The 2018 Golden Globes just got the annual film festival season underway.

This year was the 75th edition of the Golden Globes Awards. The event honors the very best of the previous year’s achievements in film and television. The event takes place each year in Beverly Hills, California. It is widely considered as being an indicator as to the films that will triumph at the Oscars later in the year.

While in the past it was up to the presenters to liven up the evenings proceedings, this year would be different. Late 2017 was dominated by the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the ongoing revelations regarding sexual harassment and sexual assaults in Hollywood.

With more than 100 Hollywood figures to date have been accused, the exposure of a long-held industry secret shocked the entire world. To honor all the brave woman and men who had come forward with these allegations almost all the attendees dressed in black.

It was with a huge weight on his shoulders that host Seth Meyers from NBC’s Late Night took the spotlight. He opened his monologue with a reference to this pressure and the “hosts of other upcoming award shows who are watching me like the first dog shot into outer space”.

His speech was commended for its lighthearted but serious tone. Most of his jokes hit the mark including his one saying “it’s 2018 and marijuana is finally allowed and sexual harassment finally isn’t”.  His joke criticizing Kevin Stacey’s southern accent in the TV series House of Cards drew an uncomfortable silence, one that Meyers acknowledged by further joking, “Was that to mean? To Kevin Spacey?”

As proceeding got underway the tension began to subside somewhat. Nicole Kidman took the first award of the night for her role in the film Big Little Lies. Having won the award for her role as a victim of domestic violence, Kidman chose to dedicate the award to her mother, daughter and classmates. She also gave mention to the #MeToo movement as did her co-star Laura Dean later on in the evening.

Dean would offer a few elegant words that would define the heart of the problem as well as the solution: “It was a culture of silencing, and that was normalized… May we teach our children that speaking out without the fear of retribution is our culture’s new North Star”.

Throughout the night many other winners would choose to add their condemnation and hope that things could finally change. Winner of the Best Director Award in 1984, Barbra Streisand, took a moment out from presenting an award to condemn the Golden Globes and industry as a whole. She highlighted that she was the only women to have ever won the best director award.

Actress Natalie Portman also took a swipe at the ceremony when during her introduction of the nominees for the best director award she added “here are the all-male nominees”.

The biggest speech of the night, however, went to daytime talk show host Oprah Winfrey. She was the first African American women to ever to be awarded the honorary Cecile B DeMille prize. Her speech would be by far the biggest of the night and would result in her getting a standing ovation.

She led a rallying cry saying “For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up!”

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Interestingly, earlier in the evening host Myers had joked about Winfrey running for president. After she had given her speech, many of the attending media organizations entered a frenzy of debate as to whether she would or not. This debate actually became the headline story around the world, completely overshadowing the rest of the evening’s events.

Who were the big winners of the 2018 Golden Globes?

While the evening was a great tribute to the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements there were still lots of awards won.

  • The Best Film Drama Award was given to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
  • The Best Musical or Comedy Film Award went to Lady Bird.
  • Best Drama Series was awarded to The Handmaid’s Tale.
  • The award for the Best TV Movie went to Big Little Lies.
  • The Best Foreign Language Film went to In the Fade.
  • Best Animated Feature Film Award went to Coco.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri would win the most awards of the evening after it notched up an impressive 4 wins.

  • The Best Director Award went to Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water.
  • Martin McDonagh won the Best Screenplay award for Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri.
  • Francis McDormand won Best Actress for Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri.
  • British actor Gary Oldman won the Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
  • Fellow Brit Ewan McGregor won the Best Actor Award in a TV series for Fargo.
  • Nicole Kidman won Best Actress in a TV series for Big Little Lies.
  • Saoirse Ronan won Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Lady Bird
  • James Franco won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for The Disaster Artist
  • Allison Janney won Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya.
  • Sam Rockwell won Best Supporting Actor for Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri.

For a complete list of all the winners from the Golden Globes 2018, please click this link.

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The Golden Globes 2018 roundup

Most critics generally agree that the 75th edition of the Golden Globes was a success. Few doubted that the Metoo and Time’s Up movements wouldn’t dominate the evening. Rather than being the rowdy lighthearted evening of past years, this year was altogether a different event.

Host Seth Meyers did an excellent job of keeping the ship on course, though as the night wound on he found it increasingly difficult to keep the audience’s attention. Oprah Winfrey did grab most of the big headlines around the world. However, the night’s winners gave us a good indication of who is going to triumph at this year’s Academy Awards.

Expect lots of awards for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water. You can also put your savings on Gary Oldman to win the Best Actor Award too.