Golden Globe nominations revealed
Cheney biopic tops Golden Globe nominations
Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic Vice seized control of the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards with a leading six nominations, narrowly edging Bradley Cooper’s tear-jerking revival A Star Is Born, the interracial roadtrip drama Green Book and the period romp The Favourite.
Vice topped all contenders Thursday, in nominations announced at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., including best picture, comedy and best actor nominations for Christian Bale’s nearly unrecognizable performance as the former U.S. vice-president. It also earned nominations for Amy Adams’ supporting role as Lynne Cheney, Sam Rockwell’s George W. Bush and both the screenplay and direction by McKay, the veteran comedy filmmaker who once skewered politicians as a Saturday Night Live writer.
For even the often-quirky selections of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a collection of 88 mostly less-known freelance film journalists, the strong support for Vice (set to open Dec. 25) was a surprise. Even its categorization of the film — a highly critical portrait of Cheney as a power-hungry, behind-the-scenes tyrant — as a comedy raised some eyebrows, just as Globes recent comedy selections Get Out and The Martian did.
But it was far from a runaway win for Vice as the press association typically spread its awards around. Oscar front-runners A Star Is Born, Green Book and The Favourite trailed close behind with five nominations each.
Curiously, the Hollywood Foreign Press doesn’t consider foreign-language films for best film, so Alfonso Cuaron’s acclaimed Netflix drama Roma was left out of the Globes’ top category.
It was still nominated for best screenplay, best director and best foreign language film.
Joining A Star Is Born in the best picture drama category was Ryan Coogler’s superhero sensation Black Panther, Spike Lee’s urgent white nationalist drama BlacKkKlansman, the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and the Barry Jenkins adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk.
All earned nods in other categories, too, including Rami Malek’s prosthetic tooth-aided performance as Mercury and the leading turn by John David Washington in BlacKkKlansman.
Up for best picture comedy alongside Vice are Yorgos Lanthimos’ wild palace power struggle The Favourite, Peter Farrelly’s divisive crowd-pleaser Green Book, the upcoming Disney sequel Mary Poppins Returns and the rom-com hit Crazy Rich Asians.
Damien Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, which has seen its awards hope wane in recent weeks, failed to lift off, scoring neither a best film nod nor one for Ryan Gosling’s leading performance. (It did land nominations for Claire Foy and its score.)
Also left out, to gasps heard across social media, was Ethan Hawke’s performance as an anguished pastor in First Reformed and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Polish stunner Cold War, his followup to the Oscar-winning Ida. (The nominees for best foreign language film alongside Roma were Capernaum, Girl, Never Look Away and Shoplifters.)
But the Globes also handed nominations toward some up-andcomers, including Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased), Timothée Chalamet (Beautiful Boy) and Elsie Fisher, the 15-year-old star of the comingof-age tale Eighth Grade.
And it also made room for some old favourites: Robert Redford, in what he has said may be his final acting performance, received his 10th Globe nomination for The Old Man & the Gun. He was given the group’s Cecil B. deMille achievement award in 1994.
The nominees for best animated film were: Incredibles 2, Isle of Dogs, Mirai, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The ratings for last January’s broadcast, hosted by Seth Meyers, dipped five per cent with approximately 19 million viewers. As the first major award show after the Harvey Weinstein revelations and subsequent launch of the #MeToo movement, the usually more frivolous ceremony had an atypical edge of seriousness. In a demonstration organized by the then-just-founded #TimesUp, many women wore black on the red carpet.
Whether this year will return the Globes to their more lighthearted celebrations will rest partly with its unexpected pairing of Andy Samberg and Killing Eve star Sandra Oh, who is nominated for best actress in a TV series drama. They were announced as hosts to the Jan. 6 ceremony.