Winners and Sinners: What to expect from the Golden Globes

Sinners, Marty Supreme and One Battle After Another are among the films set to compete at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night.

Frankenstein, Sentimental Value, Hamnet and Wicked: For Good are some of the other films going for gold at the ceremony in Los Angeles.

A new category, best podcast, has been introduced this year, while Adolescence, The Pitt and The Studio are nominated in the TV categories.

The Golden Globes are a major milestone of the film awards season, and take place with less than a fortnight to go until the announcement of the Oscar nominations (22 January).

The Globes hand out more trophies than many other ceremonies, as they split their film categories by drama and musical or comedy.

Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jessie Buckley and Michael B Jordan all have acting nominations this year.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of this year’s event.

9 – One Battle After Another

8 – Sentimental Value

7 – Sinners

6 – Hamnet

5 – Frankenstein

5 – Wicked: For Good

4 – It Was Just an Accident

The Golden Globe Awards will air on the CBS network in the US and also stream on Paramount+.

Sadly, there is no way to legally watch the ceremony in the UK, but there will be coverage on BBC News throughout the night.

The ceremony starts at 01:00 GMT (Monday morning) and usually lasts between three and four hours.

It is broadcast live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

One Battle After Another, about a former revolutionary whose daughter is kidnapped, leads the pack this year after becoming one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 2025.

Its competition includes Sentimental Value, a Norwegian drama about two sisters who reconnect with their estranged father, a film director planning his comeback, after the death of their mother.

Sinners, a vampire horror-drama set in 1930s Mississippi, was one of the first Oscar contenders out of the gate, launching to box office success shortly after last year’s Academy Awards.

Elsewhere, the screen adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet explores the family tragedy that many believe led William Shakespeare to write one of his most famous plays.

A new adaptation of Frankenstein provides a more emotional take on Mary Shelley’s novel about a mad scientist and the creature he creates, while blockbuster Wicked: For Good concludes the origin story of Elphaba, the wicked witch of the west.

Kidnap drama It Was Just An Accident, one of the best films of this year’s awards season and the winner of the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, follows a man who seeks revenge on the former officer who previously tortured him in prison.

And Marty Supreme follows a table tennis player in 1950s New York as he tries to stay financially afloat while making his name as an athlete.

Other nominated films include conspiracy theory drama Bugonia, Korean black comedy No Other Choice, Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent and animated musical smash Kpop Demon Hunters.

Box office titans Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) and Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another) will go head to head in a particularly heated race for best musical or comedy actor. Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon) is a possible dark horse.

In best drama actor, Michael B Jordan (Sinners) has a strong chance, although the more international slant the Globes have taken in recent years suggest we shouldn’t count out Cannes winner Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent).

While the best musical or comedy actress field is led by seasoned pros such as Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) and Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), there’s strong competition from relative newcomer Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another).

Best drama actress is much easier to predict – with Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) considered well ahead of even her strongest competitors such as Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value).

Supporting actor and actress contenders include Amy Madigan (Weapons), Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein), Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn and Teyana Taylor (all One Battle After Another).

US comic Nikki Glaser is returning to hosting duties after a barnstorming performance at least year’s ceremony.

She delivered an opening monologue that rivalled the Globe greats – Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler – roasting the A-list celebrities in the room.

Hosting the Golden Globes, Glaser later said, was “without a doubt the most fun I have ever had in my career”.

But, Glaser told the BBC’s Regan Morris earlier this week, she often feels intimidated by all the “star power” in the room, adding: “I blur my eyes when I’m on stage, I’ll be doing that so hard on the night.”

It’s been nearly a year since most people watched the Netflix hit about a teenage boy accused of stabbing his classmate, and the series has already triumphed at the Emmys, Critics’ Choice and National Television Awards.

But because many other awards events go more or less by the calendar year, Adolescence is only just being recognised at events such as the Golden Globes.

Expect to see even more of Owen Cooper, Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty at other events to come – such as the Actor Awards (formerly SAG) in March, and the Bafta TV Awards, which don’t take place until May.

The two special prizes recognising lifetime achievement are usually handed out on the night, but this year they were awarded at last week at the inaugural Globes Eve ceremony.

Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker received the Carol Burnett award, for outstanding contribution to television, while Dame Helen Mirren received the film equivalent, the Cecil B DeMille award.

During her acceptance speech, Dame Helen said the prize had been “described to me as a career recognition”.

“But,” she continued, “I prefer to think of it as a life lived, a life survived, a life enjoyed, a life sweated, and a life carried on, hopefully.”

In her speech, Parker thanked the friends, colleagues and family who had supported her in a decades-long showbiz career, telling them: “You have been an integral part of an inconceivable life, it is a bounty, thank you.”

An actor or film that wins at the Golden Globes won’t automatically go on to win at the Oscars, but it can help solidify chances of a nomination.

As one of the earliest ceremonies in awards season, the Globes can provide a significant boost of momentum, as a victory or well-received acceptance speech will encourage more Academy voters to check out a particular film.

Stars such as Sebastian Stan, Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres all went on to secure Oscar nominations after their Globe wins last January (although Stan’s was for a different film).

And movies such as Flow and I’m Still Here got their awards campaigns off to a strong start thanks to early victories at the Golden Globes, and both went on to win at the Oscars in the animated and international categories respectively.

Affectionately referred to as the “drunk uncle” of awards season, the Globes are a far less formal affair than the Oscars.

You can expect the celebrities to be in a relaxed mood and ready to have fun with their speeches – as long as they can survive being roasted by Nikki Glaser first.