22 best awards moments of 2024, from ‘Hacks’ surprise to Ryan Gosling at Oscars to Tracy Chapman with Luke Combs

Nothing like awards ceremonies to put the show in show business. From the Grammys (Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs, Miley Cyrus, Joni Mitchell) and Tonys (Merrily We Roll Along) to the Oscars (Ryan Gosling, Christopher Nolan, The Zone of Interest) and Emmys (Niecy Nash-Betts, Hacks, The West Wing reunion), these were the moments that the Gold Derby team could not get enough of.

Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs perform “Fast Car” at the Grammy Awards

From that first shot of her hands strumming the guitar, Tracy Chapman won the Grammys. Sure, other people may have actually been awarded trophies that night, but Chapman’s triumphant return to the stage to perform “Fast Car” alongside Luke Combs stole the show. The raw emotion of her performance — her shy smile, her tear-filled eyes, her throaty voice — delivered a gut-punch of a reminder of her phenomenal talent. The look on Combs’ face said it all — as if he couldn’t believe what was happening before him, and we were all the lucky ones for it.
— Debra Birnbaum

Jonathan Groff wins Best Actor in a Musical Tony Award for Merrily We Roll Along

Perhaps the biggest success story of the Broadway season, the revival of Merrily We Roll Along rewrote history and established itself as one of Stephen Sondheim’s greatest works. The tuner showcased the triumphant performance of Jonathan Groff, who turned the prickly character Franklin Shepard into a charismatic anchor point, and it was only fitting the actor finally won his first Tony Award for such the role. Tears filled his eyes during a heartfelt acceptance speech where he recounted recording and rewatching the annual Tony ceremony on VHS  during his youth and thanked his parents for their love and encouragement. “Even if they didn’t always understand me, my family knew the life-saving power of fanning the flame of a young person’s passions without judgment,” stated Groff, “I walk through life with an open heart because you let me know that I could.” We’re not crying, you’re crying.
— Sam Eckmann

Hacks wins Best Comedy Series at the Emmy Awards

Three months later, and people are still picking up their jaws off the floor of the Peacock Theater. The Bear went into the final category at the 76th Emmys having already set a new same-year record for comedies with 11 total wins. But when Catherine O’Hara opened the envelope, it was Hacks that was named the Best Comedy Series of the year. Co-showrunner Paul W. Downs summed up the collective shock when he announced at the podium, “I have no thoughts in my brain.”
— Marcus James Dixon

“I’m Just Ken” performance at the 2024 Oscars

It seemed like a long shot to get Ryan Gosling to perform at the Oscars. After all, he declined years ago when songs from La La Land were nominated (and rightly considered a lock to win), so we thought maybe he’d be too shy to do more than open an envelope. But there he was, joining forces with his Ken costars from Barbie to provide one of the joyous, energetic, and highly choreographed performances ever seen at the Academy Awards. Gosling lost the Oscar that night but should have won an Emmy for being more than Ken-ough on that stage.
— Chris Beachum

The performance of The Zone of Interest at the Oscars

Jonathan Glazer’s incredibly haunting The Zone of Interest had quite a showing at the Academy Awards. The film claimed the prize for Best International Feature, marking the United Kingdom’s first win in the category. In accepting the Oscar, Glazer brought up the film’s central theme of dehumanization and tied it to both the horrific attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 in Israel and the atrocities that continue to take place in Gaza. The big shock would come later that night when the film took home the award for sound design, upsetting the favorite, Oppenheimer. Tarn Willers summed it up perfectly by thanking the Academy “for listening to our film,” with its discomfitting sounds of trains, gunshots, and screams. The good fortune even extended to the next day for fellow sound winner Johnnie Burn, who forgot his ID to get on to the Fox Studios lot but was able to flash his newly engraved Oscar to the security guard as proof of his identity.
— Charlie Bright

Al Pacino’s Best Picture presentation at the 2024 Oscars

“And my eyes see Oppenheimer!” No matter what people may have thought about this moment, Al Pacino had his own original take when it came to presenting the final category at the Oscars. As originally planned, he and Michelle Pfeiffer were going to co-present Best Picture to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their 1983 crime film Scarface, but when Pfeiffer could not make it, Pacino had to go solo. And he made the best of it, coming out to a standing ovation and introducing the category before going straight to announcing the winner without reading the nominees. Then Pacino decided to forgo the traditional preface of “and the Oscar goes to…” and instead abruptly vocalized what he saw on the card, catching everyone off guard — including the orchestra and the camera operator. Producers later confirmed that the removal of presenting the nominees was a creative decision, similar to when Tom Hanks announced The Hurt Locker in 2010 and Laurence Olivier announced Amadeus in 1985 (though the latter also may have been an accident). Luckily there was no tension, as it was a foregone conclusion that Oppenheimer would triumph, but Pacino, perhaps inadvertently, made this one of the most memorable and hilarious Best Picture announcements in Oscar history.
— Christopher Tsang

Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling presenting at the Oscars

Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling brought Barbenheimer to the 2024 Oscars. The delightful duo joined to present a tribute montage to stunt performers, the unsung heroes of the film industry (who hope to one day have an Oscar category of their own) — and to work in a plug for their upcoming movie The Fall Guy, in which Gosling stars as a stunt man and Blunt as his director. The Oscar nominees (for their supporting roles in 2023 blockbusters Oppenheimer and Barbie, respectively) were delightful as they playfully roasted each other as faux rivals: “I’m just happy that we can finally put this ‘Barbenheimer’ rivalry aside,” Gosling said to Blunt. “The way this award season has turned out, it wasn’t that much of a rivalry,” Blunt retorted, referring to Oppenheimer dominating the awards season leading up to the Oscars. “Just let it go!”
— Rob Licuria

Miley Cyrus wins her first career Grammy Awards

“I just won my first Grammy!” So proclaimed Miley Cyrus moments after winning Best Pop Solo Performance and before belting out her blockbuster single “Flowers.” It was an electric performance that had the likes of Taylor Swift and Kylie Minogue dancing and singing along in the audience. Later that night, Cyrus picked up her second Grammy, Record of the Year. “This award is amazing, but I really hope that it doesn’t change anything because my life was beautiful yesterday. Not everyone in this world will get a Grammy, but everyone in this world is spectacular. Please don’t think this is important.” But it is important, and it was thrilling to finally see this iconic pop star get her flowers.
— Denton Davidson

Niecy Nash-Betts wins Best Movie/Limited Supporting Actress at the Emmys

The delayed 75th Emmys (presented in January after being postponed by the strikes) may have yielded few unexpected results, but they delivered some of the most deserving winners in recent memory. After decades of incredible work and four prior nominations, Niecy Nash-Betts finally took home her first Emmy for her turn as Glenda Cleveland on Netflix’s Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. And as if her victory wasn’t already glorious enough, Nash-Betts topped it off with the best acceptance speech of the night. After thanking a number of people — including her wife, her “Dahmer” co-star Evan Peters, and the show’s co-creator and her long-time collaborator Ryan Murphy — one shout-out stood out from the rest. “I wanna thank me,” the newly minted winner exclaimed, “for believing in me and doing what they said I could not do! And I wanna say to myself in front of all these beautiful people, ‘Go on, girl, with your bad self. You did that!’” This rare moment of self-appreciation drew cheers from across the crowd, who probably all felt that way about themselves before but were just too embarrassed to admit it. And let’s be real, who hasn’t?
— Luca Giliberti

West Wing cast reunites to present Best Drama Series at the Emmys

In 2000, The West Wing made Emmy history when it won nine Emmys. It was the most ever won by a drama or freshman series in a single season. And it was a record held for 15 years. That year, West Wing also won its first of a record-tying four Drama Series titles. So it was a wonderful nod to past TV and Emmys history for the Academy to reunite the cast to present the top award for Drama Series at the 76th Emmys. Martin Sheen, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney, as well as Richard Schiff and Allison Janney, who both won Emmys for their roles on the political drama, came together to honor a new record holder. When Janney announced Shōgun as the winner, it marked the epic and drama’s 18th Emmy, exactly double what The West Wing won in 2000.
— Matt Noble

Jennifer Coolidge wins her second career Emmy for The White Lotus

While history repeating itself is usually a bad thing, that’s not always the case at awards shows. Case in point: Jennifer Coolidge’s second win for The White Lotus at the 75th Emmys. The TV Academy truly did the right thing by honoring her phenomenal work in her show’s second season finale, if for no other reason than that we were blessed with the instantly iconic acceptance speech line, “I want to thank all the evil gays.”
— Matthew Stewart

Eugene and Dan Levy hosting the Primetime Emmy Awards

Father and son Eugene Levy and Dan Levy of Schitt’s Creek fame were the Emmy hosts with the most during September’s ceremony. They weren’t side-splitting hilarious but they brought an abundance of warmth and class at a time when America was sorely lacking in both. They also whipped off a few good lines in their opening monologue, such as when Dan welcomed everyone to “broadcast TV’s biggest night for honoring movie stars on streaming services.” True that. The wisecracking duo set a joyous, self-deprecating tone that perfectly delivered on what was needed.
— Ray Richmond

Robert Downey Jr. wins Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Oppenheimer

Robert Downey Jr. was inevitable for Oppenheimer. And his Oscar speech delivered, balancing cockiness and humility with sheer perfection. He incited smiles all around, from his opening comments thanking the previous winners who presented the nominees (“you only flubbed one line”), to thanking his “terrible childhood … and the Academy, in that order.” He offered loving words to his wife and showed gratitude to all who made the heralded film. He named all the people he needed to, without a written list (future winners, take note!), and did it with humor and grace, and all in the allotted time, cementing his spot as an awards-show superhero.
— Susan Pennington

The cast of Merrily We Roll Along performs at the 2024 Tony Awards

For decades it was considered one of Broadway’s most notorious flops — a musical with a stellar score by Stephen Sondheim that managed only 16 performances in 1981. Directors repeatedly tried to make the show work in subsequent productions, but the backward storytelling structure of George Furth’s book and its sour view of show business never resonated with audiences. Merrily We Roll Along was thought to be forever unworkable. That is, until 2022, when an off-Broadway revival by British director Marta Friedman cracked the code. By presenting the troublesome book as the jumbled memories of its leading character, what once confused audiences now thrilled them. Key to the success was the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry of its three leading stars — Lindsay Mendez, Daniel Radcliffe, and Jonathan Groff (with the latter two winning Tony Awards for their performances). That special bond was spotlighted in their appearance on the 2024 Tony Awards, where they performed one of the show’s musical highlights, “Old Friends.” The trio of new friends has erased the word “flop” from the legacy of with Merrily and replaced it with the phrase “Tony-winning smash hit.”
— Tom O’Brien

Joni Mitchell performing “Both Sides Now” at the 2024 Grammy Awards

There aren’t enough superlatives in the English language to honor Joni Mitchell. For longtime fans, it was heart-lifting to see the legendary singer-songwriter return to the stage in 2022, just seven years after a near-fatal aneurysm robbed Mitchell of her ability play music, or even walk and speak. But her performance of “Both Sides Now” at the 2024 Grammy Awards was next-level. Not only was it the first time the 10-time Grammy winner ever performed at the awards show, but it delivered an emotional punch that still echoes. Seated upon what looked like a throne, Mitchell delivered the song in a raspy, lived-in voice that contained faint echoes of her once golden mezzo-soprano. But her tonal change gave the introspective song a deeper resonance, and, for a brief moment, time stood still.
— Tony Ruiz

Christopher Nolan wins the Oscar for Best Directing for Oppenheimer

Cinephiles across the world rejoiced when Christopher Nolan won his long-overdue Best Director Oscar for Oppenheimer, which also took home Best Picture. For the longest time it seemed the British hitmaker couldn’t get arrested by the Academy, with snubs for The Dark Knight and Inception coupled with losses for Memento and Dunkirk. Like Steven Spielberg before him with Schindler’s List, Nolan finally earned the Academy’s good graces by directing a three-hour epic on an important subject that became an unlikely commercial success. The victory was made doubly sweet with Spielberg presenting it to Nolan as a sort of passing of the torch.
— Zach Laws

Lamorne Morris scores Best Movie/Limited Supporting Actor at the Emmys

Lamorne Morris’ Emmy win for Fargo was one of the most surprising of the night — indeed, only 16 Gold Derby users predicted he would prevail. It was also one of the most inspired. Over its five installments, Fargo has accumulated an impressive 13 acting nominations and heading into the 2024 Emmys it looked like the show would continue batting zero. It was thrilling to see the Morris break through for his tremendously earnest and ultimately heartbreaking turn as Deputy Witt Farr. Morris’ acceptance speech was utterly endearing, too, as the shocked actor hilariously joked through his thank-yous, including a shout-out to fellow nominee Robert Downey Jr., which included a request for the recent Oscar winner to sign Morris’ poster of the Marvel star hanging up at home.
— David Buchanan

Ali Wong makes Emmy history with win for Beef

It was a beautiful moment to see Ali Wong win Best Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for Beef, becoming the first woman of Asian descent to win an Emmy for a lead role. With a simple and sweet speech, Wong thanked her family. “I wouldn’t be standing here without my amazing parents, my mother and my father, who I so wish was alive to share this with me. My hilarious father, who loved me unconditionally and taught me the value of failure,” she said. She also thanked her daughters for being her inspiration. This was the her first dramatic lead role for Wong, whose prior credits included the rom-com feature Always Be My Maybe and numerous supporting acting roles mostly in comedic live-action or animated fare. Beef had 13 nominations and took home eight awards, winning all the top awards in its category.  The unapologetically authentic portrayal of everyday struggles and human emotions resonated with the viewers, showing us once again that our stories matter, our feelings matter, and we are all in some way connected.
— Rasha Goel

Previous acting winners introduce the acting nominees at the 96th Oscars

There is nothing better than when the Oscars lean into the pomp and circumstance of their own tradition and legacy. Having past acting winners introduce the nominees before inducting one of them into the exclusive group is a reminder how winning an Academy Award stamps an actor’s place in the history of cinema. It’s also heartwarming to hear one actor praise a peer so genuinely, like the way Regina King brought Danielle Brooks to tears when introducing her.
— John Benutty

Cord Jefferson’s Oscar speech for American Fiction

American Fiction was one of last year’s most provocative features — a satire that touched the third rail of race relations and white progressive ideology. So when writer-director Cord Jefferson won Best Adapted Screenplay for the film during this year’s Academy Awards, it wasn’t a stretch to expect him to say something provocative about the state of play in Hollywood. “I understand that this is a risk-averse industry,” Jefferson said during his acceptance speech, before calling out not Hollywood’s poor track record on race and diversity, but executives’ reticence to try anything new at a low cost to the bottom line. “Instead of making one $200 million movie, try making 20 $10 million movies or 50 $4 million movies,” Jefferson said to the room and those executives watching at home. “The next Martin Scorsese is out there. The next Greta [Gerwig] is out there. The next Christopher Nolan is out there, I promise you. They just want a shot, and we can give them one, and this has changed my life.”
— Christopher Rosen

Joshua Jackson reacting to walking out to “I Don’t Want to Wait” at the 76th Emmys

The (real) 2024 Emmys were all about blasts from the past — and Joshua Jackson was hilariously not prepared for his even though he should’ve been. As he and Matt Bomer walked out to present the Governors Award to Greg Berlanti, the classic Dawson’s Creek theme song “I Don’t Want to Wait” accompanied them. Jackson immediately burst out laughing mid-stride. “Ah, yes, this song,” he quipped at the mic. The best part about this is that the actor later revealed that the Paula Cole tune played during rehearsal as well, but he thought producers were just trolling him.
— Joyce Eng

Ripley takes home Emmys for directing and cinematography

It’s nice when awards voters are paying attention — as evidenced by two of the most deserved victories at the last Emmys. Baby Reindeer was extraordinary, but giving Best Movie/Limited Directing to Steven Zaillian instead for his meticulous craftsmanship on Ripley was an inspired choice, made all the sweeter by the fact that it was the first Emmy in seven nominations for the Schindler’s List scribe. Meanwhile, the luscious black-and-white imagery by Robert Elswit earned Best Movie/Limited Cinematography in one of the most richly deserved victories of the year.
— Daniel Montgomery