The Golden Globes have named an Asian woman as best director for the first time ever. Read on for some more positive stories that you may have missed this week.
This year's Golden Globe ceremony took place online Image: Peter Kramer/NBC/Zumapress/picture alliance
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Golden Globes honor female Asian director for the first time
Chloe Zhao has made history by becoming the first woman of Asian descent to win the Golden Globe for best director for her 2020 film Nomadland— which also won best picture.
The 38-year-old director was born in China, but went to school in the UK and now lives in Los Angeles.
Her film Nomadland was also the most highly rated movies of 2020, according to review aggregation site Metacritic.
She has been signed on to direct one of the upcoming Marvel Studio films, slated for release in November of this year.
This year's Golden Globe event was not only the first time that Zhao was nominated for best director, but also the first time that a woman of Asian descent was nominated for the award.
'Nomadland' wins big at 2021 Golden Globes
After nearly a year without movie theaters, productions for streaming services dominated the Golden Globes. However, the awards for best drama and best director went to a classic production.
Image: NBC/AP/picture alliance
A digital event
So near and yet so far: Comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the 78th Golden Globes from across the US. Fey was in front of the camera in New York, while Poehler co-hosted from Los Angeles. All award winners were digitally connected from their living rooms or hotels.
Image: NBC/AP/picture alliance
Best drama film
"Nomadland," starring Oscar-winner Frances McDormand, won the award for best drama. The film is a modern road trip story, exploring the lives of modern nomads living out of RVs and vans in the US. It's one of the few movies that was made for the theaters. Its director, Chloe Zhao, became the first woman of Asian descent to win best director.
The top comedy film winner was the Amazon production "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm." In it, British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen slipped into the role of Kazakh journalist Borat for the second time, holding a mirror to US society. In addition to the award for best comedy, Cohen also won best actor in a comedy.
Image: Everett Collection/picture alliance
Best film director
Director Chloe Zhao received the Golden Globes award for the best film director category for her work on "Nomadland." In doing so, she became only the second woman to win a Golden Globe in this category, 37 years after the award went to Barbra Streisand for "Yentl." Zhao's film had won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival in 2020.
Is there still room in the trophy case of Emmy and Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin? Sorkin (left) won the Golden Globe for best screenplay for the film "The Trial of the Chicago 7," about a lawsuit against pacifists who demonstrated against the Vietnam War in 1968. In it, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen (right) plays a serious role, and was also rewarded with a nomination.
Image: Niko Tavernise/Everett Collection/picture alliance
Best actress in a drama film
In a sense, soul singer Andra Day (center) had already won big: She was discovered by Stevie Wonder and has received Grammy nominations for her music. In 2017, she covered a song by jazz legend Billie Holiday, making her the perfect choice to embody the legendary singer in the biopic "The United States vs. Billie Holiday." She won the Golden Globe for best actress in a drama.
The award for Best Actor in a drama film provided one of the evening's most touching moments: Taylor Simone Ledward (right) accepted the award on behalf of her late-husband Chadwick Boseman, who died of cancer last year at age 43. Boseman played the role of Levee Green, a trumpeter in blues singer in "Ma" Rainey's band, in the Netflix jazz drama "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."
In the dark comedy "I Care a Lot," Rosamund Pike (left) plays Marla Grayson, a court-appointed guardian who preys on wealthy seniors and has built up a network of doctors and nursing homes that help her — until she meets her match. Pike won her first Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy.
As in the directing and screenplay categories, the awards for best supporting roles are not divided into drama and comedy. For her portrayal of lawyer Nancy Hollander in "The Mauritanian," Jodie Foster was honored with a Golden Globe. The film is based on the Guantanamo diary of long-time prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi. The young German star Helena Zengel went away empty-handed.
With the surprise success of the 2018 "Get Out," Daniel Kaluuya became a familiar name in Hollywood. For his role as civil rights activist and Black Panther member Fred Hampton in "Judas and the Black Messiah," Kaluuya received the award for best supporting actor. Hampton was shot by police officers in his sleep in 1969.
The film "Minari," directed by Lee Isaac Chung, tells the story of a Korean family trying to start a new life farming in rural Arkansas in the 1980s. The film is based on Chung's own childhood, and won the Golden Globe for best foreign language film, although it is a US production.
Image: Christopher Polk/NBC/Zumapress/picture alliance
Best animated film
The Disney production "Soul" won the award for best animated film. It tells the story of a musician whose soul becomes detached from his body. It is the first film by animation company Pixar to feature an African-American protagonist; Jamie Foxx voices the lead role of jazz pianist Joe Gardner. The film also won a Golden Globe for best film score.
Image: Imago Images/Prod.DB
Best limited series
Netflix productions garnered a whopping 42 nominations this year. One of the winners was the series "The Queen's Gambit," which won best limited series. It tells the story of ambitious chess genius Beth Harmon, who aims to become chess world champion in the male-dominated sport in the 1950s. Lead actress Anya-Taylor Joy also received the award for best actress in a limited series.
Image: Phil Bray/Netflix/Everett Collection/picture alliance
Best TV drama
One of the big winners of the evening was Netflix series "The Crown," a historical fiction based on the lives of the British royal family. In addition to taking home the award for best TV drama, Emma Corrin won best actress in a TV drama series for her role as Lady Di — beating out castmate Olivia Colman, who plays Queen Elizabeth II. Josh O'Connor, who plays Prince Charles, also won best actor.
Image: Des Willie/Netflix/picture alliance
Best TV comedy
At the 2020 Emmy Awards, the comedy series "Schitt's Creek" won prizes in all major categories. Now series creator Eugene Levy (right) can also add a Golden Globe to his shelf. The series tells the story of a wealthy family who lose their fortune and move to the small town of Schitt's Creek.
Image: Cinema Publishers Collection/imago images
An award for her life's work
The Cecil B. DeMille Award is an honorary Golden Globe presented by the association for lifetime achievement. This year it went to actress and Oscar winner Jane Fonda, whose speech underscored the lack of diversity and inclusion in Hollywood. This came in light of the revelation that the Golden Globes awarding body had no Black members.
Nguyen Ngoc Manh, a delivery man in Hanoi Vietnam, saved the life of a 2-year-old girl who fell from a 12th floor balcony.
Heartstopping video shows the small child climbing over the railings of the balcony, some 50 meters (164 feet) above the ground. Manh acted quickly, leaving his vehicle and climbing up onto the first level of building to position himself ready to catch the girl.
The child landed in his lap and suffered only a dislocated hip, while Manh himself sprained his arm. The toddler was taken to a nearby children's hospital for treatment.
Video of the fall and the story of the heroic catch went viral. Even Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc honored the hero, saying he had been deeply moved by his actions.
Australia plans refuge for platypuses
Taronga Zoo announced plans to build the world's first dedicated platypus sanctuary in Australia. The decision was prompted by the increasing threat posed by climate disasters.
Conservationists hope to have the refuge ready by 2022 and will be able to look after 65 platypuses at a time. They will also use the facility to study the reproductive biology of the unusual animal.
Despite being mammals, platypuses lay eggs, have bills and can also poison enemies with a spur on its foot. As such, the threatened species is an important subject of study for evolutionary biology.
Mouths, snouts and beaks: The most bizzare mouths in the animal world
Long and pointy, wide and oddly-shaped, and sometimes monstrously large — the animal kingdom has some seriously impressive mouths. Here are some of the most fascinating.
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/fotototo
Long and pointy
The sword-billed hummingbird’s beak is longer than its body. It has the longest beak of all known hummingbird species. And it needs it! One of the bird's main sources of food is nectar, which it drinks from very long, slender hanging flower crowns. With its beak wide open, it can also catch insects.
Image: picture-alliance/WILDLIFE/P.Oxford
Gobble, gobble, gobble
Two star-like shapes on its snout make the star-nosed mole a very well-equipped hunter. The appendages around its nostrils — a total of 22 fleshy tentacles — are sensory organs. With these it can examine 13 potential prey animals per second. We can't even look that fast!
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Catania
Neither duck nor beaver — what are you?
An egg-laying mammal with a beaver‘s tail and a duck‘s beak. What sounds like a fantasy creature actually exists — in Australia. The platypus boasts a large, flexible beak with a leather-like surface. A built-in snorkel is also included: its nostrils are on top. This allows the animal to dive underwater and breathe at the same time.
Don't worry, as scary as it may appear, this vampire is vegetarian. The tufted deer prefers to graze at dusk. If it senses danger, it does something unusual: it barks. Deer do this to warn each other. While fleeing, they erect their white tail — an escape-signal among tufted deer.
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/W. Layer
More beak than bird?
This bird may look like a character from a comic, but the shoebill actually walks among us — in the swamps of central tropical Africa. It often stands motionless in the water and looks downward. When it detects prey, it strikes at lightning speed. With the hook at the top of its beak, it grabs its prey. Even large lungfishes are swallowed up whole.
Image: picture-alliance/imageBROKER
That's one big mouth you've got
With a body length of up to 10 meters, the basking shark is the second-largest fish in the world, after the whale shark. Despite its monstrous size, it's anything but bloodthirsty; basking sharks eat just one thing: plankton. They swim with their mouths wide open to catch and filter food. Water that enters its mouth with the plankton is filtered out through its gills — 1800 tons of water per hour.
Image: gemeinfrei
A bit less ferocious than its big brother
Gavials live in Southeast Asia. In contrast to the crocodile, gavials don't eat zebras or deer, but fish. Its snout is therefore long, narrow and home to very many teeth. Perfect for catching fish!
Image: Josh More
Turbo-charging through a sea of flowers
The sucking trunk of the hummingbird hawk-moth is not only very long, it's also extremely precise. The butterfly can suck nectar from up to 100 flowers per minute. While doing so, the moth hovers in front of the flower. With its long trunk, the hummingbird hawk-moth can also reach the nectar of flowers with particularly long calyxes — out of reach for others.
Image: FARS
Just a spoonful
The spoonbill is equipped with the perfect tool. No matter fish, frog or other water-dweller, nothing escapes this beak. In searching for food. the spoonbill usually goes into shallow water. However, sometimes it also wanders the coast. In the mud flats, it swings its head back and forth, filtering food from the shallow water.
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/B. Zoller
Lawn mower at the bottom of the sea
Dugongs feed on seaweed. They prefer the part of the plants that lay underground. And they have developed a special technique for this: this manatee can dig. It digs out the plant with its upper lip, then the roots are pulled out of the ground. It shakes off the dirt and then sucks the plant into its mouth.
Image: Nicola Sfondrini / CC BY 2.0
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The refuge was deemed a necessary measure after the country suffered a severe drought followed by the "Black Summer" of 2019-2020, when bushfires destroyed much of the platypuses' natural habitat.
"We will hold them for as long as conditions mean that we have to... we can hold for years if we have to [but] that's not what we want to have to do," wildlife conservation officer Phoebe Meagher said.
New tool in the battle against malaria shows success
A new device invented by Dutch researchers and trialed in the Ivory Coast has proven to be effective in reducing malaria infections by some 40% in children aged between six months and 10 years.
The EaveTubes function as a lure-and-kill device focusing on the mosquitoes that carry the disease.
The small tubes are installed in small holes under the roofs of houses and attract mosquitoes with the scent of the house's inhabitants. Instead of biting humans, however, the insects are blocked by a screen and killed by insecticide on the inside of the tube.
Fighting malaria in Uganda the organic way
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The device showed promise when used in combination with window screens and insecticide-coated bed nets. It also has the advantage of killing the mosquito so that it can also no longer pose a danger to others.
Malaria is one of the world's deadliest diseases, killing over 400,000 people each year, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa.