Entertainment

Mahershala Ali and Sandra Oh lead diverse Golden Globes winners list

Oh praised the ‘faces of change’ in the audience.
Oh praised the ‘faces of change’ in the audience. Oh praised the ‘faces of change’ in the audience.

Mahershala Ali, Sandra Oh and Regina King led a diverse list of winners at the Golden Globes.

Canadian-Korean actress Oh made history on the night, becoming the first Asian host of the Globes and the first woman of Asian descent to win multiple awards.

Oh took home the prize for best actress in a drama TV series for the BBC’s Killing Eve, adding to the Globe she won in 2006 for her supporting role in medical drama Grey’s Anatomy.

During her opening monologue, Oh noted the “faces of change” in the audience at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, adding that the “moment is real”.

And during her award acceptance speech, she turned to her parents in the audience before saying, “Mom, Dad, I love you” in Korean and giving a slight bow.

King, who is an African American, took home the best supporting actress in a motion picture gong for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk.

The film is an adaption of James Baldwin’s 1974 novel and tells the story of a young African American woman who desperately tries to clear the name of her wrongly accused lover before their child is born.

During her acceptance speech, King, 47, issued a demand for gender parity in Hollywood and promised to produce projects with a 50/50 gender split.

Ali, whose win at the 89th Academy Awards made him the first Muslim actor to win an acting Oscar, enjoyed another successful night.

He won a prize for his role in Green Book, in which he plays jazz musician Dr Don Shirley, who takes a concert tour through the segregated US Deep South in the 1960s.

The film’s executive producer, Octavia Spencer, said her involvement in the project was triggered by a heightened awareness in Hollywood of a need for more diversity.

Alabama-born Spencer said producers realised a film about a jazz pianist battling segregation required the perspective of a woman of colour from the Deep South.

Speaking backstage, she said: “All of the conversations we’re having about diversity, they’re having effects in rooms all across the industry.”

Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron took home the best director gong for his epic Roma, seeing off competition from Bradley Cooper and A Star Is Born.

Rami Malek, who was born in California to Egyptian parents, took home the best actor in a drama film award for his role in Bohemian Rhapsody, ahead of Cooper, Willem Dafoe, Lucas Hedges and John David Washington.

The Golden Globes nominations were this year noted for their diversity, with Crazy Rich Asians, Black Panther and BlacKkKlansman among those to be recognised.