We are now in the heart of awards season and this is proving to be one of the most exciting and unpredictable races in recent memory. Critics groups have started to hand out their awards and have given us a taste of what movies may perform well at the Oscars, but today we got our first real look at what the industry believe are the best cinematic achievements of 2023. The Golden Globes nominations were announced yesterday and in a surprising turn of events, they actually reflected the best cinema had to offer in 2023. Usually the Golden Globes provide an opportunity for cinephiles to gawk at the unrefined tastes of the HFPA. However, due to controversy that has plagued the organization for the past few years, they were bought by Dick Clark Productions and revamped completely, increasing their membership significantly and changing the rules.
The Globes have added a sixth slot in each category, which has given certain contenders that may have had a more difficult time breaking into the race, a much needed boost. They have also added two new categories: Best Box Office Achievement, and Best Stand Up Performance. While many refused to believe that this would have any impact of the legitimacy of the awards or the kinds of films they were inclined to nominate, it turned out to be shockingly strong group of nominees in both the television and film categories. Today we’re going to focus on the film-related categories and discuss how these nominations will impact the trajectory of awards season.
Best Picture (Drama) is a classic case of a clash of the titans. Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan are two of the most beloved and well known filmmakers in the history of the medium. They both crafted one of their finest achievements to date this year and are going head to head in this category. Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon are two of the strongest contenders for Best Picture this year, and whatever wins in this category will determine which one has the better shot at winning the Oscar. I will hedge my bets on Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which has defined the year and was a huge success both critically and commercially. The film has relevant themes and is intellectually stimulating, while also having mass appeal.
That being said, Killers of the Flower Moon is equally relevant and had a major cultural moment as well, even if the film wasn’t nearly as commercial as Oppenheimer. Both films received a lot of support from the HFPA, with Oppenheimer earning 8 nominations, and Killers of the Flower Moon earning 7. Scorsese also received a nomination in this category as producer on Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, which received 4 nominations, including unexpected support in best Director for Cooper. The film has been spotty at critics groups, but it seems that the industry are going to fully embrace it.
As the fall festivals revealed a slew of strong contenders that were ready to go head-to-head, many pundits were worried that A24’s Past Lives would get lost in the shuffle, due to its summer release date. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Past Lives over-performed significantly, earning 5 nominations, with support for Greta Lee in Actress and Celine Song in Director/Screenplay. It also received an unexpected foreign language film nomination, alongside two other films that earned nominations in this category, Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest.
In the past, the Golden Globes had a rule in place that foreign films were not eligible for the two main Best Picture categories. Fortunately, that rule was revoked, which allows for far more diversity in this category. Anatomy of a Fall was widely expected to earn a nomination here and be embraced by the HFPA. It’s a gripping courtroom drama that’s intellectually stimulating, while also having mass appeal. The film earned four nomination, including Best Actress for Sandra Hüller and Best Screenplay. The Zone of Interest ,on the other hand, certainly does not have mass appeal and it’s absolutely shocking that the HFPA embraced it in such a big way. It’s such a cold, experimental and isolating movie that even some critics groups weren’t sure what do with it. Until last week, the film seemed dead in the water. However, between the LA Film Critics deeming it the Best Film of the year and the Golden Globes nominating it for 3 awards (including Best Score for Mica Levi), The Zone of Interest is carving out a path to break into the Best Picture lineup at the Oscars.
Just like the rest of the world, the HFPA absolutely loved Barbie. They loved it so much, in fact, they awarded the film with nine nominations, which makes it the second most nominated film in Golden Globes history behind Nashville with 11. It’s hard to imagine a world where Barbie goes home without winning this award. Alongside Oppenheimer, Barbie dominated the cultural conversation this year. It was a box office phenomenon, a critical sensation, and it’s likely going to become an awards juggernaut. While it has an uphill battle if it wants to win Best Picture at the Oscars over Oppenheimer or Killers of the Flower Moon, it’ll certainly pick up some huge prizes along the way, such as this award.
If the HFPA want to go for a less commercialized crowd-pleaser, both The Holdovers and American Fiction seem like the type of films the organization are typically drawn to. However, despite being dominant at the critics awards thus far, both films relatively underperformed at the Golden Globes. Both films were widely expected to earn a Screenplay nomination, but they were replaced by early year Festival favourites, Past Lives and Anatomy of a Fall. Sterling K. Brown was left out of the Best Supporting Actor category for American Fiction. Despite the HFPA’s past admiration for Alexander Payne, he missed a Best Director nomination for The Holdovers. American Fiction earned only two nominations, while The Holdovers earned three.
Barbie’s biggest competition this year is undoubtedly Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, which opens in more theatres this week. Lanthimos has become an awards favourite (no pun intended), and his latest collaboration with Emma Stone is considered his biggest and boldest work to date. The big-budget adult fantasy film earned seven nominations, including Best Director for Lanthimos, Best Screenplay, Best Actress for Stone, duel Best Supporting Actor nominations for Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo, and Best Score.
Ben Affleck’s Air is the kind of old-fashioned, agreeable crowd-pleaser the HFPA usually love to support. The film did however curiously miss out on a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Viola Davis, which indicates it may not have enough support across the board to make a serious play for Best Picture at the Oscars. That isn’t the case for May December, which has proven to be a huge conversion starter and is being fully embedded by critics groups left, right and centre. The film earned four nominations, managing to gain support for all three lead actors. The Color Purple took a huge hit by being omitted from this category. The Steven Spielberg produced musical seemed like the kind of film the HFPA would adore, but the lack of support here, and at NBR and AFI, shows that it may not be as big of a contender as many pundits thought. That being said, it still managed to earn nominations for its show-stopping performances by Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks.
There were a few films that were embraced by the HFPA in a number of categories, but missed out on earning a Best Film nomination. The most notable was Emerald Fennell’s class-based satire Saltburn. Despite criticisms of the film’s shallow interior, Saltburn has attained a strong cult following, and it seems like some of the HFPA members are supporters. The film earned nominations for Barry Keoghan in Best Actor (Drama) and for Rosamund Pike in Best Supporting Actress, who seems like she has a shot at breaking into that category at the Oscars. Netflix biopics Rustin and Nyad are both the kind of traditional crowd-pleasers that the old HFPA would have been all over. While both films missed out in the Best Picture category, they did earn nominations in the acting categories.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Boy and the Heron, and surprisingly The Super Mario Bros. Movie all showed strength outside of solely the Best Animated Feature category, with the former two earning nominations in Best Score, and the latter getting into both Best Song for Peaches and Best Cinematic Box Office Achievement.
Stay tuned for more awards coverage in the weeks to come, and make sure to look out for our Golden Globes predictions as we approach the 81st Golden Globes on January 7th.
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