After this weekend’s 2025 Golden Globe winners were revealed and as we wait for more award shows honoring 2024’s best to air on the 2025 TV schedule, there’s been a lot of chatter about Zoe Saldaña’s historic win. During the ceremony, she made history by becoming the first Dominican Golden Globe winner for her role in Emilia Pérez. Now, fans of the actress can’t stop talking about how perhaps she should have won her first award years ago.
Saldaña won over Ariana Grande’s performance in Wicked, Margaret Qualley in The Substance, Isabella Rossellini’s performance in Conclave, Felicity Jones in The Brutalist and her co-star Selena Gomez. One fan of the actress had this to say on X (formerly Twitter) after the award show moment:
Zoe Saldaña is the 4th highest grossing actor of all time, male OR female, yet hardly gets the same flowers as her peers. The fact that this is her first ever Golden Globes nomination alone is crazy. No one deserves this more than her idc. We’re getting you that Oscar mama https://t.co/2Nw1MrbJoiJanuary 6, 2025
Following Saldaña’s big win and amazing speech, it’s more likely she’ll inch out the competition and win her first Oscar in a couple of months. (In fact, the Oscar nomination site Gold Derby currently has her at the top of the list to win over Ariana Grande).
As one tweet spoke to, Zoe Saldaña has been a very influential actress in Hollywood for over two decades, and it almost feels ridiculous that Emilia Pérez marks her first time on a major award show stage. As another fan wrote:
Everyone questioning why Zoe Saldana won her Golden Globe nomination over Ariana, its cause of Acting like THIS!!!Zoe has been in the game for over 2 decades, has played ICONIC!!! Roles in big Franchises like Neyterri & Gamorra.Her Golden Globe was already predestined!!! 🤭🤭🤭 pic.twitter.com/zFzIB8Z9KEJanuary 6, 2025
A particularly popular character of Saldaña’s that people have been calling out is her role as Neytiri in the Avatar movies. Recently, the actress spoke about being snubbed for the original flick, sharing that “not being nominated is ok” but she’s felt “overlooked and then minimized and completely disregarded” for her performance in the box office hit. She has also gotten real about how award shows regularly do not recognize motion capture work as well.
If the Academy and other major voting bodies were hip to it, the actress might have competed alongside Sandra Bullock, Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe and Meryl Streep, at the Oscars in 2010. However, there wasn’t much room for genre films like Avatar. While James Cameron’s film tied for the most nominations of the night with The Hurt Locker that year, none of the actors were offered recognition.
To that point, this fan wrote the following on X:
i have to say it’s a pretty bold and innovative move to give zoe saldana her golden globe for avatar (2009) in 2025 but i really respect the commitment to making things rightJanuary 6, 2025
Along with her unforgettable role in Avatar, the Dominican-American actress is the only person to have been in the three highest-grossing movies of all time — Avatar, Avengers: Endgame and Avatar: The Way of Water. Plus, she has had some amazing performances in movies like Star Trek, Infinitely Polar Bear and Drumline.
Saldaña is a one-of-a-kind talent and trailblazer, so no wonder people, like the fan below, are surprised it’s taken so long.
Zoe Saldana finally won. She deserves this so much. #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/7VjZb1pYz1January 6, 2025
In Emilia Pérez, Saldaña plays a lawyer living in Mexico who helps a drug cartel kingpin (Karla Sofía Gascón) get gender-affirming surgery. You can check out the Spanish-language musical with a Netflix subscription and look forward to her next stint as Neytiri when the Avatar: Fire And Ash’s release date arrives later this year.
In the meantime, we’ll be keeping an eye on Zoe Saldaña as she continues this historic awards run.