Golden Globe Award Nominees Announced

Nominees for the Golden Globes have been announced in Los Angeles. The leader among them was “Barbie” by Greta Gerwig, nominated in nine categories. Second place went to the film that made her the most viral film pair of the year – Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which is competing for eight awards. Comments Julia Shagelman.

In January 2023, when passed The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s (HFPA) 80th Golden Globe Awards ceremony seemed to bring the organization back to normal after the numerous scandals that had rocked it the previous two years. Its leadership carried out demonstrative work on its mistakes, somehow coping with the racism and corruption of which it was persistently accused, and the stars who had announced a boycott of the Globe again shone on its red carpet. However, it was something of a swan song – in June of this year, the HFPA officially ceased to exist. Neither the hastily recruited black journalists into its ranks, nor the promises to never go on press tours to Paris paid for by film studios again helped.

At the same time, the Globe itself, in the best Hollywood traditions, showed amazing vitality. The assets of the HFPA were acquired by Eldridge Industries of billionaire Todd Boehly (who, among other things, bought the Chelsea football club from the sanctioned Roman Abramovich). It is this company that owns Dick Clark Productions, which has produced the Globes telecast for many years (its second owner is Penske Media Corporation, which includes leading industry media outlets: Variety, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter and others, so the good old traditions of conflicts of interest too preserved). The new owners intend to transform the non-profit organization that was the HFPA into a commercial organization; members of the association who wish to remain so will become its employees. It was 95 members of the former HFPA plus 310 journalists outside the United States who voted for the current nominees.

The focus of the updated Globe on increasing its audience and commercial appeal is immediately noticeable. This year, the list of nominations was supplemented with two new ones: “best stand-up comedian on TV” and “best cinematic and box office achievement.”

The American Film Academy tried to introduce something similar to the second category at the Oscars five years ago, but after furious criticism it refused. “Globe” doesn’t care at all: the main favorites of the public are nominated in this category – of course, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”, as well as the third “Guardians of the Galaxy”, the fourth “John Wick”, the seventh “Mission: Impossible”, “Spider-Man: Web of Universes,” “Super Mario Bros. at the Movies,” and the concert film “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.”

Another innovation is an increase in the number of nominees. Now there are six of them in each category, so that no one will be offended. As for the contenders themselves, there are no surprises here: the nominations included films that have already earned the proud title of the main players in the award race.

“Barbie” became the second most nominated film in the history of the award, along with “Cabaret” (1972), behind only “Nashville” (1975).

In addition to the aforementioned “Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement”, she is nominated in the categories of “Best Comedy or Musical”, “Best Director”, “Best Screenplay”, “Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical” (Margot Robbie), “Best Supporting Actor” ( Ryan Gosling) and “best song” (there are three contenders from the film). “Oppenheimer” is only one nomination behind: it can win in the categories of best drama, best director, best screenplay, best actor in a drama (Cillian Murphy), best original score and, again, “Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement,” while Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt have a chance to win Best Actor or Best Supporting Actress, respectively.

Competitors to Greta Gerwig’s pink creation in the comedy-musical category will be Ben Affleck’s “Air: The Big Leap,” Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction,” Alexander Payne’s “The Leftovers,” Todd Haynes’ “May December” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Lost and Lost.” The explosive effect of “Oppenheimer” in the dramatic category will be opposed by “Killers of the Flower Moon” by Martin Scorsese, “Past Lives” by Celine Sohn, “Maestro” by Bradley Cooper, “Anatomy of a Fall” by Justine Trieu and “Zone of Interest” by Jonathan Glazer. Scorsese, Cooper, Lanthimos and debutant Son will compete for directorship with Gerwig and Nolan. In the screenplay category, the competitors are practically the same: in addition to “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer”, these are “Killers of the Flower Moon”, “The Poor Unfortunate”, “Past Lives” and “Anatomy of a Fall”.

In the television nominations, the Globe’s favorite was HBO’s Descendants, nominated like Barbie in nine categories. Tied for second place are “The Bear” and FX’s “Murders in the Same Building,” with five nominations each.

The awards ceremony will take place on January 7, 2024 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, also, by an amazing coincidence, partly owned by Eldridge Industries, and will be broadcast by CBS. And if Taylor Swift truly honors her with her presence, announced Time magazine’s person of 2023, then the organizers can consider all the upheavals experienced not in vain.