In an awards process only slightly less littered with beautiful, drunk faces than The A.V. Club’s Best TV Shows of 2014 (and arguably just as meaningful), the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced this year’s nominees for the 72nd annual Golden Globes. For those looking for anything in the way of a lock in their Oscar betting pool, you would do well to bet the house on Birdman, and also seek help for your gambling problem. Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s meta excoriation of the self-importance of celebrity and the entertainment industry scored seven nominations in all from the very people it’s mocking, including nods for Best Musical Or Comedy and Best Director, and honors for most of its acting ensemble: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, and Emma Stone. The significance of these accolades has already been summed up by Stone herself.
While Birdman’s competition in the Best Musical Or Comedy category poses a stiff challenge in the “getting Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, and Bill Murray to come to the HFPA’s party” factor, it seems like the presumed winner in every other respect. There’s less certainty in the Best Drama category, which is a tough race between Boyhood, Foxcatcher, The Imitation Game, Selma, and The Theory Of Everything. Perhaps the biggest surprises there are the shutouts of Gone Girl and Interstellar, two movies that seem like exactly the kind of populist, (mostly) critically endorsed that are usually right in the Golden Globes’ sweet spot. Ditto Unbroken, which is precisely the sort of uplifting, historical epic that was directed by Angelina Jolie, whose face the Globes can then put on television.
Gone Girl, at least, can console itself with acting nods for Rosamund Pike, and nominations for David Fincher, writer Gillian Flynn, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score. Meanwhile, Interstellar landed just a sole nod for Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack (though quite possibly, that was all Globes voters could concentrate on). Meanwhile, other dark horse favorites Inherent Vice and Whiplash were similarly relegated to one nomination apiece for Joaquin Phoenix and J.K. Simmons. Good job, J.K. Simmons.
The Globes shook things up a little on television, finally ditching the ballots it had pre-printed with Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory (and The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons) to welcome some newcomers—even if it meant ditching other long-in-the-tooth veterans like last year’s Best Comedy winner Brooklyn Nine-Nine. After all, that category had to make room for new freshmen series like Transparent, Silicon Valley, and Jane The Virgin whose wins could be celebrated while also being deemed a tad premature.
Unlike the Emmys, Fargo and True Detective were both considered as miniseries for the Globes, where they nearly matched each other with five and four nominations apiece, respectively. And that cleared the way for others to enter the drama race, like Showtime’s The Affair—a surprisingly strong presence in all the major categories—and The Knick’s Clive Owen, who received well-deserved recognition for being Clive Owen and probably being fun to party with. (He might even bring some of that vodka.) And their absence weakened all of the drama categories enough that its outright ignoring of Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men, and Hannibal doesn’t even seem like a big deal.
The full list of nominations is below for your perusal and occasional burst of outrage. The Golden Globes will be doled out on Jan. 11, in a televised ceremony hosted by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey that is its only real justification for existence.
Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Birdman
Into The Woods
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Pride
St. Vincent
Best Motion Picture, Drama
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory Of Everything