With `Mank' and `The Crown,' Netflix dominates Globes noms

NEW YORK — After a year where the pandemic nearly emptied movie theaters, Netflix dominated nominations to the 78th Golden Globe Awards on Wednesday, with David Fincher's “Mank” leading film nominees with six nods and “The Crown” topping all television series.

The Globes, delayed about two months due to the coronavirus, tried to muster some of the awards' usual buzz on Wednesday in a largely virtual awards season bereft the kind of red-carpet glamour the Globes annually feast on. And perhaps to account for the otherwise lack of it, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association heaped nominations on two lavish period pieces rich in royalty — both the Hollywood variety (the black-and-white “Mank” dramatizes the making of “Citizen Kane”) and the British kind.

“Mank ,” about“Citizen Kane” co-writer Herman Mankiewicz, landed nominations for best film, drama; best actor for Gary Oldman; best director for Fincher, best supporting actress for Amanda Seyfried; best score; and best screenplay for Jack Fincher, the director's father who penned the script before dying in 2003.

“Sometimes you just have to think, what does it mean in the whole big scheme of things with this worldwide, global thing going on,” Oldman said from London. “But you know, we want to kind of get back to some kind of normalcy. Life goes on.”

Netflix, which topped all studios at the Globes last year, too, led with a commanding 42 nominations, with 22 coming in film categories and 20 in television. No other studio was close.

The day belonged to the streaming services. Disney+ (“The Mandalorian”) and HBO Max (“The Flight Attendant”) both notched their first Golden Globe nominations. Amazon, with Regina King's “One Night in Miami,” about a meeting of four Black icons in 1964, and Steve McQueen's film anthology “Small Axe,” landed 10 total nominations — a total matched by the Disney-owned Hulu, including nods for the Catherine the Great series “The Great,” with Elle Fanning, and the Andy Samberg time-warp comedy “Palm Springs.” Apple TV+, too, scored several nods including the Jason Sudeikis series “Ted Lasso,” the Irish animated film “Wolfwalkers” and Bill Murray's performance in Sophia Coppola's fatherdaughter comedy “On t he Rocks.”

“The Crown” landed six nominations including best series, drama, and acting nods for Olivia Colman and Josh O'Connor. The final season of “Schitt's Creek” trailed with five nominations, while Netflix's “Ozark” (four nods) and “The Queen's Gambit” (two nods) also added to the streamer's totals. (“Queens Gambit” star Anya Taylor-Joy was nominated for both the hit show and for the Jane Austen adaptation “Emma.”)

Aaron Sorkin's “The Trial of the Chicago 7” — also a Netflix release, about the countercultural clash and subsequent trial following the 1968 Democratic National Convention — came in second among movies with five nominations, including nods for best film, drama; best director and best screenplay for Sorkin; supporting actor for Sacha Baron Cohen; and best song.

“On the one hand, it is strange to be celebrating when so many people are suffering but on the other hand, at least for movie lovers, the Golden Globes are a fun thing,” said Sorkin by phone. “It'll be a weird ceremony this year. ... Who knows what it's going to look like.”