Everything you need to know about the 2024 Golden Globes

Awards season is fast approaching, with the 81st Golden Globes due to take place on Monday. This year marks the first ceremony since the dissolution of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the awards’ voting body, following a wave of controversies.

Now a for-profit organisation with a new home on the American broadcaster CBS, the Globes have undergone quite the shake-up. We’ve compiled all the key details, including where and when to watch, how the awards have changed, and our critics’ take on the key nominees.

When will the Golden Globes take place?

The Golden Globes will return to regular scheduling this year, taking place on Monday, January 8 (AEDT). The ceremony has been held on a Monday (Sunday in the US) since 2009; however, the 2023 awards aired on a Wednesday amid its controversial rebranding.

Actors, filmmakers and studio executives will hit the red carpet at the Beverly Hilton in LA at 11am (AEDT). The three-hour award ceremony will start at midday.

Where can I watch the ceremony?

Streaming service Stan* will broadcast live all the glitz and glam of the proceedings, including the red carpet arrivals, from 11am. Plus, you’ll be able to follow all the action via the live blog helmed by reporters at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, which will also kick off at 11am.

CBS will be broadcasting the awards show in the US, marking a shift from long-time American television partner NBC.

Who is hosting?

US comedian Jo Koy (born Joseph Herbert snr), known for his comedy specials on Comedy Central and Netflix, will be leading the ceremony this year.

As the first major award show broadcast each year, the Globes has often had hosts who have followed a looser, more laid-back formula than those for subsequent ceremonies,such as the Oscars. This has resulted in biting comedic performances from the likes of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and The Office’s Ricky Gervais.

However, stand-up comedian Jerrod Carmichael took things in a different direction last year with a frank, intimate seven-minute monologue at the beginning of the show. With a new TV home and new leadership, time will tell whether the Globes reverts to its caustic comedic roots or remains a more earnest affair.

Who made it, and who missed out on a nomination?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this year’s Globes has been hit with “Barbenheimer” fever. After a mammoth period at the box office, Greta Gerwig’s hot-pink mega hit, Barbie, leads the nominees with nine nods, including one for best motion picture, musical or comedy. Close behind is Christopher Nolan’s gritty historical drama Oppenheimer, which claimed a total of eight nominations.

Competing with Barbie are Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, Todd Haynes’ May December and Ben Affleck’s Air. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer will come up against the likes of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro and Celine Song’s Past Lives for best motion picture, drama.

Jennifer Lawrence surprised some when she snatched a nomination for best performance by a female actor in a musical or comedy for her role in the bawdy rom-com No Hard Feelings.

Succession is the most-nominated television program, scoring nine nods. Stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin will compete for the award for best actor in a drama TV series, while Australian Sarah Snook received a nod for best female actor in a drama TV series, for her performance as Shiv Roy. Succession will be up against shows such as HBO’s The Last of Us and Netflix’s The Crown in the best drama TV series category.

Competition for best musical or comedy television series will also be tight, with shows like The Bear, Only Murders in the Building and Abbott Elementary gunning for the win.

Meanwhile, The Color Purple and American Fiction received only two nominations each despite higher expectations. Sofia Coppola’s highly anticipated Priscilla offered even more of a shock, earning only one nomination, and Ridley Scott’s epic Napoleon missed out entirely.

This year’s Globes will also feature two new categories: cinematic and box office achievement, and best performance in stand-up comedy or television. The new box office category nominated eight films, including Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. And Ricky Gervais and Trevor Noah were recognised for their stand-up specials, Ricky Gervais: Armageddon and Trevor Noah: Where Was I.

Why have the Golden Globes changed?

In 2021, an exposé in the Los Angeles Times revealed there were no black members in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which at the time was made up of about 87 members. Studios and celebrities boycotted the Globes in 2022, resulting in NBC refusing to air the show that year.

Since the bombshell report, the voting body was expanded to include more people and diversity. A strict new code of conduct was also set in place, including a ban on gifts and regulations around travel to ensure ethical voting. However, NBC chose not to continue airing the Globes following its 2023 return.

In June, the Foreign Press Association was officially dissolved and billionaire Todd Boehly transformed the Globes into a for-profit enterprise. And in November, CBS scooped the rights to air the awards show. Its voting body is now made up of a more diverse group of over 300 people from around the world.

What have our film critics said about the nominees?

Best picture – drama

Oppenheimer: ★★★½
“A grand spectacle inspired by some of the grimmest events in human history, and itself an invention meant to blow us all away.” – Read Jake Wilson’s full review here.

Killers of the Flower Moon: ★★★½
“It might have been more honest and made for a more suspenseful film, had some aspect of that cruel-to-be-kind attitude been sincerely embodied by [the] characters.” – Read Anwen Crawford’s full review here.

Maestro: ★★★
“[Bradley] Cooper does better in the long, fraught dialogue scenes designed as duets for him and [Carey] Mulligan, often filmed from afar in the manner of an impossibly lush vérité documentary. But under the circumstances, there’s something weirdly askew about centring the film on Bernstein and Montealegre as a couple, while Bernstein’s male lovers remain on the sidelines.” – Read Jake Wilson’s full review here.

Past Lives: ★★★★
“The film’s greatest trick is that the romance is actually not its most compelling point. Past Lives is much more convincing and moving as a metaphor for diasporic longing.” – Read Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen’s full review here.

The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall are yet to be released in Australia.

---

Best picture – musical or comedy

Barbie: ★★★
“Ultimately, Barbie the film suffers from the same problem as Barbie the character: it ends up flat-footed. The film is buoyed by jokes, yet heavy with speeches, bright with fantastical dazzle, but dulled by its real-world sequences, which, in comparison with Barbieland, look and feel perfunctory.” – Read Anwen Crawford’s full review here.

Poor Things: ★★★★
“[Bella] is an extraordinary character in an extraordinary film made by a director so at ease with the language of cinema that he can produce wonders with it.” – Read Sandra Hall’s full review here.

Air: ★★
“Perhaps the film is not as straightforward an ode to corporate capitalism as it appears – as is perhaps hinted at in a throwaway exchange about Born in the USA, which turns out to be a different song once you listen to the lyrics. But even given the benefit of every possible doubt, Air is pretty thin.” – Read Jake Wilson’s full review here.

The Holdovers: yet to be released in Australia.

“Paul Giamatti has played a vast range of characters in more than 30 years in the business, but there’s a real chance he will forever be best known for the two movies he has made with Alexander Payne, the much-loved Sideways (2004) and the new and equally praised feature The Holdovers.” – Read Karl Quinn’s full story here.

American Fiction and May December are yet to be released in Australia.

*Stan is owned by Nine Entertainment, which also owns this masthead.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.