Netflix dominates with ‘The Irishman’ and ‘Marriage Story.’
LOS ANGELES — It is Netflix’s world. Hollywood just lives in it.
Nominations for the 77th Golden Globes were announced Monday morning, and Netflix dominated the film categories to a jaw-dropping degree. The streaming giant has only been a competitor on the movie side of the Globes since 2016, when it received a sole nomination for Idris Elba in “Beasts of No Nation.” This time around, the hard-campaigning Netflix was showered with 17 film nominations, including six for Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” the most of any movie.
“Marriage Story,” an unnerving portrait of divorce, was nominated for best drama, actress (Scarlett Johansson), actor (Adam Driver), supporting actress (Laura Dern), screenplay (Baumbach) and score (Randy Newman), although Baumbach was passed over in the directing race. Two other Netflix films, “The Irishman” and “Two Popes,” were also nominated for best drama, with two movies from traditional studios, “1917” and “Joker,” rounding out the category.
Eddie Murphy was nominated for his comedic performance as the blaxploitation parodist Rudy Ray Moore in “Dolemite Is My Name,” another Netflix film. “Dolemite” was also included in the best comedy or musical field, joining the traditional contenders “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Knives Out” and “Rocketman.”
Netflix wound up with 34 nominations over all, including a leading 17 in television. Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Apple TV Plus also lit up the nomination scoreboard, adding to the streaming incursion. “Being four and a half weeks into the launch of the service, we weren’t expecting nominations,” Jamie Erlicht, the co-head of Apple TV, said by phone, noting that other video platforms took years to earn awards recognition.
Apple’s centerpiece series, “The Morning Show,” was nominated for best television drama and the show’s stars, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, each picked up nominations for best actress in a drama. The soap, which got sluggish reviews from critics, has been going through something of a backlash to a backlash: It has a 94 percent approval rating among Rotten Tomatoes users. “We think we are well positioned as we go from Season 1 to Season 2 for the audiences and the critics to align,” Erlicht said.
The traditional entertainment company with the largest number of film nominations was Sony Pictures, which accumulated 10, including five for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and a pair for Pedro Almodóvar’s Spanish-language “Pain and Glory.” HBO had the second-largest number of television nominations: 15.
There were prominent snubs. Greta Gerwig’s rapturously reviewed “Little Women,” scheduled for release by Sony on Christmas Day, received attention for Saoirse Ronan’s lead performance and for Alexandre Desplat’s score. But the movie was not nominated and Gerwig was overlooked for her direction. Globes voters were widely criticized for putting forward an all-male directing field, despite an array of other choices.
“The reveal here is a bias against female leadership,” said Stacy L. Smith, an associate professor at the University of Southern California who studies the underrepresentation of women and minorities in Hollywood.
The nominated directors were Tarantino, Todd Phillips (“Joker”), Sam Mendes (“1917”), Bong Joon Ho (“The Parasite”) and Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”).
HBO’s “Game of Thrones” also got the cold shoulder. The series has never won best drama at the Globes — it has won a record-tying four times at the Emmys — and it will stay that way. The fantasy’s final season drew a lone nod, for Kit Harington’s lead acting.
The group behind the Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, has shed some of its reputation for eccentricity, but it still makes calculated choices — spreading nominations far and wide to ensure that every studio boss attends; honoring younger stars (like Ana de Armas, an acting nominee for “Knives Out”) along with older ones (Emma Thompson, recognized for her “Late Night” performance). Members continue to split their top film prize into two categories, drama and comedy-musical, often in bewildering ways. It was decided that “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” could compete as a comedy alongside the Nazi-themed “Jojo Rabbit.” Because what is funnier than the Manson murders and the Holocaust?
In another puzzler, especially for an awards contest adjudicated by journalists from overseas, foreign-language films are ineligible for the marquee best-picture categories. So don’t look for much guidance on the Oscar hopes for Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell,” one of the few bright spots in indie cinema this year ($17.6 million in ticket sales), or “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho’s acclaimed tale of economic inequality ($18.3 million). Both were nominated for best foreign-language film, however. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” “Les Misérables” and “Pain and Glory” drew the remaining slots.
In truth, the Globes do not predict much. The press association only has about 90 voting members; roughly 9,000 film industry professionals vote on the Academy Awards. The top winning films at the Globes have only gone on to win the Oscar for best picture 50 percent of the time over the last decade (although they did match last year, when “Green Book” was the big winner at both ceremonies).
NBC will broadcast the Globes on Jan. 5. Organizers decided to bring back the British comedian Ricky Gervais for a fifth time to host.
The nominations could give films a shot in the arm.
The Globes are mostly coveted as marketing tools. Studio advertising executives will immediately roll out new TV commercials and digital billboards based on the nominations. Three nods for the war epic “1917” could help Universal Pictures generate interest in its Christmas Day release in theaters; in addition to nominations for drama and director, “1917” was singled out for Thomas Newman’s score.
Globe voters pushed Cynthia Erivo deeper into the Oscar conversation by honoring her performance as Harriet Tubman in “Harriet,” a sleeper hit with $41 million in ticket sales.
The male acting races will be competitive.
Ahh, the year of the man. It seems strange given the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.
But take a look at this year’s films. The number of notable male performances is rather staggering. Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”), Christian Bale (“Ford v Ferrari”), Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”) and Jonathan Pryce (“The Two Popes”) joined Driver in receiving nods for best actor in a drama. Left out were De Niro (“The Irishman”), Adam Sandler (“Uncut Gems”) and Paul Walter Hauser (“Richard Jewell”).
De Niro’s snub was seen as revenge. Globe voters were furious when he made fun of them from the stage in 2011.
Best actor in a comedy or musical is only slightly less competitive. Murphy was nominated for his outrageous “Dolemite” performance, as were Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood”) and Taron Egerton (“Rocketman”). The remaining two spots went to Daniel Craig (“Knives Out”), and Roman Griffin Davis, the young “Jojo Rabbit” star.
Voters did not seem to like ‘Cats.’
“Cats,” set for release by Universal on Dec. 20, should be a shoo-in for best comedy or musical. But the filmmakers have been scrambling to finish the movie … err, make the fur visual effects less traumatic than they were in that infamous trailer. To make the movie eligible for consideration, Universal showed voters a version last week.
Alas, the film scored only a nomination for Taylor Swift’s song.
Apple enters the awards hunt with ‘The Morning Show.’
Globes voters have a habit of falling in love with new shows — they like to be seen as cultural arbiters — which bodes well for “The Morning Show.” But established series will be formidable competitors: “Succession” wrapped up its euphorically reviewed second season on HBO in October, and “The Crown” has adroitly reimagined itself with a new cast. “Big Little Lies” and “Killing Eve” also received best TV drama nominations.
On the comedy front, Amazon’s “Fleabag” and its creator and star, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, are the heavy favorites after both were nominated. The show already won big at the September Emmys ceremony. “Fleabag” will go up against “Barry,” “The Politician” (from Ryan Murphy), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (from Amy Sherman-Palladino) and last year’s winner, “The Kominsky Method.”
HBO’s “Chernobyl” is the favorite for limited series, where the nominees also include Netflix’s “Unbelievable,” about a teenager who was charged with lying about having been raped and the female detectives who examine her case. In one of the morning’s biggest surprises, Ava DuVernay’s limited Netflix series about the Central Park jogger case, “When They See Us,” was excluded from the category. (Jharrel Jerome, who won an Emmy in September for his performance in “When They See Us,” was also snubbed.)
The best actress in a drama race will be a battle of the titans. The Oscar winners Olivia Colman (“The Crown”) and Nicole Kidman (“Big Little Lies”) and the Emmy winner Jodie Comer (“Killing Eve”) will go up against Witherspoon and Aniston.
“The only thing we need to work on,” said Zack Van Amburg, co-head of Apple TV, “is figuring out how Jen and Reese can tie.”
John Koblin contributed reporting from New York.