The Brutalist, a three-and-a-half hour epic about a brilliant Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust, cemented its status as an awards season darling after winning the top drama prize at the Golden Globes on Sunday night.
The film, which has an intermission, also won best director for Brady Corbet while its star, Adrien Brody, was named best drama actor.
Emilia Pérez, a Spanish-language musical about a transgender Mexican drugs kingpin, was the ceremony’s other big winner.
The film won the top prize for a musical or comedy as well as the best non-English language movie while Zoe Saldaña won best supporting actress.
Emilia Pérez also won best original song.
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The Golden Globes, unlike the Oscars, separates dramas from the musical/comedies category, meaning The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez avoided a showdown that appears inevitable at the Academy Awards in March.
Brody, who stars in The Brutalist as a visionary architect who crosses the Atlantic seeking the American dream after the Second World War, established himself as an awards season frontrunner.
The 51-year-old, who won the Oscar for best actor in 2003 for his role in The Pianist, said The Brutalist’s message was “the human capacity for creation” before paying tribute to his Hungarian-born mother.
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The ceremony was light on politics but with a second Trump administration looming and an expected crackdown on immigration, Brody said he hoped his win could inspire other migrants.
“I hope that this work stands to lift you up a bit and to give you a voice,” he said.
Corbet, accepting the night’s top drama prize, used his speech to demand film-makers be given more freedom to realise their artistic vision.
“No one was asking for a 3.5-hour film about a mid-century designer on 70mm,” he said. “But it works.”
The Golden Globes returned to the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills with the comedian Nikki Glaser on hosting duties to fire the starting gun on Hollywood’s awards season.
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The ceremony added some clarity given that no film had yet emerged as a frontrunner, though in the acting categories it appears all is still to play for.
In a surprise, the Brazilian star Fernanda Torres won best actress for her role in the drama I’m Still Here, triumphing in a crowded category that included the Hollywood A-listers Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman and Kate Winslet.
In her acceptance speech, she paid tribute to her mother — also a Brazilian actress who was nominated for a Golden Globe.
Demi Moore won best actress in a comedy or musical for The Substance, a horror in which she plays a fading star fired from a job due to her age before taking a mystery drug that creates a younger version of herself.
The tearful 62-year-old said the prize was the first honour of her long career and recalled a producer 30 years ago telling her she was a “popcorn actress”, a nod to her blockbuster success.
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During an emotional acceptance speech sure to endear her to Oscars voters, Moore said the comment “corroded me” and that before The Substance she feared her career was over.
Sebastian Stan won in the male category for A Different Man in which he plays a struggling actor with a facial disfigurement.
While last year’s awards season featured a torrent of recognition for the blockbuster successes Barbie and Oppenheimer, the winners at the Golden Globes could hardly be described as mainstream favourites.
Emilia Pérez barely registered outside of film aficionados when it arrived on Netflix in November, and The Brutalist is yet to be widely released in the US. Inside Out 2, the biggest grossing film of last year, was overlooked in favour of Flow, a tiny Latvian production.
Wicked won an award in the cinematic and box office achievement category, reserved for films that grossed at least $100 million in the US.
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The Broadway adaptation has made almost $700 million while becoming a fixture of popular culture but its stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were both snubbed.
Accepting the box office Golden Globe, Jon Chu, the director of Wicked, said the film was an antidote to the cynicism prevalent in the world and was “a radical act of optimism”.
Flow, a whimsical fantasy adventure with no dialogue, was named best animated film while Challengers, a tennis drama about a steamy love triangle, won best original score.
In the television categories, Shogun, an expensively produced epic set in feudal Japan, was the big winner, taking home the top drama prize.
Hiroyuki Sanada won for his lead role in the series while his co-stars Tadanobu Asano and Anna Sawai triumphed in the supporting categories.
Baby Reindeer, a dark drama about a struggling comedian being hounded by a stalker, won best limited series.
Jessica Gunning, who played the obsessive fan, won in the supporting actress category.
Colin Farrell was recognised for playing a supervillain in the Batman spin-off The Penguin, winning best male actor in a limited series.
Hacks won best television comedy while the show’s star Jean Smart was recognised for her portrayal of a revered female stand-up star.
After a disastrous opening monologue at last year’s Golden Globes by the comedian Jo Koy, Glaser’s was well-received by the A-listers inside the hotel ballroom.
Jokes about the US presidential election, Ozempic and Diddy parties provoked laughter from the audience, though the barbs were nowhere near as sharp as previous ceremonies when Ricky Gervais gave both barrels to the rich and famous.
