The Golden Globes really are back.
After a scandal-ridden few years that had the Golden Globes on the ropes, that awards body’s influence could be felt all over the Oscar nominations. Would “I’m Still Here” have overperformed — picking up nominations for picture, international film and lead actress Fernanda Torres — if Torres hadn’t won a Golden Globe for best actress in a drama just before the extended Oscar-voting process began? Would Demi Moore be considered an Oscar front-runner if she hadn’t delivered such a dynamite Golden Globe speech? Though the Globes don’t always get it right, it’s hard to beat the impact of a televised awards moment, and Oscar strategists will be eager to repeat these victories next season. Not bad for a ceremony that Hollywood banded together to drive off the air in 2022.
A hard truth to swallow.
In “Hard Truths,” Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, an unhappy woman with a never-ending list of grievances. Well, you can add one more to the list: Even though Jean-Baptiste took top honors from critics groups in New York and Los Angeles as well as the National Society of Film Critics, the academy paid her dust. What gives? Though I predicted that Jean-Baptiste would just barely make the best actress lineup, it was hard to shake the number of male voters I spoke to who simply didn’t like the character. When a woman suffers nobly, it’s Oscar bait. But when she makes others suffer, not so much.
A supporting-actress race, reshuffled.
Over the last decade, actors who have been nominated at no other major precursors besides the Screen Actors Guild Awards don’t typically make the Oscar lineup. Good on Monica Barbaro, then, for beating those steep odds: The 34-year-old actress, who plays Joan Baez in “A Complete Unknown,” earned a supporting-actress nomination over tough competition that included Jamie Lee Curtis (“The Last Showgirl”), Danielle Deadwyler (“The Piano Lesson”), Margaret Qualley (“The Substance”) and Selena Gomez (“Emilia Pérez”).
‘Challengers’ loses its biggest match.
Though it was one of my favorite films of the year, I wasn’t bullish on “Challengers” earning any Oscar nominations: The movie was simply too fun and came out way too early in the year. Still, you might have hoped for at least one nomination for original score, since the thrumming techno beats composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross gave us the year’s most distinctive film music. Alas, the Oscars snubbed their score entirely, even though Reznor and Ross won the Golden Globe for it just weeks ago. (OK, maybe the Golden Globes’ renewed influence only extends so far.)
‘Emilia Pérez’ makes history.
How well did “Emilia Pérez” do? With 13 Oscar nominations, the movie led the field on Thursday, and if Gomez had managed to snag that supporting-actress nomination, it would have tied the record of 14 nominations held by “All About Eve,” “Titanic” and “La La Land.” But the movie still made Oscar history with its leading woman Karla Sofía Gascón, who became the first openly trans actress to be nominated for an Academy Award. Two cisgender actors have won Oscars for playing trans roles, Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”) and Hilary Swank (“Boys Don’t Cry”), but if Gascón prevails, she will become the first trans actor to have done so.
