The Surprises And Snubs Of The 2019 Golden Globes

Every awards show provokes controversy in some manner, whether it happens with nominations, or the actual awards ceremony, or both. And since the Golden Globes span both TV and film, there’s double the potential for outrage over perceived snubs or the inclusion of seeming outliers. Category-based drama is almost always an issue with this awards show, since studios are notorious for jockeying between competitions that sort-of fit (even sometimes making major stretches) while campaigning for projects that can arguably slide into different boxes. Naturally, producers prefer that their films land in the category with the least vicious competition, a move that may have been counterproductive for the Best Motion Picture Drama category. 2019 also brought major shenanigans occurring within TV categories, as we will discuss below.

This Globes category hot mess is nothing new, of course, but expect to hear plenty of mockery for Bohemian Rhapsody being included in a “Best” film category at all (when A Quiet Place was overlooked, as were critics favorites like First Reformed, Eighth Grade and Sorry to Bother You). Even though Queen fans loved the movie (and there were no doubts that Rami Malek would be nominated everywhere), there’s still some lingering ruckus about the movie’s timeline-tweaking of Mercury’s illness as well as the alleged downplaying of his private life.Black Panther breaks the superhero curse Superhero movies generally get the shaft when it comes to these ceremonies (unless we’re talking about the People’s Choice or MTV Movie Awards, which aren’t taken seriously at all, hence the Best Kiss category). Even Wonder Woman was snubbed in 2018, despite critics almost unanimously singing its praises, but there’s always been a clear message here — that comic book movies may rake in megadollars, but they’re not prestigious enough, so their stars can present awards, rather than win them, right Well, Marvel Studios made some cinematic history here by scoring their its first Best Drama nomination. The film also landed nods for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, so despite actor and actress snubs for the film, almost everything’s coming up Wakanda. Will this translate to the Oscars We’ll soon find out.The indie spirit isn’t strong this year: The Independent Spirit Award nominations recently arrived in droves for Eighth Grade and First Reformed, neither of which were substantially honored by the HFPA. Further adding to the oddness, Eighth Grade‘s Elsie Fisher was recognized for her performance, but Ethan Hawke got the shaft for his First Reformed turn as an alcoholic priest with a crisis of faith. Hawke’s been raking in the awards this season so far and recently gave a firey and much-lauded speech at the Gotham Awards, so it’s notable that he wasn’t nominated for a Globe. Likewise, Toni Collette was expected to gain a nod for her terrifyingly transformative turn in A24’s Hereditary, and that didn’t happen. Then again, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman was mostly shut out of the Indie Spirits, but it received a Best Drama nomination from the Globes, so there’s that.Audiences are still in the dark on some movies: Yes, it’s often the case that some awards season-type movies don’t arrive in theater until almost Christmas, and many don’t arrive at all except in the larger cities, so unless folks are lucky enough to live in LA or NYC or attend festivals, they don’t get to see these films until they stream on iTunes in January or February. Mary Poppins Returns should be a big success when it arrives in multiplexes on Dec. 19, but as of now, the only widely-circulated nomination in the Best Comedy category is Crazy Rich Asians, which obviously limits public discussion about that batch of films.The most serious snub of all: Even though we’re seeing worthy crowdpleasers on this nominations list, the HPFA has done the unthinkable and shut out Paddington 2 across the board. Granted, it didn’t fit into the Animated category, but seriously, was there no room in Comedy/Musical for this movie Yes, the film is full of heart and contains some drama, but these categories are so loosey-goosey, that leaving out the Pervuian bear seems like a crime. And when a children‘s sequel takes great pains to pull a Godfather II in terms of quality, pays homage to Wes Anderson, and Hugh Grant gets snubbed despite shining as a dancing villain, there are simply no excuses left. Yes, both Grant and Paddington voice Ben Whishaw were nominated for A Very English Scandal in a TV category, but this omission still stings like the dickens. Get it together, HFPA.