While the Academy Awards are widely believed to be the absolute pinnacle of awards season, theGolden Globeshave always acted as the precursor, often predicting what is to come. With the ceremony celebrating its 80th year in existence in January 2024, having started in 1944, Christopher Nolan’sOppenheimerwould go on to dominate proceedings, seizing an incredibly impressive five awards, an achievement only 12 films before it had managed to either equal or better.
Let’s take a look at the films that have won the most wins at the Golden Globes.
13All the King’s Men (1949)
1949’sAll the King’s Menheld the record for most Golden Globes won for more than a decade. This political noir, directed by Robert Rossen and starring the great Broderick Crawford, chronicles the rise and subsequent fall of a corrupt politician in Southern America. In what was only the seventh Golden Globes ever, the 1950 awards would recognize movies likeThe HeiressandBattleground;however, it wasAll the King’s Menthat would steal the plaudits, accumulating five awards, including Best Picture.
Five Golden Globe Wins
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12Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Lawrence of Arabia
This historical epic tells the intriguing story of T.E. Lawrence, a British army officer, writer, and explorer, who spent several years in the Middle East, and was a key orchestrator and intermediary between the Arabs and the Brits in their ongoing conflict with the Turks. Peter O’Toole features as Lawrence, delivering the performance of a lifetime, while Omar Sharif is his equally brilliant counterpart, Sherif Ali. Despite being a product of 1962 cinematography,Lawrence of Arabia, with its sweeping long shots, and vast expanses, is a visual delight and ahead of its years. Unsurprisingly, the film clinched five Golden Globes, including Best Director for Lean and Best Supporting Actor for Omar Sherif.
Five Golden Globes
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Related:Lawrence of Arabia: How the Masterpiece Has Stood the Test of Time
11Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Doctor Zhivago
Directed by the legend that was David Lean,Doctor Zhivagodetails the story of Russian doctor Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), who, during the Russian Revolution and World War I, falls in love with a political activist’s wife, despite being a married man himself. A film that saw a shift from solely focusing on historical events to more emphasis on the experience of the common person, Lean’s gift to the world of film rightly stole the hearts of critics and the cinema-going public alike, and as such, went on to assert its dominance by winning five Golden Globes.
10The Graduate (1967)
The Graduate
Dustin Hoffman is in majestic form as the slightly sheepish, awkward, and nerdy Benjamin Braddock, a college graduate, who, after concluding his studies, finds himself back at home with his parents, wondering what to do with his life. While this existential dread takes ahold, Benjamin embarks on an affair with a bored housewife, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). Dustin Hoffman would go onto win the Golden Globe New Star of the Year, a category that was scrapped in 1983, with Mike Nichols winning Best Director and Anne Bancroft claiming Best Actress. Unfortunately, the massive successThe Graduatesaw at the Golden Globes didn’t repeat itself at the Academy Awards, only winning Best Director out of seven nominations.
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9Love Story (1970)
Love Story
As unoriginal in name as it was in the plot, 1970’sLove Storyis essentially just a flagrant Shakespearean rip-off, although, aren’t all love stories? The film follows the story of forbidden love, as a girl and a boy from very disparate backgrounds and statuses fall madly in love, until tragedy rears its ugly, non-compliant head. WhileLove Storyisn’t a particularly bad film, question marks have to be raised over those who thought it was fit to not only be nominated, but receive five Golden Globes, with the likes ofPattonand Jack Nicholson’sFive Easy Piecesmore deserving of the acclaim.
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8The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 gangster extravaganza is a Mafioso-infused masterpiece, and widely considered thebest crime and gangster film of all time. A movie that concerns the affairs of the Corleone crime family in New York during the 1940s and ’50s led to the creation of another all-time great trilogy. Starring the revered Al Pacino and the venerated Marlon Brando in the lead roles,The Godfatherexplores themes of loyalty, betrayal, love, and family. This ultra-violent, palpably tense picture has the dedicated talent of method acting at its very core, and the supreme blend of beautifully refined filmmaking and career-defining acting lent itself to critical success and award recognition, banking five of the Golden Globes' most prestigious awards, with Coppola and Brando taking home the main prizes.
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7A Star Is Born (1976)
A Star is Bornwas by no means the most successful edition of this lauded series of remakes in terms of critical response, yet, it still claimed five awards at the 1977 Golden Globes. Frank Pierson’s tale follows volatile singer, John Norman Howard, whose self-destructive propensities see his relationship with rising talent, Esther, become inherently toxic. A film that has been remolded and tweaked over the years, but its lessons and sentiments have remained the same.
6Ordinary People (1980)
Ordinary People
In what was Robert Redford’s directorial debut, theButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidscreen icon oversaw the tremendous screen adaptation of Judith Guest’s novel,Ordinary People.A motion picture ahead of its time and often overlooked,Ordinary Peoplecollided head-on with the matter of life and death, and more pertinently the topic of suicide, depression, and mental health struggles, as the protagonist, Conrad (Timothy Hutton), is tormented by the tragic death of his brother. This poignant tale of a dysfunctional, grief-stricken family caught the attention of many, and it certainly endeared itself to those at the Golden Globes who elected to serve the films efforts with five awards, including a Best Director gong for a particular red-headed debutant.
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5Gandhi (1982)
Mahatma Gandhi was a polarizing figure, but a man driven by the sheer will and determination to do right by the people of his native India. The Indian lawyer-turned-political activist rose to fame for his defiant, nonviolent stance against the British colonial rule of India and his tireless work to attain his country’s independence. Ben Kingsley stars in the titular role in a performance that would win him the Best Actor statuette at the Academy Awards. This historical biopic encapsulated the meaning of an epic and was a rampant triumph among critics and the wider cinema-going community.Ghandigarnered five awards at the Golden Globes.
4Oppenheimer (2023)
Oppenheimer
Few have quite grasped the art of the cinematic spectacle quite like Christopher Nolan. TheDunkirkauteur’s ability to fully immerse his audience in these all-absorbing feasts for the senses is quite like no other filmmaker currently operating in the industry. With his most recent contribution to the world of cinema,Oppenheimer, Nolan’s attentive eye left no stone unturned while examining the life and times of the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. This biopic, palpable in nature, teamed up with Greta Gerwig’s superb social commentary,Barbie, for the Barbenheimer weekend,smashing box office recordsfor fun.
At the 2024 Golden Globes, in spite of strong competition,Oppenheimerclaimed five awards in total, achieving a feat few have reached since the award ceremony’s conception. Cillian Murphy and Christopher Nolan were the prominent victors, both scooping the awards in their respective categories for Best Actor and Director respectively.
Related:Saving Private Ryan to Oppenheimer: A 25 Year Difference
