Snubs and surprises from the 2019 Golden Globes nominations.
The 2019 Golden Globe nominations are the usual mix of wild, outside-the-box thinking and stubborn attempt to rubber-stamp Oscar frontrunners. And that’s before you get to the always distractible TV categories!
In the movie categories, the as-yet-unreleased Dick Cheney biopic Vice leads the comedy or musical film categories with six nominations, followed by The Favourite and Green Book, both of which received five. Both BlacKkKlansman and A Star Is Born (competing as a drama, despite its musical elements) lead the drama categories with five nominations apiece.
There is also recognition for two of the year’s biggest Hollywood success stories. Black Panther, the first solo superhero film with a black star in Marvel’s current cinematic universe, earned a Best Picture nomination in the drama category, and Crazy Rich Asians, the first major studio film since The Joy Luck Club to feature a predominantly Asian and Asian-American cast, earned a Best Picture nomination in the comedy or musical category.
In the television categories, FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story leads the overall pack with four nominations, including Best TV Limited Series. Seven shows — FX’s The Americans, HBO’s Barry, Amazon’s Homecoming, Netflix’s The Kominsky Method, Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, HBO’s Sharp Objects, and Amazon’s A Very English Scandal — received three nominations each to tie for second-most-nominated program.
But there are other stories afoot in the nominations list beyond simply the raw totals. Dig a little deeper and you’ll see some patterns start to emerge — like the three winners and two losers below.
Early screenings of Adam McKay’s Vice — an angry “comedy” about Dick Cheney’s rise to power as vice president under George W. Bush — left critics sharply divided. Some loved the film. Others (myself included) came away with much more negative opinions. (The movie comes out on Christmas Day.)
But it’s clear that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association loved it. The movie earned the most Golden Globes nominations of any film, coming away with nods in six categories: one for Best Comedy or Musical; three acting nods for Christian Bale (who plays Dick Cheney), Amy Adams (who plays Lynne Cheney), and Sam Rockwell (who makes a very fine George W. Bush); and two for McKay as both screenwriter and director.
Whether the film can maintain that momentum through the Oscars may depend on how victorious Vice turns out to be when the Globes are handed out on January 6. The next day, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will begin handing in their ballots for the 2019 Oscar nominations, which will be announced on January 22. Coming fresh off a Globes sweep — or even a strong showing at the awards — could help boost Vice ’s chances with the Academy. But it’s possible a snub could have the opposite effect. — Alissa Wilkinson
As always with the Globes, it was once again that much easier to earn a nomination if your show came out in the past calendar year.
Across the 10 nominees in the Drama and Musical/Comedy series categories, only three shows — drama The Americans (eligible for season six), comedy The Good Place (eligible for seasons two and three), and comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (eligible for season two, which debuted the day before the nominations were announced but screened earlier for press) — are nominated for a season later than their first. And, somewhat remarkably, this is the very first time either The Americans or The Good Place has made it into the series category at the Globes.
