Austin Butler and Michelle Yeoh win big at 2023 Golden Globe

At the prestigious Golden Globe 2023 ceremony, Austin Butler bagged the award for ‘best actor in a motion picture drama’ for his performance as Elvis Presley in ‘Elvis’. Cate Blanchett was honoured as ‘best actress in a motion picture drama’. The song ‘Naatu Naatu’ from the Indian magnum opus ‘RRR’, directed by S S Rajamouli, was named the ‘best original song in the motion picture’. While ‘The Fabelmans’ won ‘best picture, drama’, ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ bagged ‘best picture, musical or comedy’ at the Golden Globes Awards.

‘House of the Dragon’ won ‘best TV drama’ and ‘Abbott Elementary’ received the prize for ‘best TV comedy’. In a marathon telecast that stretched over three hours, ‘The White Lotus’, was named ‘best limited or anthology series’ for its Sicily-set second season.

Their victories came as the tarnished awards show attempted to relaunch itself as a star-studded celebration of movies and television after being forced off the air in 2022 in the wake of a series of controversies, as reported by ‘Variety’.

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’, a comic look at the dissolution of a friendship, won three major prizes, including awards for its screenplay and the lead performance of Colin Farrell.

‘The Fabelmans’, a warm-hearted look at Steven Spielberg’s childhood, also won a directing prize for the filmmaking icon.

‘Naatu Naatu’, the foot-tapping hit from ‘RRR’, danced its way to the ‘best original song-motion picture’ win at the Golden Globes, but the Telugu blockbuster lost out to ‘Argentina, 1985’ in the ‘best picture: non-English category’.

The song, which celebrates the spirit of dance and friendship, beat out competition from the likes of Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Lady Gaga to register a win at the Globes.

If the evening had a theme, it was one of reinvention and renewal.

Several of the winners described themselves as having been given golden opportunities after being cut out of or overlooked by a business that failed to appreciate its talents. That included ‘best actress in a motion picture musical or comedy’ winner Michelle Yeoh, an action star turned awards season darling with her turn in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’, who talked about the ageism and racism she faced.

It was a theme that was amplified by Farrell, who thanked his ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ writer and director Martin McDonagh for helping to reset his career path when he cast him in the 2008 black comedy ‘In Bruges’ and echoed by ‘best supporting actor’ winner Ke Huy Quan, a former child actor who had stopped acting before he was cast as Yeoh’s husband in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’.

Several speeches reached emotional crescendos, such as ‘best supporting actress’ winner Angela Bassett, honoured for her turn as a grieving monarch in ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’. She used her time on stage to pay tribute to Chadwick Boseman, the actor who rocketed to fame as the King of Wakanda but whose career was cut short when he died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 43.

Other top acting awards went to Austin Butler, honoured as ‘best actor in a motion picture drama’ for his shape-shifting performance as Elvis Presley in ‘Elvis’ and to Cate Blanchett, named ‘best actress in a motion picture drama’ for her work as an abusive conductor in ‘Tar’.

Zendaya was named ‘best actress in a TV drama’ for her work as a troubled high schooler in ‘Euphoria’, while Kevin Costner won the prize for best actor in a TV drama for his work as a rancher in ‘Yellowstone’.

Lead actors in ‘TV limited or anthology series’ awards went to Amanda Seyfried in ‘The Dropout’ and Evan Peters in ‘Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’.

Eddie Murphy and Ryan Murphy were the recipients of the Cecil B DeMille Award, recognisng career achievement in movies.