The Japan Times - Golden Globes kick off with 'One Battle' among favorites

Host Nikki Glaser kicked off the evening with jokes on wide-ranging topics, including the release of redacted US government files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"The Golden Globe for best editing goes to the Justice Department," she said.

"There are so many A-listers, and by A-listers, I do mean people who are on a list that has been heavily redacted," Glaser added, referring to Epstein's many celebrity friends.

The lavish Globes ceremony is a key stepping point in Hollywood's awards season, which culminates in March with the Oscars, and attracts a glamorous A-list crowd to a Beverly Hills ballroom each year.

Leading the evening's frontrunners is the politically charged "One Battle After Another," which is expected to convert many of its nine Globe nominations into wins.

Paul Thomas Anderson's screwball thriller, which centers on an aging revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti), is the hot favorite for best comedy/musical film.

A rollicking ride featuring violent leftist radicals, immigration raids and white supremacists, the film has connected with audiences and critics at a time when the United States is deeply polarized.

DiCaprio will vie for best actor at the Globes with Timothee Chalamet, who stars in "Marty Supreme" as an ambitious 1950s table tennis player.

Teyana Taylor, who plays an unapologetically bold leftist revolutionary, picked up the first prize of the night for best supporting actress, perhaps signaling a big evening for "One Battle."

- 'Sinners' versus 'Hamnet' -

The Globes offer separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals -- widening the field of stars in attendance.

"Sinners," Ryan Coogler's period horror film about the segregated South of the 1930s, is expected to be the toughest competition for "One Battle" at the Oscars.

But at the Globes, they are in separate categories.

"Sinners" surprised moviegoers with its eclectic mix of vampires, politics, race relations and blues music.

It is the frontrunner for the best drama film Globe, against rival "Hamnet," which stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his grief-stricken wife, as the two cope with the death of their young son.

Buckley is the favorite for best drama actress honors.

"Sentimental Value," the Norwegian family dramedy starring Stellan Skarsgard, earned a strong eight nominations and is also in the running.

Skarsgard took home the award for best supporting actor.

- 'BE GOOD' -

The Golden Globes went through a crisis period, following a Los Angeles Times expose in 2021 that showed that the awards' voting body -- the Hollywood Foreign Press Association -- had no Black members.

Now under new ownership, and with the HFPA disbanded, a wider net of overseas critics has been brought in to pick the winners.

One of the international movies they may favor is Brazilian thriller "The Secret Agent," whose lead actor Wagner Moura is a favorite to win best drama actor honors.

"The Secret Agent" and "Sentimental Value" will vie for the Globe for best non-English language film with "It Was Just An Accident" from Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi.

The Globes also honor the best in television, with HBO's black comedy anthology "The White Lotus," sci-fi office thriller "Severance" and searing teen murder saga "Adolescence" leading the contenders.

Several celebrities including Mark Ruffalo, Natasha Lyonne and Wanda Sykes walked the red carpet sporting pins with the message "BE GOOD."

The badges are part of a tribute to Renee Good, the US woman whose fatal shooting by a federal agent has sparked renewed protests against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

K.Abe--JT