The Golden Globes did not nominate Will Smith, Tom Cruise, or Amazon’s « Lord of the Rings, » among other big snubs and surprises this year.
This is a make-or-break year for the Golden Globes, and for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization behind the awards. And therefore an intense spotlight was on the nominations this morning.
In 2021, after a series of damning investigative stories in the Los Angeles Times — about the HFPA’s lack of inclusivity, and its shady ethical practices — Netflix, WarnerMedia and a number of personal publicists announced they would boycott the Globes, causing NBC to scrap the ceremony’s annual broadcast. Since then, the HFPA has embarked on a number of reforms, meant to curb the organization’s formerly open-secret graft and to diversify its ranks — it now has six Black members up from, well, zero (and it added 21 new members overall). In January, then in disgrace, the HFPA held a members-only private ceremony at the Globes’ home at the Beverly Hilton to bestow their awards to the films and TV shows of 2021 — but without any nominees in attendance.
But here’s the thing: as far as awards ceremonies go, the Golden Globes are pretty fun! And its early January date has also served the purpose of formally kicking off the awards season calendar. So in September, when the HFPA, NBC and producer Dick Clark Productions announced that the 80th annual ceremony would return from exile and once again be broadcast nationally — albeit on a lowly Tuesday (Jan. 10), and not in its old, more prestigious Sunday slot — many in Hollywood greeted the news with relief.
And also some skepticism. Campaigning for the Globes has certainly changed, and become much more muted. It’s still unclear which nominees will attend, and what they’ll say about it if they do. The HFPA certainly took a step in the right direction by hiring Jerrod Carmichael to be the show’s host, and he will 100% roast them, which will be delightful to watch.
But let’s get to the nominations themselves. In movies, the Globes once again neglected to nominate any women in the best director category. Otherwise, the biggest surprises of the (extremely early — why, why, why) morning were the impressive showing for “Babylon,” the less-than-impressive showing for “Women Talking,” and the utter lack of nominations for Will Smith’s “Emancipation.” Also, Brendan Fraser — who in 2018 accused former HFPA president Philip Berk of groping him, and has already said he wouldn’t attend the ceremony if nominated — was indeed nominated for his performance in “The Whale.” (Berk has since been expelled from the HFPA, not because of Fraser’s allegation, but for sending an internal email calling Black Lives Matter a “racist hate movement” in 2021.)
In the TV categories, where the HFPA has always prided itself in favoring new shows, the Globes surprisingly ignored several acclaimed freshman shows, like Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” and Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”
One thing about the Globes is the nominations have always been a crapshoot — ask Jordan Peele, whose 2018 horror movie “Get Out” was nominated in the comedy category. Or remind people that the “The Tourist” received multiple nominations! So to the extent that any of this is predictable — though lord knows Variety’s Clayton Davis put in the hours trying — here are the surprise nominations and omissions from the 80th annual Golden Globes nominations. (For the full list of nominees, click here.)
If you want to point to the definitive moment that sent the Globes’ to the brink of oblivion in 2021, it was when Tom Cruise decided to return the three Globe trophies he’d won over the years — for “Born on the Fourth of July” (best actor, drama), “Jerry Maguire” (best actor, musical/comedy), and “Magnolia” (best supporting actor) — in protest of the lack of diversity within the HFPA.
It’s impossible to know for certain if that is why the HFPA declined to nominate Cruise for his performance in “Top Gun: Maverick,” a.k.a. the film that single-handedly saved movie theaters. The movie did earn nominations for best picture, drama and best song (for Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand”). But given the near-universal enthusiasm for the film, deep admiration for Cruise’s he’s-still-got-it charisma, and the Globes’ insatiable love of nominating gigantic movie stars, it’s rather surprising that he’s not among this year’s nominees.
