Golden Globes to kickstart award ceremonies of 2025

Musicals, biopics are among nominees

LOS ANGELES:

Hollywood will kick off its 2025 awards festivities on Sunday at the annual Golden Globes ceremony where films such as Wicked, The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez compete for trophies and attention ahead of the Oscars, reported Reuters.

Timothée Chalamet, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande and Angelina Jolie are among the stars in the running for acting honors at the red-carpet ceremony that will be hosted for the first time by comedian Nikki Glaser. The show will be broadcast live on CBS and stream on Paramount+.

Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez and post-World War Two epic The Brutalist lead the night's film nominees.

The Brutalist stars Adrien Brody as a Holocaust survivor who flees to the United States to chase the American dream. The 3-1/2 hour tale is considered a frontrunner for the night's top prize, best film drama.

Competitors include Conclave, about the selection of a pope, and two films starring Chalamet - Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown and sci-fi epic Dune: Part II.

Unlike the Oscars, musical and comedy films compete in a separate category at the Globes. Nominees in that field include box office smash Wicked and dark romantic comedy Anora.

Winning a Globe can help films in the run-up to the Academy Awards in March. If a film or actor takes home a Globe, "it increases the likelihood a member of the film academy will check out that project," said Scott Feinberg, executive editor for awards at The Hollywood Reporter.

Feinberg predicted The Brutalist or Conclave would earn the drama prize at the Globes. The musical or comedy category is harder to gauge, he said, because the nominees are so different from one another.

Emilia Pérez, a musical thriller, tells the story of a Mexican drug lord who transitions from a man to a woman. Wicked, a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, was adapted from a popular Broadway stage show.

Anora, about a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, is more of a traditional comedy while The Substance starring Demi Moore as a fading celebrity seeking a fountain of youth, is essentially a horror movie, Feinberg said.

"That (category) is just all over the place," Feinberg said.

Winners of the Globes are chosen by 334 entertainment journalists from 85 countries, compared with roughly 9,000 voters who select the Academy Awards. The Globes voting body was expanded in recent years and organisers instituted reforms after being criticised for ethical lapses and a lack of diversity.

In TV categories, restaurant tale The Bear leads the Globes nominees, followed by mystery comedy Only Murders in the Building and historical epic Shogun. REUTERS