Golden Globes 2019 Winners: Bohemian Rhapsody Upsets for Best Film: Drama

The Hollywood Foreign Press have handed out their awards, and, to say the least, there were a few surprises in there. First and foremost, the Oscar frontrunner A Star is Born fell short of expectations with only one win in the song category, losing Film: Drama, Actor, and Actress. Instead, Bohemian Rhapsody took home wins in its two nominated categories: Film: Drama and Actor for Rami Malek. Malek’s win here was another slight shocker, but one that many had forewarned. Glenn Close, whom I had previously predicted to win, pulled out her first film win at the Globes for The Wife, upsetting Lady Gaga.

Over on the comedy side, things went more to plan with Green Book taking Best Film. Christian Bale won for his un-sympathetic portrayal of Dick Cheney in Vice, and Olivia Colman was crowned as Best Actress: Comedy/Musical as Queen Anne in The Favourite. The supporting categories also went as planned with Mahershala Ali winning for Green Book and Regina King winning for If Beale Street Could Talk.

Elsewhere at the Globes, director went to Alfonso Cuaron for his intimate epic Roma, and with the current political climate in the United States over a border wall between the States and Mexico, the country where Roma was produced, a political push may end up aiding that film further in the director, picture, and other categories. Green Book upset for Best Screenplay, where The Favourite was the favorite. One last surprise, for me at least, was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse taking home the gold over Pixar’s Incredibles 2. Their win here might cement further wins at the rest of the precursor awards leading up to the Oscars.

Here’s the full list of winners:

Best Film: Drama – Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Film: Comedy/Musical – Green Book
Best Actor: Drama – Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Actress: Drama – Glenn Close for The Wife
Best Actor: Comedy/Musical – Christian Bale for Vice
Best Actress: Comedy/Musical – Olivia Colman for The Favourite
Best Director – Alfonso Cuaron for Roma
Best Supporting Actor – Mahershala Ali for Green Book
Best Supporting Actress – Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Screenplay – Green Book
Best Foreign Language Film – Roma
Best Animated Feature – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Score – First Man
Best Song – ”Shallow” from A Star is Born

Taking a quick look at what the Globes mean for the Oscar race going forward, it’s no help that A Star is Born, the film I have pegged to win Best Picture, only won one of its five bids, and its sole win was not in a major category. Lady Gaga was vulnerable tonight, and if Glenn Close or Olivia Colman win the Screen Actors Guild and Critics Choice Awards, her race is over. Bradley Cooper losing both director and actor is no help for him going forward, but he will pick up an Oscar if his film wins for either Screenplay or Picture, where he contributed.

So does this now mean that the relative underdog Bohemian Rhapsody now surges ahead in the Best Picture race? Not exactly. It did earn an Ensemble nomination at the SAGs, and Rami’s performance may earn him an Oscar down the road (if he can beat Christian Bale), but the film is certainty not earning a Best Director nod for Bryan Singer, the film has no hopes of getting a supporting actor or actress nominated, the Screenplay bid is uncertain as well, since Original Screenplay seems packed, and it’s not a likely bet in a ton of technical categories, save awards like Costume Design, Production Design, and maybe Best Makeup and Hairstyling. And going back to the political argument, all it will take to bring Bohemian down further is someone, anyone important in the awards season barometers, to say, “Are we really going to give Best Picture to a film directed by a paedophile?” That may seem unfair, but tricks like that have been pulled in the past, and some films have been notably left out in the cold because of it.

Green Book being the most awarded film of the night with 3 wins was also a bit of a shocker here tonight, and may give room for it to become the Best Picture front runner. It will look a lot like Moonlight two years ago in that scenario, and they’d share the same prizes if all three wins tonight repeat at the Oscars. The problem is getting Peter Farrelly in the race for Best Director. Right now, I’m not sure he can make it with that selective voting branch, but if he does, Green Book can eclipse Star is Born, especially if tonight’s vote carries through.

For the Best Director race, this isn’t quite game over for my pick at the Oscars, Spike Lee. If he wins the prestigious Directors Guild Award for BlacKkKlansman, he’ll still be in the race. As mentioned, Best Actor is going to now be a toss-up between Christian Bale and Rami Malek, and right now I’m actually going to give the edge to Bale for the transformative reasons, though, to be fair, there was a lot of that in Bohemian with Rami, too. Best Actress is still a three-way-race between Olivia Colman, Glenn Close, and Lady Gaga, with Colman and Close duking it out over the rest of the season for sure, but if Gaga comes back at SAG or Critics Choice, it’ll be a photo finish at the Oscars.

The Supporting races also need a little more time to determine where we’re going. Mahershala is definitely deserving for his performance in Green Book, but he was only awarded two years ago for Moonlight, and his name would join an elite crowd of actors who win every time they’re nominated, like Christoph Waltz, Kevin Spacey, Hilary Swank, and. until recently. Sally Field. I’d look out for Richard E. Grant, whose charming performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me may end up sliding the rug out from under Mahershala, especially if Green Book underperforms the morning of Oscar nominations. Supporting Actress will also be determined from the BAFTA nominees. If Regina King, who missed SAG, misses at BAFTA as well, she’ll become this year’s Sylvester Stallone in Creed, who won at Globes and Critics Choice, but his failure to be nominated at SAG and BAFTA ended up costing him the Oscar win. We’ll see if Amy Adams or potentially Rachel Weisz can come back and win.

Well, we still have a couple of weeks before the Oscar nominations are announced (Jan. 22nd), and a lot can happen between now and then, and with the Critics Choice Awards being handed out on Sunday, January 13th, we’ll also see if the Globe winners tonight repeat at Critics Choice, similar to last year, where our four acting winners turned up again, as well as director.