Golden Globes 2025 Winners Get an Oscar Boost, from Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres to ‘Flow’

Catherine O’Hara may call the Golden Globes “prestigious,” but Sunday’s live event on CBS/Paramount+ was still the trashy, not-quite-cool but entertaining awards show, as possibly too-young-for-the-room host Nikki Glaser got some laughs (especially around Adam Sandler and Timothée Chalamet) while earning furrowed brows from the likes of Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett. Mainly the audience enjoyed watching stars like Glen Powell and Globe perennial Nicole Kidman (20 nods) smash elbows over free-flowing drinks and Nobu sushi in the Beverly Hilton.

The old Golden Globes cabal of Hollywood foreign correspondents would likely have also voted for Demi Moore in French-flavored “The Substance.” Her passionate speech about the dangers of undervaluing yourself gives her a huge leg up in the Oscar race for Best Actress. Actors understand her feelings, and what Coralie Fargeat’s feminist horror tale “The Substance” is all about.

The new Golden Globes consist of about 70 one-time HFPA members still based in L.A. (who earn an annual salary of $75,000), and the balance of 300 unpaid Globes voters from 76 countries around the world, dominated by a huge bloc of voters in Central and South America, followed by Europe and Asia. This combo of newly diverse voters yielded a wide swath of international winners, led by France’s Spanish-language “Emilia Pérez” with four wins (Best Comedy/Musical, International Feature, Supporting Actress Zoe Saldaña, and Song).

Demi Moore gave me a taste of her rousing Golden Globes speech at Saturday morning’s Indie Spirits brunch in Santa Monica. The producer who called her a “popcorn actress” was Andy Vajna (“Rambo”), and she internalized that message as she made one commercial film after another, from “Ghost” to “Indecent Proposal,” until decades later she thought her movie career might be over. It’s hard to believe that the 62-year-old actress had never won an acting award in her life until she nabbed the Comedy Golden Globe for her aging actress who takes desperate measures in “The Substance” (Mubi). The movie’s body-horror gross-outs might not have played with Globes or Oscar voters in another era, but these days, anything goes.

Moore’s impassioned speech could land her a shot at the SAG and BAFTA awards, and finally, the Oscar. Moore and her handlers know the value of a speech that goes viral in today’s social media. That video clip is the key asset of a Globe win. When she was at a low point, she received “this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, bonkers script ‘The Substance,'” she said. “The universe told me, ‘You are not done.'” Not unlike Sally Field’s famous Oscar acceptance speech for “Norma Rae,” when she said, “I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me!,” at the Globes Moore said she liked “being reminded I do belong.”

The competitive Best Actress Oscar race is shaken up, because not only does Globe Comedy Actress winner Moore grab a slot but potentially, so does the Drama winner, Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres (Sony Pictures’ Classics’ “I’m Still Here”), who also took advantage of her powerful narrative, as her mother Fernanda Montenegro accepted the Globe for Best International FIlm in 1999 for Walter Salles’ “Central Station,” which went on to be nominated for an Oscar.

Based on a true story about a family wrenched by a brutal dictatorship, “I’m Still Here” should also land a Best International Feature Film slot, but if enough Academy actors watch it, Torres could take the fifth Best Actress Oscar spot from Nicole Kidman (“Babygirl”) or Marianne Jean-Baptiste (“Hard Truths”). With the increasingly international-leaning Oscars, which boast a sizable Brazilian bloc (as do the Globes), it could happen. “My mother was here 25 years ago,” said Torres, “proof that art can endure through life even in difficult moments.”

‘I’m Still Here’©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

Angelina Jolie (Netflix’s “Maria”) needed the Best Actress Drama Globe. After not making the BAFTA cut for a classy Pablo Larraín film about Maria Callas set in ’70s Paris, she looks vulnerable. With these international voters, Spanish “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón, British songbird Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked”), and American newcomer Mikey Madison (Palme d’Or-winner “Anora”) should make the Actress cut.

Why did anarchic Brighton Beach comedy “Anora” (Neon) whiff at the Globes? Director Sean Baker lost to American Brady Corbet for his $10-million epic about making art, “The Brutalist” (A24), and “Anora” rising star Yura Burisov lost to the inevitable Supporting Actor winner Kieran Culkin for “A Real Pain” (Searchlight). Baker might have taken Screenplay, but “Anora” is not so much about words as it is a precisely wrought action-comedy, and British writer Peter Straughan took the only “Conclave” (Focus) win for his smooth adaptation of German director Edward Berger’s international pope thriller. Finally, small-scale crowdpleaser “Anora” is positioned to take home some Indie Spirits and could find more wins along the road to the Oscars, but it peaked early.

The race for Best Actor in a Drama was close: a tearful Adrien Brody took the win for playing his second holocaust survivor after “The Pianist” in “The Brutalist,” beating Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown” (Searchlight). Venice Best Director winner “The Brutalist,” with seven nominations, was the more European play and also took home Best Drama and Director for Brady Corbet. “Everyone here bet on this film that kept falling apart,” said Corbet, gesturing to his colleagues on the stage. “No one was asking for a three-and-a-half hour film about a midcentury designer on 70mm film, but it works.”

Launching at Cannes does not seem to have slowed down the big winner of Globes night, Jacques Audiard’s audacious and topical French Spanish-language musical “Emilia Pérez” (Netflix), which took home four awards. Because it also won five European Film Awards including Best Film and scored 15 longlist mentions at the BAFTAs (nominations come on January 15), “Emilia Pérez” is a strong contender for multiple nominations at the increasingly international Oscars.

Onstage, Saldaña thanked Audiard for his “rich and complex characters.” In turn, Audiard thanked the Globe voters (in French) for “sharing with us a certain idea of lunacy.” Also making a strong showing on Globes night as she accepted the Best Comedy/Musical award was Gascón: “The light always wins over darkness. You come, maybe put us in jail and beat us, but you can never take away our soul, existence, or identity,” she said. “Raise your voice. ‘I am who I am, not who you want.'”

Another first-time Globe winner, Romanian émigré Sebastian Stan, reminded onstage that while he was winning the Comedy Best Actor Globe for playing a disfigured person in “A Different Man” (A24), he’s also in the running this season for another difficult film, “The Apprentice” (Briarcliff Entertainment), playing the young Donald Trump. Many voters have not watched these challenging indies. “These films are real and necessary,” said Stan. “You can’t be afraid and look away.”

Another solo winner was Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” (Amazon/MGM), which won Best Score for Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor. That Oscar nomination is in the bag.

‘Emilia Pérez’©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection

Hollywood always embraces a party-packed Globes weekend, from Saturday’s Paramount soiree at Cipriani (with Billy Bob Thornton and Ewan McGregor) and Amazon/MGM’s at the Bar Marmont (with Jennifer Lopez, RaMell Ross, and Luca Guadagnino). The Indie Spirits brunch had a strong “Anora” and “The Substance” turnout, but the indie community also said a sad goodbye to late Film Independent leader Josh Welsh.

Arriving at the Netflix Spago after-party, the grinning Saldaña was clutching her golden statue as her handlers surrounded her in a triumphant bear hug. Like Moore, 46-year-old Saldaña has paid her dues. After she starred in the “Avatar” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” series, “Emilia Pérez” allowed her to display the full range of her talent (singing, dancing, emoting!). Oscar actors love that narrative.

Sunday night’s Netflix crush was well-attended by stars from Colman Domingo and Andrew Scott to Viola Davis, Kiera Knightley, Adam Sandler, Jamie Foxx, and Monica Barbaro (who conversed in Spanish with Pablo Larraín), as well as the cast of “Squid Game.” Netflix executives Ted Sarandos and Bela Bajaria grinned as they accepted congratulations. (The streamer’s “Baby Reindeer” also won big on the TV side.)

Meanwhile, Universal had to settle for their Cinematic and Box Office Achievement consolation Globe for Jon M. Chu’s blockbuster musical “Wicked.” There will be more awards chances ahead, but it’s true that “Wicked” has won the prize that matters: $680 million worldwide. The original Broadway show became a global musical phenomenon, so “Wicked” has support overseas. In the end, this joyful eye-candy musical could unify Oscar voters for Best Picture during an anxious time. It could be the zeitgeist play.

Stars Erivo and Grande have other opportunities to come, as does “Wild Robot,” which lost to “Flow,” the foreign-flavored Latvian little-engine-that-could. The Golden Globes boasts several Latvian members. Made for a fraction of the “Wild Robot” budget, will enough Oscar voters feel the same way? Stay tuned.

See the full list of 2025 Golden Globes winners here. Dick Clark Productions, which owns and produces the Golden Globes, is a Penske Media company. PMC is also IndieWire’s parent company.