Canadians vying for Golden Globes
Work by Plummer, Vallée, McCormack in the running for Golden Globe Awards
TORONTO Veteran Canadian actor Christopher Plummer has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his last-minute role in All the Money in the World.
The 87-year-old Toronto native replaced Kevin Spacey as billionaire J. Paul Getty after Spacey was ousted from the movie in the wake of a series of sexual misconduct allegations.
Plummer was nominated for best actor in a supporting role along with Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project), Armie Hammer (Call Me by Your Name), Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water) and Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).
All the Money in the World director Ridley Scott was also nominated for best director and star Michelle Williams for best actress.
A rough cut of the film was screened for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the Globes. Scott is quickly reediting the movie to eradicate Spacey.
Eric McCormack and the animated film The Breadwinner were among the other Canadian nominees, announced Monday.
Toronto-born McCormack is nominated for best actor in a musical or comedy series for Will & Grace. And The Breadwinner, a Canadian co-production produced by Angelina Jolie, is up for best animated film.
The HBO series Big Little Lies, directed by Montreal’s Jean-Marc Vallée, has six nominations while Guillermo del Toro’s Cold War-era fairy tale The Shape of Water, shot in Toronto and Hamilton, earned a leading seven nods.
Alberta-shot series Fargo was also nominated for TV’s best limited series or motion picture.
The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Ottawa author Margaret Atwood’s acclaimed novel, also received several nominations, including best television drama.
Several films followed closely behind The Shape of Water, including Steven Spielberg ’s Pentagon Papers drama The Post, with six nominations, including best actress for Meryl Streep and best actor for Tom Hanks. Martin McDonagh’s revenge drama Three Billboards also got a major boost in the nominations with six nods, including best actress for Frances McDormand.
Notably left out were frequent Globes nominees House of Cards and Transparent, two of the TV shows affected by the cascading fallout of sexual harassment allegations rocking Hollywood. As usual, the nominations were partly announced on NBC’s Today show, which fired Matt Lauer after allegations of sexual misconduct.
Despite considerable backlash, Get Out ended up on the comedy side of the Globes, earning a nod for best picture musical or comedy, after being submitted that way by Universal Pictures. Writer-director Jordan Peele himself slyly commented on the controversy, calling his social critique of latent racism a documentary. The Globes passed over Peele’s script, but newcomer Daniel Kaluuya was nominated for best actor in a comedy.
Though some predicted and feared an acting field lacking diversity, the nominees were fairly inclusive. Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq.), Mary J. Blige (Mudbound), Hong Chau (Downsizing) and Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water) were among the 30 film acting nominees.
But the best director category remained all-male, as it has for most of Globes and Academy Awards history. Many had thought this year might be different due to directors like Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman) and Dee Rees (Mudbound). But the nominees were: Spielberg, del Toro, Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), McDonagh and Scott.
The biggest surprise might have been the omission of the romantic comedy The Big Sick, written by real-life couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon. Another Oscar underdog, The Florida Project, emerged with only one nomination, for Dafoe’s supporting performance as the manager of a lowrent motel.
In the TV categories, the Emmywinning Big Little Lies earned a number of acting nods (Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Skarsgård), as well as best limited series. (HBO recently announced a second season for Big Little Lies, which will change its category in other awards shows.)
FX’s Bette Davis and Joan Crawford chronicle Feud: Bette and Joan landed four nominations, including nods for Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon. Amazon’s just-debuted The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel scored two nods, including best comedy series. Also with multiple nominations were Netflix’s Stranger Things and NBC’s This Is Us.
Seth Meyers will host the Jan. 7 Globes ceremony.