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Golden Globes 2020 nominations: 7 talking points, from Robert De Niro’s snub to a lack of Cats

Find out which films and TV shows will battle it out for trophies in January

Jacob Stolworthy,Adam White

Monday 09 December 2019 14:38 GMT

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Judy trailer: Renee Zellweger is Judy Garland

The Irishman and Marriage Story dominated this afternoon’s Golden Globes nominations, providing us with our most significant prediction of the awards season to come.

Tim Allen, Dakota Fanning and Susan Kelechi Watson were tasked with speeding through the nods during the announcement ceremony in Los Angeles.

Recognition for the likes of Dolemite Is My Name, Unbelievable, Booksmart and Succession was a pleasant surprise, but the nominations did, somewhat inevitably, create some questions.

With major names snubbed, Game of Thrones a non-factor and Cats potentially confirmed as a disaster, the nominations have left us with lots to ponder.

Here are the seven major takeaways from the Globes nominations.

The 40 best films of the decade

Show all 40

1/40The 40 best films of the decade

The 40 best films of the decade

40. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

A helter-skelter ride of a movie, satirical, very witty and showing its director’s immense affection for the B-movie actors, stunt men and hangers on who make up its cast. It’s also a tribute to Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). Who would have believed that a film set just as the Sixties in LA turned sour could be so uplifting? Geoffrey Macnab

Sony/Columbia/Rex

The 40 best films of the decade

39. The Master

The world isn’t scared enough of Scientology, but perhaps it would be if enough people had seen The Master. Paul Thomas Anderson depicts (a fictionalised version of) the cult as a trap for bruised masculinity. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix contort themselves into primitive creatures of greed and desire. It’s an ugly film, in the very best sense of the word. Clarisse Loughrey

Snap Stills/Rex

The 40 best films of the decade

38. The Irishman

Scorsese summons all his sad captains for one last reunion in his magisterial gangster epic. De Niro, Pesci, Keitel and (newcomer) Pacino are all cast in a film as much about friendship, memory and betrayal as it is about corruption in the Teamster union or Mafia violence. GM

Netflix via AP

The 40 best films of the decade

37. Inside Out

This is Pixar’s boldest and strangest animated feature. It takes us deep inside the mind of its heroine, 11-year-old Riley, where her unconscious is shown as akin to a magical theme park; emotions like Joy and Sadness feature as characters. Director Pete Docter deals with complex subject matter in a lithe and inventive way, and without too many Freudian hang ups. GM

Moviestore/Rex

The 40 best films of the decade

36. Shoplifters

Hirokazu Kore-eda is like the Charles Dickens of contemporary Japanese cinema. He tells melodramatic family stories which would seem mawkish if they weren’t so brilliantly observed. Winner of the Palme D’Or in Cannes, this is one of his very best movies – a heart-tugging story about impoverished members of a makeshift family doing everything they can to survive. GM

Thunderbird Releasing

The 40 best films of the decade

35. Dogtooth

Dogtooth is a grim tale of isolation, incest, cat murder and DIY dentistry. But Yorgos Lanthimos has a hidden superpower up his sleeve: the more off-putting his films, the more you get drawn in. His work breeds curiosity. We want to solve the mystery of these strange worlds and their cold, inscrutable characters. The fact that there are no answers keeps us coming back for more. GM

Feelgood Entertainment

The 40 best films of the decade

34. Edge of Seventeen

Kelly Fremon Craig’s gorgeous if cruelly unrecognised The Edge of Seventeen is deliberately small in plot, with Hailee Steinfeld playing a grumpy teen horrified to discover her best friend is dating her older brother. But it is told with heartwarming urgency, reflective of the heightened, dizzying drama of merely being a teenager.

Moviestore/Rex

The 40 best films of the decade

33. A Quiet Passion

Reclusive New England poet Emily Dickinson, who published only a handful of poems during her lifetime, is brought to life in vivid fashion by actress Cynthia Nixon in Terence Davies’s biopic. She may look like a spinster aunt but Nixon shows us her passion, mischief and her eccentric brilliance.

Music Box Films

The 40 best films of the decade

32. Frances Ha

Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha is the definitive film about the quarter-life crisis, largely because it embraces the messiness of it all. We get the ups and the downs. We get the poorly-planned trip to Paris made by a young woman desperate to experience something profound. It’s a film without many dramatic conflicts, but marked by a gentle push towards accepting the inevitability of change.

IFC Films

The 40 best films of the decade

31. The Revenant

Famous for its scene of Leonardo Di Caprio being mauled by a bear, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s western is part survival drama, part revenge movie. It’s a wilderness tale on the very grandest scale. From the opening massacre to the snowbound denouement, it if full of moments that startle you with their violence and their beauty. GM

20th Century Fox

The 40 best films of the decade

30. Boyhood

Shot over 12 years, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is the ultimate coming-of-age movie. It follows main character Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from when he is seven years old until he is a young adult. It’s a testament to the patience and ingenuity of Linklater and to the exceptional work of his cast (including Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke) that the film never feels phoney. GM

Sundance Institute

The 40 best films of the decade

29. Hereditary

The horrors of Ari Aster’s occult contraption are matched only by the sheer volume of ideas crammed into it. A devastating kaleidoscope of stark images, mischievous easter eggs and pure, guttural horror, Hereditary asks a staggering amount of star Toni Collette, who wails and groans and weeps, as if conveying a full-body demolition in painful slow-motion. It is a performance for the ages in one of the best films in recent memory.

A24

The 40 best films of the decade

28. Melancholia

Kirsten Dunst is remarkable as a bride in the grips of mental illness shortly before the world ends. She conveys like few before her the surging apathy and bottomless self-loathing of depression, where everything, be it food or otherwise, tastes like ashes. The film that surrounds her is equally awe-inducing, distilling with grim elegance all of Lars von Trier’s polarising genius. AW

Canal+

The 40 best films of the decade

27. Selma

Selma is a masterclass in the historical biopic. Presenting a crucial moment in Martin Luther King Jr’s life without dramatic embellishment or emotional manipulation, it lets his legacy speak for itself, as Ava DuVernay wields her camera like a weapon of truth. Unabashedly political in its approach, Selma speaks plainly to the fact that society cannot pave its future without first understanding its past. CL

Paramount/Rex

The 40 best films of the decade

26. Boy

Taika Waititi’s films always end with the feeling that things will work themselves out. It’s not blind optimism, but something far more comforting – he believes deeply in people’s ability to weather even the worst of storms. This is most apparent in Boy, still his best film to date, which catalogues a young Maori boy’s dawning realisation that his absent father isn’t the hero he imagines him to be. CL

Transmission Films

The 40 best films of the decade

25. Dunkirk

British stoicism and grace under-fire are foregrounded in Christopher Nolan’s epic film about the Dunkirk evacuations. Nolan has a Cecil B De Mille-like genius for orchestrating crowd scenes and working with huge ensemble casts. He combines spectacle with very intimate moments that show the quiet desperation of the soldiers stranded on a French beach with little chance of escape.

Warner Bros

The 40 best films of the decade

24. Her

Her felt almost uncomfortably relevant upon its release in 2013, and even more so today. Not because it shows people falling in love with artificially intelligent operating systems voiced by Scarlett Johansson, which hasn’t exactly caught on (...yet), but for what it said about modern loneliness. It is a sparse, oddly human film, Joaquin Phoenix finding solace and romantic fulfilment in sparkly new technology, before everything falls apart. AW

Warner Bros

The 40 best films of the decade

23. Call Me by Your Name

Luca Guadagnino’s wonderfully evocative coming-of-age drama, set over a long, lazy Italian summer sometime in the 1980s, is notable for its frank but delicately observed account of the love affair between the precocious adolescent Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and the American academic, Oliver (Armie Hammer), who becomes part of the household. GM

Warner Bros

The 40 best films of the decade

22. Anomalisa

It may be animated but few live-action films have captured middle-aged male angst and disillusionment as well as Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa. David Thewlis’s exceptional voice work brings an extra, sardonic edge to its portrayal of the businessman on a work trip to Cincinnati. Kaufman captures the man’s vulnerability, boredom and creeping disappointment about the course his life has taken. GM

Paramount Pictures

The 40 best films of the decade

21. The Social Network

Described upon release as a lightly fictionalised account of the birth of Facebook, and as “hurtful” by Mark Zuckerberg himself, The Social Network was always spectacular, but its lessons have only deepened with time. It now resembles a terrifying warning about privacy, power, misogyny and the dangers of the internet, brought to life by David Fincher’s irresistibly cool direction, a characteristically snappy script by Aaron Sorkin and the dreamy, pulsating score by the now-ubiquitous Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It remains the most important film of the decade. AW

Columbia

The 40 best films of the decade

20. Black Swan

It’s important to occasionally remind yourself that Black Swan, a bonkers, uncompromising and horrifying ballet thriller, somehow grossed $329m at the box office. But even removed from its staggering financial success, Darren Aronofsky’s psychological creepshow is a creative triumph. Part Showgirls, part Polanski and all Perfect Blue, it flirts with camp, Cronenbergian body horror and shaky-cam intimacy, with the deservedly Oscar-winning Natalie Portman as the twirling, crumbling creature at its centre. AW

Moviestore/Shutterstock

The 40 best films of the decade

19. Roma

Roma takes two stories – one heartwrenching and intimate, the other sweeping and political – and weaves them together so delicately that they become one. It’s a tribute to the domestic worker who director Alfonso Cuarón says raised him. But it’s also the story of Mexico’s history, as seen through the perspective of those who have, for so long, been left voiceless. This is Cuarón’s masterpiece. CL

Carlos Somonte

The 40 best films of the decade

18. The Act of Killing

It feels remarkable, given how easy it is to turn away from evil, that The Act of Killing exists at all. Not only did Joshua Oppenheimer choose one of the perpetrators of the Indonesian genocide as his subject of his documentary, but he had him confront his own crimes through a series of cinematic reenactments. It is profoundly disturbing to watch. CL

Dogwoof

The 40 best films of the decade

17. Stoker

Park Chan-Wook’s twisted homage to Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt may be filled with beautiful things, but they’re laced with venom. When India (Mia Wasikowska) receives a visit from her enigmatic Uncle Charlie, she discovers they share a perverse kinship. Are they the same soul in two different bodies, or are they merely bound together by the stench of death that follows them wherever they go? CL

Rex Features

The 40 best films of the decade

16. The Selfish Giant

Like Ken Loach’s Kes, Clio Barnard’s Bradford-set tale, very loosely inspired by the Oscar Wilde story, combines lyricism with polemic. It captures brilliantly the mischief and resourcefulness of its two young protagonists (teenage kids excluded from school) while laying bare the brutality of the society in which they and their families are cast adrift. GM

Rex Features

The 40 best films of the decade

15. Son of Saul

In 'Son of Saul' Geza Rohrig plays a Hungarian-Jewish prisoner tasked with the extermination of his fellow Jews

Sony Pictures Entertainment

The 40 best films of the decade

14. Lady Bird

Lady Bird – and its story of a frustrated teen (Saoirse Ronan) trapped in Sacramento, California – is deeply attuned to how we relate to memory. It’s less about particular events than the emotions they create: a flash of adolescent alienation, a tearful goodbye at the airport, or the sensation of seeing a familiar place through new eyes.

A24

The 40 best films of the decade

13. The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson’s kitsch yarn, largely set in a luxurious spa hotel just before the Second World War, is an elegy for a lost world. Whether it’s Alexandre Desplat’s music, the eye-popping colours or the mannered but brilliant performances, all the elements here are perfectly judged. A film that could easily have seemed flimsy and conceited is instead utterly enrapturing. GM

Moviestore/Rex

The 40 best films of the decade

12. 12 Years a Slave

Steve McQueen’s harrowing period drama confronts audiences with the reality of slavery. Racist white owners treat their slaves as if they’re livestock, not human beings. Chiwetel Ejiofor excels as Solomon Northup, the free man sold into slavery. The film has a furious polemical charge but also works as a terrifying Kafkaesque drama about a man who falls off the face of the world. GM

Lionsgate

The 40 best films of the decade

11. Under the Skin

Scarlett Johansson tucking nervously into a slice of chocolate cake becomes one of cinema’s most humane and bittersweet moments courtesy of filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, whose once-in-a-blue-moon film projects have produced a trilogy of sinister classics. Like Sexy Beast and Birth before it, Under the Skin is a wild, beautiful pleasure, as haunting as it is tender and serenaded by a spindly, disquieting score by Mica Levi. AW

Filmnation/Rex

The 40 best films of the decade

10. 20th Century Women

20th Century Women is a small-scale comedy drama with the power of something bigger. A tapestry of restless lives figuring things out, it is about family, longing and feeling out of place. At its heart is Annette Bening, heartbreakingly empathetic as a woman out of time – too old for youthful bohemia and too young for her stuffy peers, and determined to raise her teenage son to be enlightened and brilliant. Rare is a fictional world so peacefully captivating.

A24

The 40 best films of the decade

9. You Were Never Really Here

Cinema is often at its most triumphant when it’s used as a tool for empathy, letting us climb into someone else’s brain and experience things that feel miles away from our own reality. That’s the revelatory power of Lynne Ramsay’s portrait of a PTSD-suffering vigilante, brought to life with incredible vulnerability by Joaquin Phoenix.

Amazon Studios

The 40 best films of the decade

8. Mad Max: Fury Road

In a recent interview, Parasite director Bong Joon-ho revealed that he’d shed a tear while watching George Miller’s unexpected return to the Mad Max franchise. He called it “something we cannot describe with our words: all we can do is just cry”. He’s right. Fury Road is, essentially, a feature-length car chase – but it’s hard to put into words how epic and symphonic it truly is. CL

Warner Bros

The 40 best films of the decade

7. Paddington 2

A soothing balm for all of our socio-political ills, Paddington 2 is the film we needed more than any other this decade. There are numerous delights here, from the majesty of Paul King and Simon Farnaby’s script and its elaborate sleights of hand, to a moustache-twirling Hugh Grant at his most magnificent. But more than anything, Paddington 2 is about the healing power of community and family, a message conveyed with wholesome warmth and pluck by the achingly sweet bear of the title. Michael Bond would be proud.

The 40 best films of the decade

6. American Honey

It took a woman from Dartford to capture the sprawling, stirring power of the American road and all that it promises. Of all the decade’s films, Andrea Arnold’s American Honey feels the most hungry to exist independently on its own, ignoring the rules of storytelling and bursting at the seams with wildness and colour. Sasha Lane – who had never acted before she was spotted by Arnold on a beach during spring break – plays working-class teenager Star, who yearns for a greater purpose and hitches a ride with a truckful of kids as adrift as she is. AW

Universal Pictures

The 40 best films of the decade

5. Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis is a kind of anti-Odyssey. In its story of a folk singer (Oscar Isaac) who hops from couch to couch, with no direction and few prospects, Llewyn becomes the weary Greek hero who not only struggles to find a way home, but realises he may not have a home to go to. It’s a deeply melancholic work.

CBS Films

The 40 best films of the decade

4. Phantom Thread

Phantom Thread is a love story in a funhouse mirror – fizzy and feather-light, but with a barbed and kinky underbelly that could only have come from the mind of Paul Thomas Anderson. The bewitching duo of Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps play a fashion designer and his muse, who unearth new means to sustain their marriage. Anderson lingers over objects of beauty throughout – the lines of a fabric, the mess of a breakfast table, the colourful residue left over after the ball drops on New Year’s Eve. Apparently Day-Lewis’ final film, but what a blissful way to go out. AW

Universal Pictures

The 40 best films of the decade

3. Get Out

Get Out sunk its teeth into culture in 2017, and hasn’t stopped biting. Jordan Peele’s horror satire is a polished, spooky and supremely well-executed chiller, but works even better as a deconstruction of race. In its sights are peak white centrism, the burdens and expectations of being black in America, and the untruths of the post-racial utopia many were fooled into embracing in the Obama era. No other film has reflected society in the 21st century more succinctly. AW

Universal Pictures

The 40 best films of the decade

2. Carol

A magical reprieve from much of the queer romance canon, Carol is neither tragic nor sexually neutered, and is rich with snowy, expensive opulence. Todd Haynes’s 2015 masterpiece plays like a fairytale, kick-started by a misplaced pair of gloves, with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara acting on feelings that were considered unacceptable at the time. Deeply romantic, sexy and dramatic, it takes everything Haynes perfected in his Douglas Sirk-inspired drama Far from Heaven (2002), and maximises it.

The 40 best films of the decade

1. Moonlight

Barry Jenkins is destined to be one of the most important cinematic voices of the era. Moonlight is ample proof of that: there are very few debuts that feel this transportive, that fill the screen with this much raw beauty and human vulnerability. The director knows the power of gesture, and so the film’s emotional weight rests on a few shared glances, or one hand placed gently on another. In the intersection between race, sexuality and class, it crafts tender poetry. CL

David Bornfriend/Kobal/Rex

Robert De Niro, Lupita Nyong’o and Adam Sandler have had setbacks

The recent groundswell of support for Nyong’o and Sandler, both of whom did career-best work in Us and Uncut Gems, respectively, didn’t pay off at the Globes. But while it is likely not a fantastic sign about their Oscar chances, neither film is exactly Golden Globes-friendly movies. All hope may not be lost.

The true puzzler, and potentially a grim sign for Oscar night, is the absence of Robert De Niro. The Irishman walked away with five nominations, including Best Supporting Actor his his co-stars Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, so it is curious that the star of the film wasn’t also in the mix.

Cats may be awful

Mystery has surrounded Cats for the last couple of weeks, amid speculation that it may not have been finished in time to screen for voters at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. But according to Variety, it did manage to screen at the last minute, meaning that its lack of major nominations here may be a gloomy indication of its quality.

Cats walked away with a single nomination, for Best Original Song, but was otherwise entirely snubbed – a surprise considering how often the Globes throw nominations at high-profile musicals. It also likely means that Jennifer Hudson’s already heavily-memed performance as Grizabella may not be the secret standout of 2019.

Taylor Swift in 'Cats' (Universal Pictures)

No love for Little Women, or women in general

Little Women is one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the Christmas season, and has had glowing reviews, so its relative absence from nominations is a bummer. Star Saoirse Ronan received the film’s single acting nod, with Alexander Desplat taking home a nomination for Best Original Score. Florence Pugh, who had emerged in recent weeks as a major Best Supporting Actress contender, was a major snub.

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Its absence is also the most notable snub of a number of films and mini-series directed by women this year, with the likes of Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Ava DuVernay (When They See Us), Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood) and Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers) also snubbed. The Best Picture categories were similarly noticeably absent of films solely led by female characters, even if they received nominations in other categories. Bombshell, Judy, Harriet, Booksmart, Hustlers and The Farewell all earned love in acting categories, but could not break through elsewhere.

Game of Thrones got massively snubbed

Considering it is somewhat tradition to reward a long-running and culture-shaking TV series with the Best Drama award after their final season, the absence of Game of Thrones here came as a surprise. Albeit a not outrageous surprise, considering the risible response to much of the show’s final season.

But with Kit Harington the show’s sole nomination, it’s a bit of a damp squib for the show to go out on.

The Golden Globes still love the Brits

Whatever fears Netflix may have had about retiring the entire cast of The Crown for its third season, replacing them with the likes of Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham Carter, will have been allayed by the strong showing here for The Crown. Both stars earned nominations, along with actor Tobias Menzies and one nod for Best Drama Series.

America’s love affair with Fleabag also continued, with Andrew Scott’s nomination implying that voters haven’t just been charmed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s cheery British ebullience, but actually enjoyed the show she wrote, too.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge in season two of Fleabag (BBC)

Important people have watched The Morning Show

Apple TV+ may not have been enormously satisfied with the tepid response to their flagship drama series The Morning Show, but the Hollywood Foreign Press Association were clearly watching. The new streaming service only launched in November, but can already say they’re responsible for at least one Golden Globe-nominated drama, with the show picking up three nominations – two for stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and one for Best Drama Series.

The Golden Globes remembered Where’d You Go, Bernadette existed

While nominations for Booksmart’s Beanie Feldstein and Knives Out stars Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas were lovely surprises, the inclusion of Cate Blanchett (nominated for Best Actress for Where’d You Go, Bernadette) is slightly baffling. True to form, the Globes prioritised the optics of a famous face at their ceremony rather than the performance itself.

Blanchett is fine in the film, a much-delayed adaptation of the Maria Semple book, but it earned horrible reviews and dismal box office takings upon release in August. It also remains without UK distribution – which may now change in light of its nomination.

The 2020 Golden Globe Awards, presented by Ricky Gervais, will take place on 5 January.

Follow along below to see what happened as the. nominations were announced

Find a full list of nominations here.

Are you ready for awards season to begin? Because in less than two hours, the next round of Golden Globe nominations will be announced – and The Independent is on hand to guide you through everything you need to know.

Jacob Stolworthy9 December 2019 11:17

The Golden Globes celebrate the "best" of both film and television, so expect a lot of nominations later on today – specifically, 1pm.

Jacob Stolworthy9 December 2019 11:31

Whatever happens, it's expected to be quite a year for Netflix – The Irishman, Marriage Story, Uncut Gems and When They See Us are all likely to score nods.

Jacob Stolworthy9 December 2019 11:49

It's also going to be yet another huge year for HBO considering this is the final time Game of Thrones can be nominated – and let's not forget, its final season won the main prize at the Emmys earlier this year.

Jacob Stolworthy9 December 2019 11:58

We can't help but agree with the below.

lupita nyong’o award season©️™️ 🍁🍂 on TwitterTwitter“Golden Globe nominations better not be a repeat of Game of Thrones clamping categories like the Emmys, especially for that horrible final season. Rooting for Lupita, Alfre, Regina K., the cast of When They See Us (Jharrel is definitely gonna win that GG), and Sandra Oh. https://t.co/UJCt2ee7wW”

Jacob Stolworthy9 December 2019 12:01

One surprise – but completely welcome – entrant would be Watchmen, Damon Lindelof's new HBO show. Acting nominations for Regina King, Jean Smart and Tim Blake Nelson would go down a treat.

Jacob Stolworthy9 December 2019 12:03

A lot of people are hoping Taron Egerton will be nominated for Elton John biopic Rocketman.

Bine on TwitterTwitter“I am scared of the Golden Globe nominations because I NEED Rocketman and Taron to be nominated and my day is going to be ruined if they’re not 😅”

Jacob Stolworthy9 December 2019 12:08

In terms of Best Actress, it's looking like Renee Zellweger is the one to beat for her role in Judy.

Jacob Stolworthy9 December 2019 12:19

The Best Actor race is looking extremely eclectic. In contention for nominations are Robert De Niro (The Irishman), Antonio Banderas (Pain & Glory) and the two Adams: Driver and – yes, you're reading this right – Sandler (for Marriage Story and Uncut Gems, respectively).

Jacob Stolworthy9 December 2019 12:27

South Korean film Parasite should be nominated for Best Film – here's hoping it won't just get nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category. It's released in the UK in February – and here's the trailer.

Jacob Stolworthy9 December 2019 12:40

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