Who Did the Golden Globes 2025 Serve?
Marcus Jones
From inside the ceremony, the writing was on the wall that the Golden Globes 2025 would be a middling telecast when “Moana 2” stars Auliʻi Cravalho and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson presented the first award with their backs turned to the majority of the audience. There is just no way to sell a comedy bit inside the Beverly Hilton ballroom if you have not captured the attention of the extremely famous attendees lining the stage.
Proof of this was the massive difference in reception between Jo Koy’s ill-fated 2024 monologue, and the one host Nikki Glaser delivered this year. The absolute death knell for the former was that last year’s ceremony had abysmal audio inside the ballroom, giving no incentive for the guests to play along with being lightly roasted.
Meanwhile, the latter comedian’s opening monologue blasted through the speakers all the way up the several tiers of tables, out to the back of the room, and probably through the hotel lobby, all the way into the ears of the SUV drivers waiting outside. So when Glaser said, “Tonight we celebrate the best of film and hold space for TV,” looking into the eyes of close-by Golden Globes nominees like “Wicked” stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, there was palpable laughter.
Compare that to the insistence to move the majority of presenters to the side, where the one microphone barely captured Mindy Kaling’s humorous comments bemoaning actors giving script notes or Demi Moore reminding people to respect the balance, per “The Substance’s” great gag, and one can easily see the Golden Globes’ continued shortcomings under the supervision of executive producers Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner.
Maybe the idea was to make bolder production choices now that the Golden Globes entity itself is under new leadership, but trying to reinvent the wheel is not working. Park the presenters right on the mark that the winner they announce will stand at, so that we get more moments of a room of the most famous people in the world interacting with each other. The remaining people still watching awards shows live will not care about the lack of diversity of camera angles. That is not why they’re watching.
What they are looking forward to are their film favorites giving speeches that will win them an Oscar, and wow, did the winners service a kind of Letterboxd-obsessive crowd watching along at home. Though they were far from the most predictable wins, seeing stars like Adrien Brody, Demi Moore, and Sebastian Stan take the stage did align with the Golden Globes’ reputation for voting for a known quantity. But their respective films, “The Brutalist,” “The Substance,” and “A Different Man,” are seen much more as critical darlings than awards season juggernauts — with the latter two projects being on the fringes of the Oscar race.
Even more surprising were the wins for “I’m Still Here” star Fernanda Torres and animated film “Flow,” which have been flying even more under the radar in terms of general public awareness, but have also collected many critics awards during the early part of the season.
A big subject of conversation at parties over the weekend was who the Golden Globes voters even are anymore. Part of the controversy in 2021 that led to a brief downfall, and then total restructuring of the voting body, was that the often-mysterious group had no Black members. The diversity push that followed basically tripled the voter count, and now even longtime members have no sense of how their new colleagues pick their winners. The prediction in the room: this year’s Golden Globes would be unpredictable.
Airing at a very key moment in the awards calendar, just three days before Oscar voting begins, the Golden Globes 2025 functioned like the majority of other critics groups, awarding films and performers of their own taste, often the very ones that need help securing a nomination, and less with an eye toward predicting eventual Oscar winners (though they seem to be the most on the money about the Academy’s excitement over “Emilia Pérez”).
It will be fascinating to see if this new sentiment lasts, as the idea that the Globes now “got it right” comes up against the way in which the show has built its platform. What is the incentive for the most famous people in Hollywood, like Angelina Jolie or Timothée Chalamet, to attend the show if they are no longer favored to win? Additionally, as illuminated by Seth Rogen dunking on the weird camera angles to much laughter, why agree to present if the overall production itself is detrimental to the jokes?
Honestly, the answer may be the bar, which has always been one of the behind-the-scenes highlights at the Golden Globes and got an upgrade this year, complete with a full Nobu sushi station manned by the chef himself. Suspiciously, the room had no TV monitors, as it’s had in years past. Maybe organizers thought attendees like Gabriel Labelle or Adam Sandler would just stick inside the bar the whole time if there had been an option to view the show there (both nominees spent a stretch of the show in said room anyway).
All jokes aside, for a show that has an award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, popularity is not as strong a factor in what gets one a Golden Globe anymore. While that is a good thing for the voters’ credibility, it’s not ideal for producing a TV program that CBS wants more and more people to watch year to year.
The 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards were held Sunday, January 5 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. They aired on CBS and streamed via Paramount+. Dick Clark Productions, which owns and produces the Golden Globes, is a Penske Media company. PMC is also IndieWire’s parent company.
