The good, the bad and the ugly of this year’s Golden Globe nominations

By: Ben Thomson, staff writer

Remember when Parasite won best picture last year? That was pretty cool.

Generally, the Golden Globes kind of suck. It’s not a secret that the nominees are chosen based on fame of the filmmaker rather than merit of the movie. They are useful, however, for mapping out the nominees of other award shows. They’re never 100% correct, but generally most Golden Globe nominees go on to compete in the Academy Awards. So, against my better judgement, I checked out the list of nominees. Then I checked again to make sure I read them right.

I can’t entirely blame Globe voters for this year’s turn out. It’s kind of hard to award movies in a year where there were so few releases in the first place. But, there’s a deeper issue at play here. Rather than go through all 26 categories, I’ve decided to give a general overview of what the competition looks like.

The Good

Before I navigate the minefield of mistakes made by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, I’d like to give credit where it’s due. Unsurprisingly, Mank received the most recognition, bringing home six nominations, including Picture, Director and Actor. While it wasn’t my favorite of the year (that one was nowhere to be found), I’m glad it got as much recognition as it did. I was also glad to see Thomas Vinterburg’s Another Round receive a Best Foreign Film nomination.

The Bad

Let’s begin with The Trial of the Chicago 7. Aaron Sorkin’s second feature film as a director certainly wants to be a relevant piece of cinema. In doing so, however, Chicago 7 falls into the neoliberal trap all of Sorkin’s writing ends up in. The intention was there, but nothing of substance was said. But of course, award shows love to nominate that kind of thing. They also seem to love nominating five-year-old taped Broadway performances. 

Yes, Hamilton on Disney+ has been nominated for not only Best Musical or Comedy, but also Best Comedic/Musical Actor and Supporting Actor. 

Besides making absolutely no sense, nominating Hamilton, a musical that hasn’t exactly aged that well, goes to show how disconnected and out of touch the Golden Globe voters actually are. Speaking of… 

The Ugly

Music is perhaps the most egregious nomination at this year’s Globes. This is Sia’s directorial debut that follows a young girl with autism. For starters, the film hasn’t come out yet. Nobody, not even critics, had seen or heard of Music when the nominees were announced. What was known, however, was that Maddie Ziegler was cast as the titular character, despite not having autism herself. 

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the film was heavily promoted by Autism Speaks, a controversial organization that sees autism as a disease that needs to be cured. 

And the worst part? Films like Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom received little recognition (in Bloods’ case, none), despite each being well received.

 Could it be that yet another awards show chose to nominate an ethically questionable film instead of something made by a Black filmmaker? I’m absolutely gobsmacked. 

At this point, all we can do is hope that the Oscars do a better job with nominations. 

F*ck the Golden Globes; all my homies hate the Golden Globes.