not be anything quite as glaring as the infamous year of “The Tourist,” this batch is not without its oddities: Some good, some bad, some simply perplexing.
Here are some of the biggest surprises from the nominations:
- 16. “All We Imagine as Light” 17. Sebastian Stan in both “The Apprentice” and “A Different Man” 18. Pamela Anderson in “The Last Showgirl”
▶ Read more on why these were surprises
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