A number of acclaimed, awards-hopeful films went into Monday morning’s 2025 Golden Globe nominations expected to land multiple nominations but underperformed relative to expectations.
Despite recent awards from critics groups and wins and nominations just last week from the Gotham Awards and Independent Spirit Awards, respectively, the following projects only landed one nomination each: Babygirl, A Different Man (which less than a week ago won best feature at the Gotham Awards), Nickel Boys, The Outrun, The Piano Lesson, Seed of the Sacred Fig and Sing Sing.
Additionally acclaimed awards hopefuls (and expected nominees in multiple categories) Blitz, The Room Next Door, September 5 and Saturday Night each only landed one nomination.
Also, despite racking up numerous critics prizes and an award from the British Independent Film Awards just yesterday, Hard Truths star Marianne Jean-Baptiste missed out on a Golden Globe nomination this morning, with the film also failing to land any nominations.
Similarly, the BIFAs big winner, Kneecap, failed to land a nomination in the category of best non-English language film.
Gladiator II also went into Monday’s nominations announcement as a critical and commercial hit on par with release date partner Wicked, but while the latter film landed four noms, Gladiator II (a sequel to Oscar best picture winner Gladiator) only landed two nods, for the Globes’ relatively new cinematic and box office achievement category and supporting actor Denzel Washington. It missed out on the best drama film nomination a number of experts predicted and star Paul Mescal and director Ridley Scott, also expected to be nominated in the acting and directing categories, respectively, weren’t recognized with individual nods.
Other notable film snubs include no best director nod for Wicked helmer Jon M. Chu or Dune: Part Two‘s Denis Villeneuve and no nominations at all for animated hopefuls Piece by Piece or That Christmas.
Though Joker: Folie à Deux was a critical and commercial bomb, there were still predictions that stars Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga would land awards nominations for their performance in the sequel to the Oscar winner. But Joker 2 was shut out from the Golden Globe nominations this morning.
On the TV side, arguably the biggest surprise from Monday morning’s Golden Globe nominations was a supporting actor nod for Diego Luna in La Máquina, a Spanish-language Hulu limited series that premiered this fall about an aging Mexican boxing legend (played by Gael García Bernal) persuaded to take on one last match. Luna plays his manager. Despite the series’ positive reviews (it has a 90 percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes), Luna wasn’t on experts’ predictions of likely Golden Globe nominees, and his performance hasn’t gotten nearly the level of attention that some other TV series contenders have, including supporting actor hopefuls who missed out on nods like Abbott Elementary‘s Tyler James Williams and Presumed Innocent‘s Peter Sarsgaard.
Speaking of Presumed Innocent, the Golden Globes are one of the first big awards organizations to consider the drama that debuted in June and became Apple TV+’s most watched drama series less than a month after its premiere, with the show that was originally meant to be a limited series landing a second season. But the show missed out on a series nod, in addition to the one for Sarsgaard, and only landed one nom for star Jake Gyllenhaal.
Similarly, Jason Segel and Harrison Ford landed nods for their roles in Shrinking, but the series wasn’t nominated, and House of the Dragon‘s Emma D’arcy was nominated but the series wasn’t (despite the show winning the best drama series Golden Globe for its first season), and Man on the Inside star Ted Danson was nominated but the series missed out on a nod.
And on the other side, a number of acclaimed performers were left out despite their series landing multiple nominations. Monsters actor Nicholas Alexander Chavez wasn’t nominated despite nods for his co-stars Cooper Koch and Javier Bardem and the show itself. And despite Only Murders in the Building‘s four nominations, Meryl Streep wasn’t nominated for her work this season. And though The Diplomat scored three nods, including for stars Keri Russell and Allison Janney and the series itself, Rufus Sewell was left out of this morning’s nominations.
Meanwhile acclaimed series that failed to land a single nomination this year include Bad Sisters, the Maya Rudolph starrer Loot, Palm Royale (no competitive nod for Carol Burnett Award namesake Burnett), A Very Royal Scandal and the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Other TV surprises included a best drama actor nod for Billy Bob Thornton for his role in Landman, particularly with no nods for what was announced as the final season of Yellowstone (a possible sixth season is in talks) despite star Kevin Costner’s Golden Globes win in 2023; and early nods for Jamie Foxx‘s upcoming special and Squid Game season two.
Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge that also owns The Hollywood Reporter.