Nominations for the Golden Globe Awards, which are scheduled to take place Jan. 5, were announced Dec. 9. They were only the second set of nominations since the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — which long presided over the awards — was acquired and largely replaced by a new Golden Globes organization in the wake of a Los Angeles Times exposé about the HFPA’s demographics and conduct.
While there is virtually no overlap between Globe voters and Oscar voters, attention from the Globes can stir interest among Oscar voters, so Globe noms are of considerable interest to Oscar watchers.
Among some of the takeaways this year: Netflix’s primary contender, Emilia Pérez, which had found little traction, now has some major wind behind its sails. The Substance is looking stronger than anticipated. And Gladiator II is looking weaker.
Emilia Pérez Surges Back to Life
In early December’s flurry of awards announcements, the top critics groups on both coasts, the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, as well as the Gotham Awards and the National Board of Review, almost entirely snubbed Emilia Pérez. But Netflix’s Spanish-language musical roared back to life on Dec. 8 with a sweep of the European Film Awards and the following day with a field-leading 10 Golden Globe nominations, surpassing Cabaret’s and Barbie’s nine to set a new all-time record on the musical/comedy side.
It was widely expected that the highly unusual film would land eight noms — for best musical/comedy picture, director (Jacques Audiard), screenplay, non-English-language film, original score, “El Mal” in the song category, Karla Sofía Gascón in the lead actress category (who is the first trans performer ever nominated for an acting Golden Globe) and Zoe Saldaña in the supporting actress category — but it also scored a second supporting actress nom, for Selena Gomez (who additionally nabbed a television acting nomination for Only Murders in the Building), and a second song nom, for “Mi Camino” (the song that Gomez performs in the film).
Audiard alone is nominated for five awards, which is as many as any film except for A24’s The Brutalist (seven) and Focus’ Conclave (six): as a producer of a best picture nominee and of a best non-English-language film nominee, and as the director, the screenwriter and a co-writer of “El Mal.”
The Golden Globes Organization Is Not the HFPA
The strong showing by Emilia Pérez, plus other major nominations for Sony Pictures Classics’ Brazilian film I’m Still Here (Fernanda Torres for best drama actress) and Janus/Sideshow’s Indian film All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia for best director), comes on the heels of last year’s Globe noms, in which three of the six drama nominees were non-English-language films.
The Globes have always been voted on primarily by non-Americans. But until last year, Globe noms were solely determined by the HFPA, a group of fewer than 100 people based in and around Los Angeles. The HFPA operated like a club, with cliques of members often banding together to push Hollywood’s biggest names (remember Angelina Jolie and The Tourist?), which made the ceremony more fun for members and the telecast more likely to generate big ratings.
But that sort of coordination seems to have markedly decreased since the HFPA was sold and its members were either disinvited from or absorbed into the new Golden Globes organization. Today, the Globes’ membership comprises 334 journalists based throughout the world, and nominations are determined not only by them but also by non-member critics — many of whom are drawn from FIPRESCI, an international federation of critics who attend many of the major film festivals across the globe and whose tastes differ from those of the old HFPA’s. (Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corp. and Eldridge that also owns The Hollywood Reporter.)
One-Third of the Directing Nominees Are Women
The Globes have multiple categories in a number of areas (separating dramas and musicals/comedies), but, like every other major awards show, only one category for directors. Therefore, it is very notable that they nominated two women in the category — Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light and Coralie Fargeat for Mubi’s The Substance — over several men who had been widely regarded as stronger bets, including Ridley Scott for Paramount’s Gladiator II, Denis Villeneuve for Warner Bros.’ Dune: Part Two, Jon M. Chu for Universal’s Wicked and RaMell Ross for Amazon/MGM’s Nickel Boys.
Oddly, while Fargeat’s film also was nominated for best picture (musical/comedy) and she was nominated for screenplay, Kapadia’s film was not nominated for picture (drama) and she was not nominated for screenplay. All We Imagine as Light is nominated for best non-English-language film — a category it has largely swept in precursor awards.
The Substance writer-director Coralie Fargeat (left) and All We Imagine as Light director Payal Kapadia.
Lionel Hahn/Getty Images; Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Getty Images
Seven Movies Got Much-Needed Boosts
Several films that received Globe noms badly needed them. Take, for example, The Substance. Its five-nom showing is a huge shot of momentum for this body-horror satire of Hollywood and may well lead voters from other awards groups to prioritize watching it.
Searchlight’s A Complete Unknown is a late release and had only spots on the AFI’s and NBR’s top 10 lists to confirm it was resonating — until the Globes nominated it for best drama picture, actor (Timothée Chalamet) and supporting actor (Edward Norton).
Briarcliff/Rich Spirit’s Donald Trump-Roy Cohn two-hander The Apprentice had been largely ignored until the Globes noms, when Sebastian Stan was nominated for best drama actor and Jeremy Strong was nominated for best supporting actor. (Stan also received a best comedy actor nom for A Different Man.) Also with two noms: Roadside’s The Last Showgirl, with Pamela Anderson making the cut for best drama actress and Miley Cyrus’ “Beautiful That Way” landing an original song slot.
Kate Winslet snuck into the best drama actress as the sole nominee from Roadside’s Lee (she also scored a TV acting nom for The Regime). And two films registered only one nom, each for best drama picture: Nickel Boys, which has done very well with recent announcements, and Paramount’s September 5, which was largely MIA from them.
One Film Got Dinged
Paramount’s other big hopeful, Gladiator II, received noms only for cinematic/box office achievement and Denzel Washington in supporting actor — no best drama picture, no Scott for director, no Paul Mescal for actor and no score. That’s rough.
This story appeared in the Dec. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
