That is shaping as much as be an uncommon, and unpredictable, awards season. There are a number of movies in rivalry for the highest prizes when the Academy Awards air in March, and dutiful Oscar pundits have been monitoring the recognitions handed out by critics teams and organizations as 2024 drew to an in depth. Now that we’re in January, true bellwethers comparable to the Golden Globes and the Critics Alternative Affiliation will shine brighter lights on the frontrunners, however one movie particularly took a success on Sunday evening from a corporation that I assumed would journey over itself to throw trophies – and that’s Depraved, by the use of the Hollywood International Press Affiliation.
The HFPA, for years, has been a little bit of a punchline – a light-weight group consisting of lower than 100 journalists who notoriously host and attend lavish events the place they wine and dine celebrities, then traditionally reward those that play the awards “recreation” the most effective. It has been powerful to make use of the Globes as an indicator for what would possibly win on the Oscars, merely as a result of they divide their competitors into Drama and Musical/Comedy, which I assumed would give them a transparent reduce avenue to award Jon M. Chu’s Depraved with a bevy or statues on Sunday evening. The blockbuster movie was nominated for 4 Globes, but it surely solely took residence one, which I see as an issue.
Which Golden Globe did Depraved win?
So, on the finish of the evening, Jon M. Chu’s critically acclaimed and crowd-pleasing musical received one thing known as the “Cinematic and Field Workplace Achievement” award on the Golden Globes. Which, to me, was a lazy class created so the Globes may embody titles that folks really paid to go see within the theaters. The 2025 nominees on this class included Deadpool and Wolverine, Twisters, Inside Out 2, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. They’re field workplace powerhouses, however not precisely movies I’d think about to be awards contenders.
Depraved straddled the road. It’s a box-office hit. However I additionally thought it had the cache to compete for the highest prizes with the Academy… and possibly even win a number of statues. And that may nonetheless occur. However by solely successful the “Field Workplace Achievement” prize, Depraved now wrestles with the narrative that it’s a “popcorn” movie – to borrow a phrase from The Substance winner Demi Moore – and may not be thought of an precise contender by the business gamers compared towards the likes of Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, Edward Berger’s spiritual thriller Conclave, or the majestic Dune: Half 2.
OK, so, Depraved picked up what feels like a largely made-up award that was created by the Globes to get mainstream audiences to tune in. However there’s one more reason why I believe the three different losses suffered on Sunday evening matter within the grand scheme of the Oscars dialog.
The Globes Have A Separate Musical Class, And Depraved Misplaced To One other Musical
As a result of the Golden Globes divide their contenders up, I assumed that Depraved had a neater stroll to a victory, and that we’d be speaking about it alongside the film that ultimately took Finest Movement Image: Drama (which ended up being The Brutalist). Nonetheless, it was Netflix’s large participant, Emilia Perez, that charmed Globes voters and toppled Depraved – in addition to Anora, Challengers, The Substance and A Actual Ache within the Musical/Comedy class. Given the recognition of these titles, it’s straightforward to imagine that all of them had their factions of awards help, splitting the vote and permitting Emilia Perez to collect probably the most steam. Nonetheless it occurred, the headlines in the present day are specializing in Jacques Audiard’s daring musical, and never on the Broadway adaptation.
It wasn’t simply within the Finest Musical/Comedy that Depraved fell quick, nevertheless. The movie’s co-leads, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, had been everywhere in the crimson carpet protection. They had been concerned in a number of jokes and bits from the stage, together with host Nikki Glaser “holding house” for them as she ribbed the viewers.
However of their respective classes, Grande and Erivo misplaced out to Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez) and Demi Moore (The Substance). And I believe the narratives swirling round these women – notably Moore, on the subject of the Oscars – are rising stronger by the minute, and can solely snowball within the wake of those Globes wins.
Is there nonetheless time for Depraved to reverse course? Naturally. The Oscars aren’t weeks away. They’re MONTHS away. A robust displaying on the Critics Alternative Awards may put Chu’s musical proper again on monitor. The HFPA doesn’t vote for the Oscars, so that they don’t have direct affect within the voting physique. All they’ll do, or the second, is direct the stream of momentum that’s flowing behind a selected title. On the Monday following the Globes, that Depraved river is working slightly dry. However don’t guess towards a manufacturing that’s accustomed to defying gravity.