The Scene

Golden Globe Award Nominees: The Race Continues!

Published on Thursday, December 15 2011
Written by Katie Marzullo

Hot on the heels of the SAG Award nominations, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has released their picks for the 2012 Golden Globe Awards. Bright and early this morning, Woody Harrelson, Sofia Vergara, Gerard Butler, and Rashida Jones made the much-anticipated announcements (with a charming flub here and there, care of Ms. Vergara). Now, the Oscar race becomes even clearer, and those who might have felt the sharp pain of a SAG Awards snub will be waking up to some very good news today...

Hugo, Ides of March, War Horse, 50/50, Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Joseph Gordon-Levitt… Just some of the names and titles curiously left off the SAG Awards ballot get their due here. Ryan Gosling managed to snatch up two nominations – Best Actor in Motion Picture, Drama, for The Ides of March, and Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, for Crazy, Stupid, Love. Surely that will make up for People’s Sexiest Man Alive slight, yes? He’ll have to battle it out with heavyweights George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Fassbender in the Drama category, and he has some stiff competition from his fellow Musical or Comedy nominees as well, including The Artist’s Jean Dujardin, Owen Wilson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Brendan Gleeson for The Guard, a film I’ve never heard of.

The ladies kept it pretty consistent with the SAG noms – Glenn Close, Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, and Tilda Swinton are all repeats; the newcomer, of course, being Miss Rooney Mara, who replaces Michelle Williams on this list. Fret not, though, Marilyn fans – Williams got her nomination as well... in the Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy category. Say what?? Yes, My Week With Marilyn as a whole was also nominated for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, which is odd to say the least... You couldn’t possibly consider this film a comedy, and while there are some song and dance numbers, they are purely incidental to the movie-within-a-movie plot. Methinks the HFPA tried to pull a fast one here... knowing there was only so much room in each category and wanting to place MMWM and Williams somewhere... Hmm.

Indeed, placing Michelle in the Musical or Comedy category puts her at a significant disadvantage, as she is up against some truly funny women and performances – Jodie Foster (Carnage), Charlize Theron (Young Adult), Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids), and Kate Winslet (Carnage). It will be interesting to see how this race unfolds.

George Clooney pulls triple-duty as a nominee in acting, directing, and writing categories, and two of his films (Ides of March and The Descendants) are up for Best Picture; other directors getting a nod include old faves Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, Oscar-winner Alexander Payne (for writing, btw), and the visionary behind The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius.

20-year-old Shailene Woodley snagged her well-deserved nomination for her performance in The Descendants, while seasoned vet Albert Brooks got himself his first-ever Golden Globe nod for Drive.

Angelina Jolie will be pleased to learn that her passion project, In the Land of Blood and Honey, was nominated for Best Foreign Language film... In an interesting twist of semantics, this American-produced film qualified in this category because it only requires the film to be in another language, not necessarily filmed in another country or by a foreign production company. Very smooth. Still, it will have to match wits with Pedro Almodóvar’s intense and well-received thriller The Skin I Live In.

Switching gears briefly to TV, in a pleasantly surprising twist, every single one of the nominees for Best Drama Series are newbies: “American Horror Story”, “Boardwalk Empire”, “Boss”, “Games of Thrones”, and “Homeland.” Wow! (Also of note, these are all cable shows, network dramas having been shut out.) By the same token, three of the five Comedy Series nominees are freshmen as well: “Enlightened”, “Episodes”, and “New Girl” join “Glee” and “Modern Family” at the cool kids table. Way to spread around the love, HFPA!

Check out the full list of nominees here and let us know what you think!

The Golden Globe Awards will air January 15 on NBC.

 

- Katie Marzullo, YH Staff Editor

@YHKatie