The China Mail - 'Emilia Perez,' Demi Moore among winners at Golden Globes

"Emilia Perez," French director Jacques Audiard's genre-defying film about a Mexican drug lord who transitions to life as a woman, held the most nominations going into the show with 10 -- the most ever for a comedy or musical.

It picked up three early wins: for Zoe Saldana as best supporting actress -- nudging out her co-star Selena Gomez; best original song; and best non-English language film.

"I don't have sisters, and that might be the reason why I made this film about sisterhood," said Audiard, via a translator.

"If there were more sisters in the world, maybe it would be a better place."

Big wins at the Globes, a sometimes eccentric bellwether for the Academy Awards, can help movies earn new audiences and build vital momentum toward the Oscars in early March.

But "Emilia Perez" faced competition from a plethora of rivals, in a year with no clear favorites and no lack of strong contenders.

Other early Globes were distributed widely to multiple films.

Demi Moore won best actress in a comedy for body horror "The Substance," which takes a satirical and often grotesque look at the pressures placed on women by society as they age.

Accepting her prize, Moore reflected on how decades ago, she had been told by a Hollywood producer that she was "a popcorn actress."

"I bought in, and I believed that, and that corroded me over time," said the now 62-year-old "Ghost" star.

But "I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called 'The Substance,' and the universe told me that 'you're not done.'"

Sebastian Stan won the best comedy film actor award for "A Different Man," in which he portrays a man who undergoes experimental treatment for a disfiguring facial condition, but comes to rue the consequences.

"Our ignorance and discomfort around disability and disfigurement has to end now," said Stan.

"We have to normalize it and continue to expose ourselves to it."

Kieran Culkin won best supporting actor for Jesse Eisenberg's awkward road trip comedy "A Real Pain," about mismatched American cousins retracing their European roots.

- 'The Brutalist' v 'Conclave' -

The Golden Globes offer separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals, widening the field of movie stars in contention -- and thus highlighting more performances for Academy voters, who will soon cast ballots for the Oscar nominations.

Others in the running for best comedy or musical are smash Broadway adaptation "Wicked," Cannes darling "Anora," and tennis love-triangle film "Challengers," which won best score.

In the Globes' drama section, "The Brutalist," starring Oscar winner Adrien Brody as a Hungarian Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust and emigrates to the United States, had seven nominations. It won best director for Brady Corbet.

Its rival "Conclave," a fictionalized account of high-stakes Vatican horse-trading, depicting how the death of a pope sends the church's various factions into battle for its future, took best screenplay.

Others vying for the best drama prize include Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown," sci-fi epic "Dune: Part Two," 1960s reform school tale "Nickel Boys" and 1972 Munich Olympics thriller "September 5."

Latvian movie "Flow," a surreal dialogue-free odyssey about a group of animals forced to work together as they drift in a boat through a flooded world, won best animated film.

- Ozempic -

The Globes are in year two of a revamp, following a Los Angeles Times expose in 2021 that showed that the awards' voting body -- the Hollywood Foreign Press Association -- had no Black members.

Now under new ownership, and with the HFPA disbanded, organizers are hoping to capitalize on a ratings bump registered last January, and perhaps even burnish the gala's status as a predictor of Oscars success.

Hollywood's best and brightest, from Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman to Timothee Chalamet and Daniel Craig, hit the red carpet under sunny skies, before comedian Nikki Glaser kicked off the ceremony with an irreverent monologue.

"Welcome to the 82nd Golden Globes, Ozempic's biggest night," she quipped, referring to the weight-loss drug that has proven wildly popular in famously looks-conscious Hollywood.

Hollywood A-listers were joined by a few big names from the worlds of music and theater.

Jolie, portraying opera diva Maria Callas in "Maria," goes head-to-head with Kidman for erotic thriller "Babygirl" in the lead actress drama section.

Chalamet, for his turn as Dylan in "A Complete Unknown," is up against Brody, and Craig for literary adaptation "Queer."

The show also honors the best in television, with big wins for historical epic "Shogun".

M.Chau--ThChM