Every year, the Golden Globes function largely as a precursor to the Oscars. This year’s Academy Awards race already featured a broad group of contenders without a clear frontrunner, but Thursday morning’s Globe nominations did little to narrow the field. This was perhaps predictable: The Hollywood Foreign Press divides the awards into two categories, drama and comedy/musical, allowing a bigger pool of nominations and a better chance to have major stars attend the ceremony.
While the film nominees were a predictable bunch, the television picks were more surprising—and diverse. It echoed last year’s ceremony, where the film winners were more staid, while the TV section included underdog champions like Transparent and Jane the Virgin. As they often do, the Globes leaned toward new shows like Mr. Robot and Empire, leaving last year’s winners like The Affair and Jane the Virgin largely in the cold. They also doled out nominations to streaming networks like Amazon (for Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle), Hulu (Casual), and Netflix (Narcos, Master of None, and Orange Is the New Black), reflecting the boom in Internet-only television in the past few years.
After the major film critics groups chose a historically large batch of winners, the Hollywood Foreign Press anointed most presumed Oscar contenders, like Spotlight, Room, Carol, and The Revenant, while giving crucial support to outside shots like Will Smith in the NFL drama Concussion and the Bryan Cranston film Trumbo. In all this, one thing remains clear—there’s still no juggernaut positioned for an easy Oscar sweep.
