The Golden Globes nomination list once again raises the curtain for awards season in this new, uncertain era for the movies: post-strike, post-pandemic, but very much pre-AI. Of course, the Globes cover TV as well, and may well in years to come find themselves in a new era of relevance as so many, rightly or wrongly, claim the distinction between the two is blurring. It is certainly supposed to be a new era of respectability for the Globes, which (it hopes) has put to bed accusations of non-diversity and kickbacks. It’s hoping also that this year’s presenter Nikki Glaser will do better than last year’s icily received turn from Jo Koy.
It’s a great Globes list for streamer Netflix, hip distributor A24 and indeed the Cannes film festival, whose films are well represented. But awards lists will always annoy someone and this year that someone is going to be President-elect Trump, who will no doubt be infuriated at the best actor (drama) nomination for Sebastian Stan, who plays young Trump in the early-years biopic The Apprentice. Trump hates it, although I thought the movie went pretty easy on him. Jeremy Strong picks up a best supporting actor nomination for playing Trump’s toxic mentor Roy Cohn.
Scanning the list anxiously for snubs, I find myself disappointed that there is nothing for Cillian Murphy’s tremendous Irish drama Small Things Like These, nothing for Jane Schoenbrun’s inspired I Saw the TV Glow, nothing for Saoirse Ronan in the excellent The Outrun, or for Marianne-Jean Baptiste in Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths. But what a coup for Jacques Audiard’s phantasmagoric musical crime-comedy Emilia Pérez, an all-singing, all-dancing spectacular about a Mexican cartel gangster getting gender reassignment surgery, with 10 nominations. This is a film which has been a big talking point among awards voters since its premiere in Cannes – although I have to say I found it a little contrived and sometimes bizarre in not exactly the right way. Yet audiences have thrilled to Audiard’s pure ambition and it looks as if Globes voters feel the same way.
Elsewhere The Brutalist, Brady Corbet’s toweringly mysterious and provocative epic in the manner of Ayn Rand is well represented on the list, with nods including best actor for Adrien Brody as a passionately demanding Hungarian architect in postwar America whose genius is recognised and betrayed by an impulsive plutocrat, played by Guy Pearce. This was the visionary-architect film that Coppola’s Megalopolis should have been, but wasn’t. Edward Berger’s vastly entertaining and stylish Conclave, the Vatican plot mystery adapted from Robert Harris, is up there also, including best actor for Ralph Fiennes as a troubled cardinal who detects a whiff of sulphur in the machinations to succeed the newly departed pope. The odds are shortening for a Fiennes win here and at the Oscars, although he and Brody are up against a colossal crowdpleaser in the form of Timothée Chalamet for his impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown.
Sean Baker’s thrilling drama Anora, about a lap dancer who marries a Russian plutocrat’s son, and Coralie Fargeat’s freaky body-horror satire The Substance continue their amazing run of success with five nominations each, with the latter getting a best actress (musical or comedy) nod for Demi Moore as a neurotic fading star willing to try anything to stay beautiful. This could be a moment of glory for Moore, but she faces very strong competition from Cynthia Erivo for her performance as the not-yet-wicked witch in the musical Wicked.
It’s certainly a lively Globes list and whatever happens we can look forward to some ill-tempered social media posts from the incoming president and his courtiers.