Golden Globes 2020 Nominations, Surprises, and Snubs

We've been on the slow march toward award season since, well, the morning after the Oscars, but today's Golden Globe nominations officially signal the start of the 2020 season. You know what that means: endless red carpets, hundreds of mid-size statuettes, and a dozen drunken speeches (at least).

This year's nominations promise a stirring conversation, with few truly surprising—and overall, mostly disappointing—honorees. The film pool skews overwhelmingly male (more on that below), while TV noms are a weird mix of really, really great (Succession, Fleabag, Chernobyl, Unbelievable); mediocre and puzzling (Catch-22, The Kominsky Method, Living with Yourself); and downright wrong (the lack of honors for When They See Us is embarrassing). Below, a breakdown of the biggest snubs and surprises in the 2020 Golden Globe nominations.

Snub: Women directors. Again.

Casi Moss / Courtesy of A24

Shuzhen Zhou and Awkwafina in The Farewell.

The HFPA's exclusion of women filmmakers feels intentional at this point; the group hasn't nominated a female director since Ava DuVernay for Selma in 2015. Natalie Portman pointed out the oversight onstage at the ceremony in 2018, but her comments—"here are the all-male nominees"—had no effect on the HFPA's votes. Despite nominating women-directed films in other categories (The Farewell and Portrait of a Lady on Fire for Foreign Language film; A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Booksmart, Harriet, Hustlers, Late Night, and Little Women for acting), no women directors were nominated in the Best Director category.

Even worse, most women's stories are relegated to performance honors in the movie categories. Of the 20 Motion Picture nominees (including Foreign Language and Animated), only three focus on telling stories solely from a woman's point of view: The Farewell, Frozen 2, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. That's a measly 15 percent. Women fared far better in the television space, with seven of the 15 nominated series focusing on the female POV: Big Little Lies, The Crown, Killing Eve, The Morning Show, Fleabag, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Unbelievable.

Surprise: Netflix domination.

Sitting, Yellow, Leg, Blond, Fashion, Room, Photography, Human leg, Dress, Shoe,

WILSON WEBB//Netflix

Laura Dern and Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story.

For the first year ever, Netflix leads with the most nominations across both film (17) and TV (17). The streamer has four movies (Dolemite Is My Name, Marriage Story, The Irishman, and The Two Popes) and eight shows (The Crown, Unbelievable, The Kominsky Method, The Politician, Dead to Me, Living with Yourself, Russian Doll, and The Spy) in contention, and given the rate at which its acquiring and producing content, this could very well become the new normal.

Snub: When They See Us

Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix

Jharrel Jerome in When They See Us.

The HFPA shamefully shut out Ava DuVernay's masterful chronicle of the injustice shown to five young black men wrongfully convicted of the 1989 murder of a Central Park jogger. The four-part Netflix miniseries garnered zero Globe nominations despite earning 11 Emmy noms and one win (Jharrel Jerome for Lead Actor in a Miniseries).

Surprise: Unbelievable

Beth Dubber/Netflix

Kaitlyn Dever in Unbelievable.

The powerful Netflix miniseries based on the 2015 Marshall Project/ProPublica article "An Unbelievable Story of Rape" aired too late for 2019 Emmy consideration, but its strong Globes showing (four noms, for Miniseries and stars Kaitlyn Dever, Merritt Wever, and Toni Collette) brings the show back into the awards conversation for 2020.

Snub: Cats

Universal Pictures

Francesca Hayward in Cats.

The Globes famously embrace more eccentric offerings (they have a combined comedy/musical category, after all) which is why Cats receiving just one nomination—for Original Song, no less—is so confusing. The bizarre tail (sorry) of human-esque felines contemplating death through song should be catnip (sorry again) to the HFPA.

Surprise: Justice for Knives Out

Tree, Sky, Leaf, Architecture, Branch, Sunlight, Building, House, Photography, Autumn,

Claire Folger

Ana de Armas in Knives Out.

Rian Johnson's murder mystery was the most fun many of us ever had over a Thanksgiving weekend, and its three nominations—Best Comedy or Musical, Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical (Ana de Armas in a breakout performance), and Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical (Daniel Craig)—will ideally encourage Hollywood to take more wholly original risks.

Snub: Hustlers

Performance, Event, Magenta, Electric blue, Party, Disco,

Courtesy

Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu in Hustlers.

This one hurts. A saga about a group of strippers who make a living by scamming their clientele, Hustlers prioritized women in front of and behind the camera and deserves to be as much a part of the awards season conversation as Joker or The Irishman. Instead, the only nom—Jennifer Lopez for Supporting Actress—is confusing, since she shares the lead with Constance Wu. Wu's own snub is unconscionable, and the film should have easily edged out one of the more mediocre offerings (Jojo Rabbit, Rocketman) in Best Musical or Comedy.

Surprise: Apple TV+ makes a strong start.

Apple

Reese Witherspoon in The Morning Show.

Apple's streaming service launched just one month ago and already has three Globes noms to its name, all for star-studded drama The Morning Show. This chronicle of a national morning news program rocked by #MeToo allegations earned Best TV Drama and double Best Actress nominations for stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Though this type of show—middling story quality, high-powered talent—feels deeply on-brand for the HFPA (hello, The Kominsky Method), these nominations would've been better suited to Apple TV+'s most original (and genuinely good) offering: Dickinson.

Snub: Game of Thrones and Pose

People, Fashion, Human, Adaptation, Event, Performance, Photography, Fashion design, Crowd, Street,

Billy Porter in Pose.

One of these is a snub worth celebrating; the other is another unfathomable oversight. Game of Thrones' final season was one of the worst ever committed to the screen, and its single nod (Kit Harington for Best Actor in a TV Drama) is vindication for fans forced to sit through 432 minutes of lazy storytelling—especially after the season received an overwhelming 14 Emmy noms.

Pose also received just one nomination—Emmy winner Billy Porter for Best Actor in a TV Drama—but this FX series, about the highs and lows of life in the ballroom world of 1980s New York, deserved an overall nom for Best Drama at least. It's also criminal that all the major voting bodies have ignored star Mj Rodriguez for two years in a row.

The Nominees

Best Motion Picture - Drama

1917
The Irishman
Joker
Marriage Story
The Two Popes

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Dolemite Is My Name
Jojo Rabbit
Knives Out
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Rocketman

Best Motion Picture - Animated

Frozen 2
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Missing Link
Toy Story 4
Lion King

Best Motion Picture - Foreign Language

The Farewell
Les Miserables
Pain and Glory
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Cynthia Erivo, Harriet
Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
Saoirse Ronan, Little Women
Charlize Theron, Bombshell
Renee Zellweger, Judy

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

Christian Bale, Ford v. Ferrari
Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory
Adam Driver, Marriage Story
Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Ana de Armas, Knives Out
Cate Blanchett, Where'd You Go Bernadette?
Beanie Feldstein, Booksmart
Emma Thompson, Late Night
Awkwafina, The Farewell

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Daniel Craig, Knives Out
Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Taron Egerton, Rocketman
Roman Griffin Davis, Jojo Rabbit
Eddie Murphy, Dolemite Is My Name

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell
Annette Bening, The Report
Laura Dern, Marriage Story
Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers
Margot Robbie, Bombshell

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes
Al Pacino, The Irishman
Joe Pesci, The Irishman
Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Best Director - Motion Picture

Bong Joon Ho, Parasite
Sam Mendes, 1917
Todd Phillips, Joker
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
Bong Joon Ho & Jin Won Han, Parasite
Anthony McCarten, The Two Popes
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Steven Zaillian, The Irishman

Best Original Score - Motion Picture

Alexandre Desplat, Little Women
Hildur Guðnadóttir, Joker
Randy Newman, Marriage Story
Thomas Newman, 1917
Daniel Pemberton, Motherless Brooklyn

Best Original Song - Motion Picture

"Beautiful Ghosts," Cats — Taylor Swift & Andrew Lloyd Webber
"I'm Gonna Love Me Again," Rocketman — Elton John & Bernie Taupin
"Into the Unknown," Frozen 2 — Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez
"Spirit," The Lion King — Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Timothy McKenzie & Ilya Salmanzadeh
"Stand Up," Harriet — Joshuah Brian Campbell & Cynthia Erivo