The Hollywood Foreign Press Association—along with America Ferrara, Angela Bassett, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Dennis Quaid—was up bright and early Thursday morning to announce the nominees for the 73rd Annual Golden Globes. Todd Haynes’ Carol leads the pack with five nominations, although two are in the same category—despite the “for your consideration” nudge from Weinstein Co. and Focus Pictures, the HFPA decided that Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett were co-leads, so they will both compete for Best Actress in a drama film. (Way to break up the band, HFPA.)
The accolades were broadly though somewhat confusingly distributed this year; despite featuring a stranded, slowly-starving Matt Damon, The Martian was nominated for Best Comedy film, and will go up against Trainwreck and Spy. And although it didn’t make the list, Trumbo was being considered for a drama nomination, despite being promoted as a comedy by the studio. (We suppose that film’s lack of focus ultimately did it in.)
Otherwise, the HFPA saw fit to spread the love—Joy got two nominations, including a Best Actress nod for Jennifer Lawrence, whose continued collaboration with director David O. Russell seems to be working out well for both of them. The National Board Of Review’s best film of the year, Mad Max: Fury Road, was nominated for Best Drama, and will compete with The Revenant, Room, Spotlight, and of course, Carol for that prize. Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight picked up three nominations total, for Best Drama, Director, and Screenplay, so maybe investigative journalism isn’t dead (at least, not onscreen).
The TV-related nominations provided the biggest surprises, as the final seasons of Mad Men and Justified were both excluded from the Best TV Drama category, along with the stellar second season of Fargo. Returning nominee Game Of Thrones will compete with Mr. Robot, Empire, Outlander, and Narcos for that prize. The nominees for Best Actor in a TV comedy/musical series were similarly stacked with newcomers, with Aziz Ansari and Gael García Bernal getting nods for their freshman series (Master Of None and Mozart In The Jungle, respectively).
The Golden Globes will air on January 10, 2016 on NBC, when Ricky Gervais will presumably set aside his shock-comedian antics to show us the importance of being earnest while giving awards to your friends and colleagues.
Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
The Big Short
Joy
The Martian
Spy
Trainwreck
Best Motion Picture, Drama
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight
Best Director
Todd Haynes, Carol
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, The Revenant
Ridley Scott, The Martian
Best Actor, Drama
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Will Smith, Concussion
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs