The Golden Globes winners won’t influence Oscar nominations, since the ballots are already in. Still, Sunday’s ceremonies offered some interesting insights into Oscar possibilities and into the state of this year’s awards race.

1. The big obvious winners Sunday evening were “Leviathan,” “Grand Budapest Hotel,” Michael Keaton, Richard Linklater and Eddie Redmayne. The reaction of the 1,200 people in the Golden Globes audience is a bigger Oscar clue than the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. results. The HFPA has 80-plus voters and none is a member of the Academy, so their choices don’t necessarily reflect AMPAS. However, virtually everyone at the BevHilton Sunday was an industry member and their reactions showed widespread enthusiasm for those films and individuals.

2 The other big winners included “The Wedding Ringer,” “Kingsman: The Secret Service” and “Tomorrowland.” Because the Globes are telecast around the world, the ceremony is a great opportunity to plug current or upcoming films,...