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‘Oppenheimer’ Triumphs at Golden Globes as Hollywood Parties Again 

Irish actor Cillian Murphy (L) and US actor Robert Downey Jr. pose in the press room with the awards for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama and Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture during the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)
Irish actor Cillian Murphy (L) and US actor Robert Downey Jr. pose in the press room with the awards for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama and Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture during the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)
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‘Oppenheimer’ Triumphs at Golden Globes as Hollywood Parties Again 

Irish actor Cillian Murphy (L) and US actor Robert Downey Jr. pose in the press room with the awards for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama and Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture during the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)
Irish actor Cillian Murphy (L) and US actor Robert Downey Jr. pose in the press room with the awards for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama and Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture during the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)

Historical drama "Oppenheimer" dominated the Golden Globe awards on Sunday, and gothic comedy "Poor Things" upset summer blockbuster "Barbie," as Hollywood threw its biggest party since labor disputes shut down much of show business last year.

"Oppenheimer," about the making of the atomic bomb, landed five honors, including the coveted best movie drama prize and acting awards for stars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr.

Christopher Nolan won his first Golden Globe award for best director for the film, which was distributed by Comcast's Universal Pictures.

"I am so pleased that Chris has been acknowledged because I just think that what he does is unlike anything anyone else is doing,Oppenheimer" producer Emma Thomas said on stage.

She said Nolan, who is her husband, "brings the best out in people by being the very best himself."

"Poor Things," starring Emma Stone as a deceased woman revived by scientists, won best movie musical or comedy.

Awards watchers had widely expected that honor to go to "Barbie," the female empowerment story inspired by the iconic doll that topped 2023 box office charts and went into the night with a leading nine nominations. Stone also was named best actress in a movie comedy or musical.

"Barbie" went home with just two awards, for Billie Eilish's song "What Was I Made For" and for a new category called cinematic and box office achievement, created for widely seen films.

The winners were chosen by roughly 300 entertainment journalists who voted on the honors as a part of a new organization created after an ethics and diversity scandal among Globe voters.

Lily Gladstone, best actress winner for her role in "Killers of the Flower Moon" began her acceptance speech by introducing herself in the Native American language she learned in school.

"This is an historic win," Gladstone continued in English. "It doesn't belong to just me. I am holding it right now with all my beautiful sisters."

She thanked director Martin Scorsese as well as Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, her co-stars in the story about the murders of members of the Osage Nation in the 1920s.

"You are all changing things," Gladstone said.

Other acting winners included Paul Giamatti and Da'Vine Joy Randolph for "The Holdovers," a comedy set at a boys boarding school.

In television categories, "Succession" was named best drama and led all series with four wins, including a lead acting honor for Kieran Culkin. "Suck it, Pedro!" Culkin joked to competitor Pedro Pascal from "The Last of Us."

"The Bear," about the struggles of owning a restaurant, won best TV comedy and acting trophies for stars Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri.

Road-rage story "Beef" landed the Globe for limited series.

The glitzy ceremony at the Beverly Hilton kicked off Hollywood's annual awards season, which culminates with the Oscars on March 10, and brought top stars together for the first time after six months of strikes by actors and writers in 2023.

The event gave performers the chance to mingle and to publicize their movies and TV shows after months when red carpets and other promotion was prohibited.

Jo Koy, a comedian hosting his first major awards show, opened the ceremony, broadcast live on CBS, with jabs at some of the A-list stars and their projects.

"Oppenheimer," a historical drama running three hours long, "needed another hour," Koy joked. "I felt like it needed some more backstory."

Known as a boozy celebration more relaxed than the Academy Awards, the Globes nearly disappeared. A 2021 Los Angeles Times report revealed ethical lapses and a lack of diversity among the roughly 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that previously voted on the Globes. The 2022 ceremony was scrapped while the organization made reforms.

Sunday's turnout showed Hollywood had re-embraced the Globes as a key stop on the awards campaign trail. In the crowd were several Hollywood legends from Meryl Streep to Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, all Globe nominees vying for Oscars this year.

Pop superstar Taylor Swift joined the crowd as a nominee for her recent concert film. Oprah Winfrey presented the night's top prize to "Oppenheimer."

Several winners commented that the talent in the room made the crowd "intimidating."

"I can't believe I'm in this room with all these people I have loved so much, admired so much, for so long,The Bear" star White said as he accepted his award. "It's unreal."

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Entertainment

Demand for Japanese Content Booms Post 'Shogun'

The critical and commercial success of TV's 'Shogun' has helped spark a new wave of Japanese content being developed for global consumption. Michael Tran / AFP/File
The critical and commercial success of TV's 'Shogun' has helped spark a new wave of Japanese content being developed for global consumption. Michael Tran / AFP/File
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Demand for Japanese Content Booms Post 'Shogun'

The critical and commercial success of TV's 'Shogun' has helped spark a new wave of Japanese content being developed for global consumption. Michael Tran / AFP/File
The critical and commercial success of TV's 'Shogun' has helped spark a new wave of Japanese content being developed for global consumption. Michael Tran / AFP/File

But "Shogun", based on the 1975 novel by Australian-British writer James Clavell, broke the mould when the period drama series -- mostly in Japanese and hailed for its authenticity -- won 18 Emmy awards in September.
Other recent Japanese works have also become worldwide hits.
Franco-US-Japanese show "Drops of God", based on a manga of the same name, won best drama series at the International Emmy Awards in November.
Netflix's 2023 adaptation of the manga superhit "One Piece" -- starring Mexican actor Inaki Godoy as the lead -- was hailed by viewers and critics alike and will return for a second season.
More adaptations of major manga and anime hits are in the works, including the superhero adventures of "My Hero Academia" and the ninja escapades of "Naruto".
"Demand from Western markets is clearly increasing," said Kaori Ikeda, managing director at TIFFCOM, the content trade fair affiliated with the Tokyo International Film Festival.
But Japanese companies lack "know-how" when it comes to things like negotiating rights, she told AFP.
So TIFFCOM has organized Tokyo Story Market, a space to facilitate networking and meetings between international producers and Japanese publishers.
'Whitewashing'
Foreign studios are also getting better at avoiding some of the pitfalls of the past, such as the 2017 film version of the manga "Ghost in the Shell" starring Scarlett Johansson.
Critics accused the movie, whose main actors except Takeshi Kitano were all non-Japanese, of "whitewashing".
Similarly, the 2017 supernatural thriller "Death Note" was panned for veering too far from the original manga.
"Manga authors are highly respected and fan communities are very vigilant," said Klaus Zimmermann, producer of "Drops of God".
His adaptation takes some liberties, such as starring a French actor as one of the main characters, but Zimmermann insists it was developed in collaboration with the authors of the original manga.
"It was about finding the spirit of the manga so as not to distort it," he told AFP.
Yuki Takamatsu, a rights negotiator at the manga's publishing house Kodansha, said the process of adapting "Drops of God" was "amazing".
"Everyone was open to tackling those challenges together... At every step, everyone was understanding about how we should do it," he said.
Past failures were in part down to publishers struggling to communicate their wishes to foreign producers, who in turn lacked a proper understanding of manga and anime, Takamatsu said.
"Back just 15, 20 years ago, most of the enquiries we received from those big studios were like, hey, I know 'Dragon Ball', do you have 'Dragon Ball' IP?" Takamatsu told AFP.
"But nowadays, especially since Covid, the producers in their 30s, 40s, they watch anime together with their kids on Netflix or Amazon" and then reach out, he said.
Japanese TV goes global
Japanese broadcasters have also become "better and better (at) presenting and marketing their content" abroad, said Makito Sugiyama, executive director at the Broadcast Program Export Association of Japan (BEAJ).
This includes their participation at global events such as MIPCOM in Cannes, an annual trade show for the television industry, Sugiyama said.
Japanese broadcasters have long had success selling show concepts abroad, like the one for "America's Funniest Home Videos", known in Britain as "You've Been Framed".
Now, some Japanese dramas are also finding a wider echo abroad.
Nippon TV's original drama "Mother" became a hit thanks in part to its Turkish remake, and has been broadcast in around 50 countries.
Western viewers have overcome their initial reluctance to watch series with Asian actors, believes Masaru Akiyama, chief executive of the BEAJ.
"They have got used to it, they don't care anymore. They want to see, they want to feel the stories."
"Shogun" was "a game changer for Japan," he added, and Ikeda agrees.
"That a samurai story with such attention to historical detail can become mainstream entertainment is proof of the potential" of Japanese content, she said.