“Mank,” a biopic about screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz and his struggle to complete the script for “Citizen Kane,” will carry a leading six nominations into Sunday night’s presentation of the 78th Golden Globe Awards, which will be a bi-coastal and mostly virtual affair due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Mank” and another Netflix film, Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” are both nominated best motion picture drama, along with “The Father,” “Nomadland” and “Promising Young Woman.” Competing for the musical/comedy film prize are “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “Hamilton,” “Music,” “Palm Springs” and Netflix’s “The Prom.”
On the television side of the awards, Netflix’s “The Crown” leads all nominees with six, including a nod for best drama series, a category that also includes HBO’s “Lovecraft Country,” Disney+’s “The Mandalorian” and Netflix’s “Ozark” and “Ratched.”
Another Netflix series, “Emily in Paris,” is nominated for best comedy/musical series, along with HBO Max’s “The Flight Attendant,” Hulu’s “The Great,” PopTV’s “Schitt’s Creek” and Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso.”
Netflix has the most nominations overall, dwarfing all other platforms with 22 motion picture nominations and 20 TV nods.
The Golden Globe film nominations generated some criticism of the sponsoring Hollywood Foreign Press Association, with the critically acclaimed Black-oriented productions “One Night in Miami,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Da 5 Bloods” left out of the best picture categories. The HFPA has also been fending off renewed criticism sparked by a series of Los Angeles Times reports about its limited voting membership — about 90 people — and its lack of any Black members.
In fact, the HFPA issued a public statement Friday, vowing to do better.
“We are fully committed to ensuring our membership is reflective of the communities around the world who love film, TV and the artists inspiring and educating them,” according to the group. “We understand that we need to bring in Black members, as well as members from other underrepresented backgrounds, and we will immediately work to implement an action plan to achieve these goals as soon as possible.”
Although it didn’t land among the best drama film nominations, Netflix’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” did receive lead actor nominations for Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman.
Joining Davis in the best drama actress category are Andra Day for “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” Vanessa Kirby for “Pieces of a Woman,” Frances McDormand for “Nomadland” and Carey Mulligan for “Promising Young Woman.”
Along with Boseman, nominees for best drama actor are Riz Ahmed in “Sound of Metal,” Anthony Hopkins for “The Father,” Gary Oldman for “Mank” and Tahar Rahim for “The Mauritanian.”
Sacha Baron Cohen is a double nominee in the acting categories, scoring nods for his lead role the musical/comedy “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and for his supporting turn in “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
He is joined in the musical/comedy actor category by James Corden for “The Prom,” Lin-Manuel Miranda for “Hamilton,” Dev Patel for “The Personal History of David Copperfield” and Andy Samberg for “Palm Springs.”
Cohen’s “Borat” co-star Maria Bakalova is nominated for best actress in a musical/comedy film, along with Kate Hudson for “Music,” Michelle Pfeiffer for “French Exit,” Rosamund Pike for “I Care a Lot” and Anya Taylor-Joy for “Emma.”
Taylor-Joy is also a double nominee, earning a nod for best actress in a TV limited series for her work in Netflix’s smash hit “The Queen’s Gambit.”
Sorkin is vying for best director for “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” as are David Fincher for “Mank,” Regina King for “One Night in Miami,” Chloe Zhao for “Nomadland” and Emerald Fennell for “Promising Young Woman.”
Sorkin, Zhao and Fennell are also nominated for best screenplay for penning the scripts to their films, as is Fincher’s father, Jack, for “Mank.” Rounding out the category are Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton for “The Father.”
Nominated along with Cohen for best supporting actor are Daniel Kaluuya for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Jared Leto for “The Little Things,” Bill Murray for “On the Rocks” and Leslie Odom Jr. for “One Night in Miami.”
Glenn Close is up for a supporting-actress prize for her role as a hard-smoking family matriarch in “Hillbilly Elegy,” with other nods going to Olivia Colman for “The Father,” Jodie Foster for “The Mauritanian,” Amanda Seyfried for “Mank” and Helena Zengel for “News of the World.”
Colman is also nominated for best actress in a TV drama series for her work on Netflix’s “The Crown.” Her co-star, Emma Corrin, is also nominated in the category, along with Jodie Comer for “Killing Eve,” Laura Linney for “Ozark” and Sarah Paulson for “Ratched.” Colman won the prize last year.
Jason Bateman has his third drama-series actor nomination for “Ozark,” while Bob Odenkirk has his fourth nod in the category for “Better Call Saul.” Also nominated are Josh O’Connor for “The Crown,” Al Pacino for “Hunters” and Matthew Rhys for “Perry Mason.”
Recent Emmy winners Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy are both nominated in the comedy/musical series lead-acting categories for “Schitt’s Creek.”
O’Hara will square off with Lily Collins from “Emily in Paris,” Kaley Cuoco for “The Flight Attendant,” Elle Fanning for “The Great” and Jane Levy for “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.”
Competing with Levy for musical/comedy series actor honors are Don Cheadle for “Black Monday,” Nicholas Hoult for “The Great,” Jason Sudeikis for “Ted Lasso” and Ramy Youssef for “Ramy.”
Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Unorthodox” are both nominated for best limited series or TV movie, as are Hulu’s “Normal People,” Amazon’s “Small Axe” and HBO’s “The Undoing.”
Anya Taylor-Joy is a strong contender for best actress in a limited series/TV movie for “The Queen’s Gambit,” but she’s facing some big-name competition among fellow nominees Cate Blanchett of “Mrs. America,” Nicole Kidman of “The Undoing,” Daisy Edgar-Jones of “Normal People” and Shira Haas of “Unorthodox.”
The best actor category for limited series/TV movies is also a star-studded affair, with nominations going to Bryan Cranston for “Your Honor,” Jeff Daniels for “The Comey Rule,” Hugh Grant for “The Undoing,” Ethan Hawke for “The Good Lord Bird” and Mark Ruffalo for “I Know This Much is True.”
The Golden Globes will be presented in a bi-coastal, mostly virtual format, with Tina Fey hosting from the Rainbow Room in New York and Amy Poehler from the show’s traditional home at the Beverly Hilton.
Jane Fonda will be presented with the HFPA’s Cecil B. DeMille Award during the ceremony, while Norman Lear will receive the Carol Burnett Award for television achievement.
Since the Hollywood Foreign Press Association divided its film category into two formats for the Golden Globes in 1963, 63 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 a best picture Oscar 28 of 57 times. The musical/comedy winner has won eight times at the Oscars, most recently in 2019, when “Green Book” won the Academy Award for best picture.
Last year, “1917” won the Globe for best drama and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” won for best musical/comedy, but the Oscar best picture prize went to “Parasite.”