By: Victoria Lopatka
Best Original Song – Motion Picture
“This is Me” // Music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul // The Greatest Showman
This powerful and emotive song is performed by the circus troupe in The Greatest Showman. It was led by the bearded lady, Lettie Lutz (played by Keala Settle) in the midst of an elite party they had been ostracized from. Viewing the movie in theatres, the song sent chills down my spine. In response to the shame the protagonist, P. T. Barnum, shows for them, they sing inspirational lyrics about being proud of who you are. If the uplifting lyrics don’t capture your heart, Lutz’s vocals will. This song is beautifully written, beautifully sung, and will make your heart feel for the rejected circus troupe.
Best Performance by an Actress – Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Saoirse Ronan // Lady Bird
Saoirse Ronan, a relatively unknown actress from Brooklyn (2015) and Hanna (2011), took home a Golden Globe. With pink hair and a matching pink cast on her arm, Ronan plays Lady Bird, half of the tense mother-daughter duo that graced the big screen. Ronan manages to deliver off-the-handle scenes — like jumping out of the car while her mother is driving — just as well as the truly tear-jerking one, where she responds to her mom’s wish for her to be the best version of herself with “What if this is the best version?” When asked about the young actress, Greta Gerwig, the director of the film, said: “I can’t speak about her without becoming emotional. She transformed herself so fully that you almost don’t see the transformation. You can’t see the seams. Suddenly, you can’t imagine her as someone who’s British or Irish or anything else — all you see is this girl.” Lady Bird also won Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and her acting surely played a role in this.
Cecil B. DeMille Award
Oprah Winfrey
The Cecil B. DeMille Award is given to an individual who has made “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment,” according to the Golden Globes website. In the past, it has been given to Walt Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, Audrey Hepburn, and Robin Williams, to name a few. This year it was presented to Oprah Winfrey, everyone’s favourite philanthropist, activist, talk show host, and GIF star. She is the first black woman to be presented with this award. Apart from this historic moment, what many are thinking about as they read these words is her rousing and inspiring acceptance speech.
It encouraged women to speak their truth, all the little girls on all the linoleum floors, to speak their truth: “For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up.”
Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama
Elisabeth Moss // The Handmaid’s Tale
Elisabeth Moss plays the narrator and protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale, a woman known as Offred who works as a handmaid, a fertile woman who breeds and provides children for society. In an interview with the offcamerashow, Moss describes how she approaches portraying such a complicated character as a human, someone who is flawed, and doesn’t always make the right choice. Many of the scenes in this series are uncomfortable to say the least — some scenes going as far as showing explicit and gruesome depictions of torture — and Moss handles all of them with heart-wrenching perfection.
Best Director – Motion Picture
Guillermo del Toro // The Shape of Water
In his newest film The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro paints a love story between a janitor who cannot speak, employed at a secret government research facility, and an amphibious man being kept as a specimen. If you’re scratching your head at this set-up, you’re not alone, but give it a chance . . . it’s actually a breathtaking and romantic tale. Del Toro himself has stated this movie is his own favourite of all that he’s directed so far, and audiences and critics alike seem to agree.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, del Toro describes how the movie is relatable today, despite its 1950s setting: “I think when people say ‘Make America Great Again,’ they’re thinking of that America, which actually never ended up really crystallizing. If you were a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, then things were great . . . But everyone else didn’t have it so good. And the creature sort of represents everybody else.” He discusses his own issues being Mexican and dealing with law enforcement, immigration, and systemic racism, and brings up the conversation surrounding discrimination through this unconventional film.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture made for Television
Ewan McGregor // Fargo (TV series)
Most actors have to worry about memorizing and delivering the lines of one character, but Ewan McGregor was tasked with bringing two feuding brothers to life in Fargo, including a bloody death scene as both of them. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he describes shooting the iconic scene, first as one brother, Ray, then as the other, Emmit: “I was thinking about how Ray left his girlfriend Nicki in a hurry, didn’t give her a kiss or a proper goodbye and now they’ll never get a chance to have the life they dreamed. That felt quite desperate to me so I wanted to find a pathetic position for Ray to die in.”
McGregor then describes using Donald Trump as inspiration to get into the headspace to play Emmit, the money-hungry brother. “That’s how I did all the Ray-Emmit scenes . . . They didn’t get in the way of each other because these brothers have completely different spirits,” he stated. Fargo, the series, as well as its lead actor McGregor also won a 2018 Critics’ Choice Award and an Emmy nomination, and it’s not hard to see why.
