Movie News

Awards Season 2020/2021 Roundup – Part 8

Tristan FrenchFebruary 5, 202132646 min

2020 has been an eventful year for the film industry, as it has faced many significant changes. While most theatres were closed throughout the majority of the year and many highly anticipated releases were postponed, 2020 was a very solid year for film all things considering and there are still a handful of spectacular films that deserve awards recognition. Despite a shifted eligibility date, online guild screenings and a remote Oscars broadcast, awards season has quickly adapted to the new climate and fortunately remains mostly intact. The staff here at keithlovesmovies are following awards season closely this year, by covering all of the major precursors. and frequently providing our updated Oscar predictions. This is part eight of a regularly scheduled segment.

The annual Golden Globes nominations were announced recently and have already sparked a fruitful discussion throughout the film community and a great deal of controversy. The Golden Globes are voted on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a small but powerful group within the industry that are of the most well known and important voting bodies. The Golden Globes are the second largest awards ceremony honouring film, but they are not necessarily taken seriously by the film community at large. While some of HFPA’s picks line up with the Academy’s, making them one of the most viable precursors, they also make some very strange choices and omissions every year that leaves everyone scratching their heads, this year being no different. Without further ado, lets take a look at this year’s Golden Globe nominees.

BEST FILM – DRAMA

Unlike the Oscars, The Golden Globes split their top prize into two separate categories: Best Drama and Best Comedy/Musical. This year, all of the major Oscar contenders were competing for a slot in the Best Drama category, so that meant that there was room for quite a few major omissions. As expected, Nomadland and The Trial of the Chicago 7 both received nominations here, confirming their status as the two major frontrunners of the race at the moment. Some Oscars enthusiasts made the argument that Mank was beginning to lose steam and could miss out on a nomination here, but the fact that it got in solidifies it as a major contender. Promising Young Woman at one point seemed like a long shot, but the HFPA obviously loved the film and nominated in quite a few categories, which boosts its Oscar chances significantly. The Father had an issue with sending screeners to certain guilds, so some were predicting it would be shut out at the Globes and the SAGs. Fortunately, screeners were sent out in time and it was able to secure a spot in the Best Picture (Drama) lineup. The biggest omissions were Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and One Night In Miami, which many people believed were shoe-ins for a nomination, the latter in particular appealing directly to the HFPA’s taste. Da 5 Bloods and Judas & the Black Messiah were not necessarily widely predicted to earn a nomination, but it would have significantly boosted their campaigns. The narrative here seems to be Nomadland vs. The Trial of the Chicago 7, although I would not count out Promising Young Woman, which continues to gain steam as we get closer to the awards.

BEST ACTOR – DRAMA

Based on the trajectory of awards season thus far, many people were speculating that Gary Oldman could end up missing out a nomination in favour of a widely unpredictable candidate. However, instead they snubbed Delroy Lindo for his incredible performance in Da 5 Bloods. Regardless on one’s opinion of the film, almost everyone agrees that Lindo delivered an awards worthy performance, so his exclusion here is nothing short of baffling. Instead the HFPA nominated Tahar Rahim for his performance in The Mauritanian, a film that has not been released to the public as of yet. It is possible that Rahim could slip into that fifth slot at the Oscars, but it also seems like the kind of movie that the HFPA would solely award.

BEST ACTRESS – DRAMA

Mulligan, Davis, McDormand and Kirby have been locked in for months, but there has been a fierce battle for that fifth spot. Many predicted Zendaya would make a showing a the Globes, but instead Andra Day rounded out the category for her performance in The United States vs. Billie Holiday. The film has not reached audiences yet, but it did receive generally poor reception from critics. This could be a one off, but it does make you question whether Andra could fill that fifth spot at the Oscars.

BEST FILM – COMEDY/MUSICAL

Since the majority of significant awards contenders are competing in the Drama category this year, that left the Comedy/Musical category looks very baron. The HFPA had to reach out and nominate films that normally would not gain any awards attention. However, instead of shining a light on well received comedies, such as The King of Staten Island, Emma and Happy Together, the HFPA decided to nominate two widely panned musicals, and a screen recording of Hamilton. This category in particular has sparked most of the controversy surrounding this year’s crop of nominees. Music in particular is a film that had absolutely no awards buzz (in fact its rumoured that the HFPA is the only major awards body to receive screeners), and it received some of the worst reviews of any movie this year, with many critics accusing it of being ableist. This is another example of why people don’t take the Golden Globes seriously, especially compared to the Oscars and other major awards bodies.

BEST ACTOR – COMEDY/MUSICAL

Sasha Baron Cohen and Andy Samberg delivered two of the year’s best comedic performances, so their nominations are well deserved. While The Personal History of David Copperfield received mixed reception and did not gain much attention, Dev Patel was praised for his performance, so his nomination makes sense. However, the other two nominations have sparked a fair amount of controversy. Lin-Manuel Miranda is an incredible performer, but his nomination here feels undeserved, as he received a Tony nomination for the same performance four years ago. It seems like the HFPA will go out of their to nominate Miranda at every opportunity. James Corden’s performance in The Prom was deemed offensive and stereotypical, and is widely predicted to earn him a nomination at the Razzies, so his inclusion here is absolutely bizarre. While this category was relatively bare this year, there were enough deserving performances to round out the category. Pete Davidson in The King of Staten Island or Mads Mikkelsen in Another Round would have been much more deserving picks than Corden and Miranda.

BEST ACTRESS – COMEDY/MUSICAL

In a bizarre turn of events, the HFPA decided not to nominate Meryl Streep for her performance in The Prom, despite nominating both Corden and the film itself. Meryl is typically honoured at the Globes for almost every single film she is in, so this exclusion is extremely surprising. However, most can agree that she did not deserve a nomination for this particular role in the first place. This category was extremely unpredictable, as many of the top contenders did receive nominations. Maria Bakalova was a shoe-in and Anya Taylor-Joy has had an incredible year with The Queen’s Gambit, so it is not surprising she got in for Emma as well. Michelle Pfeiffer can never be counted out, but her film French Exit is so bizarre that many were not sure if the HFPA would enjoy it. Rosamund Pike is another actress who often gets nominated at the Globes, so it is not too surprising to see her show up here, despite I Care A Lot not gaining much traction. Kate Hudson in Music is also a bizarre choice that sparked quite a bit of controversy, as both her performance and the film were widely panned.

BEST DIRECTOR

Despite the many mistakes the HFPA made this year, they did nominate three very deserving women in The Best Director category, which will hopefully be replicated by the Academy. This is the very first time in history that more women were nominated in this category than men, which shows significant progress. David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin round out the stacked lineup. Spike Lee, Florian Zeller and George C. Wolfe missing here definitely hurts their Oscar changes, while Lee Isaac Chung on the other hand still has time to recover.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

The Best Supporting Actor Oscars race has been generally wide open this year, and the Golden Globes made it even more unpredictable. Sasha Baron Cohen and Leslie Odom Jr. have been reliable contenders since the very beginning on the season, and Daniel Kaluuya has recently entered the race full steam ahead. However, the other nominees came as a surprise. Many people predicted that Paul Raci, Chadwick Boseman or Mark Rylance would round out the category, but none of them received nominations. Instead, Bill Murray and Jared Leto were nominated for two films that were mostly panned by critics and audiences. Whether they are viable Oscar contenders or not is still up in the air.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Much like the Best Supporting Actor category, the Best Supporting Actress race is also widely unpredictable. Seyfried and Coleman are the obvious frontrunners, but the other three nominees came as a surprise to varying degrees. Maria Bakalova was placed in the Best Lead Actress category at the Globes, so it made some room for other contenders. Despite critics panning Hillbilly Elegy, it is not too surprising that the HFPA decided to award Glenn Close’s performance. Jodie Foster and Helena Zengel have been in the conversation for quite some time, but they had lost steam recently, so their nominations came as a surprise. Ellen Burstyn and Yuh-Jung Youn were widely predicted to earn nominations, but ended up missing out.

BEST SCREENPLAY

The Best Screenplay nominees were coincidently exactly the same as the Best Picture (Drama) nominees. Unlike the Oscars, the Globes don’t separate Screenplay by original and adapted, so only five films are honoured. Outside of The Father, this is the lineup that most people predicted. One Night In Miami was widely predicted to take the fifth spot as it is a screenplay driven film, so its omission is definitely confusing.

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

The Golden Globes rules in this category are very different than other guilds, as any film where the dialogue is more than 50% not in English is eligible for this category. While Minari is a very American film, it is competing in the Foreign category, which has caused quite a bit of controversy. That being said, it will likely win the award, unless Another Round pulls an upset.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Best Animated Feature was definitely the most predictable category. Soul, Wolfwalkers, Over the Moon and Onward  have been locked in for months, and The Croods: A New Age is the only other animated film this year to received strong reviews and do well financially. This will likely be the same lineup at the Oscars

BEST SONG

The Best Original Song race has been wide open for the past few months, so the Globes definitely helped to narrow it down. There were no songs nominated from any animated films this year, which almost is never the case. The category shined in terms of diversity, as four out of five of the nominated songs were performed by artists of colour.

BEST SCORE

Unlike The Best Original Song category, the Best Original Score race has been pretty much locked in for a while. Soul is the obvious frontrunner, while News of the World, Mank and Tenet also seem like sure things. However, the omission of Minari in favour of The Midnight Sky did come as a surprise.

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