Awards season is one of the most exciting times of the year not just for movie fans, but (perhaps especially) for the entire film industry — Hollywood in particular. However, there’s no shortage of controversial awards and awards ceremonies, and the Golden Globes are perhaps at the top of that list in terms of notoriety. Though they were formerly handed out by the infamously corrupt Hollywood Foreign Press, lots of changes have been implemented, chief among which is that the awards are now handled by the Golden Globe Foundation. Even still, the Globes’ history is riddled with controversies, including winners that are… lackluster, to say the least.
Throughout the awards’ history, there have been lots of terrible films that, for one reason or another, the Globes have deemed worthy of some sort of recognition. Sometimes, that recognition goes to an actor or a song and is well-deserved, even if the movie itself isn’t particularly great. Other times, the world would have been better off without the film getting any sort of recognition.
10
‘King Kong’ (1976)
Won: Best Female Acting Debut (Jessica Lange)
The iconic King Kong is one of the most popular characters from Hollywood’s Golden Age, as proved by the fact that he’s seen so many iterations on the big screen throughout history. Not all of them have been great, though. 1976’s King Kong certainly isn’t. Although it was a star-making event for Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange‘s breakout movie, as well as offering some very neat visuals, that’s about as far as compliments can go.
It’s not a completely irredeemable movie, having a charmingly silly tone, but its lack of interesting characters and over-reliance on camp value as opposed to serious storytelling make it one of the giant ape’s most forgettable outings. However, it was Lange who got the movie’s only Golden Globe nomination as the best female acting debut of 1976, and that’s certainly understandable praise. It’s not the actress’s best work, but it’s very solid considering the tone of the movie, and definitely the most deserving Globe win that this particular film could have gotten.
9
‘The Iron Lady’ (2011)
Won: Best Actress – Drama (Meryl Streep)
In The Iron Lady, the legendary Meryl Streep plays an aging Margaret Thatcher talking to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband, as she struggles to come to terms with his death while scenes from her past life intervene. Streep, who would go on to also become the worst Best Actress Oscar winner of the 2010s, nabbed the Best Actress in a Drama Picture Globe in 2012.
It’s not that it’s a bad performance (at least so far, Streep seems incapable of doing a downright bad job). It is, however, an overwhelmingly one-note and cartoonish portrayal of Thatcher, one of the most detested politicians in the history of the English-speaking world — who, to make matters worse, the movie paints with mostly positive brushstrokes. That’s the real issue here: Not so much Streep’s committed (yet still undeserving of the Globe, mostly) performance, but rather the horribly dull and tone-deaf film that it has to service.

The Iron Lady
- Release Date
-
January 6, 2012
- Director
-
Phyllida Lloyd
- Runtime
-
105minutes
- Writers
-
Phyllida Lloyd
8
‘W.E.’ (2011)
Won: Best Original Song (“Masterpiece” by Madonna)
Madonna is a larger-than-life performer and can even be a pretty decent actress, but a good filmmaker she is definitely not. She proved that with her sophomore directing effort, W.E. It’s probably one of the worst period movies of the 2010s, about the affair between King Edward VIII and American divorcée Wallis Simpson, contrasted with a contemporary romance between a married woman and a Russian security guard.
The movie won for Madonna’s original song, “Masterpiece.” Fair enough. But the fact of the matter is that this is an emotionally manipulative, awfully shallow romantic drama that squanders the talents of Abbie Cornish and Andrea Riseborough. Poorly edited and trying to cover up its narrative emptiness with ostentatious visuals, it’s a film whose biggest crime is being terribly boring.
- Release Date
-
September 1, 2011
- Director
-
Madonna
- Runtime
-
89 minutes
- Writers
-
Alek Keshishian
, Madonna
7
‘The Woman in Red’ (1984)
Won: Best Original Song (“I Just Called to Say I Love You” by Stevie Wonder)
Gene Wilder was almost always delightfully hilarious, but even the greats miss from time to time. He definitely did when he directed and starred in The Woman in Red, a farcical rom-com where he plays a loving family man who one day lays eyes on a beautiful Woman in Red, promising him a dash of the adventure that his life so glaringly lacks.
Woman in Red isn’t exactly one of the worst romance films ever, but it isn’t any good either. The plot drags, the humor is only sparsely effective, and the movie’s views on infidelity are incredibly distasteful. Male midlife crisis comedies can be funny when done right, but this one is so heavy-handed in its messaging and so unsatisfying in how it ties up its subplots that it isn’t worth the effort of getting through the whole thing. Its one Globe nod and win came for Stevie Wonder‘s “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” which, indeed, is perhaps the best part of the entire experience.
6
‘The Silver Chalice’ (1954)
Won: Most Promising Male Newcomer (Paul Newman)
A movie so terrible that Paul Newman himself begged people not to watch it, The Silver Chalice was the legendary actor’s screen debut. It’s a Biblical epic about a Greek artisan who travels to Jerusalem to sculpt a replica of the cup of Christ. Meanwhile, a nefarious interloper tries to convince the crowds that he is the new Messiah, using nothing but cheap parlor tricks.
The film was billed as a romantic drama, but feels more like a cheap unintentional comedy. Newman’s performance is surprisingly wooden here, yet still earned the film its only Golden Globe nomination and victory. With an embarrassing 13% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, The Silver Chalice is overlong, poorly written, visually uninspired, and just terribly stilted all around.
5
‘Ben’ (1972)
Won: Best Original Song (“Ben” by Michael Jackson)
A sequel to 1971’s Willard, Ben is a horror B-picture about a lonely boy who befriends Ben, the leader of a violent swarm of killer rats. The protagonist is absolutely insufferable, and not just because of his grating squeaky voice, yet it still manages to be moderately entertaining for those who enjoy animal attack B-movies. Nevertheless, it’s not a good film in any strict sense.
It’s one of the best original songs from any bad movie, but it’s obviously not transcendental enough to elevate such a poorly made film.
If there’s one thing that Ben is remembered for, it’s for the Golden Globe-winning titular song by Michael Jackson. It was also included on his second-ever solo studio album, also titled Ben, back when he was thirteen years old and still a member of the Jackson 5. It’s one of the best original songs from any bad movie, but it’s obviously not transcendental enough to elevate such a poorly made film. Ben is cheap, misguided, and not particularly entertaining for anyone who’s not into this very niche subgenre of horror films.
4
‘Butterfly’ (1981)
Won: New Star of the Year (Pia Zadora)
The indie crime drama Butterfly stars Stacy Keach as a silver mine caretaker from 1937 Nevada who’s reunited with his teenage daughter, Pia Zadora‘s Kady. She’ll do anything to persuade her father to let her have claim to the mine — including seducing him. The movie is awfully made and awfully written as it is; but the way it deals with incest in such poor taste really seals the deal, making it an absolutely atrocious mess.
The movie was nominated for three Golden Globes, including a Supporting Actor nod for Orson Welles and an Original Song nod for Ennio Morricone and Carol Connors, but it only won New Star of the Year for Zadora — a performance so awful that it also earned her that year’s Razzie for Worst Actress and Worst New Star. So, how did it win the Globe? Because Zadora’s husband flew members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to Las Vegas in an all-expenses-paid trip to hear Zadora sing. Even aside from standing as a testament to the corruption of the HFPA, however, Butterfly is a morally reprehensible, terribly written movie.
Butterfly is currently not available to stream, rent, or purchase in the U.S.
3
‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ (1973)
Won: Best Original Score (Neil Diamond)
Based on the fable novella by Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a family drama about a rebellious seagull who’s kicked out of his clan. However, instead of being sad or lonely, he decides to enjoy and explore his newfound freedom, going on an odyssey to discover how to break the limits of his own flying speed. The movie, interestingly enough, was made by filming actual seagulls with human dialogue superimposed over the footage.
For all the things that the film could have won a Globe for, however, it thankfully did so for the one element of it that actually semi-works: Neil Diamond‘s score, which also earned a Grammy Award. Every other thing about Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a surface-level, pseudointellectual, Hallmark-like disaster that’s not even bad enough to stick in the mind. It just quietly flies away once the credits roll.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
- Release Date
-
October 23, 1973
- Director
-
Hall Bartlett
- Cast
-
James Franciscus
, Juliet Mills
, Philip Ahn
, David Ladd
, Dorothy McGuire
, Richard Crenna
, Kelly Harmon
, Hal Holbrook - Runtime
-
99 minutes
2
‘Happy Feet’ (2006)
Won: Best Original Song (“The Song of the Heart” by Prince)
It’s pretty astonishing — and not in a good way — that George Miller, the twisted mind behind the Mad Max movies, also made the atrocious animated abomination Happy Feet. Oddly sexual and annoyingly chaotic, it’s set in the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song. It’s in that environment that a penguin is born who cannot sing, but can tap dance something fierce.
At least the Golden Globes didn’t commit the Oscars’ mistake and give Happy Feet the Best Animated Feature award. Instead, the movie won the Best Original Song Globe for Prince‘s infectiously catchy “The Song of the Heart.” It has moments of terrific visual appeal and its metaphor of Western consumerism is, for the most part, sound; but the whole thing is so messy and has such a discomforting feel to it that it’s hard to keep up with its energy.

- Release Date
-
November 16, 2006
- Director
-
George Miller
, Warren Coleman
, Judy Morris - Runtime
-
108 minutes
- Writers
-
Warren Coleman
, John Collee
, George Miller
, Judy Morris
1
‘Emilia Pérez’ (2024)
Won: Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), Best Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldaña), Best Non-English Language Picture, and Best Original Song (“El Mal” by Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón)
It’s astonishing that a film as offensively awful, misguided, and tone-deaf as Emilia Pérez won not just one, but four Golden Globes. The movie swings for the fences and misses pathetically, telling the story of a trans woman who was a cartel leader before she transitioned, as she enlists the help of a lawyer to help her get her redemption. As a portrayal of the trans experience, the film is terribly one-note. As a musical, it baffles with its cringe-worthy lyrics and embarrassing choreography. But more than anything else, as a representation of Mexico’s complex and delicate sociopolitical situation, it’s so poorly researched and so packed with stereotypes that it’s genuinely insulting.
Made by a French filmmaker who doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish or English, and who has stated that he didn’t do any research on Mexico before making Emilia Pérez, it seems that the movie’s purpose is to portray a foreigner’s limited view of Mexican culture, and his view seems to be that all Mexicans are rampant delinquents who live in misery. Emilia Pérez is a bafflingly offensive movie made only to fetishize a country that clearly no mind behind the film has any true connection to, treating sensitive topics like narco culture and enforced disappearances as tools for lazy melodrama. Even if that weren’t the case, though, the movie is so wonkily paced, so poorly written, and so awful in its musical numbers that it would still be the worst Golden Globe winner of all time.