By Jake Coyle
After a year where the pandemic nearly emptied movie theaters, Netflix dominated nominations to the 78ths 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 annual feast on. And perhaps to account for the otherwise lack of it, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association heaped nominations on two lavish period pieces of high royalty — both the Hollywood variety ("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.
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 Crown” also 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.
Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” — which is also a Netflix release — came in second 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.
The other nominees for best film in the drama category were Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” and Florian Zeller’s “The Father.”
Netflix doesn't report box office figures and both “Nomadland” and “The Father” are yet to open beyond a qualifying run in theaters. So the category's total box office — a historic low of about $265,000 — is due to “Promising Young Woman.”
A year after fielding no female nominees for best director — or best feature film nomination for any movie directed by a woman — the HFPA nominated more female filmmakers than it had before.
Regina King (“One Night in Miami”), Zhao and Fennell were nominated for best director, alongside Sorkin and Fincher.
The nominees for best musical or comedy film are: “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”; “Hamilton,”; “Music”; “Palm Springs”; “The Prom.”
The nominees for best television series, drama, are: “The Crown”; “Lovecraft Country”; “The Mandalorian”; “Ozark”; “Ratched.”
The nominees for best television series, musical or comedy, are: “Schitt’s Creek”; “Ted Lasso”; “The Great”; “The Flight Attendant”; “Emily in Paris.”
The nominees for best motion picture, foreign language, are: “Another Round”; “La Llorona”; “The Life Ahead”; “Minari”; “Two of Us.”
The nominees for lead actor in a drama film are: Riz Ahmed, “Sound of Metal”; Chadwick Boseman, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”; Gary Oldman, “Mank”; Tahar Rahim, “The Mauritanian.”
The nominees for actress in a drama film are: Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”; Viola Davis, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; Carey Mulligan, “Promising Young Woman”; Vanessa Kirby, “Pieces of a Woman”; Andra Day, “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.”
The nominees for lead actor in a comedy or musical film are: Sacha Baron Cohen, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”; James Corden, “The Prom”; Andy Samberg, “Palm Springs”; ”Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Hamilton”; Dev Patel, “The Personal History of David Copperfield.”
The nominees for lead actress in a comedy or musical film are: Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”; Michelle Pfeiffer, “French Exit”; Anya Taylor-Joy, “Emma”; Kate Hudson, “Music”; Rosamund Pike, “I Care A Lot.”
Sarah Jessica Parker and Taraji P. Henson hosted the nominations announcement Wednesday morning.
The Globes are typically the first major show of Hollywood’s awards season, which ends with the crowning of the best picture winner at the Oscars. They’ll retain that distinction, despite being delayed nearly two months, after a surge in virus cases in recent months pushed the Grammy Awards to March.
More than perhaps any other award show, the Globes depend on a cavalcade of stars — something that won't materialize when the awards are handed out Feb. 28 in a ceremony hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association said Tuesday that the Globes — typically a bubbly dinner gathering with flowing drinks — will be held bi-coastally for the first time. Fey will host live from New York’s Rainbow Room and Poehler will host from the awards’ normal home, the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. It's expected that nominees will be appearing from locations around the world.
This year's Globes were postponed nearly two months because of the pandemic and to adjust to the delayed Oscars. Those are set for April 25. Last year's Golden Globes culminated in awards for “1917” and “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood." The telecast, hosted by Ricky Gervais, couldn't buck the overall ratings trend for awards shows, drawing an average of 18.3 million viewers, down 2% from the previous year.
