Paul Giamatti Wins Best Actor in a Comedy Golden Globe for ‘The Holdovers’

Paul Giamatti has won the Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Golden Globe for “The Holdovers.”

The acclaimed Alexander Payne film featured some of Giamatti’s best-ever work, which is saying something, given that his previous team-up with Payne on “Sideways” is considered one of the best performances of the century to date. But his Paul Hunham, an irascible Western Civilization teacher whose life is in thrall to antiquity, captured the hearts of viewers and Globe voters. The film, set at a New England boarding school in 1970, actually felt like one of the New Hollywood classics Payne was obviously aspiring for it to be.

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This is Giamatti’s third Golden Globe win after picking up trophies for “John Adams” and “Barney’s Version.” In addition to his three Golden Globe wins, he also has been nominated three other times, for “Sideways,” “Cinderella Man,” and “Too Big to Fail.”

Remarkably, Giamatti has only been nominated for one Oscar in his career, a Best Supporting Actor nod for “Cinderella Man” in 2006. Even before his Golden Globes win for “The Holdovers,” IndieWire’s Awards Editor, Film and TV, Marcus Jones listed Giamatti as a frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar alongside Cillian Murphy of “Oppenheimer,” Leonardo DiCaprio of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Colman Domingo of “Rustin,” and Bradley Cooper of “Maestro.”

“The Holdovers” appeared at number nine on IndieWire’s critics survey of the best movies of 2023.

The 81st Golden Globe Awards were held Sunday, January 8 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. Dick Clark Productions, which owns and produces the Golden Globes, is a Penske Media company. PMC is also IndieWire’s parent company.

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