Good news for French cinema two months before the Oscars: Jacques Audiard's "Emilia Perez" dominated the Golden Globe Awards, winning 4 awards, including Best Comedy.
The evening was also marked by the triumph of The Brutalist, a portrait of an architect and Holocaust survivor trying to rebuild his life in the U.S., which won three statuettes.
The film Emilia Perez, which won an award at Cannes and was released by Netflix, had 10 nominations and lived up to its status as a favorite.
In addition to the top prize, this musical odyssey about the gender reassignment of a Mexican drug trafficker took the prize for best international film, best supporting actress for Zoe Saldana and best song for French artists Camille and Clément Ducol, who composed the soundtrack.
Jacques Audiard, whose filmography focuses on marginal characters, dedicated this win "to all those who feel worried about their future today," AFP reported.
The French director urged them to "hold their heads high, keep fighting and hope for better days."
"You can put us in jail, you can beat us, but you can never take away our soul, our resistance, our identity," said Carla Sofia Gascón, the transgender actress who plays the film's heroine.
Despite winning awards at Cannes, the Spanish actress has not enjoyed the same success in Hollywood. She lost out to Demi Moore, who won Best Actress in a Comedy for her highly committed performance in another French film, Substance.
The 62-year-old actress plays a former Hollywood star addicted to a serum presented as a "fountain of youth" in this terrifying tale by Coralie Farjois, which spares no gory scenes. A substance that creates a rejuvenated doppelganger of herself with destructive impulses.
Demi Moore admitted that she herself was afraid of becoming an aging actress, and thanked the French screenwriter for "this magical, daring, bold, unconventional, completely crazy script" that finally allowed her to receive recognition at a major ceremony.
"I'm in a state of shock," the actress insisted.
"I've been doing this a long time, over 45 years, and this is the first time I've won anything as an actress," Moore added.
The evening's other big winner was The Brutalist, which won a very prestigious three-peat: best dramatic film, best director for Brady Corbet - who beat out Jacques Audiard and Coralie Farjo in that category - and best actor for Adrien Brody.
With such an impressive result, this 3-hour film, hailed as a masterpiece and already elevated by critics to the rank of great classics like The Godfather, cements its status as a heavy contender for the Oscars.
In the heart of Hollywood, where studios often influence creativity, Brady Corbett took the opportunity to make a plea for filmmakers' independence.
"Nobody asked for a three-and-a-half-hour film about a mid-century designer on 70-millimeter film, but it gets made," he insisted, arguing that the final cut should always belong to the director.
Its main rival, the papal thriller Conclave, took the best screenplay prize for its immersion in the power struggles at the Vatican during the election of a new pope.
At the Golden Globe Awards, comedies and dramas were separated.
They have reformed in recent years after a huge scandal was revealed in 2021 about the corruption and racism of their members. Notably, their jury has expanded significantly with over 200 new members from around the world.
This has also affected the other film and television awards. Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres was a particular surprise, beating out major contenders such as Angelina Jolie (Maria) and Nicole Kidman (Babygirl).
She walked away with the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama for her role as a determined widow during Rio's military dictatorship in the 1970s film I'm Still Here.
Among actors, Sebastian Stan won the best actor in a comedy award for his role in A Different Man, in which he plays an aspiring actor looking for a fresh start after undergoing plastic surgery.
He was also nominated in the drama categories for his portrayal of Donald Trump in The Intern. | BGNES
