The 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards nominations announced Monday morning held several stunning snubs and surprises.
On the film side, the big story is Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, which took home eight nominations, including Best Drama, Best Director, Best Actor, and two Best Supporting Actor nominations. The period piece about discontented friends in a quiet farming village is a far cry from the first time we saw stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson under McDonagh’s direction (2008’s In Bruges), but it might be their most fruitful as we watch the hardware pile up this season.
Everything Everywhere All at Once also continues to cement its award relevance with a handful of nominations despite vacating theaters nearly six months ago. Picking up acting noms and a surprise nomination for directing duo The Daniels, there is no denying the bombastic indie could have staying power.
On the TV side, Abbott Elementary scored the most nominations — surprising absolutely no one — with five. That Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story nabbed as many nominations as The Crown and Only Murders in the Building (among others) with four was a surprise. But was it a “SURPRISE!”? Not as much as seeing The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Yellowjackets both get shut out entirely.
Check out our pick of the biggest Golden Globe nomination snubs and surprises below – and let us know yours in the comments.
93% Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan’s Everything Everywhere All at Once is a bona fide phenomenon in any season, and this week’s prestige honors echo that fact. After its wins at several critic groups, including a tie at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for Best Picture, one would think that the Best Director – Motion Picture prize at the Golden Globes would be inevitable. However, the fact that the duo beat out Damien Chazelle and Sam Mendes, both of whom have won the prize in recent years, puts the nomination in better perspective. Though it can’t be denied that the true “multiverse madness” of Everything Everywhere All at Once dazzled critics and audiences alike, that does not always translate to coveted nominations. In fact, genre films like Nope and The Woman King came up mostly short this morning, but The Daniels (the playful collective mononym reflecting the duo‘s shared first name) still found a way to dominate in all the major categories, making it increasingly likely they may accomplish the same feat at the Academy Awards.
64% The Whale (2022)
(Photo by ©A24)
Perhaps this is less of a “gasp” of shock and more of a “hmmm” of amusement, but Brendan Fraser’s Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture – Drama nomination did give us a lot to ponder. In fact, since Fraser made it known that under no circumstances would he attend the Golden Globes, even if he were nominated, we awards obsessives have all been collectively wondering, “Well, will he be nominated?” Fraser, whose dislike for the organization is well-founded (he accused an HFPA executive of groping him at the awards ceremony in 2018), has made the choice a clear question of character, stating, “It’s because of the history that I have with them. And my mother didn’t raise a hypocrite. You can call me a lot of things, but not that.” The vehemence of such a rejection will likely forever kill the possibility of any future attendance, but it raises another question: What happens if he wins? Thankfully, we have several weeks to figure things out. Still, perhaps we must also applaud the HFPA for putting the controversy aside to nominate Fraser, even if that then begs the question of whether that was the primary motivation for the nomination, period. Given the history of the organization, it’s a fair question.
96% Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
(Photo by ©Paramount Pictures)
Situated on the other side of the Brendan Fraser goodwill, it seems the HPFA has dubbed Tom Cruise persona non grata — on the acting side, anyway. Despite a long winning history with the organization, the Mission Impossible star sent back his Golden Globe trophies in a very splashy way to voice his displeasure with the organization’s lack of diversity and other misdealings in 2020. It seems that decision may have affected his Best Actor chances in ’22, as his film Top Gun: Maverick was honored twice, but he was not recognized for what he did on screen. One could argue the Best Picture nomination fulfills that role, since Cruise would be the present as a producer, but considering some of the acting nominations this year, it was surprising not to see Cruise among them. He is, after all, arguably the biggest and best part of the feature outside of its cinematography and unbridled “America, f— yeah!” vibes. He may still earn a trophy for the film, but it might take a couple of projects for this group to reward him specifically for his performances.
42% Blonde (2022)
Take it easy on us if it upsets you that we’re considering this one a surprise, but trust us, nobody was 100% sure Ana de Armas’ name was going to be called this morning. This is not to say she gave anything less than a career-best performance in Blonde — far from it — but we thought the subject matter and its interpretation would turn off the HFPA, as it has most critics groups this year. Put plainly, this is not an easy watch, and Marilyn Monroe via de Armas goes through it in this imagined but brutal portrayal. The performance is extraordinary, and that was enough to send it over the top. We’re sure the star power and glamour that comes with this nomination didn’t hurt, either.
93% Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
(Photo by © A24 / Courtesy Everett Collection)
OK, there really is no delicate way to say this, so we’re just going to say it: We thought these two would be switched, and that Stephanie Hsu would be nominated for Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role In Any Motion Picture. We know how that stings, but a movie this good deserves that level of honesty. And as awkward as that is to say, it is equally awkward to experience what we feel for all involved. Jamie Lee Curtis, for all her years in Hollywood, would have admit — and she has in interviews — that Hsu is the real deal, and to see her shut out today is just not fair. Curtis’ surprise nomination does little to heal that sting.
Babylon (2022)
(Photo by ©Paramount Pictures)
Babylon was always a questionable entry in the awards season — Damien Chazelle’s splashy, cocaine-soaked fever dream of a Hollywood biopic has divided critics out of earlier screenings. With a curiously late review embargo given its end-of-year aspirations, the film, which stars Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, boasts a couple of the biggest names in Hollywood. These nominations are a pleasing development for the Paramount feature, which is now trailing Tom Cruise and Top Gun: Maverick in wins and prestige this season. It will be interesting to see if the Critics Choice Awards echo these picks or add more when their nominations are announced on Wednesday, but for now, this is simply welcome news for the film’s long-term awards aspirations.
90% Women Talking (2022)
72% Triangle of Sadness (2022)
(Photo by Neon / Courtesy Everett Collection)
83% The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 1 (2022)
100% Yellowjackets: Season 1 (2021)
(Photo by Ben Rothstein/Prime Video)
Amazon Studios’ expensive fantasy series and its actors got no love at all from the Hollywood Foreign Press, which is a surprising flurry of snubs given the international filming locations and cast. Showtime’s Yellowjackets didn’t either. The series’ first season is Certified Fresh at 100% on 73 critics’ opinions, yet the title and its stars got shut out of the Golden Globes nominations. Does it have anything to do with the fact that seven episodes premiered in 2021 and only three in the 2022 eligibility year. Is it really an 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards series? Or was it actually shut out of the 79th awards and nobody bothered to notice until today? In truth, a show is eligible in any year it releases new episodes; therefore, Showtime submitted the series for the current awards program rather than last year’s — though perhaps someone did not choose wisely on that point.
73% Wednesday: Season 1 (2022)
(Photo by Netflix)
Netflix’s teen horror drama Wednesday and its star were both rewarded with nominations, for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Performance By An Actress In A Television Series – Musical Or Comedy. That left perennial favorites like Barry and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and its star Rachel Brosnahan out in the cold. But were they “snubs”? Oddly no.
96% Andor: Season 1 (2022)
(Photo by Des Willie / Lucasfilm Ltd.)
The Disney+ series’ star Diego Luna grabbed a nomination for Best Performance By An Actor In A Television Series – Drama, but the Star Wars drama itself failed to show in the Best Television Series – Drama category. Why? The other nominees: Better Call Saul, The Crown, House of the Dragon, Ozark, and Severance. And while Ozark’s final season didn’t see the same critical response as its third season and Andor’s first season was lauded as nearly perfect, the Hollywood Foreign Press aren’t necessarily critics. Would’ve been nice to see Stellan Skarsgård turn up in the overly broad (few nomination slots available to too wide of a field) Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role in a Musical-Comedy or Drama Television Series category.
99% Better Call Saul: Season 6 (2022)
(Photo by AMC)
As much as the TV industry generally has rooted for Seehorn to receive recognition for her Better Call Saul role as Kim Wexler, she only scored one Emmy nomination last year. This year’s Golden Globes nominations didn’t help with Seehorn missing out on a nomination for Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role in a Musical-Comedy or Drama Television Series. The category is weirdly broad anyway and saw Seehorn up against the likes of Elizabeth Debicki for The Crown and Janelle James for Abbott Elementary.
98% Only Murders in the Building: Season 2 (2022)
(Photo by Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu)
While the comedy series and Gomez’s costars Steve Martin and Martin Short have been nominated in both the Emmys and now in this year’s Golden Globes, this marks the first nomination for Gomez — here in the Best Performance By An Actress In A Television Series – Musical Or Comedy category. Many expected nominations for Sarah Lancashire for Julia, Dead To Me star Christina Applegate, or Rachel Brosnahan, who won the category twice for her lead role in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
85% Ozark: Season 4 (2022)
90% House of the Dragon: Season 1 (2022)
71% The Crown: Season 5 (2022)
(Photo by Tina Rowden/Netflix © 2022; Ollie Upton/HBO; Keith Bernstein/Netflix)
Call it the Snubs-a-Lot category. Best Performance By An Actor In A Television Series – Drama needed to be expanded this year because: 1. Ozark: nominated Best Television Series – Drama. Laura Linney: nominated Best Performance By An Actress In A Television Series – Drama for Ozark. Julia Garner nominated in the weirdly broad Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role in a Musical-Comedy or Drama Television Series category for Ozark. But no nomination for Bateman in the Best Performance By An Actor In A Television Series – Drama category? Snub. 2. Season 1 of House of the Dragon (nominated for Best Television Series – Drama) is nothing without Considine’s surprisingly nimble performance as a naturally cheerful king with a dead wife and imposter syndrome in the fantasy sequel series. Snub. 3. Then there’s West, whose role as Prince Charles in season 5 of The Crown caught some flack because certain fictional moments of drama were considered off the mark. West’s performance, however, was as deserving as the nominated drama series’ nominated performances, including Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, Debicki as Princess Diana, and Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Snub.
74% Alaska Daily: Season 1 (2022)
(Photo by ABC)
Good on you, Hilary Swank. We were betting the HFPA would slip in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power star Morfydd Clark or Severance’s Britt Lower for the Best Performance By An Actress In A Television Series – Drama. Others bet on Melanie Lynskey for Yellowjackets or Kelly Reilly for Yellowstone. With so much competition in the category, Swank’s nomination for ABC’s under-the-radar drama series is certainly deserved, but still surprising.
The Golden Globe Awards will air live on Tuesday, January 10, 2023, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on NBC and Peacock.
Are you as obsessed with awards as we are? Check out our Awards Leaderboard for 2022/2023.
Thumbnail image courtesy Paramount Pictures