LOS ANGELES — Amid the pop of Champagne bottles and the sound of applause, so much of what mattered at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night was what wasn’t said.
The company that had the biggest night — Warner Bros. Discovery, which won top awards for “One Battle After Another,” “Sinners,” “The Pitt” and “Hacks” — is at the heart of a fight over the future of Hollywood.
Inside the ballroom at the Beverly Hilton were the three men waging that fight: Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who is overseeing the sale of his company, and Netflix and Paramount CEOs Ted Sarandos and David Ellison, who are battling to buy it. Not one of them was mentioned in a speech or a presenter’s comments.
Instead, there were opportunities to read between the lines, as when multiple winners, including Stellan Skarsgård (“Sentimental Value”) and Ryan Coogler (“Sinners”), extolled the importance of the cinematic experience, which can be viewed as a vote against Netflix’s ownership. Or when host Nikki Glaser called Paramount-owned CBS News “CBS News: America’s newest place to see BS news,” drawing a big laugh from the room, in a rebuke of the new leadership Ellison has installed there.
Here’s a look at all the key takeaways and top moments from this year’s show, which marked the official start to the 2026 awards season.
Politics (mostly) out of the limelight
Hollywood awards shows sometimes get topical. But Sunday’s Globes were more muted on that front. It was a notable shift partly because some of the year’s major contenders have political themes. “One Battle After Another” concerns left-wing revolutionaries. “It Was Just an Accident,” from exiled Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi, and “The Secret Agent,” from Brazil, depict characters struggling under repressive regimes.
But there were still some quietly political remarks. “The Secret Agent” director Kleber Mendonça Filho alluded to what he described as “a very important moment in time to be making films — here in the U.S. [and] in Brazil.” Wagner Moura, the movie’s star, dedicated his best drama film actor prize to people “sticking to their values in difficult moments.”
‘One Battle After Another’ and Chalamet gain Oscars momentum
Paul Thomas Anderson’s film appears to be on a glide path to best picture at the Oscars in March. The Warner Bros. Pictures film, a thriller about a band of political revolutionaries on the run from an old foe, went into Sunday with a leading nine Globe nominations and won four trophies: best musical/comedy, best director (Anderson), best screenplay (Anderson) and best supporting actress (Teyana Taylor).
The Globes don’t always predict success at the Oscars, but “One Battle” has other feathers in its cap, including best picture wins at the recent Critics Choice Awards, the National Society of Film Critics Awards and the Gotham Awards. Anderson is also revered by cinephiles worldwide, owing in part to seminal masterworks like “Boogie Nights” and “There Will Be Blood.”
In the acting categories, Timothée Chalamet scored his first Golden Globe for his lead role as a fiercely ambitious table tennis player in “Marty Supreme.” Chalamet edged out competition that included George Clooney (“Jay Kelly”) and Leonardo DiCaprio (“One Battle”) — and set himself up nicely for another victory at the Academy Awards.
If he ends up triumphing at the Oscars, Chalamet, 30, could snap Oscar voters’ habit of honoring industry veterans.
‘The Pitt’ continues to conquer TV drama
In an era of pricey, high-concept drama series like “Severance” and “The Last of Us,” it wasn’t a given that the modestly budgeted medical procedural “The Pitt” would break through. But the acclaimed portrait of emergency room professionals trying to get through the day has become a hit, a critical darling and — judging by Sunday’s results — an awards season favorite.
Globes voters handed “The Pitt” two marquee awards: best drama series and best drama series actor, for Noah Wyle. “The Pitt” and Wyle received equivalent honors at the Primetime Emmy Awards in September, putting the HBO hospital procedural in the same company as modern classics like “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” and “Succession.”
R. Scott Gemmill, the show’s creator, accepted the award for best drama series and paid tribute to “the first responders and health care workers, who are the real heroes, who inspire us.”
Nikki Glaser, biting as ever
Glaser, in her second stint as Globes emcee, delighted the crowd at the Beverly Hilton with barbed one-liners about the Warner Bros. sale, the Jeffrey Epstein files, the upheaval at CBS News, Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating life, Sean Penn’s political activism, Kevin Hart’s stature — and, in good self-deprecating fashion, herself.
In the final seconds of her opening monologue, she struck a more earnest tone.
“I’m making jokes up here, but it is an absolute privilege to be in this room with you all. Yes, I’m your host, but I’m honestly such a massive fan,” Glaser told the crowd. “Your work this year was innovative; it felt fearless, inspiring and, in some cases, downright Zootopian.”
Podcasting gets the Globes treatment
In a first, the Globes recognized achievement in podcasting — and handed the prize to “Good Hang with Amy Poehler,” a light-hearted interview series hosted by the former “Saturday Night Live” and “Parks and Recreation” star.
“I don’t know about award shows, but when they get it right, it makes sense,” Poehler joked. “This is an attempt to try to make a very rough and unkind world filled with a little more love and laughter.”
The award was presented by hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg. “Before podcasts, I was what you all listened to driving around in your cars,” he joked.
Daniel Arkin reported from New York and Rebecca Keegan from Los Angeles.
