2025 Golden Globes winner snubs and surprises: Demi Moore’s big win, ‘Anora’ shut out, and more

Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony greatly boosted winners such as Demi Moore, Fernanda Torres, and The Brutalist — and dealt difficult losses to nominees like Mikey Madison, Angelina Jolie, and Timothee Chalamet.

Ahead, the biggest 2025 Golden Globe Awards winners snubs and surprises.

SURPRISE: Demi Moore wins Best Musical/Comedy Actress for The Substance

Mubi strategically chose to submit The Substance as a musical/comedy when the body-horror satire seemed like a long shot for serious drama consideration. But Coralie Fargeat’s film has proven quite sticky — not just because of the onscreen viscera — and, no matter the category, perhaps Demi Moore was always destined to win. On Sunday, Moore pulled off the upset over heavily favored Mikey Madison for Anora and gave the kind of acceptance speech that could launch her to an eventual Oscar win. “I’ve been doing this a long time, over 45 years, and this is the first time I’ve ever won anything as an actor,” Moore said. “I’m just so humbled and so grateful. Thirty years ago, a producer told me I was a ‘popcorn actress.’ And at that time, I made that mean that this wasn’t something I was allowed to have. I could do movies that were successful, and that made a lot of money but that I couldn’t be acknowledged. And I bought in, and I believed that. That corroded me over time to the point where I thought a few years ago maybe this was it. Maybe I was complete, and I had done what I was supposed to do. And as I was at a low point, I had this magically bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk, and the universe told me that you’re not done.”

SNUB: Angelina Jolie loses Best Drama Actress

Uh-oh. Before Friday, not many considered Jolie vulnerable in the Best Actress Oscars race. But the Maria star was snubbed by the BAFTA longlists and then lost Best Drama Actress at the Golden Globes on Sunday. The results raise a big red flag on her potential status as a future Best Actress nominee. If Jolie couldn’t win against Fernanda Torres here — and she hasn’t exactly bowled over the precursor circuit either, with no notable victories — her Oscars status is in serious doubt.

SURPRISE: Fernanda Torres wins Best Drama Actress

On the flip side, Jolie’s loss was to Torres’s benefit. The actress, who stands on the outside of the Oscar race right now in Best Actress, pulled off the upset win on Sunday night (and gave a great speech to boot), putting her in a stronger position to land one of the five Best Actress Oscar nominations in a hotly contested race. If only Torres had made the BAFTA longlist, then her campaign might really have some juice.

SNUB: Anora gets shut out

Yikes. For months, Sean Baker’s madcap thriller has held firm as the Oscars frontrunner for Best Picture, while Mikey Madison was seen as the choice for Best Actress. But after Anora was blanked at the Golden Globes on Sunday — with Madison losing to Moore and the film losing to Emilia Perez — those Oscar odds seem likely to take a hit. Anora has proven to be the intelligentsia’s favorite this season with 12 Best Picture precursor wins, including the Palme d’Or. But Sunday proved it might be a long haul to the top of the mountain despite the acclaim.

SURPRISE: Emilia Pérez wins Best Musical/Comedy

This qualifies as a surprise because Emilia Pérez was second in the odds behind Anora going into the ceremony. But the Netflix musical also set a Globes record for musical/comedy nominations with 10 and has been routinely underestimated online for months. All told, Emilia Perez won four awards on Sunday night: Best Musical/Comedy, Best Non-English Film, Best Song, and Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldana.

SURPRISE: Colin Farrell wins TV Limited Series/Movie Actor

After Jessica Gunning won Best TV Supporting Actress, it felt fated that the Golden Globes would rubberstamp the Emmy Awards wins for Baby Reindeer, including Richard Gadd in Best TV Limited Series/Movie Actor. But Farrell, a two-time Golden Globes winner, turned the hat trick thanks to his performance on The Penguin. That Farrell gave a memorable speech full of charm and grace makes it likely his fourth Golden Globe win could probably happen sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, don’t cry for Baby Reindeer: the show won Best Limited Series, providing Gadd the chance to give a moving speech about mental health.

SNUB: The Wild Robot loses Best Animated Feature

The Wild Robot is one of the year’s most beloved animated features, but it couldn’t overcome Flow in the Best Animated Feature category. That left the dialogue-free animated movie with a historic win: Flow director Gints Zilbalodis noted during his acceptance speech that it was the first-ever Latvian movie to win at the Golden Globes. Later this month, Flow is widely expected to be competitive for two Oscar nominations — Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature.

SURPRISE: Tadanobu Asano wins Best TV Supporting Actor

Heading into the night, The Bear star Ebon-Moss Bachrach was favored to win Best TV Supporting Actor, but Asano pulled off the upset victory and gave one of the night’s best — and most humble — speeches. In hindsight, his victory seems obvious: Shogun swept the Golden Globes drama categories, winning Best Drama Series, Best TV Drama Actor for Hiroyuki Sanada, and Best TV Drama Actress for Anna Sawai. A bonus, at least for the FX executives: Asano’s win was the first-ever for the network in the category.

SNUB: Wicked only won the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement Award

An unanswerable question: Was Wicked hurt by the fact that Globe voters could reward the film in the Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category? Last year, Barbie won this award and lost Best Musical/Comedy to Poor Things. This year, Wicked won its box office award but lost the main prize — while failing to secure wins for Ariana Grande or Cynthia Erivo. The musical blockbuster feels like it is on the cusp of becoming the latest populist blockbuster — following films like Top Gun: Maverick, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Barbie — that underperforms on Oscar nominations morning.

SURPRISE: Ali Wong wins Best TV Stand-up Comedy Performance

Most probably expected Nikki Glaser to win this award — after all, she hosted the Golden Globes this year. But while Glaser had a slight edge over Jamie Foxx, it was Wong who pulled off one of the night’s biggest upsets, at least according to the Gold Derby odds. Wong’s acclaimed special was in fourth place before the ceremony, but perhaps that placement was a red herring hiding in plain sight. Just last year, Wong won two Golden Globe Awards — one as an actor and one as a producer — for the Netflix limited series Beef.

SURPRISE: Challengers wins Best Score

When Elton John and Brandi Carlile announced Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross had won Best Score for Challengers, John let out an exclamation worthy of Zendaya‘s Challengers character, Tashi Duncan. John probably wasn’t alone, as the Challengers score has been routinely hailed as one of the best of last year. But despite the intense passion for the Reznor-Ross joint, the score was only third in the odds behind the expected winner, The Brutalist, and runner-up choice, Conclave. Challengers remains in the mix for an Oscar nomination and Sunday’s win will only help buttress its hopes.