Surprising Golden Globe nominations
The Golden Globes nominations had their usual quirks. Deadpool, really? But the nominees did little to disrupt the dominant trends of this year’s award season: that La La Land and Moonlight have separated themselves from a pack of richly diverse contenders.
La La Land, Damien Chazelle’s infectious Los Angeles musical, sang and danced its way to a leading seven Golden Globes nominations, including Best Picture Musical or Comedy, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced Monday in Los Angeles. Barry Jenkins’ lyrical three-part coming-of-age tale
Moonlight trailed closely with six nods, including Best Drama.
Kenneth Lonergan’s tender, grieffilled New England drama Manchester
by the Sea scored five nominations including Best Drama and Best Actor for Casey Affleck. “What a way to start a Monday,” said
La La Land star Emma Stone. Stone and her co-star, Ryan Gosling, were nominated for their lead performances, as was the film’s directing, screenplay, score and original song. Moonlight, spread across three chapters of a young man’s life in Miami, earned nods for Jenkins’ directing and script, supporting actor favorite Mahershala Ali and supporting actress Naomie Harris.
There were, as usual, eyebrow-raising picks by the HFPA, a group of mostly freelance journalists known for playing favorites and packing its lively banquet with stars. While Martin Scorsese’s
Silence and Clint Eastwood’s Sully both went empty-handed, the R-rated superhero romp Deadpool scored two nominations, including Best Picture Musical or Comedy.
“As we speak, the entire Deadpool team is engaged in a grotesque, early morning tickle-fight,” tweeted the film’s star, Ryan Reynolds, who was also nominated.
Denzel Washington’s August Wilson adaptation Fences also gathered acting nods for Washington and Viola Davis.
The interracial marriage drama
Loving also earned nomination for leads Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton, while Octavia Spencer was the lone nominee for the inspirational NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) drama about African-American mathematicians Hidden Figures.
The typically carefree Globes will be hosted by Jimmy Fallon on Jan. 8.
Lion, about an Indian boy separated from his family, earned four nods including Best Drama and acting nominations for Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman.
Mel Gibson, long a divisive, controversial figure in Hollywood, also had reason to celebrate. His World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge landed three nominations including Best Drama, Best Director and Best Actor in a drama for Andrew Garfield.
The best actress race is one of the year’s most competitive, though it’s so far been dominated by Elle star Isabelle Huppert. In drama, she was nominated along with Amy Adams ( Arrival), Natalie Portman ( Jackie), Jessica Chastain ( Miss
Sloane) and Negga. Along with La La Land, the Best Picture Comedy or Musical nominees were the Annette Bening-led family drama
20th Century Women, the 1980s Dublin music-laced coming-of-age comedy Sing
Street and Florence Foster Jenkins.
For the latter, Meryl Streep landed her 30th nomination. The film, about a Manhattan heiress’ quixotic dreams of singing opera, was one of the morning’s most unlikely winners, scoring four nominations including nods for Hugh Grant and Simon Helberg. Streep, an eight-time winner, will also be the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement.
The Best Actress Comedy or Musical nominees also contained a pair of Globes rookies: Hailee Steinfeld for the teen comedy
The Edge of Seventeen and Lily Collins for Warren Beatty’s Howard Hughes tale Rules Don’t Apply. On the television side, FX’s The People
v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story has claimed the lead in Golden Globes television nominations with five nods, followed by another miniseries, The Night Manager, with four.
The Globes nominations include among the year’s best comedies FX’s freshman Atlanta as well as the established series ABC’s blackish, HBO’s Veep and Amazon’s Mozart in the
Jungle and Transparent. Best Drama nominations include HBO juggernaut Game of Thrones plus a crop of new arrivals: HBO’s Westworld, Netflix’s The Crown and Stranger Things and NBC’s This Is Us.
This Is Us, a gentle family drama that proved to be an instant sensation, scored two supporting-actress Globes nominations for Chrissy Metz and Mandy Moore.
Best Limited Series or TV Movie nominees include The Night Manager, The People v. O.J. Simpson, The Night Of, American Crime and The Dresser. The Americans, completely overlooked by the Globes in its previous three seasons, has landed a double nomination this year: nominations for both its stars, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys.
Along with Russell, Best Drama Actress nominees include Caitriona Balfe ( Outlander), Claire Foy ( The Crown), Winona Ryder ( Stranger
Things) and Evan Rachel Wood ( Westworld). Joining Rhys in the Best Dramatic Actor category are Rami Malek ( Mr. Robot), Bob Odenkirk ( Better Call Saul), Liev Schreiber ( Ray Donovan) and Billy Bob Thornton ( Goliath).
Seemingly a permanent fixture in the comedy actress category, Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus this year is joined by Sarah Jessica Parker ( Divorce), Tracee Ellis Ross ( black-ish), Gina Rodriguez ( Jane the Virgin), Rachel Bloom ( Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Issa Rae ( Insecure). In the Best Comedy Actors category,
Atlanta star Donald Glover and veteran Nick Nolte ( Graves) represent their respective new series along with Anthony Anderson ( black
ish), Gael Garcia Bernal ( Mozart in the Jungle) and Jeffrey Tambor ( Transparent). High-profile stars Felicity Huffman ( American Crime), Sarah Paulson ( The
People v. O.J. Simpson), Kerry Washington ( Confirmation) will face off in the Best Actress category for Limited Series or TV Movie along with Charlotte Rampling ( London Spy) and Riley Keough ( The Girlfriend Experience).
Among the Globes’ snubs: the relative lack of love for Game of Thrones, which remains red-hot among viewers and critics but landed just two nominations: for Best Drama Series and Best Supporting Actress for Lena Headey.
Although Westworld wowed audiences in this, its first season, its large and splendid cast likewise got short shrift. Only Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton were recognized.