Winners and losers of the 2023 golden globes

_The embattled Golden Globe Awards made a return on a Tuesday night for a drama-free ceremony that boosted a few Oscar contenders, knocked down others, and sent viewers to bed feeling badly

for that piano player. Here are the biggest winners and losers from the 2023 Golden Globes and what it all means for the Oscar race:_ WINNER: 'THE FABELMANS' AND STEVEN SPIELBERG

Never be too quick to count out Steven Spielberg. The director's semi-autobiographical drama _The Fabelmans_ had been considered a Best Picture Oscar frontrunner for months, and the

Globes confirmed the film is still in it to win it by awarding it the top Best Picture - Drama prize and Spielberg the Best Director award. Granted, there's no real overlap between the

Globes' voting body and the Academy, and films that win big at the Globes don't always go on to win the Oscar. Just last year, _The Power of the Dog_ won this particular award but

lost the Oscar to CODA. SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE SIGN UP FOR THE

WEEK'S FREE NEWSLETTERS From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a

weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. What _The Fabelmans_' win did, though, was put the film back in the spotlight at a time when it

was in serious danger of falling out of it permanently, so it has now "bounced back in a significant way," noted _Variety_'s Clayton Davis. It didn't hurt that when Ke

Huy Quan won his award, the first person he thanked was Spielberg, whom he worked with on _Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom_. WINNER: THE HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION The

Hollywood Foreign Press Association was coming off a scandal that saw its 2022 ceremony pulled from TV after backlash over its lack of Black members and alleged ethical lapses. So the HFPA

was fighting for its life this year, desperate to put on a decent show and prove the Globes should even still exist. The ceremony ended up going rather smoothly. "That was about as good

a show as the Golden Globes could have hoped for," tweeted _The New York Times_' Kyle Buchanan, observing the "entertainment value was there, and that's really the thing

the Globes have always sold." The HFPA also took surprisingly little heat on the air. Sure, host Jerrod Carmichael got in some barbs at the organization, joking they only invited him

"because I'm Black." But his monologue concluded by defending the Globes as a ceremony, putting aside "whatever the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's past may

be" — implying this all is, in fact, in the past. Carmichael even at one point brought up Tom Cruise returning his Golden Globes, which was in protest of the HFPA, but the gag was at

Cruise's expense. _The Hollywood Reporter_'s Daniel Fienberg cited this joke as an example of how "there are degrees to which the HFPA and the Globes were prepared to look

bad, but … there was also a limit." A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com Not all the nominees attended, but enough did

for it to appear like business as usual. For the most part, the winners were also predictable enough to avoid any major controversies. Ratings could still sink to another all-time low, but

hey, anything's an improvement on last year's zero viewers. LOSER: 'TOP GUN: MAVERICK' … AND SCIENTOLOGY That aforementioned joke about Cruise returning his Golden Globes

was a brutal quip that his awards should be exchanged for "the safe return of Shelly Miscavige" — leading the hundreds of people watching at home to Google the name. That's

the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, and she hasn't been seen in years. Former Scientology member Leah Remini was thrilled about the mention, tweeting, "WHERE IS

SHELLY????" Speaking of which, Cruise's film _Top Gun: Maverick_ had a rough night, walking away completely empty-handed after already underperforming in the nominations. It lost

the top Best Picture - Drama prize to _The Fabelmans_, but it also didn't even win Best Original Song for Lady Gaga's "Hold My Hand," which seemed like its best shot. If

_Maverick_ was to make a real play for Best Picture at the Oscars, it should have had any kind of presence Tuesday night. LOSER: 'AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER' Similarly, _Avatar: The

Way of Water_ was knocked down in the Best Picture Oscar race after getting shut out at the Globes, failing to win Best Picture - Drama or Best Director. It was notable that the Globes

rejected the film given the HFPA gave the original Avatar the top prize, which the Academy didn't do. So if _The Way of Water_ can't impress this group, it probably doesn't

stand a chance of taking Best Picture at the Oscars. But at least Cameron will have many, many more chances. LOSER: 'ELVIS' Yes, Austin Butler did win Best Actor for _Elvis_, and

he's still looking like a strong contender to repeat at the Oscars. But we can probably start ruling out the possibility of the film itself racking up Oscars beyond that. After all,

_Elvis_ seemed like it would appeal to the Golden Globes even more than the Oscars, as the musical biopic _Bohemian Rhapsody_ won Best Picture - Drama at the Globes. Yet Butler's win

was all _Elvis_ had to its name. WINNERS: KE HUY QUAN, MICHELLE YEOH, AND ANGELA BASSETT _Everything Everywhere All at Once_ star Ke Huy Quan was already strong for Best Supporting Actor,

but then he delivered an emotional Globes speech that may very well have ended that Oscar race in less than three minutes. Quan reminded viewers of his inspiring comeback story of returning

to acting after struggling to find roles for years, and he "carried on the momentum he already had" with his speech, _The Wrap_'s Steve Pond noted. Michelle Yeoh also won Best

Actress - Musical or Comedy for _Everything Everywhere_, but her tear-jerker of a speech boosted her chances of repeating at the Oscars. It may also help that Yeoh's primary

competitor, Cate Blanchett, wasn't at the show and, therefore, didn't have a chance to make a similar impression on voters. Meanwhile, Angela Bassett earned a surprise boost by

winning Best Supporting Actress for _Black Panther: Wakanda Forever_, even though before now, it didn't seem like a sure thing that she would even be nominated for an Oscar. The winner

of this supporting actress Golden Globe, though, virtually always goes on to at least be nominated at the Academy Awards. LOSER: JAMIE LEE CURTIS On the flip side, many pundits thought Jamie

Lee Curtis would win the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe, in part because the HFPA has historically loved her and she was one of the few Hollywood stars to defend the group during its

diversity scandal. But she lost to Angela Bassett, which doesn't bode well for the Oscars, as her history with the Globes suggested she had a better chance here than anywhere. Curtis

could at least still earn the first Oscar nomination of her career. WINNER: 'THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN' It was a dominant night for _The Banshees of Inisherin_, which was the most

nominated film of the evening and won more awards than any other with three, including the top prize of Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, which many experts thought would go to

_Everything Everywhere All at Once_. So where does that leave _Everything Everywhere_? Is it out of the running? Certainly not, and keep in mind that the HFPA has been more receptive to

Martin McDonagh than the Oscars. The Globes awarded his film _Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri_ a Best Picture prize in 2018, only for it to lose the Oscar to _The Shape of Water_.

WINNER: HBO AND ABC The first _Game of Thrones_ spinoff, _House of the Dragon_, earned a warm welcome from the Golden Globes, taking the top prize of Best Television Series - Drama — despite

the fact that _Game of Thrones_ itself never won this award. If _Dragon_ can win here, it may be well-positioned to repeat at the Emmys, where _Thrones_ won multiple times. This was just

one of several wins for HBO, which also took home Globes for _Euphoria_ and _The White Lotus_. But it was also a great night for ABC thanks to _Abbott Elementary_, which went all the way

after _Ted Lasso_ blocked it from doing so at the 2022 Emmys. The sitcom not only won the top comedy series prize, but also took an unexpected acting award for Tyler James Williams. This was

the first win in the top comedy category for one of the big four broadcast networks since 2014, and the first for ABC since 2012. LOSERS: 'SEVERANCE' AND 'THE CROWN' The

Globes love to crown a buzzy freshman show, so it was surprising to see Apple's _Severance_ completely shut out after also winning zero televised awards at the Emmys. "Not even

the creator of [_House of the Dragon_] thinks it's better than _Severance_," joked _Lainey Gossip_ editor Sarah Marrs, as one of the first things producer Miguel Sapochnik said

upon taking the stage was, "_Severance_ was awesome. I love that show." _The Crown_ was also shut out despite seven previous wins for the show, perhaps suggesting the HFPA agrees

with the consensus that season five was a disappointment. WINNER: 'YELLOWSTONE' After years of _Yellowstone_ being mostly ignored by these ceremonies, star Kevin Costner picked up

his first major award win for the series with a shock Best Actor victory — though he was absent from the ceremony due to "unprecedented weather and flooding" in Santa Barbara.

WINNER: EDDIE MURPHY Eddie Murphy earned the Cecil B. DeMille tribute award and brought the house down with a punchline about one of the rules for achieving success being to "keep Will

Smith's wife's name out of your f--king mouth," making him officially the one celebrity allowed to still be making Slap jokes in the year 2023. LOSER: THAT PIANO PLAYER

Pundits couldn't help but feel bad for Chloe Flower, who was introduced as the piano player for the evening. She took massive heat online every time a major star was played off during

their speech — even though, according to Carmichael, she wasn't even the one doing so. "I'm only playing when you see me on camera," Flower tweeted during the show.

Despite this, she kept getting called out during the broadcast. "I hope Flower has a big old drink or two at the after parties," _Vanity Fair'_s Richard Lawson wrote, noting

all the negative, angry reactions to her playing started to "seem like actual rudeness." Michelle Yeoh at one point even threatened to beat her up over the wrap-it-up music — which

may have actually been the one hope of saving this year's ratings. Explore More golden globes