Yorgos Lanthimos film was nominated alongside Air, American Fiction, Barbie, The Holdovers, and May December
Poor Things scored a surprise victor for Best Picture — Musical or Comedy at the 2024 Golden Globes, beating out heavy favorite Barbie. Director Yorgos Lanthimos accepted the award on behalf of the cast, who he thanked after making sure to shout out how excited he was to talk to Bruce Springsteen, who was also in attendance at Sunday night’s ceremony.
Poor Things centers around Emma Stone’s unapologetically unhinged character Bella Baxter being revived in more ways than one. The film, adapted from Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel, tells a tale of daring freedom, experiments in emotion, and extensive sexual exploration. Lanthimos’ cocktail of sci-fi elements from Lovecraftian horror, Gothic fiction, and Frankenstein helped the film secure the film its Best Picture prize.
Poor Things was nominated alongside Ben Affleck’s Air, Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, and Todd Haynes’ May December. At the core of the film’s creation rested an intrinsic need for courage, which functions as a thematic thread throughout all of the nominated films in one way or another.
“We had to be confident, and the character had to have no shame, and Emma had to have no shame about her body, nudity, engaging in those scenes,” Lanthimos shared during the Venice Film Festival press conference for Poor Things. “And she understood that right away. The great thing about myself and Emma is that now we’ve completed four films together, so there’s a shorthand. We can communicate without having to explain everything or talk too much about things.”
Stone also won Best Actress — Musical or Comedy for her performance in the film, while both Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo were nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Lanthimos himself was granted a nomination for Best Director and Tony McNamara, who wrote the film, for Best Screenplay. Jerskin Fendrix made his feature composing debut with Poor Things, leading to a nomination for Best Original Score —Motion Picture.