“Carol,” the story of a budding romance between two women in 1950s New York, will carry a leading five nominations into Sunday night’s 73rd annual Golden Globe Awards, including a nod for best picture and competing best actress bids for co-stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
The film is nominated for best dramatic motion picture along with “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “The Revenant,” “Room” and “Spotlight.” For comedy/musical motion pictures, nominees are “The Big Short,” “Joy,” “The Martian,” “Spy” and “Trainwreck.”
While the Golden Globes are often assumed to foretell winners of the upcoming Academy Awards, the record is mixed in predicting Oscar victories.
In addition to its nominations for best drama and actress for Blanchett and Mara, “Carol” also has nods for best director for Todd Haynes and best original score for Carter Burwell.
Joining Blanchett and Mara in the best drama actress category are Brie Larson, for her portrayal of a woman held captive with her son in “Room,” Saoirse Ronan for “Brooklyn” and Alicia Vikander for “The Danish Girl.”
Will Smith is up for best drama actor for his role as a doctor taking on the NFL in “Concussion.” He will face stiff competition against Leonardo DiCaprio for his bear-attack and death-defying character in “The Revenant,” Bryan Cranston as a blacklisted writer in “Trumbo,” Michael Fassbender for the title role in “Steve Jobs” and Eddie Redmayne for his cross-dressing turn in “The Danish Girl.”
Jennifer Lawrence is nominated by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for best actress in a motion picture comedy or musical for “Joy,” although the film’s classification as a comedy has been questioned by some pundits, as was the placement of “The Martian” in the comedy categories, with Matt Damon earning a best actor nod.
Lawrence will square off with Melissa McCarthy of “Spy,” Amy Schumer of “Trainwreck,” Maggie Smith for “The Lady in the Van” and Lily Tomlin for “Grandma.”
Along with Damon, nominees for best comedy/musical actor are Christian Bale and Steve Carell for “The Big Short,” Al Pacino for “Danny Collins” and Mark Ruffalo for “Infinitely Polar Bear.”
Sylvester Stallone is nominated for best supporting actor for his return to the role of Rocky Balboa in “Creed.” Idris Elba is also nominated in the category for his performance in Netflix’s African war drama “Beasts of No Nation,” as are Paul Dano for “Love & Mercy,” Mark Rylance for “Bridge of Spies” and Michael Shannon for “99 Homes.”
Alicia Vikander, in addition to her best actress nod for “The Danish Girl,” also has a supporting-actress nomination for her work as a self-aware robot in “Ex Machina.” She will compete with veteran actress Jane Fonda of “Youth,” Jennifer Jason Leigh of “The Hateful Eight,” Helen Mirren of “Trumbo” and Kate Winslet of “Steve Jobs.”
Oscar winner Alejandro G. Inarritu, who lost out on a Golden Globe last year for directing “Birdman,” is nominated for best director again this year for “The Revenant.” In addition to Haynes for “Carol,” Tom McCarthy for “Spotlight,” George Miller for “Mad Max: Fury Road” and Ridley Scott for “The Martian” are also nominated.
Tom McCarthy is nominated along with Josh Singer for their screenplay for “Spotlight,” which tells the story of The Boston Globe’s investigation into sex abuse by priests. Quentin Tarantino is nominated for the screenplay of his Western “The Hateful Eight,” along with Emma Donoghue for “Room,” Aaron Sorkin for the biopic “Steve Jobs” and Charles Randolph and Adam McKay for the housing-bubble tale “The Big Short.”
“The Hateful Eight” and “Steve Jobs” also have original score nominations for Ennio Morricone and Daniel Pemberton, respectively. Also nominated are Burwell for “Carol,” Alexandre Desplat for “The Danish Girl” and Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto for “The Revenant.”
Competing for best animated feature are “Anomalisa,” “The Good Dinosaur,” “Inside Out,” “The Peanuts Movie” and “Shaun the Sheep Movie.”
The Golden Globes are often touted as an indication of how Oscar nominations will go, but the record is mixed. Since the Hollywood Foreign Press Association adopted the split drama/comedy-musical format for the Golden Globes in 1963, 65 percent of the films that ended up with best picture Academy Awards had first received a Golden Globe.
The Golden Globe drama winner has gone on to win best picture 27 of 52 times — or 52 percent. The musical/comedy winner has won seven times at the Oscars, including each of the first three years.
Last year, the Golden Globe for best drama went to “Boyhood.” The Oscar for best picture went to “Birdman,” which was nominated in the comedy/musical category at the Golden Globes, losing to “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”
On the television side of the awards, best drama nominees are “Empire,” “Game of Thrones,” “Mr. Robot,” “Narcos” and “Outlander.” For comedies, “Casual” is the first Globe nominee produced by the Hulu streaming service. Also nominated are Amazon’s “Mozart in the Jungle” and “Transparent,” Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black” and HBO’s “Silicon Valley” and “Veep.”
For limited series or made-for-TV movies, “American Crime,” “American Horror Story: Hotel,” “Fargo,” “Flesh & Bone” and “Wolf Hall” will compete for the top honor.
Jon Hamm has a best drama actor nomination for his work in the farewell season of “Mad Men,” although the series itself isn’t nominated. Last year’s drama actor winner, Kevin Spacey of “House of Cards,” wasn’t nominated either, with nods going instead to Rami Malek of “Mr. Robot,” Wagner Moura of “Narcos,” Bob Odenkirk of “Better Call Saul” and Liev Schreiber of “Ray Donovan.”
Emmy winner Viola Davis is nominated again for best drama actress for “How to Get Away with Murder.” Spacey’s “House of Cards” co-star Robin Wright is also nominated, as are Caitriona Balfe of “Outlander,” Eva Green for “Penny Dreadful” and Taraji P. Henson for “Empire.”
Gina Rodriguez, a surprise winner last year for best comedy actress for “Jane the Virgin,” will look for a repeat, but she’s up against Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus for “Veep,” Rachel Bloom for “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” Jamie Lee Curtis for “Scream Queens” and Lily Tomlin for “Grace and Frankie.”
Best comedy actor hopefuls are Aziz Ansari for “Master of None,” Gael Garcia Bernal of “Mozart in the Jungle,” Rob Lowe for “The Grinder,” Patrick Stewart for “Blunt Talk” and last year’s winner, Jeffrey Tambor for “Transparent.”
The Globes will be presented at the Beverly Hilton in a ceremony hosted by Ricky Gervais, who is hosting for the fourth time.
— City News Service