2017 Golden Globe Nominations

As it inevitably must every year at this time, awards season has begun. This morning, actors Don Cheadle, Laura Dern and Anna Kendrick announced the 2017 Golden Globe nominations for movies and TV.

I don’t know if it’s just typical Golden Globes quirkiness, but this seems like a particularly unexciting year in almost every category, with no standouts that look destined to take the Oscars by storm later. (To be perfectly clear, the only value the Globe nominations hold at all are as possible Oscar predictors. No one takes the Globes themselves seriously.)

Best Motion Picture: Drama

  • ‘Hacksaw Ridge’
  • ‘Hell or High Water’
  • ‘Lion’
  • ‘Manchester by the Sea’
  • ‘Moonlight’

I guess Mel Gibson’s career and image rehabilitation are working for him. At least, the Globe voters have forgiven him enough to give his grisly, faith-based war drama ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ nominations for Best Picture Drama, Best Director, and Best Actor (Andrew Garfield). I’m not certain that it will do so well when the Oscars come around. The movie’s critical response and box office were pretty tepid.

The rest of the choices here were all acclaimed and are probable Oscar contenders (especially ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Manchester by the Sea’). Then again, it wouldn’t surprise me if any (or all) of them got snubbed in the Best Picture category there. I don’t think that any of them screams out to me as a big Oscar winner, though they may take prizes in other categories (‘Manchester by the Sea’ for Best Actor, ‘Moonlight’ for the Best Screenplay consolation trophy).

Best Motion Picture: Comedy or Musical

  • ’20th Century Women’
  • ‘Deadpool’
  • ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’
  • ‘La La Land’
  • ‘Sing Street’

I’m a little disappointed that the Globes didn’t nominate any straight-up dramas in the Comedy/Musical category this year, as happens quite often. (‘The Martian’ even won last year.) I don’t know much about ’20th Century Women’, but IMDb labels it a comedy/drama. I guess it’s not unreasonable to call ‘Deadpool’ a comedy. The others are all solidly musicals.

‘La La Land’ is very likely to score an Oscar nomination. The others, much less so.

Best Animated Feature

  • ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’
  • ‘My Life as a Zucchini’
  • ‘Moana’
  • ‘Sing’
  • ‘Zootopia’

I’d never heard of the zucchini movie before. From the trailers, ‘Sing’ looks pretty crappy and undeserving. ‘Moana’ will win both here and at the Oscars.

Best Director

  • Damien Chazelle, ‘La La Land’
  • Tom Ford, ‘Nocturnal Animals’
  • Mel Gibson, ‘Hacksaw Ridge’
  • Barry Jenkins, ‘Moonlight’
  • Kenneth Lonergan, ‘Manchester by the Sea’

I predict Damien Chazelle will win this category, at least at the Globes.

Best Actor: Motion Picture Drama

  • Casey Affleck, ‘Manchester by the Sea’
  • Joel Edgerton, ‘Loving’
  • Andrew Garfield, ‘Hacksaw Ridge’
  • Viggo Mortensen, ‘Captain Fantastic’
  • Denzel Washington, ‘Fences’

At the moment, this looks like Casey Affleck’s year to sweep a bunch of acting trophies.

Best Actress: Motion Picture Drama

  • Amy Adams, ‘Arrival’
  • Jessica Chastain, ‘Miss Sloane’
  • Isabelle Huppert, ‘Elle’
  • Ruth Negga, ‘Loving’
  • Natalie Portman, ‘Jackie’

‘Miss Sloane’ and ‘Jackie’ both exist as movies for no other reason than to secure their leads Best Actress nominations. The Globes love that sort of thing, so this trophy will probably go to one of them.

Best Actor: Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

  • Colin Farrell, ‘The Lobster’
  • Hugh Grant, ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’
  • Ryan Gosling, ‘La La Land’
  • Jonah Hill, ‘War Dogs’
  • Ryan Reynolds, ‘Deadpool’

Ryan Gosling, maybe? I don’t feel strongly about the odds for any of these.

Best Actress: Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

  • Annette Bening, ’20th Century Women’
  • Lily Collins, ‘Rules Don’t Apply’
  • Hailee Steinfeld, ‘The Edge of Seventeen’
  • Emma Stone, ‘La La Land’
  • Meryl Streep, ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’

Emma Stone, same comment as above.

Best Drama Series

  • ‘The Crown’
  • ‘Game of Thrones’
  • ‘Stranger Things’
  • ‘This Is Us’
  • ‘Westworld’

Moving into the TV categories, the only returning drama series here is ‘Game of Thrones’, which didn’t have its best year. ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Westworld’ are the most heavily-buzzed new shows of the year. Both are very uneven, but that never stopped anything from winning a Golden Globe.

I’d never even heard of ‘The Crown’ before.

Best Comedy Series

  • ‘Atlanta’
  • ‘Black-ish’
  • ‘Mozart in the Jungle’
  • ‘Transparent’
  • ‘Veep’

I honestly can’t even make a prediction for this. Any of these is as likely to win as the others.

Best TV Movie or Miniseries

  • ‘American Crime’
  • ‘The Dresser’
  • ‘The Night Manager’
  • ‘The Night Of’
  • ‘The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story’

I didn’t care for it, personally, but ‘The People vs. O.J. Simpson’ got big buzz and big ratings, which will impress the Globe voters.

The full list of nominations can be found on the official Golden Globes web site. Jimmy Fallon will host the awards ceremony on January 8th, 2017.

6 comments

  1. T.J. Kats

    Tend to agree(feel apathetic towards) with most of your thoughts on the categories. With that said I wouldn’t count out Zootopia. I haven’t had a chance to see Moana but Zootopia was excellent.

  2. At least the Globes keep things interesting with their nominations. I doubt very highly if we’ll see much of Deadpool or even Hacksaw Ridge on the Oscar ballots (except in more minor categories).

    I’m surprised Denzel Washington’s Fences didn’t get more love…I’ve heard good buzz, but I’m also biased because it was filmed in my neck of the woods.

    With the above in mind, La La Land and Manchester by the Sea seem to be the two movies competing for Oscar gold as of this time. We’ll see if that trend continues.

    • I agree with you. The battle seems to be between La La and Manchester. I’d like to see ‘Lion’ creep in there.

      I watched Fences over the weekend. The first half is excellent, but I felt it lost steam with the second half. Denzel and Viola absolutely knock it out of the park with their performances though.

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