Golden Globe Nominations: Surprises and Snubs to Kick Off Awards Season

‘Tis the season—of awards. And while a fair number of organizations and associations have already announced their nominations and best picture picks, the Golden Globes still serve as a major, if not the major, preliminary awards show. Despite controversies and network changes, the Globes seem to be on an upward trajectory, with another batch of eclectic nominations. Films like Emilia Pérez, The Brutalist, Conclave, The Substance and Anora lead in nominations, and on the TV end things look pretty business-as-usual with The Bear, Shogun, and Only Murders in the Building making the biggest impact. That said, there are some good surprises (as well as some shocking snubs) too.

The 82nd Golden Globes will be held on Sunday, January 5th. The show will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ starting at 8pm ET, with comedian Nikki Glaser hosting the affair.

Surprise: Female directors break through

Ignoring women behind the camera has long been a problem for awards bodies, but for the second year in a row (and third time overall) the Globes have nominated two women for Best Director. They are Coralie Fargeat, with her popular feminist body horror flick The Substance (which also earned nominations for actress Demi Moore and supporting actress Margaret Qualley), and Payal Kapadia, whose All We Imagine as Light is also nominated for Best Motion Picture: Non-English Language. The latter has an uncertain road ahead of her for this awards season, given that All We Imagine was not submitted by any country for the Oscars, but it’s wonderful to see the Golden Globes recognizing Kapadia’s moving work.

Snub: No Saoirse Ronan

It’s been pretty much assumed that 2024 could finally be Saoirse Ronan’s year to come out on top—with stirring performances in two well-received films, it was more a question of how many nominations she would get, not whether she would receive any at all. Yet the Globes chose to pass her over, with her moving portrayal of a recovering alcoholic in The Outrun left out of lead actress contention and her supporting work in Blitz being ignored. It’ll be interesting to see how she fares the further the season goes on.

Surprise: Wicked is not the most-nominated musical

The Golden Globes, with their Musical/Comedy categories and general appreciation for flashier titles, seemed like the perfect place to kick off Wicked’s awards season run, with many prognosticators looking to John M. Chu’s blockbuster as a major player. However, the movie musical only ended up with four nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Cynthia Erivo, and Best Supporting Actress for Ariana Grande.

Wicked faced significant musical competition thanks to Emilia Pérez, which racked up 10 total nominations. The Spanish-language film from French director Jacques Audiard earned the second most nominations ever, trailing Robert Altman’s country music epic Nashville by one. Notably, the movie doubled up in multiple categories, with two nominations for Best Original Song and both Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña getting nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Emilia Pérez might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the HFPA clearly loved it.

Snub: Kneecap gets, well, kneecapped

The Irish can’t seem to catch a break this year! After winning seven awards at the British Independent Film Awards just this weekend, Kneecap got completely shut out of the Globes. The film, which tells the story of the Belfast-based, Irish language hip-hop group Kneecap, was heavily favored to break into the Non-English Language category, and it seemed plausible that the madcap movie could find space in the Musical/Comedy categories too. Unfortunately, Kneecap didn’t resonate with HFPA members.

Surprise: Blockbusters don’t really make the cut

The year after “Barbenheimer” and the introduction of the Globes’ Cinematic and Box Office Achievement Award, it seemed like the Golden Globes would once again be a prime place for big movies to be rewarded. Not only would Wicked be huge, but Gladiator II, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice all seemed like they had opportunities to break into big categories. But sadly (or luckily, if you’re among the more proudly pretentious among us), this was not to be.

Gladiator II only received one nomination outside of the nebulous Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category, a nod for Denzel Washington’s supporting performance. Meanwhile, Dune: Part Two somehow missed out on the box office category despite being the fourth highest grossing movie of the year, but got nominated for Best Score and Best Motion Picture Drama. Maybe the real surprise of the ceremony will be learning what Cinematic and Box Office Achievement actually means!

Snub: Hard truths for Hard Truths

Despite making an impact with the British Independent Film Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the National Board of Review, Mike Leigh’s independent drama Hard Truths failed to make a splash at the Golden Globes. Lead actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste has already won awards for her performance as the depressed and sometimes darkly funny Pansy, marking her as one to watch this season, but the HFPA doesn’t seem to agree with those accolades.

Surprise: Ryan Murphy sees success

Ok, sure, it’s not really a surprise that the Golden Globes are highlighting Ryan Murphy’s biggest show of the year with three major nominations for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. You’d be hard pressed to find a creative that the HFPA responds to better than Murphy, regardless of the quality of some of his projects (including this one). Good for undeniable breakout star Cooper Koch, though, who faces some really stiff competition in the Best Actor in a Limited Series category.

Snub: No love for Clarence Maclin

Another unfortunate exclusion belongs to Sing Sing’s Clarence Maclin, whose soulful supporting performance ranks among the best of the year. This indie film about the titular prison’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts program only nabbed one nomination, for its star Colman Domingo, but Maclin has been tapped as a welcome nominee by the Independent Spirit Awards, and he won at the Gotham Awards earlier this month. As with Saoirse Ronan and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, this loss could signal a bumpy awards run ahead.

Surprise: Squid Game is back!

We’re used to movies racking up nominations before they’re widely available to see, but television rarely takes the same route. Leave it to Squid Game to break the mold again, as it’s earned a nomination for Best Television Series: Drama more than two weeks before it’s due to be released on Netflix. That is the only nod that the ultra-popular Korean series received, with no acting nominations to tip interested parties off on who the major players in Season 2 might be.