The Impact of the Golden Globes on the Oscars

The Significance of the Golden Globes

As always, the Golden Globes are adding fuel to artists' Academy Awards campaigns, but, in particular, the event had a massive impact on what's shaping up to be 2024's most contested Oscars race. Held since 1944, the Golden Globe Awards bestow the titular accolades on actors, filmmakers, and other industry creatives who've achieved excellence in their craft be it on the big or small screen. Despite honoring the year's best in film and TV, the Globes aren't necessarily viewed as being on the same playing field as the Academy Awards. Even so, the Golden Globes are a crucial part of the film industry's awards season.

Charles Melton and Julianne Moore sitting on a bed in May December

While the Oscars pick the best of the best with a heavy lean toward dramatic fare the Globes bestow separate honors on the year's most-acclaimed comedies and dramas. In some instances, however, the genres are combined. The Best Supporting Actor Motion Picture category, for example, saw Ryan Gosling's Ken from Barbie going toe-to-toe with Robert De Niro's unsettling performance in Killers of the Flower Moon. While they're not a for-sure predictor of who'll win an Oscar, the Golden Globes play a huge Oscars-related role in terms of bolstering nominee's odds, especially when it comes to genre-inclusive categories like Best Supporting Actor.

Charles Melton as Joe lying on the roof in May December

Robert Downey Jr.’s Impact on the Oscars

In addition to Gosling and De Niro, the 2024 Golden Globes' Best Supporting Actor Motion Picture category was rounded out by performances from Poor Things co-stars Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo; Oppenheimer's Robert Downey Jr.; and breakout May December actor Charles Melton. Given both its box-office success and heavy, biopic-focused material, it's no surprise Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is dominating the film industry's awards season. While RDJ caused waves for his performance over the summer, it's Melton's remarkable turn in Todd Hayne's unsettling drama May December that's generating the most buzz when it comes to the Oscars Best Supporting Actor competition.

Best known for his long-time role on The CW's Riverdale, Melton's just beginning his feature-film journey. Robert Downey Jr., on the other hand, has quite the legacy, from his blockbuster turn as Iron Man to his Oscar-nominated performance in Chaplin. In fact, Melton is competing against a stacked list of all-time Hollywood greats. There's no denying that Downey Jr.'s Golden Globe Award win will put some wind behind his sails as awards season moves forward. If anything, the Globes help actors and filmmakers gain traction, or otherwise bolster their momentum, in the lead-up to the Academy Awards.

Charles Melton’s Journey to the Oscars

While Robert Downey Jr.'s win at the Golden Globes will bolster the actor's Oscars campaign, it doesn't mean the Oppenheimer performer has clinched his Academy Awards category. In fact, level of fame aside, it doesn't even seem appropriate to call Charles Melton an Oscars underdog yet. Even with certain major accolades, like the SAG Awards and the Spirit Awards, still pending, Melton has won some of film's most prestigious awards, including the Gotham Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award. Although the televised Globes have a more mainstream reach, the voting body is somewhat narrow: 300 journalists from 76 countries.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), however, boasts a much larger 9,500 voting members, which means, theoretically, more points of view are taken into consideration when deciding Academy Award winners. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards might be a more apt Oscars comparison, especially since the organization has a 6,500-strong voting body. Surprisingly, Melton is notably absent from the 2024 BAFTA Awards' longlist. In some ways, missing out on the prestigious, well-televised BAFTA Awards might impact Charles Melton's Oscar campaign even more than his Golden Globes loss to Robert Downey Jr.