Teyana Taylor set the tone at the 2026 Golden Globes. While accepting an award for her supporting performance as Perfidia Beverly Hills in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, Taylor immediately thought of her two young daughters. “My babies are upstairs watching!” she exclaimed. “Y’all better be off those damn phones and watching me right now!”
That moment foreshadowed many of the major themes of the night, not least the dominance of Anderson’s revolutionary caper. One Battle After Another took home the night’s penultimate prize for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), while Paul Thomas Anderson won his first-ever Golden Globes for Best Director and Best Screenplay. His lauded film, called a “ferocious masterpiece” by The Independent’s critic, now looks a clear frontrunner for the Oscars in March.
That’s not to say the film had things all its own way. Lead star Leonardo DiCaprio remained seated as Marty Supreme’s Timothée Chalamet accepted the prize for Best Actor (Musical or Comedy). The 30-year-old will be hoping the victory is a good omen for his chances at the Academy Awards in March, where he could become the second youngest Best Actor winner in history after 29-year-old Adrien Brody’s 2002 win for The Pianist.
If Chalamet is to triumph at the Oscars, following his high-profile awards season campaign, he’ll face stiff competition from Wagner Moura, who pulled off something of an upset by winning Best Actor in a Drama for The Secret Agent. He became the first Brazilian to win the award, while The Secret Agent also won Best Film (Non-English language).
It was also a night to remember for Chloé Zhao and the cast and crew of Hamnet, which scored the final prize for Best Motion Picture (Drama) while lead star Jessie Buckley took home Best Actress (Drama). The Irish actor, who recently recalled feeling “brutalised” in 2008 when she launched to fame on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s BBC reality series I’d Do Anything, delivered an emotional speech that paid tribute to the film’s crew, particularly a grip named Tomek who kept the cast supplied with homemade soup. At the Oscars, she’ll have to compete against Rose Byrne, who was tonight rewarded for her startling lead performance in Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.
As for the television awards, the Golden Globes couldn’t help but feel like something of a re-run of last September’s Emmys. Adolescence was once again dominant, with Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty both winning in the supporting categories, Stephen Graham winning Best Actor and the show itself winning Best Limited Series. Writer Jack Thorne delivered an impassioned speech, reminding the audience: “Some people think our show is about why we should be afraid of young people. It’s not. It’s about the filth and the debris we’ve left in their way.” This is the second year in a row a British Netflix series has won big at the Globes, after Baby Reindeer triumphed in 2025.
As at the Emmys, there were more wins for Noah Wyle and The Pitt, multiple victories for Seth Rogen and The Studio and another trophy for Hacks star Jean Smart. The only new show released since the Emmys to win a major award was Pluribus, which scored Rhea Seehorn a deserved Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series (Drama). She thanked the show’s creator Vince Gilligan for writing her “the role of a lifetime”.
Elsewhere, there were wins for the runaway Netflix hit KPop Demon Hunters in the Best Animated Film category, and recognition for Sinners in the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category. In response to that win, writer-director Ryan Coogler said modestly: “I just want to thank for the audience for showing up.” A similar idea was expressed by Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture winner Stellan Skarsgård, who urged viewers to go out and watch Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value in a theatre. “Cinema should be seen in cinemas,” he said.
This might have been the big theme of the night. As well as Taylor joking that her children would have to be pulled away from their screens to watch their mother win an award, category presenters Ayo Edebiri and Hailee Steinfeld comedically suggested that television is something you watch on your laptops, while films are the things you watch on television. And before the first-ever Golden Globe for podcasting went to Amy Poehler, the ceremony’s host, Nikki Glaser, said cinemas are all closing down and podcasts are just “what we have now.”
Glaser also addressed the controversial proposed Netflix-Warner Bros merger, worth $72 billion, quipping: “Let’s get down to business: We’ll start the bidding for Warner Bros at $5. Do I hear $5.” A defeated laugh could be heard from the crowd, with fear for Hollywood’s future rippling through these comments. In a few years, how many of the nominated films will be viewed at home while people are scrolling through their phones?
