Jacques Audiard's audacious musical "Emilia Pérez," about a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender-affirming surgery, led nominations for the 82nd Golden Globes on Monday, scoring 10 nods to lead it over other contenders like the musical smash "Wicked," the papal thriller "Conclave" and the postwar epic "The Brutalist."
The nominations for the Globes, which will be televised by CBS and streamed on Paramount+ on Jan. 5, were announced Monday morning by Mindy Kaling and Morris Chestnut.
The embattled Globes, which are no longer presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are still in comeback mode after years of scandal and organizational upheaval. Working in the Globes' favor this year: an especially starry field of nominees. Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Denzel Washington, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Glen Powell and Selena Gomez all scored nominations.
The drama about a young Donald Trump, "The Apprentice," also landed nominations for its two central performances, by Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn. The president-elect has called "The Apprentice" a "politically disgusting hatchet job" made by "human scum."
How much the recent presidential election will figure into Hollywood's awards season remains to be seen. In the season's first awards ceremony, the Gotham Awards, Trump went unmentioned but sometimes was alluded to. Stan also received a nomination Monday for the dark comedy "A Different Man."
While "Oppenheimer" and, to a lesser degree, "Barbie" sailed into the Globes nominations as the clear heavyweights of awards season last year, no such front-runner has emerged this year -- and, with the exception of "Wicked," most of the contenders are far lighter on box office. The Globes don't often align with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, a much larger group that far more closely reflects the film industry. But they can give movies a major boost, and ripe fodder for their awards marketing.
NETFLIX DOMINATES
Netflix, which acquired "Emilia Pérez" after its Cannes Film Festival debut, dominated the nominations, leading all studios in film nods (13) and in the TV categories (23).
"Emilia Pérez," an operatic genre-skipping movie that combines elements of a narco thriller, a Broadway musical and a trans drama, scored nominations for its three stars: Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña and Gomez. No comedy or musical has ever received more Globe nominations.
Brady Corbet's "The Brutalist" landed seven nominations, including best picture, drama, and acting nods for Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce. The soon-to-be-released film from A24 is uncommonly ambitious, with a run time of three-and-a-half hours, including an intermission.
A24 narrowly trailed Netflix in the film categories, scoring 12 nominations, including best actor, drama, for Hugh Grant's darkest turn yet in the horror film "Heretic." In a statement, Grant thanked the directors, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, "for spotting my need to kill."
Close behind it was Edward Berger's "Conclave," starring Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal tasked with leading the conclave to elect a new pope. It landed six nominations, including best picture, drama, and acting nods for Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini.
Sean Baker's Palme d'Or-winning "Anora," starring Mikey Madison as a Brooklyn sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, was nominated for five awards, including best picture, comedy or musical, and best female actor for Madison and best supporting actor for Yura Borisov.
The Globes will be hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser, who scored her own nomination for best stand-up special. CBS, which began airing the Globes last year on a new deal, hopes Glaser manages to do better than last year's master of ceremonies, Jo Koy, whose stint was widely panned.
The nominees for best motion picture, drama, are: "The Brutalist"; "A Complete Unknown"; "Conclave"; "Dune: Part Two"; "Nickel Boys;" and "September 5."
The nominees for best film, musical or comedy, are: "Wicked"; "Anora"; "Emilia Pérez"; "Challengers"; "A Real Pain"; and "The Substance."
STANDOUTS
Coralie Fargeat's gory body horror satire "The Substance," starring Demi Moore as an actress who resorts to extremes to stay young in a Hollywood obsessed with young beauty, landed five nominations, including nods for Moore and her younger doppelganger, Margaret Qualley.
Among animated movies, DreamWorks' "The Wild Robot" also had an especially good day. The tale of the shipwrecked robot came away with four nominations, including one for cinematic and box office achievement, a relatively new category populated by big ticket-sellers like "Deadpool & Wolverine" and "Inside Out 2." The strong showing suggests the other animated nominees -- "Flow," "Inside Out 2," "Memoir of a Snail," "Moana 2," "Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl" -- may have a hard time besting "The Wild Robot."
The Bob Dylan film "A Complete Unknown," starring Chalamet, also had a lot to celebrate. Coming off an endorsement from Dylan himself, the film landed nominations for Chalamet, Edward Norton (who plays Woody Guthrie) and best picture, drama.
Pamela Anderson also landed her first Golden Globe nomination. In "The Last Showgirl," Anderson plays an aging Las Vegas showgirl, a performance that's led to the best reviews of Anderson's career. She was nominated for best female actor, drama, alongside Jolie ("Maria"), Nicole Kidman ("Babygirl"), Tilda Swinton ("The Room Next Door"), Fernanda Torres ("I'm Still Here") and -- in a surprise -- Kate Winslet ("Lee").
Anderson, reached by video conference Monday, said she put her whole life into the film.
"I was making pickles and jam. I didn't think I'd be doing any more in this industry," she said. "I was a little disappointed in myself and was kind of reassessing some of my life choices. But then this came up."
"The Bear," which dominated the 2024 Globes, led all series with five nominations for its third season. That included nods for Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, Liza Colón-Zayas and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Its stiffest competition this year might come from the FX series "Shogun" (four nominations, including acting nods for Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada) or Apple TV's "Slow Horses" (nods for Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden).
"Only Murders in the Building" again led the comedy or musical category, with nominations for its stars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Gomez, her second nomination to go with hers for "Emilia Pérez."
The Globes aren't ever quite drama-free, but things have settled down for the embattled awards body. After The Los Angeles Times reported that the HFPA voters included no Black members, among other issues, most of Hollywood boycotted the show and the 2022 ceremony was scrapped.
Last January's Globes were the first after the disbanding of the HFPA and its acquisition by Dick Clark Productions and billionaire Todd Boehly's private equity firm Eldridge Industries. However, earlier this fall, the Ankler reported that former members of the HFPA filed a letter with the California attorney general's office questioning "the validity of the purchase."
Though the 2024 Globes were mostly panned, ratings improved. According to Nielsen, about 9.5 million people watched, leading CBS to give the show a five-year deal.
Last year, the Globes introduced two new categories that remain this time around: the cinematic and box office achievement award and the best performance in stand-up comedy on television. One tweak this time comes in the lifetime achievement awards. This year, those are going to Ted Danson (for the Carol Burnett Award) and Viola Davis (for the Cecil B. DeMille Award). Those will be handed out at a gala dinner on Jan. 3, two days before the Globes.
Information for this article was contributed by Ryan Pearson of The Associated Press.
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Timothee Chalamet, left, and Zendaya in a scene from "Dune: Part Two." (Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
FILE - Ted Danson appears at a promotional event for "The Good Place" in Los Angeles on June 19, 2018. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
This image released by A24 shows Daniel Craig, left, and Drew Starkey in a scene from "Queer." (Yannis Drakoulidis/A24 via AP)
A podium and replicas of Golden Globe statues appear prior to the nominations announcement for the 82nd Golden Globes on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. The 82nd Golden Globes will be held on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Karla Sofia Gascon, of Spain, winner of the European Actress category for "Emilia Perez", accepts her award during the European Film Awards gala at the Culture and Convention Center KKL in Lucerne, Switzerland, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (Michael Buholzer/Keystone via AP)
This image released by Netflix shows Karla Sofía Gascón, right, and Zoe Saldaña in a scene from "Emilia Pérez." (Shanna Besson/Netflix via AP)
Mindy Kaling, right, speaks as Morris Chestnut looks on during the nominations for the 82nd Golden Globes on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. The 82nd Golden Globes will be held on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Kieran Culkin, left, and Jesse Eisenberg in a scene from "A Real Pain." (Searchlight Pictures via AP)
This image released by Neon shows Mark Eydelshteyn, left, and Mikey Madison in a scene from "Anora." (Neon via AP)