AWARDS SZN IS HERE!!!! In the past few days, the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards have announced their nominees. I’m going to focus on the Globes because I don’t actually watch the Critics Choice Awards but it’s worth checking out if you’re even more interested in awards season. So far the general consensus is that the HFPA did an… okay job. The Golden Globes are often seen as the embarrassing little cousin to the Oscars and I’m not really sure what they are to the Emmys, however it’s always known among the celebrities as the most fun awards show because they’re allowed to drink. If I had to choose one show to go to, it might be the Golden Globes since they really only analyze the main categories instead of the Emmys / Oscars which go into all of the creative awards (which are important, but not as celebrity filled and therefore generally less exciting). Anyways… since these came out it’s interesting to guess who will have momentum heading into the Oscars, who got snubbed, and what we’re most excited about! We’ll start with the bad and move onto the good.
Things I’m Already Surprised / Feel Mildly-Extremely Outraged About
- I guess this is something I’m less mad about then confused. What’s the deal with the foreign language category? If you’re nominated there, does that mean you can’t be nominated in the normal Best Picture categories? Because if so, I understand why Parasite and The Farewell were only included in the Foreign Language category. However, if not, the fact that Parasite and The Farewell are not included in Best Picture – Drama and Best Picture – Comedy/Musical respectively, makes me mad. Those were two of my favorite movies of the year and while I appreciate that both got other nods (Parasite: Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Screenplay; The Farewell: Best Actress – Comedy / Musical for Awkwafina, Best Foreign Language Film), I feel like it’s not enough for these excellent movies. Give Lulu Wang the nomination for Best Screenplay!! I’m particularly excited for Bong-Joon Ho and Awkwafina.
- I probably shouldn’t be so surprised by this, but wow Two Popes got a lot of love! If you think about it, it’s classic Awards Season Bait, with two revered actors as stars in Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce. Both were nominated, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively. People have particularly taken note of Pryce’s inclusion here because most assume that he edged out Robert DeNiro for The Irishman; DeNiro was nowhere to be found in the nominations while both his costars Joe Pesci and Al Pacino received Best Supporting Actor nods. This is mostly attributed to the fact that DeNiro refuses to play the game and kiss babies and rings for the HFPA; although they included Bale for Ford v. Ferrari and he refuses to participate in that as well.
- I haven’t seen this movie yet so this could be premature but… WHERE IS GRETA GERWIG’S BEST DIRECTOR NOM FOR LITTLE WOMEN??? Little Women only received two nominations: one for Best Original Score and one for Saoirse Ronan for Best Actress – Comedy/Musical. From all reports I’ve heard, Little Women is fantastic and Gerwig’s specific spin on the story is one that was needed; speaking of, she was also snubbed for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Best Director category is EXTREMELY male (per usual) but it feels even worse this year as Mr. Problematic aka Todd Phillips, was nominated for Joker over Gerwig. Extremely disappointing but I guess not that surprising unfortunately.
- The lack of respect for my man Jeremy Strong is unbelievable. Brian Cox was acknowledged for Best Actor and Kiernan Culkin was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Succession but Strong was not. With all due respect to Cox, Logan’s character can be predictable and is kind of one-note in that he’s just constantly angry or teetering. Strong, by contrast, shows a large range of emotions as Kendall – he has to be weak, vulnerable, cunning. Strong’s performance helps carry the show in my opinion and not including him as a nominee is a travesty. Side note: How does Kit Harrington get a nod in this category but not Jeremy Strong?! Side note to the side note: how does he represent Game of Thrones only entry to the Globe this year?! Have people seen Kit Harrington’s acting compared to Peter Dinklage or Lena Headey or Sophie Turner or Nikolaj Coster-Waldeau???
- Reese Witherspoon I guess decided to throw her all into The Morning Show instead of Big Little Lies. Of course, BLL still came away with 3 nominations including Best Series – Drama, Best Actress (Nicole Kidman) and Best Supporting Actress (Meryl Streep). After season 1, we saw both Reese and Laura Dern in these nominations, however I think that could speak to two things: firstly that season 2 of BLL was way more focused on the Kidman / Streep storyline so it makes sense they got the nod and secondly because Dern and Witherspoon had more important interests this year. Witherspoon had The Morning Show which was nominated for 3 awards including Best Series – Drama and two for Best Actress as both Witherspoon and Aniston were nominated. Meanwhile Laura Dern was throwing her all into her Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Motion Picture performance in Marriage Story; it’s also worth mentioning Dern was in Little Women. Moral of the story is Reese Witherspoon wins no matter what! It’s in this category because I’m surprised at The Morning Show love… this show has gotten very mediocre reviews despite my own appreciation for the show. Apple and Reese must have been working overtime schmoozing the HFPA.
- No Schitt’s Creek love in favor of The Politician (?) makes me sad
- Rocketman received a Best Picture – Comedy/Musical and Taron Egerton was nominated for Best Actor for his work in that movie. I’m putting this in the outrage category as an excuse to bring up my persisting legitimate outrage about last years Rami Malek / Bohemian Rhapsody disaster. In my opinion, Rami Malek winning for that movie will go down in history as one of the worst Academy decisions of all time. I think to win the Golden Globe or the Oscar in a musical movie you have to actually SING. If I lip-sync Taylor Swift, does that mean I should deserve her Grammy??? NO!!!! I feel so bad for Egerton because there’s no way he’s going to win and neither is Rocketman. If this had come out prior to Rhapsody, they’d maybe have a shot but there are too many better movies and people are over the rockstar biopic sadly. Which sucks because Egerton actually sang the Elton songs!!! He put in the effort; also let us remember that Bradley Cooper sang for A Star is Born!!! Cooper and Egerton are not singers yet they made it happen to create genuinely great products!
Things I’m Excited About
- Bong Joon-Ho’s nomination for Best Director for Parasite!!! I know I complained already about it not getting a Best Picture nod, but Joon-Ho getting recognized for Director is huge!! I’m really looking forward to the continued discourse around this movie… hopefully he wins and it can help propel the movie to being nominated at the Oscars.
- Marriage Story leads the movie nominations with 6 (!!) including Best Picture – Drama, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score. Interesting that this movie got so much attention and Baumbach didn’t receive a Director nod but he’s likely not too upset because he was the writer as well.
- Movies that I LOVE that got nods: Knives Out, Booksmart, Hustlers, Jojo Rabbit. Those are all notably in the “comedy” movie section. This is why I’m happy that the Globes exist because I highly doubt that all of these movies will be acknowledged at the Oscars, but we get to celebrate their achievements here.
- Taylor Swift was nominated for Cats for Best Original Song. This probably means Taylor will be at the Oscars, a personal win.
- REDEMPTION FOR ANDREW SCOTT!!! Andrew Scott was notably snubbed at the Emmys, not receiving a nomination for his work as Hot Priest in Fleabag, which is odd because Fleabag itself received so many nominations and ended up winning. Plus, many (including myself) say it was the best season of TV this year and he was a large part of making that true. I’m very happy to see him get this much deserved acknowledgement with a nomination Best Supporting Actor.
- Jennifer Lopez got nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Hustlers!!!!!!!! There is perhaps no one who has been more obviously Running than Lopez and I’m excited to see that all her hard work is paying off. She was amazing in that movie and I’m happy to see her alongside such powerhouses like Laura Dern, Annette Bening, Kathy Bates and Margot Robbie. I doubt she’s going to win (I’m personally rooting for Dern) but it’ll be fun to see her and A-Rod rock the red carpet.
- Saoirse Ronan’s nomination for Little Women! As I stated above, I’m very sad about Gerwig getting snubbed, but happy that one of the great young actors of her generation continues to get acknowledged. Many peopel are also frustrated that Florence Pugh wasn’t nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Little Women (side note: all the Little Women snubs makes me nervous not that the movie isn’t incredible but that it’s going to also get snubbed at the Oscars… let that not be true). This is Saoirse’s fourth Globe nomination (she won last year for Lady Bird). She’s so talented and I can’t wait to see her continue to work with such great creators (like Gerwig) and put out great movies.
Other Random Observations
- Brad Pitt was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, which saw a total of 5 nominations, the others being Best Picture – Comedy/Musical, Best Director, Best Actor – Comedy/Musical for Leonardo DiCaprio, and Best Screenplay. I’m noting this because Ad Astra, the movie in which he was the main star and also produced was rumored to potentially produce a Best Actor nod for him, which it did not.
- I kind of already touched on this above with my Gerwig outrage but no women were nominated for either Screenplay or Director when the following movies were released: Little Women, Bombshell, The Farewell, Hustlers. I’m not alone in my outrage at least… Twitter has not taken kindly to the all male nominees AGAIN. Do better, HFPA.
- I’m now even more excited than I was before to see Bombshell and 1917, which recieved two nods (Best Actress for Charlize Theron and Best Supporting Actress for Margot Robbie) and three nods (Best Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Original Score), respectively. Interesting that the HFPA chose to include Sam Mendes in Best Director for 1917 over Baumbach for Marriage Story. I guess we’ll see how that decision ages once the movie officially comes out.
I’ll be back before the Globes to let you know what my predictions are… both my hopes & dreams and what I actually think will happen. Until then enjoy watching LITTLE WOMEN, out December 25th.
