The 77th Annual Golden Globes were distributed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills on Jan. 5. Contributions from members of the LGBT community in the entertainment industry—as well as LGBT-themed films and TV programs—were widely noted.
Among those films competing for Golden Globes were gay director Pedro Almovodar's Pain and Glory and Portrait of a Lady on Fire, from lesbian director Céline Sciamma, which both competed for best foreign-language film. Alas, the South Korean thriller Parasite won in that category instead.
Rocketman, a biopic about the life of Elton John, was up for best comedy or musical motion picture, but lost to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. John and songwriter Bernie Taupin introduced clips from Rocketman. Their original song from the movie, "I'm Gonna Love Me Again," later won for Best Original Song. John noted that it was the first award he'd won an award with Taubin, who described their longtime collaboration as a "52-year-old marriage."
Taran Egerton won for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance playing John in Rocketman. "This role has changed my life," Egarton said.
Other key motion picture nominations included Antonio Banderas, who was nominated for Pain and Glory but lost to Joaquin Phoenix's performance in Joker; Beanie Feldstein, who was nominated for Booksmart, and lost to Awkwafina for The Farewell; and Margot Robbie, who played a sexually fluid woman in Bombshell, but lost to Laura Dern for her turn as a divorce attorney in Marriage Story.
Renee Zellweger won for her turn as Judy Garland in Judy; she mentioned how many people had shared their memories and thoughts about Garland since the film was released.
As for small-screen nominations and wins, Netflix's The Politician, starring out actor Ben Platt, received nominations both for best comedy or musical television series and Platt's lead performance. Platt lost to Ramy Youssef for the Hulu series Ramy, while the series itself lost to Amazon Prime's Fleabag. Andrew Scott, who is also openly gay, was named for a supporting role in a limited series for Fleabag; however, Stellan Skarsgard won for the HBO drama Chernobyl instead.
BBC America's Killing Eve received a nomination for best dramatic series, as did co-star Jodie Marie Comer, who plays the assassin Villanelle. Comer lost to Olivia Colman's performance in The Crown, while the show itself lost to the HBO program Succession. Out actor Billy Porter was nominated for his leading role on the FX drama Pose, but lost to Brian Cox ( Succession ).
Out comedian and television host Ellen DeGeneres was honored with a Carol Burnett Award for Excellence in Television; she was introduced by out Saturday Night Live cast member Kate McKinnon, who spoke only half-jokingly about feeling "alien" for being gay when she was younger.
"If I hadn't seen her on TV … I would have gone on thinking that I was an alien, and that I didn't have a right to be here," said McKinnon.
"You never knows where life takes you," DeGeneres said, shortly before jokingly thanking her "husband Mark" and "children Rupert and Fiona" as the camera fixed on her wife, Portia De Rossi. DeGeneres then thanked Burnett, and—again, jokingly—suggested that she read Burnett on TV as being gay too.
Comedian Ricky Gervais hosted the event for the fifth and ( as he reiterated throughout the night ) final time.
