The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the 2016 Golden Globes nominations this morning and, as usual, they threw in plenty of surprises for us to harp on.
While no member of the small HFPA group votes on the Oscars, the ceremony can actually help us to predict where the awards season is going. The Globes are just days before the Oscar nominations are announced, but a Globe win can help a film’s campaign between the nominations and the actual Oscars ceremony.
Of course, the big difference between the Globes and the Oscars is that they divide awards up by genre and have a weird way of determining what is a comedy and what’s a drama. The big controversy this year was HFPA’s decision to classify The Martian as a comedy. That means we don’t get to see Matt Damon compete against the heavy-hitters in the Best Actor - Drama category.
This genre split also allows for comedy stars to get the recognition they can’t get at the Oscars. Spy star Melissa McCarthy and Trainwreck’s Amy Schumer won’t be in the Oscar discussion (even if they might deserve to be), but they are at the Golden Globes.
Here are some more surprises and snubs:
Johnny Depp gets lost
You’d think that since the HFPA likes to honor big stars to make sure the party has as many famous faces as possible that Johnny Depp’s performance in Black Mass would be nominated. Since the Screen Actors Guild nominated him, it’s clear that there’s still some love for the film. But Depp was not nominated at all.
Snubs for Creed and Straight Outta Compton
Since Creed and Straight Outta Compton were showered with great reviews, it seems strange that neither of them got Best Picture nominations. Creed only walked away with a Best Supporting Actor nod for Sylvester Stallone, while Compton was left empty-handed.
Mad Max: Fury Road isn’t going anywhere
Mad Max: Fury Road revved up its engines during the critics awards last week and has won another lap. George Miller’s action opus not only scored a Best Director nod, but it kicked Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight out of the Best Picture race.
Spotlight’s actors get shut out
After Rachel McAdams was the only member of Spotlight’s ensemble to get a solo SAG Awards nomination, the film’s stars were all shut out this morning. (Weirdly, Mark Ruffalo was nominated, but for the little-seen comedy Infinitely Polar Bear.) It’s really starting to look like Spotlight will have trouble in the acting categories going forward. Still, the film earned nominations for Best Director, Screenplay and Picture - Drama, so its standing in those categories only got stronger.
Alicia Vikander
Let’s just get this out of the way right now: if you don’t already know by now that you need to keep an eye on Alicia Vikander, now you do. She was nominated for Best Lead Actress - Drama for The Danish Girl, even though Focus is pushing for her in supporting at the Oscars. She also nabbed a supporting nomination for Ex Machina. (The only other actress to earn multiple nominations today was Lily Tomlin, who was nominated for the film Grandma and Netflix’s Grace and Frankie.)
Trumbo’s revival continues
After Trumbo rose from the dead at the SAG Awards nominations yesterday, the film continued to surprise with two nominations today. Helen Mirren and Bryan Cranston both scored nominations.
Anomalisa only considered for animation
Charlie Kaufman’s stop-motion animated adult drama Anomalisa only nabbed a Best Animated Feature nomination. The film’s chances in other categories will be stronger at the Oscars though, where screenplays are split into adapted and original categories. (It is based on a Kaufman play.)
Carol is the leader
This probably isn’t a surprise, but it’s notable that Carol did earn five nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Fans of the film might be concerned about its Oscar chances because director Todd Haynes hasn’t earned much love, but with these Golden Globe nominations, it appears that the film can do well outside the critics community.
You can check out the full list of nominees here. The Golden Globes are on Jan. 10.