Evidently everyone has emerged from holiday hibernation because it’s been a very busy week for pop culture news. Let’s leap in right now.

Film

The 81st Golden Globe Awards took place on Sunday evening in Los Angeles, and in a celebration of the top films of 2023, Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer came out tops, taking home five Globes. The film won in the categories of Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor in a Drama (Cillian Murphy), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Robert Downey Jr.), and Best Score.

Lily Gladstone won Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for Killers of the Flower Moon, while Barbie picked up Best Original Song for Billie Eilish & Finneas, and the new Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award. You can see all the nominees and winners here.

As for the television categories, the final season of Succession earned four Globes (including Best Drama Series), while FX’s The Bear and Netflix’s Beef each won three awards.

Speaking of award shows, the nominations have been announced for the animation industry’s most prestigious accolades: The Annies.

Netflix’s Nimona leads the pack in the film categories with nine nominations, followed by Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Suzume and Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heron, which each received seven nods, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and Pixar’s Elemental, both of which racked up six. Disney’s Wish was completely shut out.

In the TV categories, Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai earned seven nominations (more reasons to watch then), followed by Disney’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and Star Wars: Visions with six each, then Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire (led by South Africa’s Triggerfish Animation!) with five.

Winners will be announced at the Annie Awards on Saturday, 17 February.

Two highly influential horror films are being revisited: one in remake form, and another as a decades-later sequel. The Blob is in development at Warner Bros. with a director already attached. Meanwhile, both director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland are returning to jump start zombie thriller 28 Years Later (as a trilogy), after creating 28 Days Later back in 2002. Out of interest, 28 Days Later introduced the concept of an unstoppable, high-speed “rage” zombie, which appeared in the likes of the Dawn of the Dead remake and World War Z.

If you’ve been wondering if and when the next chapter of The Mandalorian’s saga is happening, wonder no more. Except instead of a new Disney+ series, the story is continuing on the big screen. Directed by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian and Grogu is entering production this year, so audiences can probably expect the film in cinemas in mid to late 2025. The announcement was paired with the following piece of concept art.

Series

We have to wait until November for Season 2 of the award-winning League of Legends adaptation Arcane (2021). It’s probably going to be a case of drip-fed hype for months, and it starts now with this teaser, which features the caption “A nightmarish augmentation.” Could this be Vi and Jinx’s foster father Vander being brought back to life, and mutated into something monstrous through the use of Shimmer? Is it Silco being subjected to the same treatment? Guess we’ll see in 10 months’ time.

Still on matters of second seasons, video game adaptation The Last of Us has been nailing down some key characters for the intended two-season live-action take on Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us: Part II. No One Will Save You and Booksmart star Kaitlyn Dever will be Ellie’s antagonist Abby, while Dora and the Lost City of Gold and Sweet Girl’s Isabela Merced is set to play Dina, Ellie’s new love interest.

What on earth is 3 Body Problem about? This latest trailer provides a bit more of a narrative framework for Netflix’s adaptation of the global sci-fi bestseller by Liu Cixin. The official plot synopsis:

A young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time to a group of brilliant scientists in the present day. As the laws of nature unravel before their eyes five former colleagues reunite to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history.

Spearheading the page-to-screen shift are Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. 3 Body Problem premieres on Netflix on 21 March.

One more TV news tidbit this week: Historical pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death has been cancelled by Max after two seasons. This marks the end of yet another series with overt queer themes.

Gaming

Xbox has just announced a streamed Developer Direct event for next week, 18 January at at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 8pm UK / 10pm South African time. The showcase will give fans an inside look at a selection of highly anticipated games coming to Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Game Pass, and may even include a shadow drop if last January’s Hi-Fi Rush release was anything to go by.

What’s most notable about this upcoming stream is that fans will get a first proper look at the Indiana Jones action adventure being made by MachineGames, the developers responsible for the recent Wolfenstein series. Here’s what you can expect of the Indy segment:

Developer_Direct will showcase more than 10 minutes of game and developer insights, including details about the game’s setting and story, how fans will actually play as Indy, additional details from his next globe-trotting adventure, and the premiere of the first gameplay trailer.