Golden Globes: Breakout moments from the 2026 ceremony

The Golden Globes has officially launched Hollywood’s awards season with a night filled with quips, digs and moments of triumph.

One Battle After Another, Hamnet, Adolescence and The Studio earned the evening’s top prizes – bringing the Oscars race into focus.

Host Nikki Glaser brought her signature wit, film-maker Judd Apatow took aim at the odd way categories are defined and the stars of the sports drama Heated Rivalry brought back their sexual chemistry for all of us to watch.

Here are some of the breakout moments from the show:

From asking George Clooney to fix her Nespresso and acknowledging she was punching low by joking about Leonardo DiCaprio’s love life, the comedian opened the show with a bang, making quips about the US Department of Justice and even CBS, the US broadcaster airing the show.

After welcoming everyone to the ceremony – which she cheekily dubbed the most important thing that’s happening in the world right currently- she started the bidding for embattled movie studio Warner Bros and made fun of Los Angeles, where, she said, no TV or film has been made in years. Then the jokes shifted into the political arena.

She quipped about the A-list stars in the room being on “a list that has been heavily redacted” and made up an award for best editing, which she gave to the justice department for its handling of the Epstein files and to The Stationfor being “America’s newest place to see BS news”.

Later, Glaser spoofed Nicole Kidman’s trendingAMC cinemas PSA and sang a parody of K-Pop Demon Hunter’s hit song Golden before former Sag-Aftra leaderFran Drescher cut her off because her “voice was so annoying”.

Taking the first prize of the night for her role as a revolutionary in One Battle After Another, the recording artist-actress closed her acceptance speech with a message of support to young girls seeing her onstage during the ceremony.

“To my brown sisters and little brown girls watching tonight, our softness is not a liability. Our depth is not too much. Our life does not need permission to shine,” she said, insisting that “we belong in every room we walk into” and that their voices matter.

As a first-time category – even Snoop Dogg who presented the award – approved of podcasts’ inclusion in the award show this year.

When comedian and actress Amy Poehler of Good Hang with Amy Poehler won the prize, she fangirled over the rapper and excitedly delivered her thank yous. Poehler, who has previously hosted the Golden Globes, also delivered a few zingers about her fellow nominees, joking that national news broadcaster Public Radioshould “try harder” rather than being “a bunch of celebs phoning it in”.

Poehler left the stage with her hands around Snoop, then threw out a peace sign during her exit.

Speaking to reporters backstage, Poehler statedit was “very cool” to be the first winner in the inaugural category and that while it was fitting that Snoop Dogg presented her with the award, she’d love to k currentlyif he actually listened to Good Hang. Her dream listener, however? Meryl Streep.

Taking the top male acting prize for his role in Marty Supreme, Chalamet acknowledged that he was in a category stacked with numerous “greats” (Clooney, DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, Jesse Plemons and Lee Byung-Hun).

He also made sure to thank Kevin O’Leary, who co-starred with him in the A24 ping-pong film.

“If you would have told me when I was 19 years old, I’d be thanking Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank,” he said, noting that since Leary, who was in the room was laughing, he “got away with that” quip.

“Thank you, Kevin, I would have been stunned, but I’ve been very grateful.”

The juggernaut animated film got its flowers with two major wins: best song for Golden and best animated film. The creators thanked audiences for embracing women who were strong, bold, really silly, weird, hungry for food and “sometimes a little thirsty”.

Speaking backstage, they told reporters that they were unsure how they would recapture that lightning in a bottle for the sequel they have planned with Netflix.

“We say a lot of times we made a movie that was just full of everything we love. It was very personal about subject matter and themes. I don’t k currentlyyou can control much else as a filmmaker. So we’ll do that again,” writer Chris Appelhans said.

Breakout stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams of the erotic ice hockey drama Heated Rivalry brought their intense chemistry to the Globes with onstage banter while presenting the award for supporting female actor in a TV series.

While Storrie appeared to be nervous about their appearance, Williams tried to calm his nerves by telling him to take a deep breath and imagine everyone in the ballroom everyone in the audience in “… you know”.

“Yeah, I don’t really k currentlyif that works, because, you know…” Storrie said. “You think everyone in the audience has seen Heated Rivalry?”

The ballroom erupted in cheers and Williams confirmed that indeed their trainers have, and their daughters and moms, too.

Director Judd Apatow, who statedhe has been quietly boycotting the ceremony for 10 years, didn’t mince words when he took the stage to present an award.

The outspoken film-maker took aim at the unique way the Golden Globes lump comedies and musicals together as a genre, especially when the films nominated in those categories are neither. He was particularly salty about his 2015 comedy Trainwreck being beaten in the category by The Martian, a sci-film film starring Matt Damon.

“But that’s water under the bridge. A lot has happened since then. That was 10 years ago. Since then we’ve had Covid. I believe we’re a dictatorship now,” he said. “I’m still pretty focussed on this The Martian thing, I’ve got to be honest with you.”

Actresses Melissa McCarthy and Kathryn Hahn fully committed to a bit about male representation in film while presenting a male acting award during the ceremony.

They spoke jokingly about men the way many speak about women or minorities in the industry.

“For the first time ever, men will have their acting awarded as well,” Hahn says, before McCarthy says “it is about time” and celebrating that men will finally have a “seat at the table”.

The masterful bit was reminiscent of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s joint hosting gigs.

The bit carried through as they presented a second category – for female actor in a limited series to Dying for Sex star Michelle Williams, who was not in attendance. When they accepted the award on her behalf – as is customary for presenters- Hahn curtsied and stated”I’m Michelle Williams”.