After Nikki Glaser got things off to a roaring start with her jokes about, among other things, how the hardest-working actors in Hollywood were in the room that night—the servers at the Beverly Hilton—and, of course, her now infamous joke about Diddy’s defunct freak-offs, it didn’t take long for the “live wire” vibes of the night to continue when Zoe Saldaña took the stage to accept the award for Best Supporting Actress (in a Musical or Comedy). Proceeding to showcase a wave of varying emotions over her win, Saldaña ran the gamut of facial and vocal variances when it came to expressing her gratitude for everyone from director Jacques Audiard to her fellow cast members, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz.
In fact, around the middle of the broadcast, Glaser took a moment to recap who was mentioned the most during acceptance speeches, with cast and crew coming out on top, moms with three mentions, God with zero mentions and Mario Lopez with one. The latter courtesy of Kieran Culkin during the speech for his Best Supporting Actor win for A Real Pain, mentioning how he did a tequila shot with Lopez and, thus, forgot everything he might have planned to say. In short, it was a nice “cachet boost” for “A.C. Slater” Lopez.
Yet, despite some “oddball moments” (including the worst, most cringeworthy sequence of the night written for Seth Rogen and Catherine O’Hara), the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards was a staid affair. Particularly compared to some of the “less polished” incidents of yore, like Jack Nicholson telling the crowd he had popped a Valium during his 2003 acceptance for Best Actor (more specifically, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama) in About Schmidt, or Renee Zellweger leaving Hugh Grant hanging onstage in 2001 when she was announced as Best Actress (more specifically, Best Lead Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy) for Nurse Betty, but had dashed into the loo to remove some lipstick from her teeth. There was even that kooky moment the same year of Renee’s bathroom mishap when Elizabeth Taylor bizarrely pronounced the word “Gladiator” as the Best Motion Picture – Drama in a way that would have gone viral today.
But, in 2025, being “kooky” or “off script” is far too much of a risk…as far as displays at awards shows go. However, going the “kooky” and “off script” route in terms of, 1) those who, like Demi Moore or Brady Corbet, chose to participate in unexpected projects and 2) who the Hollywood Foreign Press chose to decorate with awards this year, was the name of the 2025 Golden Globes game. And it started with announcing the winner for Best Animated Motion Picture: Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow. A “small” film out of Latvia that managed to topple more “titan” projects in the category, including Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot. The so-called upset was a major coup not only for a country like Latvia, which has never known such mainstream representation in film, but also independent cinema in general. Proving, once again, that there is hope for a David and Goliath sort of triumph within an industry that so often favors box office results above all else.
Flow’s win sent a message (one that Hollywood constantly needs to be reminded of) that you can have all the clout and all the studio backing, but it still might not hold a candle to what the “little guy” is offering. And it’s a huge deal that Flow usurped Inside Out 2 in this category, considering it’s the highest-grossing animated feature of all time. But perhaps, in Flow, the voters saw how deeply personal the story was. Something corroborated by Zilbalodis when he took the stage, joined by his co-writer, Matīss Kaža, and co-producer, Ron Dyens, to remark, “This is a very personal story to me because I used to work alone, I made all my films myself, but this time I worked with a team, and just like the cat in Flow, I had to learn how to trust others, how to collaborate and how to overcome our differences, and I think it’s very important to remember this nowadays, especially more than ever.” While Inside Out 2 also has a focus on the importance of collaboration (namely, among all the emotions inside Riley Andersen’s head), in the end, the message is that there’s always an “alpha” running the show. In effect, it’s a very American perspective on what constitutes “teamwork,” as opposed to the more purely socialist form of it that’s present in Flow.
Indeed, everything about the Golden Globes this year served to highlight that it is very much the anti-American awards show, for film (and even television—see: Baby Reindeer). Which is part of why, in many respects, the Golden Globes is the more reputable, credible awards show—even if the Academy Awards have long been deemed the “true marker” of film success…for Americans or otherwise. But the Academy would certainly be far more reluctant to nominate a film like The Substance (more likely following suit from other awards shows because it’s “chic”), which is what might be described as “the noose Hollywood would sell even if it meant hanging itself.” And that is what The Substance is: a total excoriation of an industry that chews up young women and spits them out once they reach a “certain age” (more often than not, that happens somewhere in an actress’ forties). This being what prompted the GG’s host, Glaser, to comment that when a woman in her fifties is nominated for an award, it’s a “comeback,” but when a man is, then, well, he’s probably one step closer to being cast as Sydney Sweeney’s boyfriend. What’s more, an “older” woman is forced to perennially measure herself against the self-esteem-decimating beauty standard of twenty-somethings in order to keep “competing” in a business that’s made it quite clear that there is not, in truth, “room for everyone.”
And yet, on that note, it bears accenting a particular portion of Moore’s acceptance speech: “And I’ll just leave you with one thing that I think this movie is imparting… in those moments when we don’t think we’re smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough or successful enough or basically just not enough, I had a woman say to me, ‘Just know you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.’” Obviously, that’s much easier said than done in Hollywood. A reality made apparent by the overt sea of veneers, plastic surgery and Ozempic-dosing in the actor-filled audience on the night of the ceremony. But even if one isn’t ready to “put down the measuring stick” as Moore urged, they can still take comfort in her underdog tale (solidified by managing to beat out the more likely contenders in the category, Karla Sofía Gascón of Emilia Pérez and Cynthia Erivo of Wicked). One she summarized by telling viewers upon taking the stage,
“I’ve been doing this a long time, like over forty-five years, and this is the first time I’ve ever won anything, as an actor. Um, and I’m just so humbled and so grateful. Um, thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that, um, I was a popcorn actress. And, at that time, I made that mean that this wasn’t something that I was allowed to have. That I could do movies that were successful, that made a lot of money, but that I couldn’t be acknowledged. And I bought in and I believed that. And that corroded me over time to the point where I thought a few years ago that maybe this was it… that maybe [I’d] done what I was supposed to do. And as I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk. Called The Substance. And the universe told me that you’re not done. And I am so grateful to Coralie for trusting me to step in and play this woman, for Margaret for being the other half of me that I couldn’t have done without, for looking out for me. Um, to the people… who stood by me, especially the people who believed in me when I haven’t believed in myself.”
In many regards, Flow speaks to that concept Moore addresses toward the end of her speech as well. This idea that, no matter how much others believe in you, you still need to believe in yourself in order to carry on and thrive. Sure, “cheerleading” from others can buttress you for a while, but, ultimately, one must find the “strength within,” as it were.
Moore makes it very clear that she’s done just that, concluding her speech with the declaration, “And so today, I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness, and of the love that is driving me, and for the gift of doing something I love, and being reminded that I do belong.” Just like the cat in Flow, and the Latvian filmmakers who strongarmed their way into Hollywood (and awards show glory) against all odds.
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