Golden Globes: Paul Giamatti Dedicates His Best Actor Win for ‘The Holdovers’ to Teachers

Paul Giamatti took home the award for best actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy, at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards on Sunday.

Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell presented the actor with the award for his role as Paul Hunham in The Holdovers. This was Giamatti’s sixth Golden Globe nomination and third win.

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“Surely this is the first time this award has been given to an actor who has played a man who smells like fish,” Giamatti quipped while accepting the honor.

“Thank you, Golden Globes,” he continued. “Thank you to [director] Alexander Payne, Alexander the great, [who] for some mysterious reason continues to have enormous faith in me and why? I don’t know why.”

Giamatti also showed his appreciation for other creatives who worked on the film, his girlfriend and his son, who recently graduated from college.

The Holdovers, directed by Payne, follows a cranky history teacher at a remote prep school who is forced to remain on campus over the holidays with a troubled student who has no place to go.

“It’s a movie about a teacher,” Giamatti concluded. “I play a teacher, my whole family, they’re teachers, all of them going back generations. Teachers are good people, gotta respect them. They do a good thing. It’s a tough job, so this is for teachers as well.”

Giamatti beat out Jeffrey Wright for American Fiction, Joaquin Phoenix for Beau Is Afraid, Matt Damon for Air, Nicolas Cage for Dream Scenario and Timothée Chalamet for Wonka.

The 2024 Golden Globes are hosted by Jo Koy, airing on CBS after years at NBC. (Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge that also owns The Hollywood Reporter.)

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