Anna Daniels
CS Soapbox: What were the biggest Golden Globes 2020 surprises?
Hosted by the predictably blunt and scathing Ricky Gervais, this year’s Golden Globes had its fair share of surprises and snubs as the winner’s list was unveiled throughout the event, with some award recipients expressing their own shock at hearing their name called from the stage. There were a few victors that stood out from the rest, though, earning their spot in the biggest Golden Globes 2020 surprises of the night.
Movies
The biggest stunner of the show came from one of the most coveted awards of Best Drama. Betting pools largely expected Joker, The Irishman, or possibly Marriage Story to pull out the win, but it was Sam Mendes’ war epic 1917 that took home the Golden Globe. The surprise was softened a bit after Mendes also won for Best Director, beating out the most anticipated winner, Parasite director Bong Joon Ho, in another unexpected win as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino also lost in the category.
Speaking of The Irishman, Scorsese’s Robert De Niro-led docu-crime drama came into the event with five nominations, including Best Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and nods for Al Pacino and Joe Pesci’s supporting roles in the Netflix feature based on real-life hitman and American labor union official Frank Sheeran. But, just like Sheeran’s many victims, The Irishman is swimming with the Golden Globe snubbed fishes as the movie walked away without a single win.
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The multitalented Taron Egerton beat out Leonardo DiCaprio and Eddie Murphy for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy in another unanticipated win. Murphy was at the top of the list for many predictors, with DiCaprio a solid second. But the odds were off on this one as Egerton deservedly took home the trophy for his fantastical take on Elton John’s story in Rocketman.
The animated category received its own shocker when LAIKA’s Missing Link, written and directed by award recipient Chris Butler, beat out all of Disney’s nominated movies, including The Lion King, Frozen II, and Pixar’s Toy Story 4, as well as DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World for Best Animated Feature. It should be noted that the movie was also the only non-sequel of the bunch.
To close out the biggest Golden Globes 2020 surprises for film, Netflix entered the award show with 17 movie nominations under its belt, and, amazingly, only earned one trophy for the night when Laura Dern won the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in Marriage Story. As brilliant as Dern is with any material she breathes life into onscreen, many also felt that the award was a snub to Jennifer Lopez’s role in Hustlers, which was, arguably, the best performance of her career.
Television
There were not as many surprises on the television side of the event, though first-time nominee Ramy Youssef’s unexpected win for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Series for his Hulu series Ramy at the top of the show certainly set the tone for the rest of the night. Youssef went up against a few big names in the likes of Michael Douglas, Bill Hader, Ben Platt, and Paul Rudd but fairly snatched up the trophy.
Andrew Scott had been heavily favored to take home the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Limited Series, or TV Movie for his role in Fleabag, but Chernobyl’s Stellan Skarsgård walked away with the honors.
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HBO’s Succession took home the award for Best Drama Series, surprising everyone who expected Netflix’s The Crown to win the gold once again. Additionally, Succession star Brian Cox was stunned when he won for Best Actor in a Drama Series, upstaging fellow big-hitters Kit Harrington, Rami Malek, Tobias Menzies, and Billy Porter.
As with every award show, the 2020 Golden Globes proved once again that the winners (and the snubbed) are as predictable as they are unpredictable, which is what ultimately keeps those office pools interesting.
Written by: CS
