The Highs, Lows, and Whoas of the 2025 Golden Globes
The Golden Globes have a reputation for being Hollywood’s least serious awards show, allowing us all to revel in the mess. But this year, despite the heroic efforts of Nikki Glaser as a sort of lighthearted big sister to the drama kids around her (she announced she had not seen the Wicked stage musical before the film came out because she had friends in high school), the Golden Globes pivoted into self-seriousness and, well, accidental mess. The camera angles were weird, the teleprompter seemed like it was broken, and sure, a lot of the banter was fun, but the choices for winners were rather straightforward and unexciting. The Globes, trying to button up for its post-cancellation comeback, seemed to mimic the general trends around it instead of choosing chaos. On the film side, The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez gained steam, while over in television, Globes voters just copied their homework from the Emmys. Luckily, there were still a few scattered moments of good old-fashioned Hollywood fun — often from Glaser herself — as well as real movie-star glamour, especially as embodied by Demi Moore, who picked up an award for The Substance (a very Globes choice) and delivered a speech that said, essentially, “Look at me giving a great speech, don’t you want to hear more great speeches like this?” That’s the kind of sparkle awards seasons are made of.
HIGH: Nikki Glaser’s lightly searing opening monologue.
Glaser’s made a career as a roast comic, but in hosting the Globes, she turned down the temperature to something a little more collegial, though still with her fair share of razzing. She got in digs about Joker 2 — “where’s your table? Not here!” — and the fact that, years from now, people might rewatch this ceremony and realize some terrible man yet to be caught was in the crowd. (“It could be a woman. I think 100 percent of the time it’s a man.”) But she also found a groove in acting as if she was just hanging out with her celebrity pals and letting them delight in a good ribbing. She got a grin out of Harrison Ford with a pot joke, made Eddie Redmayne crack over the fact that nobody knows how to even open Peacock to watch The Day of the Jackel, and, most winningly, thoroughly committed to a joke about how Timothée Chalamet sounds like something Adam Sandler might say. The celebrities in the room might not have gotten Glaser’s bit at first, but then she cornered Sandler himself into giving a big “Chal-O-MAYYY” direct to camera. It was magic.
WHOA: Isabella Rossellini’s hosting prowess.
Okay, so we knew that Hollywood royalty Isabella Rossellini, responsible for the cuntiest curtsy you’ve ever seen in Conclave, has a farm with an adorable dedicated Instagram account. But when Zoe Saldaña, in her Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture acceptance speech, mentioned going over to her co-nominee’s house for lunch one day, she uncovered a whole world of celebrity gossip I’d never imagined. Who else is Isabella inviting over? What are they complaining about? Who is the best shit-talker in the room? (Trick question, it’s probably always Isabella.) Would I watch a Hot Ones–style show but it’s Isabella forcing people to do farm chores and getting them to open up about how absurd this entire industry is? Yes, I would.
HIGH: Nikki Glaser delivering the most succinct and accurate review of Babygirl.
“That movie? I gave it two fingers up.”
HIGH: The Roman Roy vs. Kendall Roy rivalry returns, briefly!
Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong were both nominated for their supporting roles in A Real Pain and The Apprentice, respectively. As expected, Culkin emerged victorious and made one of his trademark snarky, off-the-cuff speeches — “my wife and I did a shot of tequila with Mario Lopez. Definitely feeling that. Whole speech is gone. Rip it, Kieran, you’re doing fine.” That moment was capped off by a shot of Strong looking into the distance while wearing a bucket hat that Kendall Roy would 100 percent also wear.
LOW: What even was the layout of that room?
Why were the hosts always facing away from half the audience toward a camera placed inches from their faces? Why did it feel like none of the winners knew how to walk in the correct direction toward the stage without solving the riddle of a local bridge troll? Was this event designed by Rumpelstiltskin drunk on Champagne? To quote Seth Rogan, who finally addressed some of the issues from the stage: “I wanna start by saying this whole angled camera thing is weird. It’s inelegant, it’s strange.”
LOW: Whatever was going on with the teleprompter.
We can’t say for sure, but we do know that every celebrity presenting looked like they were staring down some serious technical malfunction.
LOW: And how many hidden mics were in there, anyway?
We shouldn’t hear phone notifications going off during other people’s speeches, especially when my beloved Toranaga-sama is accepting his Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama award. This isn’t the movie theater, where everyone is just allowed to be a rude jerk these days. Celebrities, put your phone on silent before the big televised awards show!
HIGH: Canadian treasures Seth Rogen and Catherine O’Hara discuss all their fake Canadian adult-film credits.
After Rogen acknowledged all the “very weird” camera angles on the presenters, he and O’Hara went on a run of silly Canadian jokes about all the very Canadian film and television projects they’ve been honored for in their homeland, including one in which O’Hara breastfed an otter. Then Rogen talked about all the Canadian porn he has done, including Moose Knuckles 2: Knuckles Deep, which won a prestigious Beaver award. Possibly the funniest Canadian bit at an awards show since Robin Williams sang “Blame Canada” at the Oscars?
LOW: Not actually getting to see Nikki Glaser’s “Pope-ular” song in full.
To be fair, it’s a great gag to bring out a giant prop Glinda wand and pope hat and start to do a song about mashing up Wicked and Conclave before faking getting a phone call and going “Wait … this sucks?” But we’d also be happy to see someone (not Rob Lowe) commit to a dumb awards show musical number. Give us “Insane in the Pin-guane” in full!
BUT ALSO HIGH: Nikki Glaser’s delivery of “Wait … this sucks?” Ariana Grande actually looked offended in the audience.
WHOA: Colin Farrell and Andrew Scott in a movie together?
Colin Farrell was pretty much a shoo-in to win for The Penguin (movie star doing TV, buzzy HBO project, three hours of prosthetics each day, and that wacky gabagool voice), although Andrew Scott arguably did more nuanced and ferocious work in Ripley. It was a bummer the latter didn’t win. But! Farrell revealed during his speech that the two were in a movie together and joked that it isn’t even available on Betamax. But if you want to try to track it down, it’s 1997’s Drinking Crude: “A crude oil worker finds tensions arising with his best friend when they are both sent to work at the small town where he failed out of school as a teenager.” Such drama!
WHOA: Are Zendaya and Tom Holland engaged?
She sure did have a big ring on her ring finger (along with that gorgeous coppery gown and perfect-length bob). Do Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross DJ weddings?
LOW: Leaving Ted Danson and Viola Davis out of the broadcast.
The ceremony on CBS acknowledged that Ted Danson received this year’s Carol Burnett Award and Viola Davis was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Davis also made an appearance herself to present Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. But the acceptance speeches for those awards took place in a separate event on Friday night rather than part of the main telecast as they have in the past. Two of the most beloved actors in the industry deserve to get their flowers on national television, and we deserve to watch them do it.
WHOA: Did someone not know that Vin Diesel is passionate about Dungeons & Dragons?
Diesel’s affection for the role-playing game was mentioned in the trivia blurb that popped up onscreen as he walked out to announce the award for Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement – Motion Picture. But that’s not really trivia about Vin! It is a long-established and recurrent part of his lore, as integral to his essence as his feud with the Rock! (Which Diesel nodded to, and maybe reactivated, with his “Hey, Dwayne” as soon as he got to the mic. This moment was so shady I’m almost ready to forgive him for how bad Fast X was.)
HIGH: Demi Moore’s acceptance speech.
After winning her first major award for acting, Moore made a beautifully organized and inspiring speech about how she overcame years of believing that, as others in the industry told her, she was just a popcorn actress who couldn’t play serious roles. The speech offered an underdog story, an extension of the themes in her film The Substance, and, judging from the responses from other actors in the room, including a teary Kathy Bates, may have won her some Oscar-nom support from her fellow peers.
LOW: Jon M. Chu making the case for Wicked as a Big Important Movie as it picks up the award for box-office achievement.
In a night full of self-congratulation, Chu’s speech was maybe the most self-congratulatory, somehow trying to make the case that the film was saving the world and also about … radical optimism? Good luck with that campaign!
WHOA: Constantly being asked if we feel a tingling sensation. Concerned about infections in the anus or genitals? Do not purchase any of the pharmaceuticals advertised in the commercials of the Golden Globes, brought to you by their sponsor, Eli Lilly and Company. The joys of watching live CBS.
HIGH: Sexy tennis music wins major award.
The Challengers score composed by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor justly and correctly won the Globe for best original score. After listening to it on noise-cancelling headphones, some voters said it deserved three awards in this category — one for each member of the Art-Tashi-Patrick threesome — but the Globes Foundation ultimately shot that down. One ain’t bad, though!
HIGH: Shōgun swept all four awards it was nominated for.
These were all the correct choices in their respective categories, but you can’t always count on that from the Globes, can you? Congratulations to Hiroyuki Sanada, cutest winner ever Tadanobu Asano, Anna Sawai, and co-creators Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, who joked in their Best Television Series – Drama acceptance speech about their marriage almost not surviving the series’ first season. Hopefully, the couple find their family’s lost tortoise before they start filming season two later this year.