Australians Elizabeth Debicki, Sarah Snook winners at 'game-changing' Golden Globes

The Australian actors were among the winners as the Golden Globes returned following controversy, but homegrown star Margot Robbie missed out on a gong.

Australian actors Elizabeth Debicki (left) and Sarah Snook were both Golden Globes winners. Source: Getty

Australian Elizabeth Debicki has won her first Golden Globe Award for her role as Diana, Princess of Wales, in The Crown.

She was named best supporting actress in a TV series.

The Australian actor, 33, dedicated the award to her godmother who "left us too quickly" and thanked her "pretend children" Ed McVey and Luther Ford who play Prince William and Prince Harry on the show respectively.

Adelaide-born actor Sarah Snook was also a winner.

She took home her second Golden Globe for best female actor in a TV series drama, for her role as Shiv Roy in Succession.

Sarah Snook, who plays Shiv Roy (pictured) in Succession, won best female actor for a television drama. Source: Supplied / HBO

"This show changed my life," Snook, 36, said in her acceptance speech.

"Everybody in it was amazing. The cast, the crew were fantastic. This was a team effort. It was always a team and that’s what made this show an amazing thing to be a part of."

Margot Robbie misses out on Globes for Barbie role

Turning nostalgia for the beloved doll into a sharp satire about misogyny and female empowerment, Barbie was the leading film heading into the night with nine nominations but ended the gala with just two prizes.

It won the award for best song, for a tune written by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas. And as the year's highest-grossing movie, it claimed a newly created trophy for box office achievement.

Margot Robbie's Barbie picked up an award for box office achievement, but the Australian actor herself lost out in the best actress in a musical or comedy category. Source: AAP, AP / Chris Pizzello

"We would like to dedicate this to every single person on the planet who dressed up and went to the greatest place on Earth, the movie theatres," said Australian Margot Robbie, the film's star and producer.

Earlier, Robbie lost out in the best actress in a musical or comedy category, with Emma Stone named the winner for her role as Bella Baxter in Poor Things.

Big wins for Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer picked up multiple key wins at the Golden Globes, on a night billed as a celebration of Christopher Nolan's epic and its fellow summer smash hit Barbie.

Dubbed Barbenheimer after they were released on the same weekend and grossed a combined US$2.4 billion ($3.58 billion), the two movies boasted 17 nominations between them at the Globes, which kicked off Hollywood's awards season.

Oppenheimer — which tells the story of the inventor of the atomic bomb — took best director for Nolan, as well as acting wins for Cillian Murphy (lead male actor in a drama) and Robert Downey Jr (supporting male actor).

Downey Jr, who plays a powerful politician and bitter adversary opposite Murphy's brilliant scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, praised the movie as a "masterpiece."

"A sweeping story about the ethical dilemma of nuclear weapons grosses one billion dollars - does that track? No. Unless and because [the film's studio] Universal went all in on Christopher Nolan to direct," he said.

From left to right: Florence Pugh, Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Robert Downey Jr., Charles Roven, Matt Damon and Ludwig Göransson accept the award for Best Motion Picture - Drama for Oppenheimer. Source: Getty / Christopher Polk

Nolan won best director, fending off Greta Gerwig, who directed Barbie, the leading film heading into the night with nine nominations.

Among the other winners were Emma Stone as best comedy actress for her no-holds-barred turn in surreal, sexy bildungsroman Poor Things, and Da'Vine Joy Randolph for her supporting role in prep school comedy The Holdovers.

Indigenous actor Lily Gladstone won best actress in a drama for her role in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, delivering some of her emotional speech in the native language of the Blackfeet Nation.

"This is an historic win, it doesn't belong to just me," she said.

"This is for every little res kid."

Stars turn out in force after Globes shake-up

After an annus horribilis in which the industry was crippled by strikes, A-listers turned out in force to celebrate Sunday.

Stars who were unable to promote their movies during the months-long Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) walkout made up for lost time on the Oscars campaign trail.

Attendees also included big names from the world of music such as Bruce Springsteen and Dua Lipa — both nominated for best song — and Taylor Swift representing her recent concert movie.

"The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL — on the Golden Globes, fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift," joked host Jo Koy.

Oprah Winfrey was among the guests at the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards. Source: Getty / Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

The wins for high-profile films like Barbie and Oppenheimer were a welcome boon to the new owners of the Globes, which have suffered years of controversy and declining audiences.

Long billed as "Hollywood's biggest party," the Globes were boycotted by the industry after allegations of corruption and racism emerged in 2021, and the show was taken off air a year later.

The controversial group of Los Angeles-based foreign journalists that created the Globes 80 years ago has since been disbanded, and a wider net of overseas critics was brought in to choose this year's winners.

"Golden Globes journalists, thanks for changing your game," Downey Jr said in his acceptance speech.

David Greenbaum, Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift at the 81st Golden Globe Awards. Source: Getty / Christopher Polk

All the 2024 Golden Globe winners

FILM BEST DRAMA: Oppenheimer

BEST COMEDY OR MUSICAL: Poor Things

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

BEST ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL: Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers

BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL: Emma Stone, Poor Things

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Robert Downey Jr, Oppenheimer

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

BEST DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

BEST ANIMATED FILM: The Boy and the Heron

BEST NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: Anatomy of a Fall (France)

BEST SCREENPLAY: Anatomy of a Fall

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Oppenheimer

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: What Was I Made For?, Barbie

CINEMATIC AND BOX OFFICE ACHIEVEMENT: Barbie

TELEVISION BEST DRAMA SERIES: Succession

BEST COMEDY/MUSICAL SERIES: The Bear

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA: Kieran Culkin, Succession

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA: Sarah Snook, Succession

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Matthew Macfadyen, Succession

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown

BEST ACTOR, COMEDY/MUSICAL: Jeremy Allen White, The Bear

BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY/MUSICAL: Ayo Edebiri, The Bear

BEST LIMITED SERIES, ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION: Beef

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES, ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION: Steven Yeun, Beef

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES, ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION: Ali Wong, Beef

BEST PERFORMANCE IN STAND-UP COMEDY ON TELEVISION: Ricky Gervais: Armageddon