Golden Globes turns into a bad night for British actors and film-makers

The 2025 Golden Globes turned into a bad night for British actors and film-makers, who walked away with only a handful of gongs across film and TV categories.

Baby Reindeer creator and Scottish comedian Richard Gadd took home best limited TV or anthology series or TV movie, while his Yorkshire co-star Jessica Gunning secured her first win for the best female supporting actress in the television category for the dark comedy series at the event in California on Sunday night.

However, Gadd missed out on winning best performance by a male actor in a limited or anthology series or TV film, after Irish actor Colin Farrell took home his third Golden Globe, for playing the Batman villain Penguin in an HBO series of the same name.

Last year saw British film-maker Sir Christopher Nolan triumph with Oppenheimer, and win best director for the first time, for his drama about the work of the father of the atomic bomb, which took home a total of five Golden Globes.

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This time at the 82nd Golden Globes on Sunday, British screenwriter Peter Straughan picked up the best screenplay gong for Conclave, about scheming cardinals holding a vote for the next pope, starring British actor Ralph Fiennes.

Fiennes was beaten in the best actor – drama category by American actor Adrien Brody for The Brutalist, which focused on a Hungarian architect attempting to build a life in the US after the Second World War.

Similarly, British actresses Kate Winslet, Cynthia Erivo and Tilda Swinton, English actors Daniel Craig, Hugh Grant, Gary Oldman, Eddie Redmayne and Scottish stars Ewan McGregor and Jack Lowden did not succeed in getting past their nominations.

However, despite the bad showing in acting categories, UK production companies Brookstreet and Intake Films were involved in The Brutalist, which took home three gongs, including for best director.

Winslet was twice nominated for best performance by a female actress in a limited series or TV movie for playing a dictator in The Regime, and in the lead actress motion picture drama category for her turn as model turned war correspondent Elizabeth Miller in Lee.

She was beaten by Jodie Foster for crime series True Detective: Night Country, an anthology series that focused on men going missing in Alaska in its latest season, in the TV category, while Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres triumphed in the film section for I’m Still Here, set at the time of military dictatorship in Brazil.

Swinton had been nominated in the same film best actress category for The Room Next Door, which deals with themes of assisted dying and friendship.

Wicked star Erivo was beaten by Demi Moore for body horror The Substance, which tells the story of a famous woman who takes a mysterious drug to become young again after being fired from her TV show, while A Gentleman in Moscow star McGregor was beaten in the same category as Gadd by Farrell.

For the best actor in a TV drama category, Redmayne’s star turn as an assassin in Sky Atlantic series The Day Of The Jackal, and Oldman’s continued role as a rude, unpleasant spy in the fourth season of MI5 thriller Slow Horses lost out to the critically praised Shogun star Hiroyuki Sanada.

Japanese actor Sanada has been praised for bringing to life inscrutable warlord Yoshii Toranaga in the FX series, which won four awards on the night for the show based on the novel by James Clavell about warring factions in 17th century Japan.

Fellow Japanese stars Anna Sawai, who took home the gong for best TV actress – drama, and Tadanobu Asano, who won best supporting TV actor – drama, also triumphed along with the drama itself, which came away with the Golden Globe for best TV series – drama.

However, Erivo did see her film collect the gong for cinematic and box office achievement after Wicked, based on the musical of the same name, brought audiences to cinemas for the prequel to The Wizard Of Oz.

It explores the friendship between Glinda (Ariana Grande) and green-skinned Elphaba (Erivo) before they become estranged, in the classic stories by L Frank Baum.

Elsewhere, BBC Christmas movie Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, which saw the return of evil penguin Feathers McGraw take his revenge on the inventor Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit, lost in the animated film category to cat movie Flow, a Latvian film that has no dialogue.