‘1917’ was named Best Motion Picture – Drama at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday (05.01.20).
Director Sam Mendes hailed his World War I epic’s win a "huge, huge thing" for the movie and urged people to see it as he intended on a cinema screen when it hits theatres next week.
Taking to the stage to accept the award at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Sam – whose movie won ahead of ‘Joker’ and three Netflix movies, ‘The Irishman’, ‘Marriage Story’ and ”The Two Popes’ – said: "This is a huge, huge thing for this movie. It opens in a week wide.
"It’s difficult to make movies without big movies stars in the lead and get people to come and see it in a cinema. I really hope this means that people will turn up and see it on a big screen as it was intended."
Earlier in the evening, the filmmaker had also scooped the Best Director accolade for ‘1917’ and admitted he was shocked to beat ‘The Irishman’ director Martin Scorsese.
He said: "That is a big surprise, there is not one director in the room, not one in the world that is not in the shadow of Martin Scorsese.
"Too many people to thank, everyone at Universal, Amblin, Republic, three extraordinary producers, two extraordinary actors, Charles and Dean, we built the movie around you. And incredible cast and crew."
Sam went on to thank his spouse Ally for her support and dedicated the win for his war movie to his late grandfather.
He added: "I want to say thank you to my wife Ally for her love and support, without who I would never have sat and wrote this. Finally I’d like to dedicate this to my grandfather, Alfred Hubert Mendes, who inspired this film. He signed up for the first world war aged 17 and I hope he’s looking down on us and I fervently hope it doesn’t happen again."
1917 wins Best Drama
