After all the hand-wringing about shortcomings, accountability, and whether or not publicists would even encourage their clients to go, it’s back to business as usual for the Golden Globes, or at least an attempt at returning to such. The nominations for the 2023 Golden Globes were announced this morning, and while the trades and some of the larger entertainment outlets are offering complete lists of nominees, there is a palpable lack of enthusiasm around this morning’s announcement. If that indifferent attitude applies to the ceremony itself, well, this might be an even messier Globes than their Twitter extravaganza earlier this year.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, host of the Globes, has made some moves to “fix” their sh-t, but questions remain about what and how much is really different now. They have more members—including six entire Black people! Racism is solved!—and they expanded their pool of voters for the Globes, but today’s nominations are the same kind of star f-cking choices we’re used to seeing from the HFPA. Not much is different here, but there is a noticeable uptick in the diversity of nominees, which was a serious problem before, when the HFPA would outright ignore deserving Black art (that’s a big part of what tipped off the whole LA Times exposé in the first place). Abbott Elementary garnered five nominations, four for acting (Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Sheryl Lee Ralph AND Janelle James), and one for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy. And Niecy Nash (Dahmer), Viola Davis (The Woman King), Jeremy Pope (The Inspection), and Zendaya (Euphoria) are all nominees.
On the TV side, the latest season of The White Lotus, which just concluded last night, got four nominations (Jennifer Coolidge and Aubrey Plaza for Supporting Actress in a Limited/Anthology Series, F. Murray Abraham for Supporting Actor in a Limited/Anthology Series, and Best Limited/Anthology Series), while 2022’s breakout hit, The Bear, only got two nominations, one for Jeremy Allen White and one for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy. No Ebon Moss-Bachrach? Feels like an oversight, but no one ever accused the HFPA of being astute. The House of the Dragon, meanwhile, only got two nominations, one for Best Television Series, Drama, and for Emma D’Arcy as Best Actress in a Television Series, Drama.
Speaking of the comedy/drama divide, two correct things the HFPA did was 1) nominate Elvis in the drama category, not comedy/musical, and 2) not nominate Tom Hanks for Elvis. And speaking of the Best Actor category, they nominated Brendan Fraser, who already said he won’t show up. But they DIDN’T nominate Tom Cruise, who returned his three Golden Globes when their f-cksh-t was originally exposed (they did, however, nominate Top Gun: Maverick for Best Motion Picture, Drama, as well as Lady Gaga’s song). So they’re okay with people boycotting, just not outright rejecting them. Got it.
On the film side, things are pretty much as expected. There are lots of big names among the nominees—Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Colin Farrell, Adam Driver, Michelle Williams, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Margot Robbie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Eddie Redmayne, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg—but we won’t know if the Globes still register as an event worth attending until the night of. Given the lackluster reception for the nominations this morning, the turnout could be dicey. We might see the death of a major awards show! THIS is the drama I care about, not who wins a fancy paperweight.
Check out the full list of nominees here.
Attached - Golden Globe nominee Aubrey Plaza at the CNN Heroes All-Star Tribute on the weekend.