NEW YORK (AP) — Early honors in Hollywood’s unfurling awards season have gone to films like Celine Song’s tender relationship drama “Past Lives…
— Early honors in Hollywood’s unfurling awards season have gone to films like Celine Song’s tender relationship drama “Past Lives,” Jonathan Glazer’s piercing Holocaust film “The Zone of Interest” and Martin Scorsese’s sprawling Osage murders epic “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
But a showdown was always brewing.
“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” those summer sensations united in release date if little else, have loomed as perhaps the most potent Oscar contenders of the year. When the Golden Globes on Monday announced picks for its 81st awards, the scandal-plagued, comeback-seeking Globes put their full weight behind the twin phenomena of the movie year.
Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” landed nine nominations, tied for second-most in Globes history. (Only Bob Fosse’s “Cabaret” has matched it and Robert Altman’s “Nashville” exceeded it.) Its edge over “Oppenheimer” was slight; Christopher Nolan’s massive J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic took in eight nominations.
Though the Globes will separate the competition in some categories, keeping “Barbie” in comedy and “Oppenheimer” in drama, the two films will go head-to-head in many key races. Gerwig or Nolan for best director? Ryan Gosling or Robert Downey Jr. for best supporting actor?
Each has their own captivating narratives. Nolan, seen by many as the most talented big-screen artist of his generation, has never won the Oscar for directing, and his films have never won best picture. Gerwig and “Barbie” are at the forefront of a sea change in a long male-dominated Hollywood. Each film managed to do something spectacularly original in a movie industry where sequels and reboots reign — while making a combined $2.4 billion in the process.
These debates will surely continue until the Academy Awards on March 10.
